Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoons

A Disney wedding was a dream of mine from the time I was 5 years old. I was extremely disappointed to see the true side of Disney. We signed a contract under the belief that the our ceremony location at the Wedding Pavilion would look the way it did at our site visit. That was soon ripped away. We had to find out online from other Disney brides that there was major construction going on outside of the pavilion. There seemed to be a huge lack of communication amongst the Disney wedding planning team. Nobody knew how to answer our questions. It was very evident that they did not care how this was going to effect us. There were lies after lies. After the many angry responses from other brides, construction was suppose to be halted until January. We had considered changing locations until we were given this information. Well we got down to Disney a few days before our wedding to see a huge construction disaster. I was devastated, I couldn't believe this was happening. I had no ground to stand on at this point, I was stuck. Once again Disney couldn't even apologize, they could care less how unhappy we were or that they had given us false information. Past the construction issues there is a major lack of communication. It is very hard to get phone calls or emails back from the planners. We also found that the rules for certain brides don't pertain to other brides. No other company could get away the crap Disney has. I strongly suggest making sure you really read your contract and ask all questions up front and get the answers in writing! Our wedding cake color was also wrong and again Disney didn't care. I would also strongly recommend hiring your own photographer. Disney does not have good reviews for their photography. We hired Blue Diamond Photography who was absolutely amazing!! We did however use Disney for our Magic Kingdom shoot. The quality of photos was awful and so not worth the amount of money we spent. Once again instead of apologizing we were told they are sorry we don't like their "style." Outside of our wedding cake and the construction going on the wedding day it self did turn out wonderful. They really stepped it up and everything looked beautiful! Our florist Elizabeth did an amazing job on all of the flowers! The food at the reception was delicious. The chefs did an awesome job and had wonderful personalities. Its a shame that we had to deal with what we did leading up to the wedding. I am sure if we didn't fall into this construction mess things wouldn't have been so bad. Disney can surely put on an amazing wedding but has no idea what customer service is.

Disney was always my dream location for my wedding and was thrilled I was able to lock in on the date I wanted - even with the threat of being put in to a lottery to secure the time and location on property. From my sales consultant and then being handed over to a wedding planner (and the turnover of numerous assistants) I was not satisfied with their overall interactions with me as well as the not-so-evident restrictions of what you could and could not do for decor or any do-it-yourself items. I would have to say my wedding was a huge success and I was extremely happy with the day, despite the planning services. I work in the weddings and catering department of a resort so I knew exactly what it takes to execute a function so I was happy to have this knowledge when I was met with such challenges. The venues are beautiful and the service staff was always courteous and made us feel special during the reception, but beyond that I cannot offer them any credit for the happiness I felt on that day. My recommendation is if you have your heart set on going to WDW, make sure you have your questions answered before you sign.

I've always wanted a Disney fairy tale wedding. Our initial wedding planner assigned to us was a DISASTER!!! She never wrote back to emails, couldn't understand what we wanted for our cake as it wasn't one of their "standard" designs, and acted snotty when we dropped our reception count from 130 to 100. She even acted as if she lost her notes from our all day planning session. Needless to say, we switched to another one, Chrissy, about 3 months out from the wedding and she was spectacular! The venues (Wedding Pavilion and Boardwalk) are exceptionally beautiful. The food was delicious and the wait staff was superb! The cost is a little high and they're not super flexible if you think outside of their "princess" type box of items they give to select from (we were going for a Halloween type scheme), but overall, still a very memorable day.

Disney’s Fairytale Weddings truly made my special day one to remember. From start to finish they were there to help me with every last detail. While you do pay a little more, it is very much worth every penny. I would recommend them to anybody who loves Disney and wants a truly magical wedding day.

We had an AMAZING honeymoon!!

Disney Fairy Tale Weddings was AWESOME! Disney certainly knows what its doing when it comes to weddings. My coordinator Karen did a FANTASTIC job and was able to make my dream wedding come true. They were extremely flexible and any request I had, they made come true. Karen was a quick email responder and was more than helpful! Rosie from the floral department also went above and beyond to make sure everything was perfect on our big day. The only negative things I have to say are: 1) it is Disney, so expect things to be a little pricey and 2) I thought the whole process of signing up for a wedding then being directed to 2 or 3 different coordinators to coordinate different stages of the wedding could have been a little easier. I understand that they want your final coordinator not to be overwhelmed with a billion other weddings so they give you different ones throughout the process, but I felt that it was slightly confusing. Over all there is not one thing I would change and would get married at Disney a billion times if I could!! A++

Absolutely perfect fairytale wedding! Can't say enough about the service!

Walt Disney World is known for it's exceptional service. This stayed true for my Wedding and reception. I was married at the Boardwalk Inn, and our reception was at the same hotel at the Atlantic Dance Hall. WDW goes above and beyond to provide you with your dream come true. I also found the cost to be fairly reasonable, given what is included. Our floral arrangements, center pieces, bouquets and decor were absolutely perfect. Our ceremony went off without a flaw. Perfection in weddings in rare, but Disney provided that for me. The planner was not pushy towards more expensive options, and helped me stay within budget. Everything went off without a single issue. Our cake was incredible, and tasted incredible, as did our food. Our reception was the most well executed event i've ever attended, and I'm not just saying that! If you want a perfect day, try Disney. It really was magical.

Everyone assumes Disney = expensive, and that Mickey Mouse and princesses will be shoved down your throat at every turn. Not true! I just had my wedding though DFTW, and it was actually pretty cheap compared to a "home" wedding. I had 18 people, made decorations myself, and didn't have many upgrades to the options provided to me. However, you can go hog-wild too if you wanted to. There are several sized (and priced) wedding packages to choose from, and the ability to customize products and services is limited only by your imagination. The best part, to me, was being able to drive 600 miles to Disney and show up only to have everything done for me, and more beautiful than I could have imagined.

Two words come to mind when trying to describe working with Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings for our February vow renewal:
Truly Magical

Since the moment my husband picked the phone for information once we had decided to have a Disney's Fairy Tale Vow Renewal, until just yesterday, when we received our Magic Kingdom and Animal Kingdom photo shoot album, working with our team has been nothing but pleasant, fun and amazing.

Our sales coordinator Diane was incredible, she always got back to us right away regarding venues, booking, etc. She even put up with my calling once every month to make sure our reception rooms hadn't been taken by a conference. We really loved her, such a sweetheart!

Our planning team: Amy and Jen were beyond amazing, they got every single one of our requests and built over them to make our day extra magical using their years of expertise and know-how. Jen always got back to us so fast I was starting to believe she had her blackberry stuck to her hand. Such an incredible team.

Our florist Laura, oh I could write a book about how much I loved her, she got our vision and requests the very moment we met her and she came up with even better ideas during our planning session. The result just blew our guests away and brought tears to our eyes when we saw all our floral from my bouquet, my husband's boutonniere and passing through our amazing ceremony and breathtaking reception decor. She is incredibly talented and so much fun to work with!

The staff at the Grand Floridian kitchens made our dream menu come true, they got our specially ordered dishes down to perfection, and to make it even better, they came out on our big day and made sure our special dietary need guests were taken care of and happy and took care of last minute special requests from guests that hadn't RSVP'd with special dietary needs. They saved our nerves during our reception and prepared an incredible banquet.

The pastry chefs at the Grand Floridian also deserve so much praise! The wedding cake was a sight to behold and the taste was amazing. I really wish I could have a slice of each tier whenever I wanted, so good! Everybody raved about it. They were also responsible for our dessert party menu and everybody was overwhelmed by the variety, beauty and amazing taste of everything!

Our DJ contracted through Disney, didn't miss a beat, he was amazing and could get all our party dancing even when he had a very mixed and picky crowd, we loved him!

Transportation was wonderful as well, Disney provided our guests with a charter to take them to and from our venues to their hotels and everybody commented how wonderful they were. Our limo and vintage rolls drivers were all amazing, on time and great to work with!

Our mickey rice krispy treat favors were a hit and beautifully wrapped and presented, everybody loved them.

Finally, we had outside photography, the amazingly talented Studio 222 for our big day, but contracted Disney Photographic Services for our in-park shoots. Our photographers Amy and Ty were wonderful, knew their craft, timing and locations perfectly and the product was amazing.

All in all, planning our Disney Fairy Tale Vow Renewal was one of the easiest, funnest, most wonderful things ever. If we could go back and do everything all over again we wouldn't change a thing.
Our whole team was so many steps ahead of us, when it rained, they had umbrellas at the ready, when changes on the fly needed to be done, they performed them without me even having to worry or fret at all.

It was the most magical, beautiful day ever and I wouldn't change anything at all.

I got married at the wedding pavilion and had my reception at the Atlantic dance hall. Everything was lovely and how I always imagined my wedding day. Karen was my wedding planner and she did a wonderful job, making sure everything was perfect and went smooth. I even had mother in law issues that she handled perfectly!

My husband and I thought long and hard before finally deciding on a destination wedding at Walt Disney World. From the moment we first contacted Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings we knew we made the right decision. The planning process was a breeze and we never had to worry about anything - everything was covered and handled with professionalism and perfection.

Our wedding day was truly a dream come true. The entire day went flawlessly and every single guest came up to us at the end of the night to say it was the best wedding they'd ever been to. The food, decor and entertainment were fantastic and went far beyond any expectations we had on how the day would go.

My husband and I could not be more pleased with the service provided to us by Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings. If you are considering having your wedding at Disney, stop thinking about it and call them. You will not regret it. This was the best decision we ever made and we know everyone will be talking about it for a long, long time.

Disney Fairytale Weddings really creates a truly magical wedding!
My wedding planner Michelle was outstanding and helped us every step of the way to put on a amazing event. From the venue, the ceremony, the floral, the photos, the food, everything was outstanding!

Disney Fairytale Weddings was fantastic!! They provided us with everything we could have dreamed of. It was definitely worth the cost!

Disney Fairytale Weddings and Honeymoons did a fantastic job offering an all-inclusive Wedding Venue! I have no complaints about anything. I got to have my fairytale wedding at a reasonable price!

Walt Disney World Wedding
Maximum Happy, Minimum Stress, Great Value

I couldn't have been better. (My mother in law)
I want to do it all over again. (Me)
The best wedding I've ever been to. (Our minister)

If you've seen Molly Ringwald in "Sixteen Candles" or Steve Martin in "Father of the Bride" you may understand my state of mind in early 2009. I was worried and I wasn't sure we knew what we were doing. Marrying Jodi was a rock solid sure thing. I couldn't have been more positive of anything in my whole life. HOW do we get married? HC SVNT DRACONES... (Here Be Dragons)

I asked Jodi to marry me on the Royal (pipe organ) stage at the Maryland Renaissance Festival on the last day of the Fall 2008 season. I was just back from an airborne Coast Guard Auxiliary patrol, still in my flight suit. We'd been dating since the previous February and had known each other from swing dancing for about a year before that. She said yes and I was walking on the clouds. Now we had to start walking those clouds in the directions of a wedding, somewhere.

We wanted to stay out of debt and to pay for it mostly on our own. It had to be fun, include dancing and have as many of our friends and family as possible. We had lots of ideas for themes including victorian formal, steam punk, zoot suits, an island theme, Jazz Fest in New Orleans, etc. I even suggested getting married by a ship's captain in period garb - a pirate wedding. Jodi wasn't into pirates so much but getting married on a ship (in non-pirate clothes) stayed on the list. We considered several cities close to the water and also staying close to home.

Due to the sprawling nature and inflated costs of the D.C. metro area, staying close to home would have been expensive and complicated. Also, because Jodi's family was somewhat dispersed and would have to travel anyway it only seemed fair to have the wedding somewhere worth traveling to. This made a 'destination' wedding much more appealing, at least to my logic.

We spent 9 months, buying magazines, doing Internet research, talking to friends and traveling to interesting wedding spots. This due diligence and teamwork really brought us closer together and made us more confident in our decisions. Some people have buyer's remorse about their wedding (the place, not the partner). I didn't want to ever have any feelings whatsoever that we could have done it better. By personally visiting lots of places together and talking to lots of people face-to-face we bonded and we assured ourselves we were doing the right things.

We visited, Baltimore, Portland (Maine), Tampa, Orlando, New Orleans, Charleston and a few other cities. One of the pilots in my Coast Guard Auxiliary aviation flotilla, even flew us out to Tangier Island in the Chesapeake Bay. Then we talked it all over and did the math. All in all it just came down to what would make the maximum happy with the minimum stress at a reasonable cost? Walt Disney World came up on top. It was more than just choosing a location, it was more like choosing a project management team.

Walt Disney's company is much more than cute media icons and cultural fluff. He and his brother Roy established a culture that revolves around family, friendship and taking good care of people.

1 Professionals who know what they are doing and make things happen
2 Customer service - feeling papered should be part of any wedding
3 Happiness, fun and smiles, for everyone - key to a good wedding
4 Low stress!!!
5 Resources that are all close at hand

I had just one tiny concern...

"I don't think I want a Mickey Mouse wedding."

Looking back that might seem silly. We had just about the best time anyone can have getting married, AT DISNEY WORLD but before-hand I had some real concerns. I didn't want to spend the price of a small, used airplane on something that might feel plastic and be regarded as cheesy. I love Disney and Pixar and I'm fond of the Sorcerer's Apprentice. We own every Pixar film and we both love The Muppets. Even so, I was deeply worried I would talk Jodi into something she wouldn't want. I'm a real bulldozer sometimes when it comes to decisions. When the little voice in my heart expressed concerns about "Mickey Mouse wedding" I listened to it. I made sure to say something to both Jodi and the Disney folks. I also made a point of listening to everyone. I'm not always the best listener but for this, I tried to listen extra hard.

Here's where they really impressed me, Telepathy. Yup, Kristi Davis over at Franck's can read minds! She showed us the wedding chapel and the beach near the Grand Floridian and then, perhaps reading my body language or looking inside my skull suggested we go over to the Yacht Club and look at the rose garden and wedding gazebo. Brilliant! I love mind readers!

Long before I met my wife the best WDW trip I ever had was back in the early 2000's when I stayed for several days at the Yacht Club. It's cool and retro and wonderful. Also, it's walking distance to both Epcot and MGM (now Disney Hollywood Studios) right by the water. Somehow Kristi must have known I love all of that. Like I said, she reads minds.

We were still not sign-on-the-dotted-line just yet. We made sure to finish up visiting the other sites we had planned and we double checked our hearts. We looked at numbers and talked with friends. We asked family members what they thought and then we did the smart thing. We talked with Jodi's mom.

Getting Mom involved
Jodi's mother is a saint. Really! She's a super smart, ultra cool professor over at Ohio State and not only was she happy to let us do the wedding any way we wanted but she also said she's help us if we needed it. She agreed with us that WDW was a good idea and was very supportive. Likewise Jodi's father was very supportive as well and also offered to help. Although we wanted to do this ourselves as much as possible we were relieved to know that help would be there if we needed it. We did "tap the rents" a little for money for photography, etcetera and my own mother even put up some money for the rehearsal dinner. They were all comfortable with Disney and that helped a lot in addition to the extra financial support.

Photography
Ok, I know pictures are an integral part of any modern wedding. Photography has become extremely inexpensive and yet wedding photography has actually increased in price in recent years. When we got the wedding package from Disney I was taken aback. The cost of wedding photos if we went with Disney would be between $3,000 and $7,500 without video! I was so floored by this that I spoke with some photographer friends who worked at the Smithsonian and Secret Service and did weddings on the side. They told me that a good wedding shoot could cost between $2,000 and $9,000 and that gave me a reference. I still needed some convincing that the photos would really be worth nearly a quarter of our budget. Well, Disney made me a believer.

About that time Jodi's father volunteered to cover the cost of the photography. He made it much easier for me to think it over without the financial stress. Because of that we decided to let the Disney folks take care of our photography. We wouldn't regret it. They did so much more than just take pictures. What we paid was a bargain for the service, care and handling they gave us. The over-the-top-notch service and the ability to NOT worry about it is worth more than I can describe. Thanks Dad.

It's impossible to compare Amy Alexander, Daryn Backal and the Disney Wedding Photography staff with normal wedding photographers. It's just not a reasonable comparison. Out-of-house wedding photographers aren't as familiar with WDW as the Disney folks. Disney photographers know their own back yard better than anyone else ever will. That means fantastic settings, framed backdrops and near-perfect lighting & color schemes. If you then add in top-of-the-line cameras & equipment and truly awesome post-production resources there's just no chance a regular photographer can compete, even at a discount. Add in attentive customer support from Dara Bond who helped with our photography web page and the extra special Lillian Lopez (love that woman!) who sat with us to compose our wedding album you get fantastic-ness that no other wedding photography can match. The ability of the Disney organization to coordinate everything and taylor minute details to look good in nearly every photograph is icing on the cake. Which leads me to the next bit of wonderfulness.

Food
You can't get married without food and a cake. I'm sure there is someone, somewhere that has done it but I don't know them and I don't think I know anyone who knows anyone.... You get the picture. Weddings mean people. People mean food, usually drinks too but we'll get to that in a bit.

On our trip with Jodi's mom to taste food and cake we were bowled over. It's not something that's easy to describe. You get a huge list of types of meals you can choose from, each of which has further choices which you can arrange however you like. More than that, you add in ideas of your own and do a significant amount of mix and match. Don't fool yourself about some things though, if you want hard-to-find food or extremely difficult to prepare meals you may spend a whole lot extra. Even so, you will get MORE than you pay for. This means extra high quality, extra pleasing presentation and people going out-of-their-way to make you and your guests happy. If you have folks that are vegan, they can work with that. If you have folks who hate seafood, they've got that covered.

To keep within budget we stayed within the broad range of selections in one of the suggested themes and generally stuck with interesting but not extravagant food items. Even so, while at the tasting Jodi and I did often speak wistfully about interesting and favorite foods we wished we could have. You know something, Shelley Dunkley and the chefs made it all happen for us. At our reception the Disney folks brought us several little dishes, out of the blue, with servings of some of the things we had mentioned off-hand at the tasting, no charge. They just made the magic happen for us and didn't make us pay extra. I love those people. It just goes to show, if you happen to let slip that you love something, someone at Disney may just make your wish come true. And of-course everything else served was superior. The wait staff was attentive and kind while the bar keepers were quick and smiled a lot. Many friends had advised me to make sure I get a chance to eat something because it's easy to be too busy to eat. I did and I was glad for it. Everything I ate was like a slice of happy.

Cake
I love cake. I love weddings. Strangely enough, I do not really love run-of-the-mill wedding cake. Go figure. Disney does cake. Not just wedding cake, cake like you used to want to get older faster for so you could have your next birthday right away. Cake that would make you want to be friends with that one kid in 4th grade who no one liked just so you could get invited to his party for. Fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth with wonderful layers of filling and frosting in-between with candy acorns and flowers and stuff on it! Cake that can make your forget about a rainy day or a broken arm.

Ok, I love cake. Anyway, my favorite is German Chocolate. I knew years ago that if I got married it was highly unlikely that I would have German Chocolate cake for the wedding. I was wrong. Not only did Disney let us taste about a dozen different cakes and toppings but they also made it clear that just about anything we wanted (within reason, for a price) was possible. We're not talking komodo dragon cake but certanly any flavor that had ever been used for a birthday or wedding or tea party should be possible. Well, Jodi and I chose 3 different wonderful layers for each level of the wedding cake and a seperate german chocolate groom's cake just to make my little dream come true.

The wedding cake was more than just good to eat. It was ultra fantastic to look at too. Jodi wanted it to have lots of natural theme-ology so it was covered in vines and chocolate acorns and even though it was white it didn't have that stacked glacier - frozen tundra look that so many wedding cakes have. It looked man made but also natural, like a beautiful ornamental garden statue that the plants had adopted. Wow but it was good. One thing though, we couldn't figure out a way to get it back home on the plane so instead of keeping the top layer for ourselves & our anniversary we instead shared it with our any of our friends we saw the next day at breakfast. Since we were staying there for 2 days, we were able to share our happiness with some friends for a little longer.

Drinks
They keep it pretty simple at Disney. They know that wine, beer and even harder drinks are a traditional part of most weddings. I know I would have been genuinely put-out if we had NOT been able to have a champaign toast. No problem. Disney will even work with you to get 'off menu' drinks involved. If you have a particular beverage of choice they will work with you to get it but you will not be allowed to simply bring bottles of booze. They may make an allowance for a particular bottle of wine or champaign for the bride and groom to drink and they're not going to go out-of-their-way to hassle you for a hip flask but they will insist that they provide virtually every drink-able item. It's not a big deal really though since they can provide almost anything and the costs are about what you'd expect. It boils down to how top-shelf do you want the drinks themselves to be and then you pay for each drink specifically. The guest see none of this, they just have fun. You will get an itemized tab and it won't be too painful unless you have a boring reception and everyone does nothing but drink. Really that gives you a very good reason to have an extremely fun reception. Also, you can rest easy about guests getting home? More Disney magic! They can simply take the free shuttles back to their own rooms on the Disney property.

Wedding and Reception Services
Disney folks know how to take care of you, that's for sure. Our wedding planner Diane Bowen was graceful and professional. If there was a question it was handled with assurance and respect and a smile. She was responsive and helpful before the wedding and was professional and unflappable during the ceremony and reception. When it looked like it might rain she trusted me to make the call to stay outside even though she didn't know I have been trained in weather analysis by the Coast Guard Auxiliary. When there was a hiccup with the music just before the ceremony started she handled it and kept things moving. When a guest had to leave the reception and fly home due to an emergency Diane found an internet connection, arranged for the flight and got her on her way. When my friend Johnny, who lost his leg a few years ago, had trouble with his prosthetic, Jamie Ledet and Chrissy Walsh found a wheelchair and took special good care of him.

Assistant planners Jen Flores and Jessica Moore went out of their way to make sure the paperwork and reservations process was as painless as possible. Anyone out there who's ever managed any kind of large project or event knows that the devil lives in the details and those details live in the paperwork. Jen took care of us and Jess made sure we understood what we were doing each step of the way. Any time I eMailed either of them or called I knew they would do their best. I was also heartened that their 'best' is several notches above other peoples' best.

Flowers
Laura Kidd with Disney floral was the ultimate cool. My wife Jodi is a naturalist and former park ranger. She wanted nature to be part of our happiness and Laura was able to make that happen. The flowers and greenery were beautiful in a way that still makes me feel warm and fuzzy. The bouquets and corsages all looked like little bits of purity and sunshine with a little spice. I will love white roses forever now (really, I always did).

The Reception Hall
The Atlantic Dance Hall at Disney's Boardwalk is exceptional and banquet manager Shelley Dunkley and her staff of waiters, chefs and bartenders all made special magic for us. My grandparents had told me how much they loved getting married and going to Cape May back in the early 40's. The Atlantic Dance Hall is a very high class reconstruction of that pre-WWII mid-atlantic feeling. The place is perfect for a banquet and reception and the style of the place compliments the excellent service. It's also got a heavy layer of Art Deco flavor and could easily make you feel like Daddy Warbucks and Annie might walk in any minute.

If you like dancing, this place is the best. In addition to the seating areas, bars and the stage the Atlantic Dance Hall has one of the best dance floors I've ever seen. When you add in the beautiful architecture and lighting you get an experience worth raving about. If you ever have an excuse to go to an event there or simply poke your head in, do it. Dance if you get the chance!

Music
DJ Patrick Cullen (DJ PJ of Atomic Entertainment) was superlative. He really aced the gig with Master of Ceremony duties as well as great dance music and even a little dancing himself. He showed up in great zoot suit style dance clothes which went well with several of our friends who also dressed up in '30's/'40's/'50's style. Everyone had a fantastic time and with Patrick's management of the up-beat mood, we all had tons of fun while burning lots of calories.

I never met the man before that day. He was recommended to me by the Disney wedding planners so I was willing to trust he was good. I had high expectations and he more than exceeded them. It also helped a lot that Disney has top notch sound systems. Quality equipment lets professionals do good work. Planning the reception music, Patrick was very good at communicating from a distance. I was easily able to stay in touch with him and plan the reception music & style completely from home. He made it all seem so easy. When we have our 5 year anniversary back down in FLA I'm going to hire him again.

Dancing
Normally dancing is more or less the responsibility of the guests and the DJ but Jodi and I are committed, regular dancers. We weren't going to dance a couple of dances with each other and our parents and then just hope for the best. We wanted to make sure dancing was a central part of our reception. We got a little lucky because many of the friends dance often and well. We double checked with Disney and they had no objection to us bringing down our own dance instructors and so that's just what we did.

You know that quiet time between the ceremony and the couple's grand entrance to the reception? That's usually between a 30 and 90 minutes while the photographer gets special photos of the wedding party and the bride and groom. Well, we didn't want any dull times in our wedding so we had our very good friends Dabe and Janelle fly down and teach a dance lesson during that 'dull' time. A dance lesson is a great ice breaker each gentleman ends up dancing with each of the ladies as the instructors 'rotate' the partners from one to the next during the course of the lesson. For us this meant family and friends that will be part of our lives forever also got to know each other. Better than just sitting and drinking cocktails.

The end result, everyone got a little dance lesson, everyone smiled and joked and met new people and no one even noticed the time go bye. When Jodi and I got to the reception everything was smiles and music and energy. As the afternoon progressed into evening everyone danced and had a great time!

It didn't even cost much money? If our guests had been drinking instead of dancing the bar tab might have been $300 higher. Our instructors only charged us for plane tickets from/to Washington D.C. and a little spending money. On top of that, we loved having them and they danced a lot. It also happened to be their 3rd anniversary (and Janelle used to work at Disney), a true win-win!

Facilities & Accommodations
How can you beat having hotels, food, reception space, makeup, hairstyling, clothing, airport transportation and entertainment and professional management all in one place? The reduction in stress of knowing that no matter what, everyone can get to the wedding and back again safely is a serious boost to any wedding. The fact that we chose the Rose Garden / Gazebo for the ceremony and the Atlantic Dance Hall for the reception made things an order of magnitude easier. Really, having some of the guests hotel rooms with walk-out access to the ceremony grounds and everyone able to walk from the ceremony to the reception simplified the planning, timing and even the photography while also reducing costs. It also made it extra easy for everyone to stay in touch. When the bride's mother wanted to know if I was ready, she only had to go look (or ask someone). If the wedding planner had a last minute question about the flower arrangements she only needed to knock on the bride's mom's hotel door and have them look out the window. That kind of stress reduction is valuable beyond price.

Sure the rooms at Disney's Yacht Club are a little more than the Hilton 3 miles away. That little bit of distance makes a world of difference. If you take into the account that everyone saves on gas, taxi's, limousines and stress, it all makes good sense. Even for those who need to stay at the more inexpensive Disney hotels the free shuttle busses bridge the transportation issue easily. Disney's boats are a treasure. Not only do they take wedding guests here and there, they provided for a wonderful getaway for my wife and I. After the reception we simply got on the Friendship boat at the Boardwalk docks, stood on the fantail and waved goodbye to all of our loved ones as the coxswain slowly pulled away. Royal weddings don't have it any better.

Transportation
Weddings mean moving people around. Destination weddings can involve a lot of extra transportation issues but Disney has that so completely covered that it's even easier than having a wedding near home. Specialized transportation can of course be had. Disney can arrange for limousines, horse drawn carriages, classic cars, motor coaches (bus), special boats, etc., etc.

If your guests are staying at a Disney-owne resort they'll pick the up at the airport for free. Even if they're driving in from somewhere else they can park free at Downtown Disney and take the free shuttle over to the wedding and forget about driving.

For our 'getaway' from the reception my wife and I decided to rely on the Friendship Boats that run between the Board walk areas and Epcot and Disney Hollywood Studios. If you've ever been to Venice these boats will be familiar. They're just like the smaller Vaperetto water busses that move people about the lagoon and canals in Venice. Anyway, we wanted a water getaway and unfortunately Disney's ultra cool motor launch we wanted to rent was broken so we decided we'd keep it simple and take the Friendship Boat. It couldn't have been better. Because it was a little cloudy none of the other resort guests wanted to be on the open back of the boat so Jodi and I were able to have the back all to ourselves for photos. The coxswain (captain) of the boat even helped out by spinning the boat around and backing it to the docks, then pulling away slowly so everyone could get great photos of us leaving while we waived goodbye. It was like something out of a 1930's movie and it couldn't have been better.

Odds and Ends
For the dinner with the parents the night before the rehearsal we went over to the Boardwalk. Anyone who thinks that Walt Disney World only has tourist food needs to head on over to Flying Fish. Make reservations. It's fine dining and you should not show up wearing a t-shirt and flip flops. Kristi Warrick is one of the managers there and she has a fine crew of fantastic chefs and wait staff. It's not cheap but it's worth every penny to have great food in a relaxed atmosphere while smiling and sipping wine with your about-to-be father-in-law. If you have the opportunity, take it. They even printed up special congratulatory copies of the menus for us to keep as souvenirs. Darn good!

Make sure you have (or make) a local friend. My special friend down in the Orlando area is Annette Mead who retired from Disney after something over 30 years and still lives around there. I met her back in the '90's when I went to WDW for a Star Wars weekend and we've stayed in touch ever since. She was able to help us with a million little details like getting bubble stuff (instead of rice) for the end of the ceremony and driving us to city hall for our marriage license. She served as both an anchor and a friend and her insider knowledge of all things Disneyworld helped a bunch.


Things to watch out for:
- Communications. For whatever reason cell phone communications are not necessarily universal for the wedding staff. There were a few times when it was somewhat difficult to get the right message to the right person. New technology or a change in policy may have fixed this. You may have to call and eMail often and confirm everything the day before and ALSO the morning of. If that means multiple messages to different people, make the effort. We only had a couple of significant issues but they could have been avoided.

- eMail attachments. We experienced a few kinks in the exchange of eMail messages apparently revolving around a problem with Microsoft Word and the Microsoft eMail services used at Disney. They've almost certainly been fixed by now but I remember the banquet manager Shelley Dunkley having to make 3 attempts to eMail a graphic of the layout of our reception. Microsoft's software kept trying to encapsulate the graphics in some corrupted or difficult-to-open format.

- Guest accommodations coordination. The arranging of rooms for the wedding is handled much like it would be for a convention. Disney's wedding folks arrange for blocks of rooms to be 'held' for the wedding at a good price and give 'credit' to the bride & groom for a free honeymoon room. Unfortunately, the actual reservations and payment services are only partly coordinated & automatic. You may have to contact each family or individual and make sure they do things right and then later to get their hotel confirmation numbers and send those to Disney's wedding planners. This may get especially problematic if you have a guest who 'thinks' they know what they're doing.

- Billing policies. It took me 5 really careful readings of the paperwork and 3 phone calls to really understand what money was going to be spent on what. Some of it came down to "required" expenditures in relation to day-of-the-week and location. As an example a Saturday wedding mandates that X dollars be spent while a Sunday wedding requires a lower amount, even at the same location. The costs of items themselves may not change change, just the requirement that you buy more stuff on Saturday vs. Sunday.

- Ceremony restrictions. If you have an outdoor wedding anywhere on the Disney property they will not your mom or dad sing at your own wedding. If your father is a semi-professional choir member or your sister is a professional vocalist and dancer, no-dice. Your music teacher from 8th grade will not be allowed to play the guitar nor will your cousin who's a professional pianest be allowed to play Gershwin. They consider that "entertainment" and stipulate that all live entertainment MUST be arranged by Disney. That's just the policy and I must admit it still makes me a little scratch-my-head since a ceremony is NOT entertainment. They will however let you pre-record your friend / relative and play that recording over the sound system they provide. I suppose you could have Dad lip sync...

The above 'issues' are really not serious. After speaking with literally dozens of people involved with weddings (their own and other peoples') I understand that Disney gave Jodi and I service that was above and beyond the expectations and that our little 'project' was about the most trouble-free wedding we could hope for. It was about the most fun we could have possibly had too. Put in the fact that with only a little help from the 'rents' we got it all and didn't even use up all of our savings or go into debt.

One bit of trivia, Disney's wedding service is named for the wedding planner's shop in 'Father of the Bride'.

It was all so wonderful and near-perfect that I just want more. I'd love to marry Jodi all over again.

Disney Fairy Tale Weddings provided us with a true Fairy Tale Wedding, the planning process was so easy and I was kept on track by my wonderful Disney wedding planner! The venues we selected were amazing and unique only to Disney, no local venues would have compared in our opinion. To my knowledge everything went as planned on the day of... and if it didn't then I didn't know about it lol! I would do another Disney Wedding in a heartbeat!

Disney certainly knows how to put the magic into your special day!

The service was fabulous and I cannot say enough about my wedding planner. A dream come true!

They were great, it was like an actual fairy tale wedding! I couldn't have asked for more! :)

Having our wedding at Disney made it a stress free day! The wedding coordinator Karen was absolutely wonderful. Very friendly and professional. She was on her toes with all the weddings she had that day and she didn't leave out any details in ours. We got everything we asked for and more! I highly recommend have a disney wedding!

Disney's Fairytale Weddings is truly amazing. They provide the extreme attention to detail that you would expect from Walt Disney World. My wedding planner Kathleen was on top of everything and prompt to respond, she even got us last minute reservations for dinner at Epcot after the wedding! Our violinist blew me away, what an incredible musician. The cake was delicious. Photography was even better- even though we haven't received our photos yet, we know they will turn out fantastic because she was constantly evaluating and retaking to make sure that nothing is missed.

AMAZING! The best wedding ever! I said to my husband at the end of the day.. "Can we do that again" I could not have been happier with everything! Diane Bowen was our wedding planner, and after the wedding day I really felt like she was a part of our family! Everything from top to bottom, beginning to end was amazing and everything went of without a problem! My wedding day was beyond perfect! It definitely was a magical experience and a Dream come true!

Disney World was wonderful! I am SO glad we chose to get married there! Our wedding coordinator was great, but not super-responsive. I know they're busy and they have wedding to attend all the time, but when you're stressed about details (we set this wedding up in less than 3 months) you really want an answer... But, everything turned out BEAUTIFUL!! The photography was much better than I thought. We got an outside photographer, but our Disney photographer was just as good. The flowers turned out AMAZING!! I got SO many compliments on them! But, by far, the most compliments I received were about the food at the reception! We had our ceremony at Sea Breeze Point (gorgeous) and our reception at a ballroom in the Boardwalk (beautiful). We had a morning ceremony and a brunch. Everyone LOVED the food!! And the staff truly went above and beyond. I highly recommend everything that Disney provided for us!!

Kim

I definately could not have chosen a better location for my dream wedding. My wedding coordinator Michelle is the best of the best and definately knows what she's doing. She's professional, reliable, friendly and very well organized. Every detail was perfect. The flowers were GORGEOUS(especially my mickey mouse bouquet covered in crystals-thanks Laura!), the food was DELICIOUS, my cake was BEAUTIFUL, the ceremony location was the Wedding Pavilion and the view from there is BREATHTAKING. There aren't words to describe how wonderful our event was and how pleased we are with the outcome. It was worth every penny and more!!!!!!

My Disney Fairy Tale Wedding was really everything I hoped it would be! My coordinator was super helpful, and everything went off beautifully without a hitch! It was so easy!

I never thought I would get married at Disney but after I saw the Wedding Pavillion I was sold. I was also suprised at the cost in comparison to other venues that I was looking at in the area. I think it was worth it. I didn't have to worry about anything, all was taken care of. And my cake was delicious! We had so many compliements after the wedding and reception about how much fun everyone had. I live locally and had about 150 guests at my wedding. My only compliant is the time you have in the wedding pavillion for picutes following the ceremony. Disney works hard so no 2 brides have to see each other, I personally would not have minded if that meant I could have had another 10 minutes for pictures.
Overall it was an awesome experience. We also got 2 annual passes so we could with our guests to the parks before and after the wedding.

We could not have asked for a better, more well planned wedding. Disney definitely has the market for wedding perfection. The process of wedding planning eliminates drama and confusion. You pick your options and they handle the rest. Truly, the only way to get married is going to Disney!

The folks at Disney Fairy Tale Weddings managed everything for our event from the first time we called, 14 months before our Vow Renewal. From the very beginning, everyone we spoke with had a "can-do" attitude and a sincere desire to make our dreams come true and to create our event in complete accord with the vision that we had. Our planner was Meri Henderson, who was responsive, creative, helpful, accommodating, and absolutely a sweetheart to work with. She made us feel as if she were bringing a lifetime of experience to the most important event she'd ever worked on -- she truly made us feel that she wanted EVERYTHING to be perfect and would do what it took to make that happen. The floral was gorgeous (thank you, Laura Kidd), the ceremony music was wonderful, the food at the Grand Floridian was absolutely delicious, the cake was absolutely, stunningly beautiful, and the entire experience of having a Fairy Tale event was, without a doubt, like living through a fairy tale and feeling like a princess. If I had it to do all over again, I wouldn't change a single thing. It was absolutely wonderful from beginning to end!

Have a disney wedding! It's the best decision you will ever make!

Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings has this wedding thing down to a science! We used them for our wedding in fall of 08, and we feel that having our wedding at Walt Disney World was the best choice we could possibly have made.
If the prices seem high, in our minds it was worth it to get the excellent service, attention and quality of product that Disney provides. There was no detail too small for our Planner (Michelle Gilhooley) or Floral Designer (Laura Kidd), and they took our ideas and made them so much better than we had originally anticipated.

The bakery at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa created a cake for us that went so far above and beyond what we expected, that I couldn't stop looking at it!

Literally half our guests had some special dietary need or another, and so we had a lot of 'special' meals to organize, and once again Disney exceeded our expectations in accommodating those needs in ways that were delicious and creative (no one had to eat a meal of side dishes only!)

There are so many wonderful perks and gifts that Disney gives you (in addition to the services of a very knowledgeable personal planner for your wedding), that it is well worth the price that you pay.

Our guests were delighted with the experience, and felt special all day - all week, actually!

It is pricey, but it's worth what you pay for. My wedding day was perfect and more than I ever dreamed. It was so low stress because I knew everything would be taken care of. I was actually able to relax and enjoy my wedding day. It was a dream come true.

Disney was wonderful! Couldn't have been happier!

Disney took care of everything, and it was extremely convenient to have to pay only one vendor. They worked creatively within my budget, and worked with me on things I wanted to make/do myself.

Disney Does everything right! It was a day neither us nor our guests will soon forget!

It's Disney!! What more can I say.

Everything was perfect! Disney was a pleasure to work with and made sure my special day was everything I imagined it would be and more!!

Everything was perfect!!!

If you are planning on having a wedding at Disney make sure to plan early.

he Wedding Pavilion is absolutely beautiful! The sides are all huge windows, which filled the entire room with sunlight. The structure is sort of a polygon in shape, so my 17 guests seemed to fill the whole space. The “altar” is on a stage off the ground, and is backed by a large arched window facing the Castle in the Magic Kingdom! So basically, the castle was between us throughout the ceremony. The architecture is Late Victorian, and the whole interior is painted white. The outside of the pavilion was planted with tons of Peonies and roses, including another arch facing the castle. Inside there’s also a brides and grooms waiting room decorated in Victorian style The Pavilion itself is on a small island in the lake in front of the Magic Kingdom, and has a small arched bridge leading to it. The site was around $4500 at the time I booked, and included music, champagne, cake, small dancing reception, photography with 20 print album, the bouquet, and a stretch limo to seat eight. The entire day cost $10,000.

DFTW really made our wedding day wonderful. We had an excellent experience with them and would recommend them to anyone even considering booking a DFTW.

Since I'm an Event Planner, I know how much it costs to have your average wedding. I know how much the linens, chairs, flowers, etc. really cost and the sticker price Disney had was extremely high. However, it is Disney and they can charge what they need to because they know that people will book there if they want to have that dream Disney Fairytale Wedding. I am one of those people.

My wedding planner was Ken Weaver and he was outstanding! I was so happy with the services he provided as well as his team. If Ken was out of the office, I would always get a response to any questions within the reasonable time. There were a couple of room block errors, but Ken took care of it ASAP, so it did not affect my guests.

One thing I wished (during the time of planning) I could have brought in my own chairs/linens/dj, however, I would have gotten hit with a large fee from Disney. But in the long run, it all worked out that I went directly through Disney and paid the extra costs (well their costs). They day of the wedding I did not have to worry about anything. Everything fell into place so nicely. I'm glad in the long run (2 years later and wedding paid for) that I did everything through them and did not have the hassle of working with other venders.

I must admit, when I walked into the reception room, I started to cry (the first of the evening, did not cry when I was getting married). The room was set just like I wanted and everything was in place. It was so beautiful! I was the wedding I dreamed of and happy with the outcome of everything! If I could do it all over again, I would and it would be with Disney! I would not have changed a thing.

Great Experience! Highly recommended. They took care of every detail.

This was the most perfect place to have a wedding. And my Disney wedding planner made it the easiest thing ever. I have had more headaches planning my children's birthday parties than I did planning my wedding at Disney. I made my choices from the options they offer and my planner took care of the rest. It was a great value for the money spent and couldn't have been more perfect. I would highly recommend this venue to anyone and everyone. They offer packages for all budgets and options for all tastes.

Disney had a great all-in-one package! Would definitely consider for a vow renewal! :)