What would you do????

[seaprincess]

Hi everyone!! I have a dilemma and I thought I would ask everyone what they thought.. My husband and I have decided to bump-up our Intimate Vow Renewal to December 1, 2007!! After scouring the Dis Boards and asking many questions, my husband and I entertained many ideas for the time of the ceremony and where to dine afterwards. Initially, we thought that California Grill would be a wonderful choice for a party of 10-15 and were trying to time dinner around Wishes. I posted a thread and received responses that it might be difficult to seat a large party later in the evening. So back to the drawing board we went...

My husband and I are big fans of Illuminations, so we thought what if we held our ceremony at the Yacht Club Gazebo (3:00pm ceremony) and had an earlier dinner at the Yachtsman Steakhouse? Since we would love to round off the night by viewing Illuminations, we thought about hosting a Dessert Party in Lower France that evening. Our dilemma is that we only have 15 people and were wondering if that was possible since there are minimums on the number of people ( i think it's 20). Do you pay for 20 people or will they work with a smaller group?? Also, since we are doing an Intimate Vow Renewal do we work with FTW to arrange the dessert party or Epcot??

Please feel free to share your opinions. I need help deciding!! Also, if anyone has any opinions on Yachtsman Steakhouse, please feel free to tell me if they think it is a good place to host a (reception)dinner.

Thanks and Happy July 4th!!

 

[JonetteA]

Disney will charge you a small party fee for Illuminations. If you are doing a FTW you will work with you planner to schedule one. I believe that they allow intimates to do this now. I don't know how the rules will change in a year. Also, You may not get lower France. They base the venues on the number of people attending. You will want to work with your Planner to determine the best location for your party size. My friend Lisa hosted a party for Illuminations...she got the lower UK which was really nice.

 

[starseed]

Hello!

We are hosting an Illuminations DP after our upcoming Intimate wedding. We are a super small party of 10 total and we were only given an option for hosting the DP at either Japan or Morrocco.

It may be different for a party with more people. But Japan and Morrocco also have a minimum of 20 people, so we are charged a small party fee.

I could be wrong, but I think the other locations have higher "people" minimums.

I'm obviously biased, but I think an Illuminations DP would be an excellent way to end such a wonderful day!

 

[seaprincess]

Thanks for the quick responses!! Starseed since you are hosting an Intimate Wedding, did you plan your dessert party through DFTW? I have not seen the Venues for Morroco or Japan, I wish I had photos. Which did you end up choosing?? Also, the small party fee, is this in addition to the site fee etc? Sorry, lots of questions!

Please keep the responses coming!!

 

[starseed]

Thanks for the quick responses!! Starseed since you are hosting an Intimate Wedding, did you plan your dessert party through DFTW? I have not seen the Venues for Morroco or Japan, I wish I had photos. Which did you end up choosing?? Also, the small party fee, is this in addition to the site fee etc? Sorry, lots of questions!

Please keep the responses coming!!

Our DP was planned through DFTW. In fact, we booked it before our wedding details were finalized because the 2007 prices were not released until a couple of weeks ago. Our EM was really great in dealing with me even when we didn't have a contract signed.

Because I am Japanese, the Japan Terrace is where we wanted to have the DP anyway. So it worked out for us. However, Japan & Morrocco do not allow table and chair set-ups. So your guests will not have seats.

The small party fee is on top of the venue fee. In our case, the venue fee is $200 and the small party fee is $50. And we pay for only 10 people for the per person fee for the desserts.

HTH! Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions!!

PS - I have been entertaining different reception dinner options, but I think we will end up at the Yachtsman, as well. I'm going to be contacting them very soon about setting up a special menu (I have read that they will print out a menu without prices and minus any items would not like to offer).

 

[JonetteA]

Another option for dinner is Fulton's, Citricos, or Narcooses. I can't spell. I think my friend scheduled dinners there and they did special menus at Narcooses for their
welcome dinner. We had about 12 people at her event including bride and groom.

 

[Mommy Poppins]

We were considering an Illuminations Dessert party for our May 1 vow renewal after we could not get the Grand I for a Wishes Fireworks Cruise. We were a group of 13 and were also offered

Japan

Morocco

One of these venues has seating available and the other does not. Right now I can't remember which is which--but I think Japan had seating available.We ended up not doing it because I couldn't justify the $1,000 price tag and decided to have Mickey and Minnie at my reception instead!! If you want to wear your dress to the Illuminations party, you must pay for a Disney bus to transport your guests backstage to enter World Showcase through a back entrance. The price for transport was approx. $500.