Uk Brides how easy was booking wedding?

[feline figaro]

Hi to all the Uk Brides out there ,


I was just wondering how easy everything is going or went with booking your wedding? Due to the obvious time difference & probable costly over seas calls have you had any problems keeping in touch with your co ordinator?

Did you book direct with Disney or through someone like Virgin, First Choice?

Did any one try & go to WDW for a planning session before hand?



Many Thanks for all your help

 

[Laurafoster]

Hey!

We booked direct through Disney as i felt it was so much easier to deal with them directly! To be honest most of the communication with my wedding planner has been via emails. Any times where we have needed to speak she has been really good and arranged a conference call and phoned me so that didnt cost me anything. The other thing is my planner has been really good at answering questions the same day or next day if she's been out. I know with Virgin you spend about 20-30 minutes just trying to get a simple answer from them!

Personally i had to go direct with Disney as i am having a custom wedding with 26 people, but i have found them nothing but helpful!

I was lucky enough to go out to Disney twice, once before we had booked our date for a site visit to go over the locations of where we could have the ceremony, reception and dessert party. And then for a planning visit, which if it all possible is totally worth it, we really went over everything in great detail and i managed to sort most things out in those few hours!

That being said if you cant go out there, between this board and your wedding planner you should just as easily be able to arrange everything!

 

[dee slack]

I'm interested in the replies to this question as we are thinking of booking our Intimate with Virgin 'cos it doesn't seem any cheaper to book direct (approx £2,090 at exchange rate for WP, plus approx £90 for officiant) wheras Virgin package is £2,219 that I've been told includes officiant plus 2 x 5 day Disney passes.
Also, I guess I'm quite lazy in that I now know exactly what I want (all standard off-list stuff) thanks to everyone on the boards, so I'm gonna get someone else (ie Virgin) to do all the work for me!
We are booking our complete hols thru' Virgin so I guess it also helps me by having everything in one place so to speak.

Must admit tho' that I still haven't actually booked it all yet, so maybe I'm not 100% convinced?????? I'm all ears!

Dee

PS we did look around the WP on our last visit 3 1/2 years ago and pick up some basic literature so we did have a bit of a sneek preview.

 

[Laurafoster]

When i spoke to Virgin before i booked with Disney and when i was having an intimate wedding they told me that the 2007 prices would NOT include an officiant. And it doesnt mention it on the website.

The Wedding Pavillion Intimate with Disney is $3350 (unless this has gone up again??) The exchange rate at the moment is pretty good, 1.77 today, so that would work out at £1892!!

When i opriginally tried to book with Virgin, i just didnt find them as helpful as Disney, but it really depends on what you want, if you know exactly what you want and isnt anything different to whats offered i would imagine it would be fine!

 

[feline figaro]

Laura:

Thanks for your reply , i had a feeling that booking with Disney may be the better option, i guess whats the point of using a middle man who may have no idea how to answer any Qs you may have when you can get it straight from the horses mouth!!

I believe that i read someone last yr saying that when booking through a company such as Virgin that they found them very limited with ideas & creativity. I guess it all comes down to who is looking after your wedding ie co ordinator.

Thats fantastic about them calling you rather than it costing you money as im sure the calls would really add up!

We re gonna have a very small party so its an Intimate for us, still we re probably gonna book direct with Disney for wedding & hotels & book the flights direct with Virgin.We re planning on spending a month out in the states (20 days Disney) 10 days Seattle so its gonna be a long wedding & Disney moon

By any chance did you take any photos when you went out there for your planning session?? It would just be nice to see the locations without ceremonies already taking place in them. That way i can get more of an idea of settings as i dont think we re gonna make it out there before we get wed!


Dee slack:

Hopefully more brides will get in touch to give you a better idea, im very wary of booking with say Virgin for the wedding so am gonna book direct with Disney. I think if your having any doubt about booking with a company don't do it!

 

[dee slack]

The Wedding Pavillion Intimate with Disney is $3350 (unless this has gone up again??) The exchange rate at the moment is pretty good, 1.77 today, so that would work out at £1892!!

I believe that's the new price, but could anyone confirm if 6% tax has to be added to the $3350? If so, that takes it over the £2,000 mark at the current exchange rate.

 

[karentan]

i'd second the thought to book direct with disney. i booked with virgin, and had no end of problems. theyre ok if you want the package they offer and dont want to add or amend anything, but if you want to book additional elements or question anything they are useless. i wanted them to book my MK shoot and they didnt seem interested in trying to book it til the last minute, which would have been too late, and even then they cancelled my booking that i's made direct with disney (i ended up with the 5am time slot instead of my original 6am slot)

 

[Cinderella2006]

I booked our Intimate through First Choice, it was cheaper and they sent me my co-ordinators details so i could arrange everything through him. I have never had to speak to First Choice, apart from when i needed to find out my officant details. First Choice use Ron Rosenwieg which is actually a Disney officant so all in all, i am quite happy! Plus it only cost me £1,690 all in!

 

[janine]

I was going to book my wedding through Virgin. I made a few calls, but it always took forever trying to get through and they never seemed to know the answer right away, and would 'call me back'. I also read that pn here that a few people had problems with them too so I ditched that idea amd went direct with Disney.
I booked the flights and accommodation through Virgin.
Disney's web site was charging £1000 more for a week stay than Virgin was.
Had I have known earlier though I would have bought myself an Disney annual pass through Disney and booked a room through that. You get huge discounts on rooms for annual pass holders. My Brother in Law booked his that way. He paid $400 for the ticket, and used it to save over a $1000 on a room at the Beach Club.
He paid less for his weeks stay than we did, and he also had an annual pass ticket!!
We never did a planning session. I just researched everything myself, and collected a ton of info from the DIS (They are wonderful girls on here!).
I did 99% of my planning through email, which was perfect.
If I needed a fast answer I would phone my EM.

It is so exciting booking a Disney wedding. I wish I was doing it all over again!

 

[UK bride WDW 06]

I have booked through Travel City and although I have spoken to their wedding specialist about some things, I have spoken direct to my Disney co-ordinator the most. I have found it easy by emailing and have only called Disney once the rest of the time my coordinator emails me to ask for a convenient time to call then he calls me.

I guess it would be easier to book direct but got a good deal through the company for the whole family.

 

[Rascal1003]

We booked through Virgin, but we also had direct contac with our Event Manager with as uch as 6 months to go. Evrything else was done directly by emailing the EM who took care of everything, faultlessly.
It is worth thiking of Virgin as being just the agents. All the "add-ons" such as the Cinderellas Carriage and Characters can then be booked direct. The ony real reason to book with Virgin would be the price. When we booked our wedding, teh price through Virgin was less than booking direct, so if the cost favours Disney direct, go with them.

 

[Laurafoster]

I believe that's the new price, but could anyone confirm if 6% tax has to be added to the $3350? If so, that takes it over the £2,000 mark at the current exchange rate.

Even if you do add the tax to it, it comes to $3551, which still works out at £2006 which is £2219 ( £213 more than Disney)

Only difference is (from what i was told by Virgin was the 5 day passes)
2 of the 5 day passes cost £330 direct with disney (may be cheaper places out there though!) So your saving about £117

I dont really think that there is a lot in it to be honest. I would look into things like AP discounts and packages with other TA's to see what the best deal is you can get at the time!

 

[dee slack]

well, looks like I'm now booking direct with Disney as Virgin have well p'd me off.
I've been waiting since last September, thinking that I had a chance of getting my date/time choice, but after contacting Virgin this weekend for an update, it seems they neglected to tell me that they already had a request for the same date/time/location and their policy is to only pass their name thru to Disney, so I wouldn't even have been in the lottery
So now it's back to square one and I've got to contact Disney Weddings direct. It's a waiting game tho' as it's still not office hours in the US yet.

Does anyone have any tips for UK brides dealing with Disney weddings?

 

[janine]

Sorry to hear you have had some problems. I think you will get a much better service dealing with Disney Direct.
It was a little like that when I was calling Virgin, they just never came back to me, so I just gave up with them and did it all direct through Disney.
I did most of my planning by email , and it worked perfectly. I would always receive a prompt reply from my EM by mid afternoon. (due to the time difference).
I am sure it would have just taken longer to sort things out with a 'middleman' involved.

You will have a great time planning with Disney. Good luck.

 

[dee slack]

I just tried the call-back thing on the Disney weddings site but it only works for US and Canada, not UK. Now I'm stuck at work for hours worrying more

 

[orangetiggs]

I have just called disney and have been told we can get a planner in april I'm so excited!!! We are going direct with disney as we are looking at a custom wedding

 

[dee slack]

I have just called disney and have been told we can get a planner in april I'm so excited!!! We are going direct with disney as we are looking at a custom wedding

congratulations, no surprise you're so excited

Please could you tell me the number you called from the UK as I want to phone soon as I get home from work. Also, will they need my ref from Virgin to confirm where we'll be staying? Thanks, Dee

 

[orangetiggs]

congratulations, no surprise you're so excited

Please could you tell me the number you called from the UK as I want to phone soon as I get home from work. Also, will they need my ref from Virgin to confirm where we'll be staying? Thanks, Dee

I called 001 321 939 4610 that got my the wedding and honeymoon dept and I just did 1 for weddings and then 1 for english and someone picked up straight away

 

[dee slack]

I called 001 321 939 4610 that got my the wedding and honeymoon dept and I just did 1 for weddings and then 1 for english and someone picked up straight away

thanks for that, will save me a bit of time. Roll on home time, and NO traffic

 

[LOUISEANDANDREW]

Hi, i get married feb 12 08 at wedding pavillion, then gf for reception. we're based in the Isle of man, uk, so i know how u feel. When i wanted to get hold of someone to talk to, i phoned directory enquries, initially to get hold of the number to fairy tale weddings in disney. From here they sould put u through all of the relative contacts. As i have gone on i have my wedding consultants email address, and she is fantastic, her name is Kristie Davies, any other questions, i will b more than happy to help u