Wished I had, wished I didn't

[KT27]

Ok Disney Brides! Brides to be can join in to....

What is one thing you wished you would have splurged on at your wedding & one thing you had but didn't need???

 

[pixie08]

THIS IS A GOOD ONE!!! I am looking into a disney wedding and would love to hear from past brides on this so I can figure what to do with and without!

 

[Gwene65]

I didn't have a Disney wedding but I cannot stress the importance of hiring a PROFESSIONAL photographer!!! I had a friend of my mother's do my wedding and she said she was a professional but my pictures turned out looking like crap. My relatives took better pictures for me then this lady did. So lesson learned-spend the extra cash and get a professional.


One thing I didn't need but had? Hmm, I can't think of anything.

 

[megan926]

I WISH I hired a videographer. I WISH I hired Randy Chapman.

I WISH I didn't use Disney Photography.

 

[LK03]

Ditto about wish I had not used DIS Photography. I saw the pictures and were like ewww, I looked awful. Saw some pictures my mom took on a lil' ol' disposable and me and DH looked way cuter, although she only took a couple

Wished I had, had the whole wedding/honeymoon paid off before we left. Wished I had picked a different hairstyle and maybe a different time of day. I thought 11 would be better than 1, but the sun was POURING into our eyes and of course the DIS photographer made us stand and take pictures in the direct light as we were squinting the entire time, bleh

 

[dreams91]

Wish I would have gotten the video....didn't figure it was worth the cost. Super glad I had the MK photo shoot AND the cinderella's coach. The thing I didn't need, were the two presentation style roses at $45 each. We accidentally left them there after the ceremony and never got them.

 

[J and R's mom]

I wish I would have splurged on getting my makeup done by a Disney professional. I had my hair done (and LOVED what they did...better than anything I could have imagined or done myself), but I didn't have them do my makeup.

Everything else I'm glad I did.

I REALLY liked our videographer and photographer. My wedding was over 6 years ago so I don't know that the folks I used are options anymore, but I know that it wasn't the Disney one. At the time (and they may still do this now) they gave us a list of about 15 photographers and 8 videographers to choose from. I ordered samples from all of them and chose from there. I ended up paying $350 for the pictures (that included and album and parent's album plus the negatives) and $350 for the videographer who did a perfect job. He did alot of the editing and dubbing and used a song I requested for the montage at the end of the video. I couldn't have asked for anything better. I think their name was "The Video People" but I don't remember and I can't remember the photographer.

Disney was charging over $1500 for just the video at the time and I ended up with nicer (and CHEAPER) products by using the other folks.

If they still give you alot of choices, be sure to get sample videos (and pictures) from all of them. Ask for a sample of the full wedding video and not just a segment of one. It will give you a better idea. Heck, they probably have them to view over the internet now.

One thing that I've heard from MANY brides is that they wished they would have had their wedding recorded. Pictures are great, but a video is hard to beat.

 

[ead79]

The thing that I splurged on that I’m most glad that I did was the Illuminations pre-reception. I will never forget that time—standing on the bridge that leads to the Italy Isola with my new husband and looking down at our friends and family enjoying the fireworks. People even shouted congratulations to us. It was one of few moments during the day that we really relaxed and enjoyed just being married.

I wish I had chosen the earlier ceremony time slot so my reception could’ve begun sooner. I had originally thought that having my guests go outside during the middle of the reception to see Illuminations instead of doing it before the reception would’ve resulted in everybody leaving as soon as the fireworks were over. Hindsight is 20/20, but I think for our group it would’ve been better to have the 5:30 pm ceremony. However, DH’s one request was that he wear tails, so that wouldn’t work with the 5:30 pm time formality-wise.

 

[mking624]

I wish I had known about Disney weddings so we could have splurged on that! I REALLY wish I had hired a videographer. We have no video of our reception and our wedding video is mostly of the WALL (my cousin filmed it and wasn't paying attention to where the lens was pointed). There isn't really anything I splurged on that I didn't need...I paid for everything (literally *everything*) by myself. I was only a year out of high school when I got married and had to work full time the entire year to save up. Neither mine nor my husband's family helped out.

 

[Firefly Girl]

Let's see, I'm glad I splurged on the MK photo session! So worth it for the beautiful pics and the amazing experience of being in the park alone! Glad I splurged on floral, everything looked so beautiful the day of the wedding. Glad I didn't splurge on Cinderella's Coach or the Landau Coach, it would have been cool but nothing to go into debt for, at least not for me.

 

[wdwpluto]

Wish I had... splurged on the Coach.

Wished I didn't... well, nothing really. Everything that we did do was well worth it and turned out amazing.

I'm glad we did the MK photo session, even though our pictures were kinda crummy (long story, we ended up getting a 50% refund on the photo session cost).

I'm glad that we added Pluto as a 3rd character (in addition to ) since he's my favorite and I would have regretted not having him.

 

[happylalagirl]

wdwpluto - I had to laugh at your signature... my fiance constantly repeats that anytime we get on a bus, train, monorail... anything with doors that close automatically... because he has been to WDW more than 25 times... and the thing that sticks in his mind most is the monorail man saying please stand clear of the doors...

 

[Fantasia Sam]

Umm let's see luckily for us we didn't need to splurge on Cindy's Coach as it so did not fit with our theme but if I wasn't having an Ariel/Under the Sea theme wedding then I most probably would have splurged on that.

So glad I went with my heart and splurged on 4 characters - this was a late decision on my part, booking Chip and Dale as we already had M&M but I thought it would be a nice surprise for Paul.

So glad that we went with the Honeymoon shoot - the MK shoot never floated my boat.

I wish I had gone with the iced star-fish sculptures for our sorbets - I decided against it because they were "sold" to me with floralyte and I figured being in Ariel's at lunchtime which has a lot of daylight it wouldn't be worth it but in retrospect I think we could have served the sorbet in the sculptures without the floralyte and it would have looked cool.

We needn't have spluged on alcoholic punch for the Cocktail Hour - it had only just turned noon and there weren't a lot of takers. That said an hour later everyone seemed to be "chugging" down the wine and champagne and hosted bar drinks

Biggest thing I am so pleased we did do was hire the PA system for the Yacht Club Gazebo - even on the video you can hear the bells of the Surrey Bikes and the Friendship Boat horns and as it was windy (wish we hadn't had wind ) it would have been difficult for our guests to hear anything that we said.

Oh I also wish that we had had no wind because our petal aisle ended up being a lawn of rose petals LOL not quite the effect I was looking for, but it was all good

 

[Merandab4]

Glad we splurged on:

Having a Video (I highly reccomend "A CUT ABOVE Video productions)

Doing a Wishes cruise with our family and friends (they all loved it)

Having Cinderella's Glass coach
(It was so magical and something that could only be done at Disney)

Having the Wedding Pavilion versus an outdoor location.
(Don't get me wrong, those outdoor locations are BEAUTIFUL, but it was really hot the day of our wedding. And the Wedding Pavilion is even more beautiful in person)

I'm also glad that we didn't go in debt for anything for our wedding.

Things I wish I would have done differently:

Wouldn't have use Disney photography
(Wasn't happy with our photographer)

Wouldn't have had the extra fruit and cheese presentation at the reception.
(wasn't worth the money, nobody ate it, and wasn't as nice as I was told it would be)

Would have chose a different hair style.
(I used Disney Cosmo and loved my hair when it was done, but the weather was so hot, that my hair just fell as soon as I got outside)

 

[jlovesee]

My husband and I where married at Disney in January of 2002 and there are so many things I am happy that we DID do and only one or two things I wish I hadn't done.

Everyone when we where planning our wedding was getting Cinderella's Coach and I thought it was completely a waste of money (my opinion) for $5,000 and as we had our photos at Wilderness Lodge it wouldn't have worked for us anyway. Im really glad I didn't spend that much money there.

I wish I had more comfortable shoes, as my husband is 6'3" and I am 5'3" I bought 3 inch heals, never again, stupid idea. Like where was my brain at this time?

We used Jeff Hawkins for our photography and Patrick Lyons for Videography I highly recommend both, Jeff Hawkins is expensive but VERY good. Plus we now have all our photos burned to a CD and can do anything with them we want.

We hired Patrick Lyons very late in the game as we didn't know if we could afford a videographer, I am so glad we did, definitly above all else don't skimp on the videographer.

Also nobody ever mentions the Living Seas VIP Lounge, that is where we had our reception, this is a very wonderful place to have a reception as it definitly has an incredible WOW factor when it's all dressed up.

Jennifer

 

[Codie]

Things I wish I would have done differently:

Wouldn't have had the extra fruit and cheese presentation at the reception.
(wasn't worth the money, nobody ate it, and wasn't as nice as I was told it would be)

QUOTE]

Did you have this at your pre-reception or at your reception?

 

[MickeysMommy]

So glad that we went with the Honeymoon shoot - the MK shoot never floated my boat.

Sam - what was included in that? I am interested in any info you can give me...thanks