Disney Weddings

[goofy89]

I was wondering if any of you guys have had a WDW wedding? Is it possible to keep it to around $15,000? If you had one what venues did you use? Any help or information would be great!

[White Rose]

Hi Lauren!

I PM'd you a few links that contain some great information. I haven't gotten married yet, but I love reading about Disney weddings!

Also, I recommend getting the Passporter book called "Disney Weddings and Honeymoons" by Carrie Hayward. Check out the Passporter site for more info! I also recommend downloading the E-book version because it's updated constantly and you can download the new version whenever you want! It contains some great info in there and also even had a spreadsheet that will automatically total up things for you, so you can try to stick to that $15,000 budget.

Now, based on my understand, there's different collections you can choose to have the wedding with. Memories is the smallest and least expensive and the Couture is the most expensive. The most used ones are definitely the Escape and Wishes packages. You would be over the minimums for a Wishes package ($10k for a weekday wedding) so I definitely suggest the Wishes package. Basically, you start with your "expenditure", which depends on the collection you choose the and the date/day of the week of your wedding. The expenditure is the MINIMUM of what you're required to spend on that day. Friday and Saturday weekends typically have a higher expenditure, while weekdays generally have a lower expenditure.

Now, depending on the venue you choose, they also have different Food and Beverage expenditures that can also go to your overall expenditure.

It sounds sort of confusing, doesn't it? I promise it isn't! Definitely look into getting that book and I think you'll be well on your way!

[BrerGnat]

We did it back in 2001. Back then, the requirement was you had to spend $10k on a Custom Wedding. We came in at $10,500 total. We had everything we wanted, some extras, and it was an amazing day! We had a small-ish guest list, though. That's how you keep it at a reasonable cost. We had just under 50 people total. Any more, and the cost would have been much higher.

We used Disney for everything. Our ceremony was at the Pavilion, and the reception was a cocktail hour followed by a full plated meal at Ariel's at the Beach Club (not sure if they are still using this venue?). We had Disney photographers, which was probably the most expensive part, honestly, but they did an AMAZING job and that price included the photo album later. We only had champagne served at the cocktail hour and reception, no open bar (save LOTS of money there). We had no characters or anything like that. We had a dove release (which they don't do anymore either). We used Disney florists, GF pastry chefs made our cake, we had a Disney DJ for the reception, and we had Limo transport for just DH and I (other guests had to use their own transportation). Hair/Makeup was included for ME as well. This cost also included a "comped" hotel room for the wedding night. We were staying in the honeymoon suite at the WL, and one night was credited at the end of our stay (was $265/night back then...how times have changed!).

It's very possible to keep it in the budget. Disney is really good about working with your budget. There is absolutely NO pressure to upsell you anything. They present you with the choices, and the costs, and YOU decide. They will help you keep the cost in line by offering cheaper solutions for you.

PM me if you have any more questions. We found our Disney wedding to be completely painless, and really required no work on our part. The only thing that was all on us was finding an officiant (since Disney doesn't provide those). But, that was easy!

[goofy89]

Thank you for the responses! It is definitely good to hear that it is possible to keep it to budget. A lot of stuff I read said it was very difficult. I am definitely not looking for anything over the top and I will not have a large guest list. Most likely under 50.

[BraddyB]

I dont know much about Disney Weddings, other than we couldnt have ours there because my last name isn't Trump, Gates, or Jobs. We looked into it but with a 250 guest list, that quickly became a fantasy.

But we had out honeymoon there, so all worked out

Best Wishes

[brivers222]

yeah our guest list of 300 is a tad to much for the likes of disney... but a honeymoon party of 2 is PERFECT for the mouse

[goofy89]

I don't even think I know 300 people! I can just about come up with 50!

[AgentP]

We started out by planning a big wedding, but I got overwhelmed and we had a small Disney wedding instead. Best decision I ever made! Only our immediate family and very close friends came, about 20 people. We were married at the Wilderness Lodge and had our wedding dinner at Ohana. Disney did such an awesome job. They made my flowers, the wedding cake was amazing, we had a violin player and Mickey joined us too! It really was the best! We were able to stay under $10,000 and that included our honeymoon and also lodging for the family that joined us. This was in 2002

[brivers222]

I don't even think I know 300 people! I can just about come up with 50!

lol just to elaborate... my family and friends equates to 36 people.. my fiancee on the other hand is from a polish family where her uncle has 3 kids and 10 grand kids and 1 greatgrand kid alone... I am marrying into a HUGE family.