Intimate Disney Weddings - When to Reserve

[Lisa1976]

We are hoping to have a wedding at Disney in December.

We telephone disney yesterday and they only have three available dates in the time span that we are hoping to be there.

From experience from others who have had a disney wedding, how far in advance did you reserve your date?

The only thing that worries me is that December is a popular time and there is only three dates there. The wedding co-ordinator said we should be fine, but I don't want to end up having a wedding at 8am in the morning.

Advice please!! :)

[Keith]

eeeekk.... well there'll be lots of times available ON those dates I'd guess, but if you're totally sure you're going to do it, you've nothing to lose by booking asap especially if you really want a specific time.

I think I mentioned I didn't book ours until about 2 months out or something silly <G> but perhaps I was lucky.

[Lisa1976]

Yeah you said thats when you booked yours. I am definite that we want to do it and it says the deposit is the same amount as one room rate, but which room do they calculate it on?!?!

[Keith]

hmmmm can't see any deposit on our paperwork.. just LOOKS like the full amount to be billed to the resort bill.

Still, I wouldnt have thought the 1 night deposit will be that much and if it guarantees your spot, I'd do it.

Better that than losing the date

[Lisa1976]

Thats what I thought. I don't want to get to our appointment in march and find out they only have an 8am slot left, who gets married that early in the morning!?!?

Simon is suppose to be ringing them tonight so hopefully he will find out.

Also I wanted to ask you if you don't mind, your tux, did you rent it out there or buy it ??

[Keith]

yeah, for ours when I called them they said 10am or something. Well I wanted as late as possible so the balcony at the Grand floridian where the cake/champagne were would have the sunset to look out on etc.

Anyway, they moaned a LITTLE, but then came back with a late afternoon time which was fine.

tux... well I'd put on loads of weight <sigh> and so really didn't care much about what I was wearing so was just going to wear a suit. Day before we were due to go away though I went out to the trafford centre with some friends and a couple of the women dragged me into the shops to get a tux. "Helen's spent all that time getting a dress and you think she's going to want to see you make no effort at all?" :rolleyes:

So... as you can tell <G>, the tux, shirt et al. are cheap ones from BHS :lol: at the trafford centre.

To be honest with you, I think I'd recommend hiring it out there. There are some really good hire shops which I THINK will even drop off/pick up at your resort.

"Carolines" rings a bell as being recommended to me as a good place to hire from but it was a fair time ago.

[Lisa1976]

Thats the company that was suggested to me too.

Did you have to specify at the time you initially reserved the date that you wanted the wedding pavillion or did you do that with them later on ??

I would really love the wedding pavillion but it does seem quite expensive.

[Keith]

Well it was all a bit "altogether" with me because rather than talking to the wedding co-ordinator for a few months then being passed over to the event manager, I pretty much did it all over the space of a week or so.

So yeah I did agree the time when I reserved the date.

I said something like .... 5pm on dec 12th... they faxed/emailed me with something like "great news! I've managed to get you 10am on the 12th even though we don't normally open the pavilion on a saturday! so I'm really pleased to be able to get this date for you!"

I wrote back and said, "thanks SO SO much, 10am won't work for us and obviously I want the day to be perfect. Lucky we have a great co-ordinator to help get us the time we want !!"

Anyway they wrote back with 4pm I think it was which really turned out to be perfect. It was light enough to be able to take all the photos I wanted outside and inside. We could see the Magic Kingdom Castle through the window at the wedding pavilion... when we got to the grand floridian, the sun was setting in the distance... and when the limo took us for a trip round disney and celebration it had gone dark so celebration had the snow party on in one of the streets and so on.

Incidently, you know you get a few hours of limo service included, worth thinking what to use it on. We had a great trip round celebration and stopped to get some photos... we had SO much fuss made of us at celebration it was great.

In terms of the pavilion, where are you thinking of having the wedding? The pavilion was a bit of an expense I agree.. really nice though... but then so are the other locations outside! The pavilion definitely isn't essential but do ask what happens if there's bad weather. I REALLY wasn't happy with the alternate location they were going to have in the event of bad weather.

[Lisa1976]

Keith, i really dont know what i would have done without all your advice and help, you have been a godsend, thanks so much.

We were thinking of either 12 or 4pm for the wedding.

With regard to the limo, you get 4 hours useage, what on earth are you suppose to do with it for 4 hours if the ceremony is only 20 minutes or so?!?!

What is celebrations??

[Keith]

no probs! I enjoy talking about it anyway (now all the planning is over <G>)

The limo thing really got me. They wouldn't break the 4 hours or anything which would've been good since we could've used a couple of hours to take us to the courthouse for the license.

So hmmm 4 hours in one go.... could get us to one of the malls, but then that would be 40 mins and the rest of the time wasted because wouldn't have much shopping time left.. and of course couldnt have used it for the wedding.

So I decided to have it for the wedding.... they came and picked me up... took me to the wedding pavilion (so I didn't see the dress before the wedding). Then they went back and got Helen. ceremony about 30mins or so I guess... then it took us to the grand floridian for the cake cutting & champagne.

So..... got back in the limo and the driver said you have a couple of hours left would you like a tour round disney & celebration etc.

It was *brilliant* and one of the things that we'll both always remember. How strange ... something so spontaneous and "extra" being so important?

So he took us round disney pointing out various places and things we hadn't noticed. Every so often we stopped and he took photos for us using my digital camera.

We ended up in Celebration which is a little town designed by Disney to be a real life Disney town with old style values etc. It's a lovely little town and at christmas they make it "snow" along one of the streets and have a mini street party. Have a look at http://www.celebrationfl.com/

Well we got there, the limo pulled up and we got out in the "snow" and the limo driver was taking photos of us. Everyone was SO great and they wished us all the best and were talking to us, taking photos etc... and all with the snow falling around and us still in wedding attire :).. It was truly excellent.

Then he took us back to the hotel and that was how we used the four hours :) beforehand, I would've said the four hours was a total waste for just the two of us, afterwards, we'd both say that the limo trip, especially to celebration... with champagne in the back ;-), was one of the best bits.

[Lisa1976]

Thanks for the link, will take a look at that over the weekend.

Thanks for the tips for the usage of the limo too, just hope we get a nice driver like you had.