{"id":1078,"date":"2006-06-19T08:00:11","date_gmt":"2006-06-19T12:00:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_ms_news\/?p=1078"},"modified":"2022-10-16T19:39:10","modified_gmt":"2022-10-16T23:39:10","slug":"memoirs-of-a-future-disney-bride","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/memoirs-of-a-future-disney-bride\/","title":{"rendered":"Memoirs of a Future Disney Bride"},"content":{"rendered":"

From Our Magically Speaking Newsletter Archive \u2013 subscribe today<\/a>!<\/em><\/p>\n

By Amy Clauss<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is the first in a series of articles following me as I plan our wedding at Walt Disney World.\u00a0 If you are like our friends and family, you probably have some initial questions for us – let\u2019s get those out of the way:<\/p>\n

Is Mickey Mouse performing the ceremony?<\/em> No.<\/p>\n

Is Goofy going to be the ring bearer?<\/em> No.<\/p>\n

Is the wedding going to be on Space Mountain?<\/em> No.<\/p>\n

Is your marriage going to be legal?<\/em> Yes.<\/p>\n

I wish I were kidding, but I\u2019m not.\u00a0 We really were asked these questions.\u00a0 The first step in planning a Disney wedding is to listen to, and politely answer, the questions of all of those who just don\u2019t get it.\u00a0 The simple fact is that our wedding is just a regular wedding that happens to be at Walt Disney World. When we got engaged, we decided that we wanted a destination wedding.\u00a0 We chose Walt Disney World because (1) we love it; (2) it seemed like it would be a fun place for everyone; and (3) it was centrally located for all of our guests.\u00a0 For us, it\u2019s the perfect spot!<\/p>\n

Once we decided to have a Disney wedding, I immediately called Disney\u2019s Fairy Tale Weddings (DFTW) \u2013 the department that handles all wedding and vow renewals at Walt Disney World.\u00a0 \u00a0Initially, DFTW directed me to their website (Disney Weddings) to begin my planning before speaking to a Wedding Coordinator.\u00a0 The Disney Weddings website has a planning tool called a \u201cWish Book\u201d that allowed me to browse through all of the standard ceremony & reception locations, as well as other item such as flowers, entertainment, transportation.<\/p>\n

Step One:\u00a0 Location, Location, Location<\/strong><\/p>\n

Once I got some ideas from the Wish Book, I spoke to the Coordinator to select the perfect locations!\u00a0 Since I was dealing with Disney, I knew that the Coordinator would be knowledgeable and helpful; however, he exceeded my expectations.\u00a0 First of all, he was so nice and he quickly understood our vision of our wedding and did everything he could to match up our wishes to the perfect locations!<\/p>\n

The ceremony location for many Disney couples is The Wedding Pavilion, located near the Grand Floridian.\u00a0 While this is an absolutely beautiful location, we really wanted an outdoor ceremony, so we quickly passed on the Wedding Pavilion.<\/p>\n

In selecting an outdoor location, I was told that the locations available are dependent on the size of your wedding.\u00a0 We are having what is called a \u201cCustom Wedding,\u201d which means that our guest list exceeds 20 people.\u00a0 (Under 21 people, the wedding is called \u201cIntimate\u201d).\u00a0 Since the Polynesian Resort is my favorite Disney resort, I really wanted the ceremony to be on Sunset Pointe, which is the peninsula between the two beaches at the Polynesian sticking out into Seven Seas Lagoon.\u00a0 However, I learned that this location is only available to Intimate Weddings.\u00a0 Oh well.<\/p>\n

Our Coordinator then suggested two alternate locations:\u00a0 The Wedding Gazebo at the Yacht Club and Sea Breeze Point at The Boardwalk.\u00a0 After looking at the pictures he sent to us, we decided on the Wedding Gazebo at the Yacht Club.<\/p>\n

\"weddingyacht\"<\/p>\n

Part of what played into our decision is that both of us grew up in New England and I have spent almost every summer going to Cape Cod, so the feel of the Yacht & Beach Clubs is exactly right for us.<\/p>\n

Next we needed to pick a reception location.\u00a0 Since our ceremony is at the Yacht Club, the obvious choice for the reception is either at Epcot or the Epcot Resorts.\u00a0 (This is not to say that we couldn\u2019t have had the reception at any place on WDW property; however, we liked the idea of everything being centrally located.)\u00a0 One of the suggested reception locations was the Living Seas VIP Room at the Living Seas Pavilion at Epcot.\u00a0 Unfortunately, this location was already booked for an event on our wedding day because it looks very cool as it overlooks the main aquarium at the Living Seas!\u00a0 Moving on, our coordinator suggested two alternatives:\u00a0 Ariel\u2019s at the Beach Club (a former restaurant now reserved for private functions) and the Atlantic Dance Hall at the Boardwalk.\u00a0 Since we estimate our guest list to be between 50-75 people, the Atlantic Dance Hall, which is generally reserved for larger weddings, was a little bit too big for us, so we decided on Ariel\u2019s for both our cocktail hour and reception.<\/p>\n

\"areil\"<\/p>\n

Finally, the part of the wedding day that was an absolute MUST DO for both of us, a private Illuminations Dessert Party to cap off the entire event.\u00a0 Essentially, for this dessert party, you get a private area sectioned off at Epcot to view Illuminations while everyone enjoys dessert, coffee and cordials.\u00a0 Because of the size of our group, our Coordinator suggested French Terrace, Upper Section as the location \u2013 it looks just about perfect.<\/p>\n

\"french2\"<\/p>\n

\"french1\"<\/p>\n

So, we have all of our locations picked, next up contracts, room blocks & Save the Dates (oh my\u2026)<\/p>\n

Look for the next of Amy’s planning updates in a future issue of this newsletter. <\/em><\/p>\n

Magically Speaking Featured Article
\nLibrary of Congress ISSN:1556-3863<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From Our Magically Speaking Newsletter Archive \u2013 subscribe today! By Amy Clauss This is the first in a series of articles following me as I plan our wedding at Walt Disney World.\u00a0 If you are like our friends and family, you probably have some initial questions for us – let\u2019s get those out of the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":202,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1078","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-walt-disney-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/202"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1078"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":87667,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1078\/revisions\/87667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1078"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1078"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.themouseforless.com\/blog_world\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1078"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}