Tons of Q's: Vendors, planners...

[sabalpalms]

I'm sure this was probably asked many times but what are your thoughts on using Disney vendors vs. outside vendors? What have you used (florist, photo, video, etc, and why did you choose to use an outside vendor vs. disney vendor or vice versa? Is it true the outside vendors you can use have to be approved by them?

Also, do you find the planners accommodating? Like if you bring things from the outside in and want it set up, are they happy to do it for you? Are they able to be reached when in need?

I love the idea of a Disney wedding and really really want one, but it seems kind of robotic almost with the all the rules they seem to have. I'm hoping it's just some weird way I'm feeling and it's not really like that at all!

Please give me some info!! Thanks!

 

[lurkyloo]

I also found the standard DFTW wedding format restrictive, but there are lots of ways you can customize your wedding away from the cookie-cutter styles Disney suggests. Plus, many of their rules are no different than those at most wedding sites. I am really happy with the way our wedding turned out, too!

The only time you are required to use Disney for your vendor is for in-park floral and for food and cake. Your outside vendors do not have to be approved by Disney, but they may need to sign a release form, depending on what service they provide and where your events are held.

There is a limit to the number of items they will set up. I was told that anything I brought to the in-park ceremony (toss petals, aisle petals) would need to be set up by a member of the wedding party, but they did put out my programs (maybe because I had Disney do the toss petals that were placed at each seat?).

As for centerpieces, I have heard there is a limit of three items that they'll put out for you per table before the service charge kicks in, but at $25/hour it seems pretty reasonable (how many hours could it take to set out centerpieces?). However, some brides have been told fewer than 3 items would require the fee.

We used Disney Floral for our ceremony floral (because it was in the park) and outside vendors for photography (www.rootography.com) and videography (http://starfruitprod.com) because we were going for a specifc look in those areas and didn't care for Disney's offerings (or prices!). I suppose we could have attempted to use another company for transportation, but Disney and Mears are in cahoots, and Mears pretty much owns Orlando .

Despite our frequent chafing at Disney's rules, we had a lovely wedding and would do it all over again in a heartbeat - hope this helps!

 

[sabalpalms]

Thanks for the info! I'll def check into the vendors you used!

 

[minpinpriss]

Hi I am in the middle of planning... I was struggling with the same thing and here is what I have come up with. A lot of the stuff at Disney is so marked up I was getting frustrated. So I started reading this board and getting ideas of who to call outside of Disney to at least get quotes... My min is 25k. I am having 80-85 people and with just food and alcohol alone I am at about 17 thousand. I am having a few other things that are basically just about adding up to the 25k. So my thought was for the other stuff (photo, flowers and band) Ill go outside and get a better price and more for the money.
Disney band is 7k
outside band is 5k (plus disneys fee for bringing them in 1550) so while its almost the same price the band I got is amazing and exaclty what I was looking for. A rat pack type of band. Which after listening to 20 Disney bands I didnt find.
The photo I went with the all famous Randy Chapman - again better price and you get so much more. And his style is what I was looking for
In working on the flowers now and talking with Vicki at Peddles. She is great thus far and the prices are dramatically better. Disney centerpiece is like 450- hers is like under 200. Big difference.

So my suggestion is shop around. This site also has wonderful reviews of all the outside vendors so you know who you are calling and not just opening up the yellow pages.

One of the reasons I went with a Disney wedding was I loved that it was all done by them. I didnt have to do all the work and coordinating etc but the more I checked it out, it made more sense for me to get outside people.
I think it also depends on what kind of wedding you are having. If you are having a small escape wedding then maybe using Disney for everything is better... but when its a larger wedding the costs are larger (8 tables, 85 of everything etc) 1 450 centerpiece is not so bad 8 of them is bad!
Hope I helped some