Wedding Planning Timeline

apal24

Earning My Ears
Joined
Feb 12, 2018
Hello!

I got engaged in May and have my heart set on a Disney Wedding. We're thinking about 60? people, brunch reception...really we want to make it a family vacation with a wedding thrown in! We're hoping for late February in 2020!

How early in advance can you book or make arrangements to ballpark costs?? Any other tips or words of wisdom when it comes to Disney Weddings or just weddings in general are more than welcome!

Thank you in advance!
 
I'm in the process of planning my Disney wedding for this April.. you can look at my planning journal on the boards to see the process as I document it! You can start talking with a sales consultant at the 16 month mark, you don't sign your contract until 12 months before the wedding, which is also when you get locked into the prices. Prices have already gone up since I signed my contract this past May. We invited around 50 people (we are only expecting around 35) and are having brunch reception. The biggest way to cut costs by far is by keeping your guest count LOW. For example, the food and beverage minimum for brunch when I signed my contract was $125 per person, not including 24.5% service charge and 6.5% sales tax (I signed my contract in May, so this per person minimum might have gone up by now). Your guest count also affects the number of tables, chairs, linens, etc. you will need to rent.. the less people you have the less tables you will need and the less centerpieces (unless you just have minimum floral and decor)

Also, I think the price of the ceremony venues have gone up.. I paid $4000 for the Wedding Pavilion, but I think it's up to $6000 now. You also have an enhancement minimum depending on the day of the week you get married (mine is $10,000 for a Saturday, again this has probably gone up)

Basically, the minimum I am required to spend is $17K (and some change).. this includes the $4000 Wedding Pavilion fee, the $10k enhancement minimum that can be used towards floral, decor, characters, transportation, photography, etc, and my food and beverage minimum which was only contracted for I think 23 guests (I gave them a low number in case we didn't end up with as many guests as I thought). This gives you a good idea of cost.. of course this will vary depending on when and where you are planning to get married and how many people you end up with
 
Check out & purchase Carrie Hayward’s Fairytale Weddings Guide- it’s going to be your lifesaver in these early days when you can’t really get much real information from Disney!! I know it helped me a bunch and she even has planning pages in there where you can plug in numbers and get a general estimate of costs!
 


I'm in the process of planning my Disney wedding for this April.. you can look at my planning journal on the boards to see the process as I document it! You can start talking with a sales consultant at the 16 month mark, you don't sign your contract until 12 months before the wedding, which is also when you get locked into the prices. Prices have already gone up since I signed my contract this past May. We invited around 50 people (we are only expecting around 35) and are having brunch reception. The biggest way to cut costs by far is by keeping your guest count LOW. For example, the food and beverage minimum for brunch when I signed my contract was $125 per person, not including 24.5% service charge and 6.5% sales tax (I signed my contract in May, so this per person minimum might have gone up by now). Your guest count also affects the number of tables, chairs, linens, etc. you will need to rent.. the less people you have the less tables you will need and the less centerpieces (unless you just have minimum floral and decor)

Also, I think the price of the ceremony venues have gone up.. I paid $4000 for the Wedding Pavilion, but I think it's up to $6000 now. You also have an enhancement minimum depending on the day of the week you get married (mine is $10,000 for a Saturday, again this has probably gone up)

Basically, the minimum I am required to spend is $17K (and some change).. this includes the $4000 Wedding Pavilion fee, the $10k enhancement minimum that can be used towards floral, decor, characters, transportation, photography, etc, and my food and beverage minimum which was only contracted for I think 23 guests (I gave them a low number in case we didn't end up with as many guests as I thought). This gives you a good idea of cost.. of course this will vary depending on when and where you are planning to get married and how many people you end up with


That's much more realistic than I imagined! I kept estimating using the people count multiplied by 145$ (I think that's the new brunch minimum) with $5,000 for the Wedding Pavilion (venue of choice) plus $10,000 for the enhancements (hoping for a Saturday in February/March).

Is there anything else I'm missing?! 2020 is rather far away but I want to get an idea before I set my sights solely on Disney!
 


That's much more realistic than I imagined! I kept estimating using the people count multiplied by 145$ (I think that's the new brunch minimum) with $5,000 for the Wedding Pavilion (venue of choice) plus $10,000 for the enhancements (hoping for a Saturday in February/March).

Is there anything else I'm missing?! 2020 is rather far away but I want to get an idea before I set my sights solely on Disney!

I think that's pretty much it if you are looking to just get a minimum cost. Just don't underestimate the service charges and taxes.. they add up FAST. There isn't tax on transportation, photography or entertainment, but the tax is applied on venue rental fees, floral and decor, and of course Food and Beverage. Also, not sure if you've looked into outside photography vs. Disney photography, but the park shoots don't count toward your minimum if you aren't using Disney photography for the wedding day (unless that's changed or changes before 2020)
 
I'm in the process of planning my Disney wedding for this April.. you can look at my planning journal on the boards to see the process as I document it! You can start talking with a sales consultant at the 16 month mark, you don't sign your contract until 12 months before the wedding, which is also when you get locked into the prices. Prices have already gone up since I signed my contract this past May. We invited around 50 people (we are only expecting around 35) and are having brunch reception. The biggest way to cut costs by far is by keeping your guest count LOW. For example, the food and beverage minimum for brunch when I signed my contract was $125 per person, not including 24.5% service charge and 6.5% sales tax (I signed my contract in May, so this per person minimum might have gone up by now). Your guest count also affects the number of tables, chairs, linens, etc. you will need to rent.. the less people you have the less tables you will need and the less centerpieces (unless you just have minimum floral and decor)

Also, I think the price of the ceremony venues have gone up.. I paid $4000 for the Wedding Pavilion, but I think it's up to $6000 now. You also have an enhancement minimum depending on the day of the week you get married (mine is $10,000 for a Saturday, again this has probably gone up)

Basically, the minimum I am required to spend is $17K (and some change).. this includes the $4000 Wedding Pavilion fee, the $10k enhancement minimum that can be used towards floral, decor, characters, transportation, photography, etc, and my food and beverage minimum which was only contracted for I think 23 guests (I gave them a low number in case we didn't end up with as many guests as I thought). This gives you a good idea of cost.. of course this will vary depending on when and where you are planning to get married and how many people you end up with

I am pretty sure as you say all of those minimums went up so I agree that once you can lock in prices go for it.

We actually gave them a number on the higher side and then a more exact number before the final payment and then the guaranteed number the 5-7 days before as required by the contract. It made some of the earlier payments higher but in the end we got a large refund which we really appreciated. Have fun planning.

Liz
 
I am pretty sure as you say all of those minimums went up so I agree that once you can lock in prices go for it.

We actually gave them a number on the higher side and then a more exact number before the final payment and then the guaranteed number the 5-7 days before as required by the contract. It made some of the earlier payments higher but in the end we got a large refund which we really appreciated. Have fun planning.

Liz

Did you fall below your minimum guest count on the initial Letter of Agreement? I gave them such a low number because I didn't think I would be able to get a refund on the F&B minimum
 
Did you fall below your minimum guest count on the initial Letter of Agreement? I gave them such a low number because I didn't think I would be able to get a refund on the F&B minimum

Yes definety below. We just kept adjusting. I don’t have the LOA with me but on ours we were not bound by a certain number. We started out guesstimating 150 but actually sent out invites that included 182 people. I felt we would end up between 130-150. Our first rsvp count had us at 123 and then before the final number (5 days before) due to a death in someone’s family and a couple of injuries we were down to 113. That was the number I ended up paying for. We had a few no shows (irritating) and I think we actually had 109 in attendance.

Liz
 
Yes definety below. We just kept adjusting. I don’t have the LOA with me but on ours we were not bound by a certain number. We started out guesstimating 150 but actually sent out invites that included 182 people. I felt we would end up between 130-150. Our first rsvp count had us at 123 and then before the final number (5 days before) due to a death in someone’s family and a couple of injuries we were down to 113. That was the number I ended up paying for. We had a few no shows (irritating) and I think we actually had 109 in attendance.

Liz

The wording in my LOA made it sound like I HAVE to pay for at least 23 people. Were you charged for the no shows???
 
The wording in my LOA made it sound like I HAVE to pay for at least 23 people. Were you charged for the no shows???

Yes I was charged for the no shows and expected that. If you are having a Wishes wedding you would have to pay for 20 whether your final number reached 20’or not though.

The wording is my estimated number of guests. Then the timeline shows the dates I have to revise the numbers.

Liz
 
Does anyone minding sharing their budget, as well as, their estimated guest count?!

I just have no idea what to expect such as prices of floral and dj. I know it was I’ll probably go up but it will be helpful to have a round about price.

I hate that they won’t talk to you until 16 months in advance!!! It makes planning much more difficult!
 
Does anyone minding sharing their budget, as well as, their estimated guest count?!

I just have no idea what to expect such as prices of floral and dj. I know it was I’ll probably go up but it will be helpful to have a round about price.

I hate that they won’t talk to you until 16 months in advance!!! It makes planning much more difficult!

You need to get the Passporters Disney wedding planning book. There are lots of examples of pricing in there. I could sort of get a feel for it going in. We had really studied it and were able to have a very productive first meeting (the sales one). The minimums for types of weddings are also listed on the Disney website. By that I mean the minimum for brunch, dinner etc and you can stay pretty close to that if you want.

Liz
 
I did get the Passporter's Guide! Are you happy with your experience so far?!?!

PassPorter’s Disney Weddings & Honeymoons is no longer being published, and the information in it is out of date. If you email your order confirmation to contact@fairytaleweddingsguide.com, I can send you a code for a free copy of its replacement, Carrie Hayward’s Fairytale Weddings Guide.
 

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