2015 Wishes Wedding Minimums

[TiffinyKaye]

Hi everyone,

I know this is a subject long-since passed (and it doesn't really relate to me, because I'm a 2014 wedding)...but I was FINALLY reading through Alyaki's PJ, and she had expressed some extreme sadness over the 2015 pricing structure.

I remember when they first changed it, being pretty upset myself (we were lucky and got locked into the 2014 pricing BEFORE they changed it and the 2015 to the monstrous thing they have now). It's been a while since I looked at it, and I remember thinking it was terrible. I re-looked at it today, and it occurred to me that I don't totally understand it. A long time ago I listened to Carrie's podcast about it...but I don't remember everything about it.

Let me ask the question from people who have been contracted into 2015....

Is a $12,000 minimum expenditure even possible? When I was reading through it, it says that $12,000 is your minimum, but the food and beverage costs aren't counted. From what I read, minimum expenditures must be met through everything BUT food. So...isn't it misleading to say your minimum expenditure is $12K? Shouldn't it be $12K + food minimums? I mean, they FORCE you to have a reception...so you can't get out of food. I just think it's dumb that they try to mislead you into thinking you MIGHT get out for $12K...when really, the minimum you'd get out for would be closer to $14K-$15K.

Maybe I'm just misunderstanding? Devious, devious Disney...

Tiffiny

 

[bigr3ddog]

The absolute minimum is actually less now at $11,125. If you do a morning wedding with a brunch reception and not use the Wedding Pavillion and have only nineteen guests on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. That puts ceremony fee at $3500, enhancement fee at $5000, and food and beverage at $125/person for twenty-one people, which is $6125.

 

[TiffinyKaye]

The absolute minimum is actually less now at $11,125. If you do a morning wedding with a brunch reception and not use the Wedding Pavillion and have only nineteen guests on a Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday. That puts ceremony fee at $3500, enhancement fee at $5000, and food and beverage at $125/person for twenty-one people, which is $6125.

That's what I'm not understanding though. Say you get married in Epcot on a Monday for $3,500. Your enhancement fee is $5,000. That's only $8,500. Your food is not included in your overall minimum expenditure, which means you have to hit the $11,125 you mentioned, PLUS food. So, wouldn't you actually be spending $8,500 + MORE ENHANCEMENTS = $11,125 + Food costs (likely another $2K)? It just seems like Disney is saying, "Well, your MINIMUM enhancement costs are $5,000...but really, you'll be spending more than that just to hit the minimum expenditure, PLUS food." It seems like Disney is just trying to guarantee that you don't get out of there for less than $14K.

Tiffiny

 

[Mommy2TwoMickeys]

for the 2014 wishes minimum that my brother received is the following(Officially Booked about 3 months ago):

$4,000.00 Ceremony at WP ( Minimum)
$5,000.00 Enhancement Minimum
$175 per Adult, $160 per Jr. $100 per child Food & Beverage Minimum.

 

[bigr3ddog]

That's what I'm not understanding though. Say you get married in Epcot on a Monday for $3,500. Your enhancement fee is $5,000. That's only $8,500. Your food is not included in your overall minimum expenditure, which means you have to hit the $11,125 you mentioned, PLUS food. So, wouldn't you actually be spending $8,500 + MORE ENHANCEMENTS = $11,125 + Food costs (likely another $2K)? It just seems like Disney is saying, "Well, your MINIMUM enhancement costs are $5,000...but really, you'll be spending more than that just to hit the minimum expenditure, PLUS food." It seems like Disney is just trying to guarantee that you don't get out of there for less than $14K. Tiffiny

I wonder if we're interpreting the terminology differently. Dftw actually no longer has an overall minimum expenditure, unlike the older pricing structure. As you pointed out, there is a ceremony fee, the minimum enhancement fee, and then food and beverage. Food and beverage is not included as part of the enhancement fee. However, there is still a food and beverage minimum per person, which for brunch is $125/person. So the absolute lowest a wishes wedding with a ceremony that isn't at the wedding pavilion could be is the $3500 ceremony fee, the. $5000 enhancement, and the $2625 food and beverage for twenty-one people. The sum of those figures is $11,125, which would be the absolute minimum for a wishes wedding with a ceremony.

I believe that yoU can do a wishes wedding without a ceremony. In that case, there is no ceremony fee and the minimum expenditure then falls to $7625 for twenty-one people.

 

[TiffinyKaye]

I wonder if we're interpreting the terminology differently. Dftw actually no longer has an overall minimum expenditure, unlike the older pricing structure. As you pointed out, there is a ceremony fee, the minimum enhancement fee, and then food and beverage. Food and beverage is not included as part of the enhancement fee. However, there is still a food and beverage minimum per person, which for brunch is $125/person. So the absolute lowest a wishes wedding with a ceremony that isn't at the wedding pavilion could be is the $3500 ceremony fee, the. $5000 enhancement, and the $2625 food and beverage for twenty-one people. The sum of those figures is $11,125, which would be the absolute minimum for a wishes wedding with a ceremony.

I believe that yoU can do a wishes wedding without a ceremony. In that case, there is no ceremony fee and the minimum expenditure then falls to $7625 for twenty-one people.

Okay, I DO think it's a misinterpretation. So, the first part of their Wishes website says "Packages starting at $12,000." Having gotten into Wishes before they upped everything, when the minimum was $12,000--that's why I assumed that it stayed the same.

If what you're saying is true and it's the ceremony fee, the food x guests, and the $5,000 minimum enhancement fee--then I think that's not too shabby. $125/guest for a brunch is pretty insane...but overall, it's not too too horrible.

Thank you for clarifying. I did not catch your name. One of my only pet peeves about the board is that people very rarely sign off with a name (I've been guilty of this a few times myself). It's hard to remember everyone's names sometimes--especially when it's just a screen name. Beauty of anonymity I suppose. I just feel horrible that when people are so kind here, it's really hard for me to acknowledge the kindness with their name.

We all know Lurkyloo is Carrie...but that's because she's sort of queen of the Weddings & Honeymoons Disboards.

Tiffiny

 

[bigr3ddog]

Yeah, we were taken aback by the $125/person brunch too, although that does include the cake and a bar.

I'm sorry about the no name thing. Forgive me but I've been a previous stalking victim.

 

[TiffinyKaye]

Not a problem, and totally understandable. Do you have a preferred pseudonym? I just don't want to call you Mushu all the time...but that's honestly how I'll remember you because of your avatar.

Tiffiny

 

[bigr3ddog]

It's never come up before, but mushu works. Best wishes on your planning.

 

[alyaki]

bigr3ddog (mushu) actually explained it really well. We were mostly sad because we had been planning on doing a Friday or Saturday brunch, which prior to the pricing structure change usually had lower minimums, you could use the DP food/beverage towards them, and you didn't have to spend at least $5,000 on decor/transport/enhancement type stuff if you wanted to just hit it with adding on more people and hitting your minimums with primarily just food/beverage type costs (which for us would have meant being able to invite a few more people).

It just sort of sucked at that time that literally 2 weeks before we could call, everything changed. So now we're paying for entertainment that we may have just left off if we were in a different situation. But, at the same time, we get things that we may have really wanted, but would have left off to keep costs manageable. And we wouldn't be having our DP if Raist's parents hadn't offered it as a gift, since that no longer counts towards any of the minimums.

All that said, our total costs, if we stick pretty close to our minimums, will, after taxes and service charges, be under $15k. Without taxes/service charges, we should be closer to $12k-$13k, which really isn't much different than under the old structure. But our event will be different than if we were under the old, for a lot of the reasons mentioned.