Venue that will accomodate 40 people and a DJ...can I rent Atlantic Dance Hall?

[Mic]

Another question...all of you have been so helpful so far. My daughter wants a DJ at her reception (she and her younger sister danced for 10 years), and we are leaning towards having the ceremony at Swan and Dolphin so we can have more than 23 guests. Is it possible to rent the Atlantic Dance Hall, and does anyone know the approximate price? Or do you have to be a Wishes bride for that? We could possibly cut our list down to have an Escape wedding, if Disney only allows Disney brides to use ADH. Also, if ADH is not an option, does anyone have any other suggestions? Thanks so much!

 

[missy0107]

S&D's own Ballrooms are an option, they have many different sizes and I'm sure they could accomodate your party of 40 with a DJ.

You could also look at the ballrooms of Downtown Disney area hotels such as the Buena Vista Palace, many of those hotels offer wedding packages like the Swan and Dolphin.

If you rented out all of Fulton's Crab House' Third Deck at Downtown Disney you should have room enough for a DJ and dancing...Perhaps renting just their larger room would give you enough space as well.

I believe for a wedding function you wouldn't be able to rent ADH, you could rent it as a private party however the bride would likely not be able to wear her dress unless she were an official Wishes bride...

 

[*Pixiedust1438*]

I would think that if no wishes brides are using ADH on the day of your daughters wedding, you would be able to book it. She might no be able to wear her wedding dress (although I don't see why not since it would be a private event) but if that's the case she could always wear a simpler white dress. ADH can only be rented out for dinner receptions on Sunday and Monday nights, during the rest of the week it can be bought out for only breakfast or lunch. There is no venue fee but you must spend a minimum of $5,000 on food and beverage at ADH. I am having my reception here, and it is deff. a great venue to use if your daughter wants a lot of dancing at the wedding (it is a dance club during it's hours of operation.) There is a great DJ booth, and a lighting package is included with the DJ. I would call Disney and ask if she is really interested in doing it.

 

[tiggerrifficheidi]

I'd recommend this "e-book" because it will tell you all the venues that could meet your size requirements.

http://www.passporter.com/weddings.asp

I'd recommend contacting DFTW anyway to explore options for ceremony/reception packages. They are very flexible about working within budgets and you might be surprised.

 

[DisneyDJChuck]

I have performed at ADH with as little as 38 guests, all seated in the lower section. So the size of your party is fine, however, as another poster said, there are definitely minimums you must spend with Disney- regardless of the party size.

Hope this helps!

 

[lpizzuro123]

Our wedding reception was at ADH and we had just 50 people. We were all seated downstairs on the dance floor. We had 5 tables of 10 and then the sweetheart table for us. We used the 3rd floor for our pre-reception.

In this photo we are on the dance floor - there are about 3 or 4 steps down from the main level. If you look at the upper leve - this is where our pre-reception was. It looked out over the dance floor.

Everybody on the dance floor for our group photo with Mickey and Minnie.

Everyone up and dancing - we really danced all day.

Picture from above of how the dance floor was laid out.

More dancing.

Let me know if you are interested in seeing any more photos.

Linda

 

[Mic]

OMG,lpizzuro123, ADH looks amazing. It would be absolutely perfect for the reception, but I don't know how we could swing $5000 to use it! We are looking at spending $3000-3500 for the reception...I know it's on the low side, but I am determined to stick to a budget. I am not going into debt for a wedding, and I don't want my daughter and future son-in-law to do so either. But the ADH IS beautiful! Thanks for sharing!

DisneyDJChuck--thank you for your input. I'm sure I will need even more when we get down to booking.

tiggerifficheidi--I have read several posts about this e-book; will it be useful for someone planning a budget Disney wedding, or is it the same information I could get from Disney? I am looking for information Disney may not be forthcoming with, and I would like to know what all my options are. I thought I had at least a year to plan, but my oldest daughter has been on her own schedule since the day she was born(a month early . Having to gather the information quickly and make decisions is scaring me! Thank you all for the help!

 

[Stephie77]

I just had my wedding at whitehall room and patio at the GF and it was perfect. we had 40 people and a DJ and a dance floor with a lot of room to spare. I will post picture soon and you can see the layout.

 

[lpizzuro123]

Thank you - yes we agreed that ADH was the perfect place for our wedding. It is such a unique location.

As far as budgeting goes, first our wedding was on a Monday. We had a 9:00am ceremony in Epcot (Italy). Our pre-reception was from 10:00 to 11:00 and then our reception was from 11:00 to 3:00. We used the Tinkerbelle brunch and thanks to lurkyloo's suggestion (from the Passporter) we took the muffins, pastries and fresh fruit from the brunch menu and used these for our pre-reception food. We did add extra coffee, tea and decaf. The rest of the Tinkerbelle brunch was used for our brunch food from about 11:30 to 12:30. At our pre-reception we also had a pitchers of champaign punch. These were put out in champaigne flutes. What ever was left over of the punch was brought downstairs and placed on the bar. We did do a champaigne toast (with the glasses only filled 1/2 way) but you can easily leave this out.

We did a bill on consumption for our drinks. What Disney does is figure out how many drinks will be drunk during your reception based on the amount of guests you have. You have to pay this upfront and they keep track of what is drunk. What ever money is left over you get back. We got back alot of money on this one. I think besides soda the amount of drinks for our reception was 3 or 4 glasses of wine, 15 beers and 5 or 6 mixed drinks. Doing a brunch and providing the punch really cut out on how much people drank.

The ADH is so beautiful you really do not too much to decorate it. These were our centerpieces. I think they ran around $35.00 each. It was just 3 glass cylinders filled with water and red floating petals and a white floating candle and they sprinkled some more red petals on the tables. I also purchased red glass beads that they added to this. There is a fee for them to put things out so you have to take that into consideeration.

I also really wanted balloon bouquet. I had seen them at another ADH wedding and loved them. I had 6 and I think they were around $45.00 each. You definately do not need these.

Here is a very pretty mirror in the ADH. We paid for the carriage in front of it and the Cinderella and Prince Charming and Fairy Godmother statues are mine that I brought from home.

Please let me know if you would like any more info.

Linda

 

[Mic]

Stephie77--Thank you for the information on the Whitehall room and Patio. I can't wait to see pictures. Congratulations on your recent nuptials...I bet being back in the "real world" is no fun!

lpizzuro123--Thanks for the additional pictures and the food suggestions. Unless something major happens, I don't see us being able to do a Wishes wedding...the minimum is more than we can comfortably spend on our first daughter's wedding(she has 2 younger sisters and a younger brother that are very close to her age). But I am going to download the e-book to see if I can put together a Wishes-like wedding on an Escape budget...I am not willing to rule Disney out until I have to! The Swan and Dolphin looks good, too, and we are eligible for the Shades of Green venue as well, but I have not had a chance to discuss that option with my daughter...she is still in Holland! Your wedding pictures all looked so magical...you had the wedding of my daughter's dreams!

Thanks to everyone for all the information, suggestions, and pictures. I can't imagine a better resource for planning than this board! I have actually done one important thing for the wedding...I called Randy Chapman. His wife was VERY nice, and checked his bookings. He is booked on my daughter's first-choice date, but free on her second and third-choice dates. YAY!! I need to email her and let her know her date has just changed...we are having Randy as our photographer. We just need to decide what the backdrop will be!

 

[lpizzuro123]

Thank you for your kind words about my wedding. I am sure working with the wonderful people on these boards and through Disney you will be able to make your daughters wedding dreams come true on a budget. There are so many wonderful locations. I was just reading something new about Escape wedding now being done in Epcot in Canada.

Getting Randy is great. He was in the running for our wedding but we waited too long and another Disbride scooped him up. We actually met on our wedding day and Randy was there to take a picture. A HUGE Disney no no - but we really wanted it.

Misty was our photographer and we love all our pictures.

Just a word of caution -I am sure you know this but you cannot have an outside photographer for an in park wedding. It sounds like you will not be having an in park wedding but I just wanted to make sure you were aware of this.

Happy planning and looking forward to reading more.

Linda

 

[Mic]

Thank you Linda for all the help. And thanks for the reminder about no outside photographers in the park...I remember reading this earlier, and I understand Disney's position. With my daughter that will not be an issue at all...in-park is not an option for us. However, having a good photographer is VERY important to me(second only to a good choice for groom--check!), even though my daughter may not agree. She is currently more focused on the reception, while I am sweatin' the other things. At the end of the day, though, all I want is a smile on her face in a photograph I will cherich forever, but not be paying for forever! Thanks again for everyone's help!

 

[DisneyLeah]

We did a bill on consumption for our drinks. What Disney does is figure out how many drinks will be drunk during your reception based on the amount of guests you have. You have to pay this upfront and they keep track of what is drunk. What ever money is left over you get back. We got back alot of money on this one. I think besides soda the amount of drinks for our reception was 3 or 4 glasses of wine, 15 beers and 5 or 6 mixed drinks. Doing a brunch and providing the punch really cut out on how much people drank.

Linda - thanks for your great posts and photos! I've checked your photos out before because I am strongly considering ADH! I opened this thread because I don't know how many people will actually be able to come if we do the DFTW! The low end would be about 35 people, but if folks who I don't expect to come actually come through we could have upwards of 60! ADH seems like a good place that could accomodate the swing...would you agree? I'm just worried about going over 60 because I read somewhere that you can only fit 6 rounds on the dance floor.

Depending on who's coming, we might invite the kids which could add 10 or so to our count. I'm still trying to figure out what to do with them otherwise. If you have any thoughts on space in ADH that we could set up something to entertain kids, please let me know!?

Also, I've got a question about the BOC bar....did you have any trouble meeting your Food/Bev minimums since the bar bill was so low? We wondered how this is handled.

thanks again to all who post such great info here!
Leah

 

[mianat]

I am planning my wedding at ADH as we speak. At this point, I've secured the venue for next spring, but I haven't even begun to work out the details. I wanted to ask all you happily wed disney brides which djs, musicians photographers/videographers you preferred...

I will probably have about 60 people on the 6 dance floor banquet tables. Our families are quite loud and will certainly make the most of this club like atmosphere so I'd like to make sure I have a DJ who can cater to the masses. We'd have everyone from 5-90 on this dance floor celebrating, so entertainment is especially important.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Congrats to all the newlyweds!

 

[kcampbell]

I am planning my wedding at ADH as we speak. At this point, I've secured the venue for next spring, but I haven't even begun to work out the details. I wanted to ask all you happily wed disney brides which djs, musicians photographers/videographers you preferred...

I will probably have about 60 people on the 6 dance floor banquet tables. Our families are quite loud and will certainly make the most of this club like atmosphere so I'd like to make sure I have a DJ who can cater to the masses. We'd have everyone from 5-90 on this dance floor celebrating, so entertainment is especially important.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated. Congrats to all the newlyweds!

Congratulations! As far as a DJ, I used WDW DJ Scott Messina. I was looking for exactly what you described and he delivered on all cylinders! He seriously was awesome and made our wedding the party that it was. I suggest checking out his website: www.mycelebritydj.com
As far as I know, some of the other DJ's have their own sites/companies as well. Anyway, Scott's a great guy and really talented...contact him if you like what you see on his site!! Good Luck in all your planning!