Honeymoon change of plans

[B2B-2008]

Hi Guys,

We have our wedding booked in England for April 08 with our honeymoon to Walt Disney world. We are now thinking of changing our plans.

With wedding costs spiraling out of control and the pressure all getting to much my family have agreed that they would come to florida so that I can have the wedding of my dreams, a disney wedding.

We are looking at paying for ten of us to go and have the small wedding package.

My question is do all the guests have to stay in disney resorts? And basically have you got any tips. We are looking at going at the end of July due to school holidays. We are also looking at booking all this with Virgin holidays.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Jane

[mumof2]

i can't help at all but wanted to send best wishes and hugs - the pressures of organising your wedding can be too much sometimes - it's lovely that your family have agreed to go to WDW for you :hug:

[OKWTink]

I'm guessing you are in the UK? July is HOT. Seriously, dreadfully, stick to your body totally hot. So, keep that in mind when selecting the wedding attire!

Our Joanne and Jonathan had the most incredible WDW wedding! Our Keith and Bec and others have had wonderful experiences too. Take a search of the wedding forum and read about the experiences. That will begin to prepare you.

Not all of the experiences were nice, so be sure you are ready for that! From what I've learned reading about the experiences, booking with Virgin for the wedding may be problematic. Have a good read and see what you think.

Congratulations on your upcoming marriage! :hug:

[tweenie123]

I'll second the above about July - we go at this time every year due to school holidays and the humidity is unbelievable. Your guests might have to think very carefully about their choice of wedding outfits as they would be uncomfortable in the traditional wedding attire worn in the UK.

We have seen several weddings taking place while we have been eating in some of the hotels and everyone looks to be having a fantastic time and I'm sure you'll find lots of information on the site which will help you to make your decisions. Other people will be around to give you loads more information than me.

I'm sure you'll have a fantastic time.

[B2B-2008]

I had a feeling it will be busy and hot at that time. Due to work/childrens school commitments we can only go in July or August now. We don't really want to put our wedding off any longer than that. It is to late to go this summer as my dress takes 8 months to make and we still have to save. My brother got married in Africa and that was hot and I did say I wouldn't like the heat on my wedding day but I'm so happy about being able to have a disney wedding :rotfl:

I'm hoping that will can get married in the wedding pavilion, is that air conditioned?

[OKWTink]

Yes. As are all the buildings and resorts. :yes: So plan on being indoors!

It's not the heat so much as it is the humidity. That is what makes you sticky hot. Also, you'll want to keep an eye on the weather. Try for a morning wedding ceremony, hoping that the thunderstorms won't hit until afternoon.

You will have a beautiful wedding! Just takes a bit of planning and "insider" info is all! :yes:

[Bec]

Hi Guys,


My question is do all the guests have to stay in disney resorts? And basically have you got any tips. We are looking at going at the end of July due to school holidays. We are also looking at booking all this with Virgin holidays.

Thanks in advance for all your help.

Jane

No they dont have to stay in Disney resorts.

Ask away with any questions you have.

Some people have had problems with Virgin but we had an excellent experience with them and an absolute perfect wedding with superb service:thumbs:

Id love to help in any way I can.:D

[B2B-2008]

No they dont have to stay in Disney resorts.

Ask away with any questions you have.

Some people have had problems with Virgin but we had an excellent experience with them and an absolute perfect wedding with superb service:thumbs:

Id love to help in any way I can.:D

Thanks Bec, at the moment there are about 10 of us thinking of going. All my family want to stay in the same hotel so we are thinking of staying at POFQ for the fisrt week and the moving to the GF to spend part of the time on our own. Where did you stay? How did you get your dress over? I have already ordered my dress and it is quite like yours but I am worried about getting there.

I will be calling virgin on Monday to get prices etc.

[Leolioness4200]

I can't help you out either but I just wanted to say Congratulations on a disney wedding...very nice :thumbs:

[Bec]

Thanks Bec, at the moment there are about 10 of us thinking of going. All my family want to stay in the same hotel so we are thinking of staying at POFQ for the fisrt week and the moving to the GF to spend part of the time on our own. Where did you stay? How did you get your dress over? I have already ordered my dress and it is quite like yours but I am worried about getting there.

I will be calling virgin on Monday to get prices etc.

You're welcome.:)

There were 12 of us. DH and I stayed in POR. The rest of our wedding party stayed in offsite villas.

I packed my dress into a hard shell case and put big signs over asking for care to be taken and VA put a fragile sticker on it for me.:thumbs: I was really concerned about getting it there too, but it would have never fitted into a carry on box.

I found Virgin Weddings to be pretty clueless this side, but in resort they were great. I suppose I can only speak as I find but I like ive said before I felt there were two people (coordinators) looking out for me things Disney didnt do , Virgin did and vice versa. However I know there are people who have had really uncomfortable experiences with Virgin.:shrug:

Have you thought about reception venues?

[OKWTink]

I know that some of Joanne and Jonathan's folks stayed offsite too. At least for a portion of the time they were here.

[B2B-2008]

I spoke to the Virgin wedding department today, I was on the phone to the girl for over an hour and she was very helpful.

As none of us want to drive we all want to stay on disney and our parents want to stay in the same hotel. We have decided that we are going to all do two weeks at the POFQ. I hope they all like it there I like the idea that you can get a boat or bus there. Please let my know if I should go for another hotel.

We are hoping to then book the GF for two nights. The first might the day before the wedding so I can get ready there, and the second the night of the wedding so we are on our own. And I have always wanted to stay there.

Virgin have said that you can't book the wedding pavilion date until eight months before. This worries me a bit as it is my dream to get married there and we are going in July which I assume will be quite busy. I was thinking of emailing disney when it is booked to tell them I really want my wedding there and it is my life long dream and hope that helps. Is it a good thing to contact disney direct?

I don't really know what to do for a reception. Where did you go?

I was thinking a meal after but I'm not sure where and I want to be in my dress for as long as possible. I'm gutted you can't wear the dress in the parks as I did want to go to epcot in the evening to watch the fire works as I have been told you can hire out boats. Is this correct, is this expensive?

I just want to have a fun day that I can remember forever. I'm open to any suggestions and ideas that anyone wants to put forward as I haven't been to disney for a while.

Thanks again

Jane

[KerryAtter]

Hi Jane - I haven't really got any experience of weddings over there (I have plenty over here as I'm a bridal wear consultant and I make wedding invitations and stationery!) I just wanted to say 'Congratulations!' and come up with a couple of suggestions

Firstly, a couple of people on here (Bec and I think Joanne) arranged to have some wedding photos taken in Magic Kingdom before the park opened, so I'm sure if you ask Bec she'll tell you how she did that.

Secondly - rather than have the wedding in July why don't you think about bringing it forward to April/May time? It'll be much cooler, less busy and much cheaper - plus there may not be as much demand for the wedding services (aren't the wedding prices dependant on the season? You may want to check that as you could save money having it in the spring) And you'll still have long enough for your gown to be made (are you sure it's 8 months? That's awfully long considering most bridal manufacturers take only 3 to 5)

Hiring the boat sounds fantastic!

Good luck with the planning - keep us informed and we'll all help any way we can

[B2B-2008]

Secondly - rather than have the wedding in July why don't you think about bringing it forward to April/May time? It'll be much cooler, less busy and much cheaper - plus there may not be as much demand for the wedding services (aren't the wedding prices dependant on the season? You may want to check that as you could save money having it in the spring) And you'll still have long enough for your gown to be made (are you sure it's 8 months? That's awfully long considering most bridal manufacturers take only 3 to 5)

Hi Kerry,

My original England wedding was planned for April the 25th 2008 and we could have had the Disney wedding during what was meant to be our honeymoon. But because I want my neice there we can only go during school time. Because of work commitments we can't get the may half term off. Which leaves the summer holidays 2008. We have talked about having the wedding in 2009 but we have waited for so long to be married now we don't want to put it off for another year.

My wedding dress is a hollywood dreams dress and they have told me 8 months as it is made for you.

I would love to do the Magic Kingdom photos but I'm not sure my other half will get up that early. I have over a year to talk him into it. Wish me luck

[Bec]

I spoke to the Virgin wedding department today, I was on the phone to the girl for over an hour and she was very helpful.



Thats good do hear.

As none of us want to drive we all want to stay on disney and our parents want to stay in the same hotel. We have decided that we are going to all do two weeks at the POFQ. I hope they all like it there I like the idea that you can get a boat or bus there. Please let my know if I should go for another hotel.

We are hoping to then book the GF for two nights. The first might the day before the wedding so I can get ready there, and the second the night of the wedding so we are on our own. And I have always wanted to stay there.



Sounds good:thumbs:

Virgin have said that you can't book the wedding pavilion date until eight months before. This worries me a bit as it is my dream to get married there and we are going in July which I assume will be quite busy. I was thinking of emailing disney when it is booked to tell them I really want my wedding there and it is my life long dream and hope that helps. Is it a good thing to contact disney direct?


TBH I got the impression that you could get your date 12months before but the time waqsnt confirmed until you were in resort.
I contacted Disney and arranged a planning visit with our coordinator thee months before the wedding:D

I don't really know what to do for a reception. Where did you go?

I was thinking a meal after but I'm not sure where and I want to be in my dress for as long as possible. I'm gutted you can't wear the dress in the parks as I did want to go to epcot in the evening to watch the fire works as I have been told you can hire out boats. Is this correct, is this expensive?


We ate in the Chef's Domaine at Citrico's in the Grand Floridian. Its perfect for a party of 12. There is a minimum spend of $750 ~ but that's easy with that many of you. Delicious food too! Also you can keep your dress on:thumbs: Im sure you can see the fireworks from the beach at the GF too.

Firstly, a couple of people on here (Bec and I think Joanne) arranged to have some wedding photos taken in Magic Kingdom before the park opened, so I'm sure if you ask Bec she'll tell you how she did that.


Yep both Joanne and myself had the MK photo shoot. Disney photographic services do that. Your coordinator will sort that out for you. It costs $800. If you're interested I can give you more info on that.:D

[Kate2005]

Hello and congratulations on your wedding!
I cant help you with any questions on the wedding pavilion as we got married at the Disney Swan Hotel. We got married in november, the weather was perfect for us, it was still warm but not hot - understand your reasons for not changing when you get married though.
I also had a big dress, and i carried it a hard shell suitcase in the hold and stuck a big sign on it saying "fragile, wedding dress enclosed" and i bought some fragile tape off of ebay and wrapped that round it just to make it even clearer! Virgin airline were wonderful this side and florida side with the case!
We didnt do the magic kingdom photo shoot and to be perfectly honest, although they are beautiful, i dont regret not having them done, mainly because the photos that we had through virgin were absolutely beautiful and we were very pleased with them. However, if it has always been your life long dream to get married at Disney they really would be wonderful to have! :yes:
Everyone on here were just fab when i was planning the wedding and were only to happy to help in any way, so please feel free to ask what you want whenever you want and it wont take long for someone to come along and help you!
Also, Bec is always changing the photo in her signature so keep an eye on it and you will get a very good idea of the sort of photos they take and how high a standard they are! Becs photos are beautiful, im sure she wouldnt mind you taking a look! The link is here to mine somewhere, you are welcome to look but as i said before, we didnt get married at the pavilion so they might not give you such a good idea!

Congratulations once again!

[hayleyneeyore]

With Epcot, I think you could do a Dessert Party to watch the fireworks... This might be on Disney Fairytale Weddings website, I'm not sure. Take a look here (http://www.ourfairytale.com/illuminations.html) for someone else's time at a dessert party....

There is also some info on private events in Epcot here (http://disneyparkevents.disney.go.com/dpe/events/LG/detail?name=DPELGEpcotDetailPage).

I think there are some parks where you can go in after its closed to have a 'reception' there... I read somewhere about a lady having her reception on the great movie ride, which sounded like a lot of fun!!

or you could rent The Grand 1 yacht (I think it takes 12 people) to go on the lake to watch Wishes :shrug: It would be perfect coming from Citrico's :D Some more info on the boats are here (http://www.wdisneyw.co.uk/spcruise.html)

Congratulations on your wedding!!

[B2B-2008]

Some great ideas from you all. I can't believe how excited about this I am getting. I know we are doing the right thing moving the wedding to florida.

Becs I have never eaten in the Grand Floridian what are the restaurants like? Also I had a look at your photos are they the ones that you get with the wedding package or did you pay extra? It says you get 12 printed and a CD how many does the CD contain? I would love to know about the MK photos what day do you have those done?

Kate - Thanks for your info I could find a link to your photos but I would love to take a look.

Hayley - Again some great information. Dessert Party looks great I'm not sure how much that would cost but I will look into it as I want to be in my dress for as long as possible. I really like the boat idea and all in the same area. I have never seen Wishes is that as good as Epcot? Is it on every night? Being Disney I'm sure it is.

I'm going to book with Virgin on Wednesday I can't wait :rotfl:

[Kate2005]

Heres the link to our photos!
http://community.webshots.com/user/kateandgregg
Think i only put a couple on there though.

We had 12 photos included in our package too, but when you meet with your co-ordinator she will go through the different packages with you. We had ours on a disc and we printed off as many as we wanted when we got home. We upgraded and had our photos in a beautiful album along with loads extra including black and white and sepia ones.
We had someone called Ryan do ours and we were so pleased with them - he also did Bec's.

Its very exciting planning your wedding isnt it - im also excited for you :lol: ! Make sure you come back and so us your photos! :yes:

[Bec]

Becs I have never eaten in the Grand Floridian what are the restaurants like? Also I had a look at your photos are they the ones that you get with the wedding package or did you pay extra? It says you get 12 printed and a CD how many does the CD contain? I would love to know about the MK photos what day do you have those done?



Citricos is a fabulous restaurant and the Chef's Domaine is a small room off the main restraurant - so its that little extra special.

We paid extra for photos. We had the 12 + CD with the package and that photographer just focussed on the arrival shots. We then paid for a wonderful photographer www.total-imagery.com (http://www.total-imagery.com) to do the rest. Virgin organised this photographer for us and also the DVD. The CD as part of the package contained about 50 shots and the extra one we paid for had 100's!

We did the MK photo shoot the day after the wedding ~ again this included a keepsake album including 12 photos + CD.

[B2B-2008]

Kate your photos are lovely. How much was it to upgrade your photo package? Did you do anything after your wedding?

Bec's the restaurant sounds like a great idea. By booking that room it will still keep our wedding day private but it will still all be in the magic of disney. Do other restaurants offer that? How much did the extra photographer cost? Was it worth having the DVD? Did any of your family film your day?

Sorry for asking so many questions its just nice talking to people who have had the experience.

[Kate2005]

Thank you!
Do you know, i really cant remember now how much it was to upgrade them - sorry! We had to pay in dollars at the time and i think it was maybe a couple of hundred - dont quote me on that though, it was a little while ago now!
The wedding was at 3.30, by the time the ceremony finished and we had all our photos taken it was gone 5, so we all went for a meal at Palio's, which was an italian restaurent in The Swan hotel, but i dont think it is there anymore. We stayed there until about 10 i think, then everyone made their own way back to their hotel. Only a couple of us were staying at the swan, the rest were on International Drive.
Dont worry about all the questions - it is nice to have people around that can help you, especially when you are marrying abroad and Virgin arent that great over here at giving you the answers!

[Bec]

Bec's the restaurant sounds like a great idea. By booking that room it will still keep our wedding day private but it will still all be in the magic of disney. Do other restaurants offer that? How much did the extra photographer cost? Was it worth having the DVD? Did any of your family film your day?

Sorry for asking so many questions its just nice talking to people who have had the experience.

Im not sure which other restaurants offer a private dining space.

I cant remember the cost either...but I did dig out the bill a few months back and posted it here somewhere...I'll have a search of the threads.

DVD was definately worth it, no my family did not film it.

Dont worry about asking questions its what we are here for:D

[joanne]

I'd STRONGLY recommend booking direct with Disney and NOT through Virgin. Reading other people's experiences has taught me that dealing with a middleman such as Virgin can cause problems.
You won't pay anymore booking direct, and will hopefully be able to sort any problems that arise much more easily.
We booked our wedding (albeit a custom one) direct with Disney and had no problems :thumbs:

[joanne]

This worries me a bit as it is my dream to get married there and we are going in July which I assume will be quite busy. I was thinking of emailing disney when it is booked to tell them I really want my wedding there and it is my life long dream and hope that helps.


Sadly, that won't have any effect. Most people that get married there have that same dream. Disney will allocate wedding space/times/dates according to availability. If there is more than 1 couple wanting the exact same time/date/place, they go into a lottery.
July isn't necessarily the busiest time. October/November and May are very busy, as many prefer to avoid the strong summer heat, so opt for other months instead.
Also, if you're flexible with dates and days it helps. Monday-Wednesday are much quieter than Friday-Sunday for wedding days, and you'd therefore stand a better chance of getting the date you want.


With Epcot, I think you could do a Dessert Party to watch the fireworks... This might be on Disney Fairytale Weddings website, I'm not sure. Take a look here (http://www.ourfairytale.com/illuminations.html) for someone else's time at a dessert party....


You need a minimum of 20 guests to have an IllumiNations dessert party.

I think there are some parks where you can go in after its closed to have a 'reception' there... I read somewhere about a lady having her reception on the great movie ride, which sounded like a lot of fun!!

That's only for custom/Wishes weddings :(
I'm afraid there aren't as many options for Intimate/Escape weddings. Full receptions aren't offered, and couples must make their own arrangements if they want dinner afterwards.

If you have lots to spend, you can have a custom/Wishes wedding with 10 guests, but you do still have to meet the minimums.

[B2B-2008]

Thanks Joanne, I have just been looking at the disney weddings website. The impression I get from virgin is that you can't book any wedding with them until a year before, I don't think the 2008 prices have been released yet for them. How would I go about booking direct with disney is it just a case of booking the holiday with virgin and then phoning disney up, vise versa. Could I book with virgin and also contact disney?

[joanne]

If you go to the Disney Weddings website, there's a link under the phone number where you can leave your phone number and one of the team will call you back.
For custom weddings, they give you a discount, not 100% sure if this also applies to intimate weddings. But if it does, you may well be cheaper booking your hotel direct with Disney too. Especially with the current exchange rate.
You'd be better speaking to someone from Disney, find out about the hotel situation. I would think that if you booked your hotel through Virgin, Disney would take that into account for your Escape package requirements, but you'd need to confirm that with them.
Myself and many others on here find it cheaper to book hotels direct with Disney (either yourself or through a specialist travel agent (http://www.linkcounter.com/go.php?linkid=294470)), and book flight direct with airline rather that go with the traditional package deal :)

[B2B-2008]

Thanks again Joanne, I have tried to put my number on the website but I can't put my british number in. I can't see an option for England. I don't know if it is because I am on a Mac and not a PC. I'm not sure how to call Florida I don't know the codes, can help me with that?

I have always gone with virgin and get 10% off but I will take a look at the link you posted.

Thanks for all your help.

[joanne]

Sorry, looks like that's only for US & Canada :oops:

The number you'd call from UK is 001 321 9394610. When you call say you're calling from UK and can someone call you back.

[Pepper]

Congratulations on your up coming wedding.

We got married in Disney on 1st December 2006, we also booked through Virgin and found it a tad frustrating.

We were also told about not being able to book the wedding date so far ahead but it was only 1 year for us, we were also told that we would get our wedding time once on site, but as we had guests on site and wanted to book dinner for our guests we contacted our Disney Co-ordinator who gave us our wedding time before hand.

I think the most frustrating was not being given the information we needed, we were told at our meeting with our co-ordinator on site 2 days before the wedding that we only got the 12 photos on the CD and the photographer picks which ones you get, we went into panic mode thinking 12 photos of our wedding was not enough so booked the extra package. We found out later that this was not true about only getting 12 piccies but we were really glad that we also booked Ryan as he was fantastic.

I maybe am not the best person to speak to about the Magic Kingdom photoshoot as our pictures were awful, so much so that after 3 months of trying to get them sorted we have now been promised a refund, which yes is nice but we really wanted the pictures.

You wouldn't think so but we did have a fantastic day and all the unhelpfulness during the build up to the wedding turned out to be the last thing we thought about on the day, and our final Disney Co-ordinator (we did have 3) was fantastic and very, very helpful.

We also ate at Citricos Chefs Domaine, the food was fantastic, and it was really special having a private area. We did look into booking the private dining rooms at Jiko (AK Lodge) and V&As but these were both asking for a minimum spend of $2000.00. Our final bill at Citricos for 10 of us was if I recall less that $800.

I have attached the link to our wedding piccies just to be able to bore someone else with them :rotfl: We got married in Wilderness Lodge as the Pavillion never appealed to me.

I hope all goes well, and you have a better experience of Virgin etc that we did, it maybe didn't help that I am a control freak and I was not in control :unsure:

http://www.mega-quiz.com/weddingpics.php

[B2B-2008]

Thanks for your info Pepper. I think I remember you posting a full report on here but I can find it now. If you can post me the link that would be great.

I have now booked with virgin as I couldn't get through to Disney and being quite a busy bee at the moment I just wanted to know something was being sorted. I have been told to ring virgin back in July to officially book the wedding, tell them the date I want etc, but I still won't get a date until 8 months before for the Pavillion. I have already been given the name of the Virgin (Disney) lady I will be dealing with. I have already told her that we want to book meals etc on the wedding day and she has told me she can't really help with that, I knew this already, but she will give me the details for my contact at Disney. I am very much a control freak so I'm sure I will bug the loads. I have also got the details (email address) of the lady I booked the holiday with, I found her very helpful.

What are the main things that virgin let you down with, any pointers so I know how to keep bugging them.

What is the deal with the photos then as it says in the brochure 12, I was wanting to upgrade if it didn't cost that much more.

I must just say I love your photos and even the ones taken in Magic Kingdom I hope these aren't the ones you hate so much.

Sorry to ask so many questions I am information hungry at the moment.

[Bec]

What is the deal with the photos then as it says in the brochure 12, I was wanting to upgrade if it didn't cost that much more.



With Virgin Weddings When you book your wedding you'll get a pack with lots of forms to fill in and info on any extras you can have. Photo package info will be on there.

You can however if you choose research the web and buy in a photograher that you like.

[Bec]

Look here http://www.wdisneyw.com/forums/showthread.php?t=46219 for answers to lots of your questions if you read through you'll also find prices etc.

[B2B-2008]

Thanks for all your help Bec. I can't really do anything else now apart from wait. I'm sure I will be on again asking more questions.

[Froglovestoad]

I just wanted to say how lovely all the wedding photos are, they brought a tear to my eye, and I really hope the planning goes OK for the bride to be!! :thumbs: