Beginning the planning

So, my fiance and I have decided that we absolutely want to have a Disney Fairy Tale wedding. We aren't sure about anything to do with details, so we've been doing a lot of reading into the subject. We've only just started discussing budgets and costs with his parents and mine and working out a very rough guest list.

The main thing that my fiance and I are trying to do with this wedding is to have an event that our guests will really enjoy. We are both the kind of people who don't have a good time unless everyone around us is happy and at ease, so our goal is really just that - to have everyone at ease so that we can enjoy ourselves (selfish in a weird way?). We would love to have our two families mingle for the first time in a happy, eased, and enjoyable setting. What better place than Disney World, am I right? Additionally, Disney does basically all of the planning, setting up, cleaning up, and worrying for you, so we would be free to focus on quelling any family drama that will inevitably pop up between now and next Spring.

Today, I actually got the chance to talk to someone from Disney to learn about any of the rules, regulations, and benefits that come along with doing a Disney wedding. It was actually very relieving to get to talk to an actual person today after trying to navigate Disney's site for information for so long. The man on the phone was very pleasant, very eager to help me, and was able to answer most of the questions I had (as is expected of anyone employed by Disney).

So, Disney has two main wedding package types to choose from: Escape and Wishes. Escape weddings are usually cheaper, allow for fewer guests (18 or fewer, but at certain sites, such as the Polynesian Resort and Wilderness Resort, you have a maximum of 10 guests). Wishes weddings have a minimum expenditure that you have to meet, and this minimum price depends on the day of the week you're planning on doing the wedding, as well as the season you're going for. (http://disneyweddings.go.com/site/wed/cus/wed_guide/com_quest.jsp see "What is a Disney wedding going to cost?").

The other thing about Wishes weddings, you have to guarantee a certain number of nights (depending on the number of guests) at Disney operated hotels. Based on what I can see in my Wishbook (Disney's free-to-use wedding planning tool) for between 10 and 40 guests, you must guarantee 25 hotel room nights (so, if your party booked 5 rooms at various resorts for 5 nights each, you'd be good to go). For 41 to 75 guests, you have to guarantee 50 nights. For 76 or more guests, you have to guarantee at least 75 nights.

Since we will likely have fewer than 41 guests, we would be booking 25 hotel nights for everyone. What we weren't sure about is which hotels we could use. I asked the gentleman on the phone today that question, and fortunately, he said any Disney hotel, whether it be a value, moderate, or deluxe resort, will satisfy the requirement. Additionally, what's really nice is that the man also told me that Disney Vacation Club timeshares will also count toward the requirement.

The other nice thing is that the bride and groom each get an annual pass to the parks. This is true for the Escape collection, and as far as I can tell, is also true for the Wishes collection. Additionally, your guests get discounts on hotel rooms and park tickets.

What we are still unsure about is what kind of food we could have at the reception. I am personally leaning toward brunch, but my fiance's parents seem to like the lunch idea better.

For a brunch, the minimum food expenditure is $75 per person, with the Tinkerbell brunch option used as a sample of their food menus costing $55 per person. What I gather from reading the various guides on Disney's website is that the rest of the money, the $20 per person, goes toward desserts, the cake, and beverages. The site also seems to suggest that you can put more toward food to supply your guests with more options to choose from. Personally, I kind of liked the idea of forcing all of my guests to eat lochs and gruel with V8 to wash it down, but I guess options aren't such a bad thing either.

The lunch option is a minimum of $100 per person, with the sample menu, "Tony's Town Lunch" costing $79 per person. Since alcohol is expensive, and neither me nor my fiance actually drinks at all, we'll save some money there by having only non-alcoholic beverages at the reception. If anyone complains, we are planning on hiring Goofy to rough them up (outside the sight of children, of course).

We are hoping to solidify an actual wedding date soon, after discussing the latest updates with family and friends!