would it be possible?

[aschwarz]

Hi all,

Just starting to doubt that we can remain on a budget for a WDW Wishes wedding given our guest list. Do you think it'd be possible for a wedding of 70-100 people to come out with a grand total of no more than $25,000? We are looking at a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evening (5pm ceremony) at the Wedding Pavilion/Grand Floridian ballroom. Our actual guest list is 140 but, being from NY, we're thinking many of those will be no-shows.

Has anyone had the same stats as us and stuck to a similar budget? Thanks!

 

[mb187143]

Hi all,

Just starting to doubt that we can remain on a budget for a WDW Wishes wedding given our guest list. Do you think it'd be possible for a wedding of 70-100 people to come out with a grand total of no more than $25,000? We are looking at a Friday, Saturday, or Sunday evening (5pm ceremony) at the Wedding Pavilion/Grand Floridian ballroom. Our actual guest list is 140 but, being from NY, we're thinking many of those will be no-shows.

Has anyone had the same stats as us and stuck to a similar budget? Thanks!

We had 59 guests and came out to a grand total of $24K. That was a 5pm Friday ceremony at the WP, and a pre-reception/reception at the grand Floridian, plated meal in November 2012.

I'm certain there were areas of our budget that we could have trimmed to accommodate 10 or so more people and stay under $25K, but I don't know if we could have added 41 more people and been under $25K, I think it would depend largely on where you're willing to make cuts. I don't think it's impossible though.

 

[Chilly]

Is that $25K just for Disney or including everything else as well like dresses?

An evening event means the higher food minimum doesn't it, so $150 per guest, so if you had 100 people that's $15K gone already, leaving you only $10K for everything else.

I've heard Disney weddings have a higher acceptance rate then other destination weddings so you might be surprised how many people say yes and be better trying to cut a few people from your invite list.

 

[purplegirl1818]

It really depends on what's important to you. I think you could do it if you're willing to do brunch instead of dinner (saves $5000 right there).

I'm sue you can have a beautiful wedding at that price, but you'll have to sacrifice.

 

[bigr3ddog]

I think an evening ceremony with dinner on Friday, Saturday, or Sunday would be very difficult for 100 people and remain within a $25k budget. We don't have that kind of budget, but I agree with going with brunch to cut your food cost to $10k instead of $15k. This way, you have $15k for everything else. Wedding pavilion is already $3k, while everywhere else is $2k. If you do a ballroom, your floral and decor expense will likely be high. However, if you use a themed venue, such as Atlantic dance hall, you won't have to spend nearly as much on decor. I would think you could have a very nice wedding this way and still remain within your $25k budget. Good luck.

 

[aschwarz]

Thanks all. Unfortunately I keep feeling that it will be impossible to do a Disney wedding due to our large guest list and the extra cost of traveling to FL, transporting things, etc. I told myself I wouldn't get my hopes up but it probably will break my heart to have to rule it out. Oh well..

 

[DreaminDisney529]

It is also important to account for tax & service charges on top of the F&B minimums. You should figure into paying about 30% for these items. So this means if you are paying $150 for 100 people this is a minimums of $15K, but in reality you are paying around a total of $19,500 because of the tax & service charges.

With that said, I don't think it would be impossible for you to have a "Disney Wedding", you may just have to be willing to compromise. For example, there are brides who get married at the Swan/Dolphin for less than the price of a DFTW. Some may feel it's not a true "Disney" wedding because it is not through DFTW, but to me personally, I don't feel like I am any less at Disney while at the Swan/Dolphin than when I am at the Grand Floridian

There are also a number of hotels in Downtown Disney that do weddings (again, Downtown Disney still feels like Disney to me!). I was having the same issue with budget and guest list and I realized DFTW would not be an option for me. I did find a DTD hotel called Buena Vista Palace which is right across the street from Saratoga Springs. They have an amazing space at the top of the hotel where you can see the entire Disney Property. They also do not have per person F&B minimums (which really kills the budget) and my wedding coordinator was able to negotiate a really good price for F&B minimum on a Saturday night. So even though its not a DFTW, it's still at Disney!

If getting married at the WP/GF is important to you and you don't have any flexibility with your guest list to do an Escape or Memories DFTW, then it might be something you have to let go. However, if you are willing to be flexible, there are many options for you to have a wedding on or near Disney property. You can always do a dessert party after the wedding at the Marina or Sago Cay if you want to be at the GF.

 

[aschwarz]

thank you sooo much, @dreamindisney529! I had no idea those options would be available to us. The Buena Vista Palace looks GORGEOUS. I will definitely be researching other options. I wouldn't be at all disappointed, after all, Disney is Disney no matter how ya slice it!

 

[JaysOnicaBE]

My husband and I got married in 2011 -- WP/Italy Isola /AA -- with a guest list of 144, and everything including tax and gratuity came to $29,000. However, this was after they sent to refund check (which came 2 weeks later)

It was important to me to have the ceremony at WP, and the reception in EPCOT, so we cut costs on the cake and some floral.

 

[aschwarz]

Hi @jaysonicabe, wow! so you had 144 people and all said, it came to $29,000? If you don't mind my asking, what is AA? and what do you mean by refund check?

I'd be more than happy to cut costs on a lot of stuff if it meant I could do a WP wedding. I tend to think I'm a pretty low-key, rational kinda gal. Now hearing from you that it is in fact possible, I definitely feel relieved. Thank you so much for sharing your info with me!

 

[JaysOnicaBE]

Oh sorry -- AAR -- American Adventure Rotunda. And the refund check is after the charges on things like open bar were tallied.

So, when the final balance was due, I paid ~$36,000. And after the wedding, they sent me a check of ~$7,000

I cut costs in floral by a lot -- our floral for the ceremony was minimal, and we used our bouquets for the head table at the Reception.
I made my own favors, invitations, escort cards, programs, and table numbers, which also helped save a lot!

 

[JaysOnicaBE]

What helped me with think of my budget was to break it down by payments.

The $2,000 deposit was paid a year in advance to secure our locations and dates. After that I never thought about it again which gave me time to save up a bit more money! Don't think that you have to have all of it all at once.

Then I went to Michaels and cardsandpockets dot com to order invitation stuff, and found an awesome invitation designer (alex tebow of alextebowdesigns dot com) who created my invitations, escort cards, programs, table numbers, etc. for a really good price. And we printed everything on our inkjet printer.

Floral was pretty easy -- we had Rose from Disney Floral, and she's awesome. as long as you stick to simple, in season, designs and flowers, that should help -- I had 4 BMs, 4 GMs, 1 Jr BM, 2 FGs, and 1 RB -- a good sized wedding party.

Wedding Dress was from Alfred Angelo, so it wasn't $3,000 or anything. And we used Disney Photography because it was required at the time. Luckily we were assigned Regina Hyman, who has since opened her own business.

Oh, and we're from NY, too!! Grew up in Queens, but moved out to Long Island after College. So all our guests except for maybe 15 people came all the way for our WDW wedding.