How to plan a Disney Wedding
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| ©@themeparkcouple |
This
week we have a Guest Review from Emma and Anthony from @themeparkcouple (on
Twitter and Instagram) about their Disney Wedding and how they planned it. They are a 'just married' couple in their late 20s from
South Wales UK and they love everything about Florida like WDW, Universal
Orlando Resort and all the other theme parks. Emma details what planning is required to get married at Disney World, the different Wedding Packages, the Song choices, the Cake and the 'Park Shoot' and what it is like to be in the park outside of normal operating hours!
The Decision to get married at Disney World
In
this article we are going to tell you about our most magical day spent on
Disney property -our wedding day. We are lucky enough to be able to tell people
that we got married at the most magical place on Earth, the Wedding Pavilion at
Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. We are from the UK so logistically
it was hard work. We always realised that
not all of our family members or our friends would be able to make it, but we
sat down and decided there was no where else we could possibly get married and
it was what we always wanted so we went for it. It turned out to be the best
decision ever! If you are having a similar issue then please do it for
yourselves - its the most amazing experience! Being from the UK we did think
there would be a lot of issues trying to plan a wedding nearly 5,000 miles away
and to be honest I knew I would find it difficult as its the most important day
of our lives and I wanted it to be perfect. We have to say Disney are there
every step of the way and are always on the end of the phone or just an email
away.
Wedding Packages
There
are 3 different packages to cater for guest numbers and budgets; Memories is a
wedding package that caters for smaller intimate weddings, so this equates to
the bride and groom and 2 guests. The next option is the Escape package which
is for up to 20 guests including the bride and groom and the final option is Wishes
which has no limits and you can have what ever your heart (and budget) desires.
We chose the Escape package which includes; a choice of venue, flowers for the
bride, buttonhole for the groom, up to 2 hrs of photography and a 20 print
jasmine album. For the ceremony you get a organist and a violinist and you get
the violinist for the cake and champagne celebration, a choice of 4 styles of 2
tier cakes and 4 hour limo charter. Now with all of this you can upgrade your
choices and add additional services. Our only addition to the package that to
be honest was a no brainer was a park shoot at Magic Kingdom. I do regret not
having the Cinderella carriage but at $US 2,500 our budget just couldn’t stretch
that far but if yours can it is something you should really think about
although the price has recently gone up to $US 3,500, but apart from that
everything was perfect!
The Disney Wedding Planner
From the start the coordinator was amazing, she was so
helpful, friendly and made us feel special. Depending on when you would like
your wedding with the Escape package you can only book the date 8 months prior
to the date you would like, we luckily got both dates we wanted which were the 15th
May for the wedding and 20th May for our park shoot. We first had
Michelle who sorted out booking the dates and finding out a bit about us as a
couple and what we were looking for. Once you have the dates booked you get
another coordinator, we had the wonderful Chrissy, she was amazing and couldn’t
have asked for anyone better. She understood that being from the UK it was
difficult going into a day that we really knew nothing about which is, to be
honest an odd experience but it becomes one big brilliantly organised surprise.
Chrissy was always reassuring us and was always available throughout the
wedding day if we ever had any questions or concerns about anything but she was
so good and professional we had total faith in her.
Song Choices
About 2 months before your big day they ask
you about your song choices and this was particular hard for us as we both love
all Disney songs and didn’t want it to be cheesy but we wanted it to be special
and mean something to us so after going back and forth between songs we finally
got our 4 songs. We decided on the “Imperial March” from Star Wars for Anthony,
I know a weird choice for a wedding but it was funny seeing people’s faces and
we love Star Wars plus Anthony is 6 ft 5 so he was embracing his inner Dave
Prowse. My bridesmaid Jamie walked down
to “When You Wish Upon a Star” from Pinocchio and as it was Cinderella themed I
walked down to “A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes”. After the ceremony we
walked out to “Once Upon a Dream” from Sleeping Beauty. Finally for the cake
and champagne our entrance was to “So This is Love” from Cinderella it all
sounded so beautiful and really put the icing on the cake so to speak for the
day.
Our Wedding Day
As
we were getting married at 12 I had to be there by half 11 and Anthony was
about 30 mins before that (although we ran a little behind schedule and Anthony
did panic for a bit, thank God for Jonny the Best Man keeping him as relaxed as
possible) the limo came to our villa outside of Disney property to pick us up.
We were greeted by Chrissy after our short ride and also by our amazing photographer
Jacob which we couldn’t recommend enough he was so fun and helped us relax by
making us laugh and he just took the most amazing pictures. My bridesmaid and I were put into the holding room which is stunning which has a “special”
mirror inside. This is where Rev Kevin Knox introduced himself, he was so
lovely and couldn’t have asked for a more perfect man to marry us. Once the
ceremony was over we had family photos in the pavilion, at that point our guests
were escorted over to the reception room
in the convention centre while we had our photos taken in and around the
pavilion.
After photographer Jacob got our “good side” (still looking for Anthony's) we got
taken over to our reception by our driver Marc who by the way is great fun and
someone we happened to bump into a week later and he remembered us so we had a
little catch up. The cake looked fantastic and tasted just as good as it looked,
there was so much of it too, we picked to have a chocolate cake with white
chocolate filling. The violinist was playing Disney music of course, but he did
ask if we wanted anything else so we all just picked random songs and he was
incredible he could literally play anything such was his talent, we threw so
many different songs at him and he just kept on playing. I wish I could
remember his name so you could request him! At the end of the reception we had
to talk to Jacob about the park shoot as he was going to be doing that also.
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| ©@themeparkcouple |
The Park Shoot
The
park shoot is a must and really think that if a Disney wedding is what you're
dreaming of this is worth that extra cost because on balance to us it was worth
every last cent. When you have a park shoot you have to be at a location given
to you by the photographer more than 2hrs before the park opens. We had to meet
him at The Grand Floridian as our shoot was taking place in Magic Kingdom. Getting
entry into Magic Kingdom that early was a treat in itself as we got to see
parts of the park only staff get to see and it’s seriously quite when there’s
not another 100,000 people in the same location.
When you have photos around
the park you get to pick from 3 routes we picked route 2 which started at
Cinderella's Castle and then went to Gaston’s and Be Our Guest, it normally
includes the Little Mermaid but as we wanted to do some photos around the Carousel we chose to do that instead, if
like us you’re lucky enough you may have the park all to yourself which made it
all the more exciting and special although it was such a surreal feeling
walking around with no one else there but us and a few workers, it was the most
amazing experience and will never forget it as long as we live. Everything was
so incredible we could have asked for anything better, if you have any
questions or just want to know more we are more than happy to help in any way
we can just email us as we know how daunting and scary this process is and we
want you to enjoy the process as much as we did.
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| ©@themeparkcouple |
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| ©@themeparkcouple |
Contacts
us on Instagram and Twitter @themeparkcouple and via email hopkinsattheparks@gmail.com
Many thanks to Emma and Anthony for sharing their special day with us.
Many thanks to Emma and Anthony for sharing their special day with us.
More reviews
of Walt Disney World from @themeparkcouple:
- A Foodies Guide to WDW
- Disney Springs WDW - Best Places to eat and things to do
More reviews
of Walt Disney World:
KJ
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