Planning A Disney Wedding: Part I- Site Visit

Hey Everyone!

So even though weddings may not be everyone’s favorite subject/interest, it is something I wanted to include here as sort of featured topic every few months. A Disney wedding is certainly special and magical, so even if you’re just here for reading about rides and food just try to bare with me and stick around!

Before I get into logistics about how to have a Disney Wedding and go over what the site visit is and what it includes, I want to give a little information on us. Kyle and I got engaged at Magic Kingdom in June of 2017. The funny thing is that we (and by we I really mean I) have been dreaming of and planning our Disney Wedding since our first trip as a couple almost four years ago. I had already decided on the venue, time of year, and approximate guest count long before Kyle even thought about popping the question. When he proposed, I had already known about how Disney wedding planning timelines worked, so we selected November 2019 as the month for our wedding in order to give us enough time to save up as well as plan.

I am going to go through an overview of how Disney’s Fairytale Weddings works, but before I do I just wanted to say that if you are even considering a Disney wedding you should absolutely check out Carrie Hayward’s Fairytale Weddings Guide. She has podcasts, as well as this PDF or print guide, which are extremely helpful and informative. The guide covers everything you could possibly need TO know about planning a Disney wedding, including venues, pricing, timelines, etc. This has been my holy grail, especially because communicating with Disney is EXTREMELY limited during the planning process until just a few months before your date. To download Carrie’s ebook is only $8.95 for the PDF, and you get email updates whenever there are price changes or updated information so you can download the brand new guide!

Without further ado, lets get into some FAQ about Disney Weddings:
   1. Where does Disney have wedding ceremonies?

-Pretty much anywhere! So Disney does have the Wedding Pavilion which is dedicated to weddings, but couples can choose to get married in numerous locations both in and out of the parks. When I tell people that we are getting married in Disney they automatically assume that I mean in front of Cinderella Castle (unfortunately that price starts at $100k, and ceremonies must take place when the park is closed). Depending on your guest count and budget, Disney does have a lot of options for where you can actually tie the knot and have a reception.

          2. Isn’t a Disney wedding like insanely expensive? How much does it cost?

-They certainly can be, but the price of a Disney wedding is determined by the day of the week, time of day, ceremony location, and other selections you make like reception menu, décor, etc. A Disney wedding can be as extravagant or as simple as you make it to be, therefore the price can be as low or as high as you want it. In our case, we are from NJ so the number of guests that we have traveling will be a third of the guests that we would have if we got married at home. In this case, we will most likely spend about the same because even though certain elements may be more expensive, it will balance out because of having less guests. 

         3.  How many guests can you have?

Disney has three wedding packages:

1.        Memories = couple + four guests

2.        Escape = couple + eighteen guests

3.        Wishes = couple + at least eighteen guests (pretty much unlimited)

         4. What is included in a Disney Wedding Package?

-The pricing of Disney weddings is rather confusing, and this all depends on your choices. Instead of being a typical package, pricing is set in terms of minimums, meaning you have to spend at least a certain dollar amount on food, entertainment, décor, etc.

         5. How soon in advance can you book?

-This is again something that varies depending on the package:

1.        Memories = 10 months in advance

2.        Escape = 11 months penciled in, 10 months guaranteed.

3.        Wishes = 16 months penciled in, 12 months guaranteed.

         6. Do I need to travel to Disney to plan the wedding?

-You are able to visit Disney and meet with the planning team twice (site visit, and an actual planning session), but you are absolutely not required to. The planners can actually do everything with you by email or video chat if you are not able to make it to Disney.

Since our guest count will most likely be between 60-80 people, we are in the wishes collection and were able to speak with Disney regarding our wedding 16 months in advance (which was July 2018). Leading up to this date, I did reach out to Disney Fairytale Weddings a few times with questions but they are very strict on their timelines. They would refer me to parts of their website or send me pieces of information but communication is very limited. I even tried to contact them in May 2018 to schedule our site visit for during our July trip but they informed me that I would need to wait and call back less than 30 days before my trip to schedule. It is difficult at times, but it is the way they operate and with the number of weddings that they do I understand.

So finally, the part I’ve been trying to get to, the site visit! We did get our site visit scheduled during our trip in July. It was fairly easy to schedule once I was actually able to communicate with them. We had our site visit at 9am on a Friday morning at Franck’s, which is their wedding planning facility located next to the Wedding Pavilion and the Grand Floridian. The person you meet with during your site visit is a Consultant which is basically responsible for sales and the actual booking of weddings. We met with Michelle, and she was extremely informative and helpful.

The first part of the site visit is basically all information being thrown at you, followed by any questions you may have getting answered by the wedding consultant. It was extremely helpful as Michelle went through everything and discussed everything from pricing, to décor, theming, venue choices, food menus, and everything you can imagine. She also provided us with a folder full of information and prices that she was discussing for us to take home. Since we had a little bit of time, she even showed us some pictures of some previous weddings of couples with a similar theme so we could see what some potential options may be. If you prepare yourself in advance and do some research, this sit down part of the site visit will not come as a shock to you because you will have already known most of the information. Also, Michelle collected some preliminary details from us as far as our guest count, date preferences, ceremony time preferences, theme, and venue choices. After we finished going over everything (Kyle was a little flustered seeing all of the dollar signs), we finally got to do what the site visit is intended for and take a look at the venues we were considering.

As far as venues, we are determined to use the Wedding Pavilion for our ceremony, but were interested in seeing the ballrooms at the Boardwalk and the Grand Floridian. At this point, your consultant will take you in the company car to visit up to three venues that you are considering. We first went to the Boardwalk, and then looped back to the Grand Floridian and Wedding Pavilion. Both the Grand Floridian and the Boardwalk have beautiful ballrooms, and it was exciting seeing these areas and imagining them all decorated. We even got to see the areas that would be used for cocktail hour which included outdoor/indoor seating and tables.

We were thrilled with having such beautiful venues to choose between. When it comes down to it, you pretty much have to give Disney a few choices as far as your ceremony time and ceremony and reception locations. We decided on using the Grand Floridian as our top choice for reception venue because of the proximity to the Wedding Pavilion, which allows us to use the Boardwalk as our backup. We also did give a few choices for the date and ceremony time. Even though we are penciled in for our top choice, unfortunately Disney will not guarantee our date and time until 12 months in advance. This means that another couple could potentially want the same date and time. So Kyle and I have our fingers crossed, and we will not hear back from them until this upcoming November when we finally find out our date!

So, that will be all on our wedding plans until November, although I MAY throw in a blog post on the day we got engaged before then.

See ya real soon,

Katie