* Completed PlanningJournal and Trip Report*Disneyland Escape Wedding. 12/08/2011.

[PrincessNurseMRA]

I cant wait to hear the rest !!! Have fun and congratulations!! Your ideas are so much fun! it is so great to hear about a disneyland escape wedding!! Thanks for sharing.

 

[kipperoo]

Hey there everyone. Thanks so much for the kind comments, I'm blown away that people are even reading this thing :O)

Sorry that I haven't posted in a while, since finishing my BEO, I've gotten sick twice AND had my car completely die for about a week, so I've just been trying to make it to this week. Well, here it is.

I flew in from Seattle Saturday night and am staying at my mom's house in Ventura County until Wednesday when Geoff flies in and we check into DLH. Our first stop was In N Out (I still can't believe I'm only able to get this once a year. Possibly the worst part of moving away.) Then Mom and I went to her house and I got a chance to look at a lot of the things I had ordered online for the wedding but had shipped to her house so I wouldn't have to fly down with too much stuff.

Sunday we went shopping and ended up picking up new shirts and ties for Geoff and his two Best Men (our best friend Alex and my brother, Quinn.). We also picked out some really cute outfits for me to wear during our Disneymoon, and some Jewelry for Mom and I to wear for the wedding, plus some things I need to make my centerpieces Wednesday morning. We had a great time. Afterwards, we went to my mom's best friend from when I was growing up's house for dinner and trivia games. Again, a great time. Then we came home and I wrapped all of our wedding party presents, and worked on some of my jewelry that I'm modifying (I made a ribbon headband and added a locket to my necklace with a picture of my grandparents who passed away last year.)

Monday morning (Today) I woke up and tried to wait out the Santa Ana's that have been blowing like crazy, but around noon I realized they probably weren't going to stop, so I started the white-knuckle drive from Ventura County to Disneyland for my first ever solo trip to get some stuff for the wedding. I arrived at the parking garage before 2pm and headed to ticketing to upgrade the 3 day hopper I had bought to an Annual Pass. I mentioned to the CM that I would be getting married at the Resort on Thursday and she asked if I was going to be using my new AP over the weekend. I told her I was planning on buying a blackout day ticket for Saturday, and she told me she had a little bit of wedding magic for me and handed me a 1 day hopper to use for the last day of our honeymoon. There was magic all over the place today.

I went from ticketing into California Adventure because I haven't been in that park since about '05 and I wanted to see the construction and how it would affect the first section of our post wedding park shoot. From there, I passed into the GCH and saw it in person for the first time. I spent about an hour walking around the hotel. I got to see our ceremony location, figured out where I'd be getting ready, found the Wisteria room and found a few CMs setting up in there for an event. They let me look around for a while (It's hard to gauge how high ceilings actually are from pictures, so I wanted to make sure our centerpieces would work with the balloons. They totally will.). I found where Geoff would be getting ready and also took some cellphone pictures of the Brisa Courtyard to send to my photographer. Then I walked up and down DTD (another thing I'd never done.) and went to Disneyland. I teared up a little walking down Main Street thinking about the coming week, and the last time I was in the park, which was when Geoff and I flew down to Cali for my PopPop's funeral.

I went to the Mad Hatter in Fantasyland and grabbed 21 classic Mickey Ears and a set of Bride and Groom ears. I had a list of all of our guests and what colors and fonts I wanted for everything. I also presented my brand new AP for my discount (which is why I had upgraded to the AP!) and paid for everything, and they told me to return later in the evening to get the Ears. Awesome.

I walked through Frontierland and visited the reindeer that Geoff and I always go say hi to. They were all lying down so I took a picture to send to Geoff, who stayed home from work today because he's been sick and he's trying his hardest to get better before Wednesday. He was glad the reindeer seemed to be having as little fun as he was.

I headed over to NOS and got a fastpass for Haunted Mansion Holiday, then went single rider on Indy. (Single Rider is AWESOME.) After that I went to Tomorrowland to pick up a Star Tours FP, then back to NOS to use my HMH FP. Then I decided to treat myself to a Monte Cristo at Cafe Orleans, and sat alone on the patio watching the Christmas lights come on in NOS and reflect on the water of the Rivers of America. It was about 5:30 now, which was when the Hat store CM had said I could come back to get my hats. I went to head over there but remembered the holiday parade was happening. I waited to cross the parade and got to see a couple floats while waiting. Teared up again. Geoff had asked me to avoid watching the Fireworks, castle lighting, parade, or going on Star Tours before we were together in the parks... I knew I was going to betray him for Star Tours, so I tried to redeem myself by not watching the whole parade

Since it was parade time, I decided to do a short standby for the forbidden ride. OMG. I loved the old Star Tours for nostalgia sake, and went on it every visit... but the new one is AMAZING. It probably helps that I'm a huge nerd, but seriously. I geeked out so hard on it that I left my bag that had half my Monte Cristo and my Disneyland Bride's secret santa gift I had purchased. I went back to retrieve them and then went to pick up my giant bag of hats.

Then it was time to ride the tram back to the garage. I was on the road around 7:30 and got home and started organizing all of my DIY things into big plastic storage containers with lids so that I will be able to easily set everything up.

As I said, this was my first solo trip to the land, and I cannot recommend enough to my fellow brides taking a day the week of your wedding to experience it at your own pace. It was so calming to me to just walk around taking everything in before the whirlwind starts Wednesday. I had long conversations with cast members and other guests throughout the day and just really enjoyed having no actual agenda, no pressure to cram in ride after ride, no worrying about anything.... It was one of the most fun trips I've had to the Land, and I only rode 3 things and had dinner alone. I'm also really really glad I took an hour to walk around our wedding locations. Now I won't be wandering the halls at 5:30am the morning of my wedding and will spend less time worrying about getting to the next location and more time really enjoying the beautiful atmosphere of the hotel.

I'm not sure if I'll be able to post again between now and Thursday, so if not, thank you all so much for your support and suggestions during this planning process. I'm so excited to share the result of the past 5 months of hard work with all of you in the coming weeks and months. Look for a trip report.

<3 you all,
Katie

 

[Mindyjoy]

HAPPY WEDDING DAY! (A day late, sorry ) I hope you had the amazing day of your dreams and I can't wait to read all about it!!!!

 

[kipperoo]

On the Monday before our wedding, I drove a couple hours to Disneyland to pick up our mouse ear favors and get my annual pass. When I had booked our trips, I got Geoff and I 3 day Park Hoppers, but realized that I would need an extra day to pick up our favors! So, I took my E-Ticket Park Hopper and went to upgrade to a So Cal Pass (I might still have my California ID…) When I told the ticket cast members that I was having a Disneyland Wedding in a few days, they asked if I was planning on using my AP over the weekend. I said yes and that I was planning on buying a blockout day pass for the last day of our honeymoon. They told me to hang on a moment, and then came back with a free park hopper for me to use!! I was so happy to get my first taste of Disney Wedding Magic!

When I was in the park, it was business time. I had a list of all the names I needed and dropped it off at the Mad Hatter in Fantasyland along with 23 mouse ear hats. I was kind of disappointed with my experience, but really should have checked all of them while I was still in the store to make sure I was getting what I wanted. One of the hats had a misspelled name, and another was just missing entirely, and I didn’t even notice until the morning of the wedding when I was setting them up. Oops! While I was waiting for the ears to get embroidered I wandered around the park, went on a couple rides, and had dinner on the patio at Café Orleans. I also spent a couple hours walking around the Grand Californian to get a feel for where all of my venues were, since I had never been to the Hotel and was having my wedding there in a few days! It was a really fun, relaxing day.

Tuesday was when I was expecting to receive the 200 bulk roses I had ordered from Costco.com. They arrived via FedEx around 2pm, looking a little haggard from their trip, so I quickly got to work mixing 3 5 gallon buckets of water and flower preservative and started stripping the thorns and foliage from them. I had a whole team of people lined up to help me with that in the evening, but actually ended up doing all 200 myself in about an hour, before anyone else got home from work. Oh well! My mom and I went out shopping that night for some outfits to wear on the honeymoon, and then went home. I had planned to do my flower arrangements Wednesday morning, (again with a team of helpers) but again ended up just doing it all myself around 1am. Insomnia is a recurring theme this trip  I was really surprised how easy it was to do my own flowers ( I did 2 bridesmaid bouquets, 3 large centerpieces, 2 small centerpieces, 3 boutonnieres and 2 corsages) and would have paid at least $750 if I had gone through DFTW for the extra floral, so I was really pleased.

Wednesday I slept in as much as I could, then started packing to head to LAX to pick up the groom and best man. I went to get my nails done (full set acrylics) and it took FOREVER. Like, seriously. I’ve gotten my nails done probably 50 times prior to this and it usually takes about 45 minutes to an hour…. This took 2 and a half hours!! It was bananas. Just as we were getting ready to leave to the airport, Geoff called and said his plane had landed, so I explained how to get to the Disneyland Express Shuttle from his terminal and told him to just go check Alex in at his hotel and I would meet him there. We then got stuck in Rush Hour (FML!!!!) and made it to Anaheim around 6pm. I was really really stressed at this point, so my mom and I decided we should probably get our drink on. Mom, Geoff, and I went to the DLH to check in, then headed back to the Motel 6 where most of our guests were staying. We took Geoff, Alex, and a couple more of our friends from Seattle to Fire and Ice at Gardenwalk…. The food was kind of disgusting, but they pour a strong drink so I couldn’t get too mad. 2 fishbowls and 3 pitchers of margaritas later and I wasn’t as stressed, but was kind of a mess. Got sick at the hotel that night and when the alarm went off at 5:45 the next morning, it was definitely tough to rally myself to get up. So, the lesson to take away from this is DO NOT go out drinking with a bunch of guys and your mom until 1am the night before your 10 am wedding. 


Thursday Morning, once I was out of bed, was stressful but exciting. Geoff and I walked over to the GCH together so that I could show him where everything was going to be (his dressing room, ceremony location, reception room) and then he headed back to the hotel to shower and throw up from drinking My makeup artist and sound technician were both friends from high school, so I had them meeting me at the hotel at 7am so I could go over music cues and how to work our laptop that had all the music on it. I then left my makeup artist friend in my dressing room while I ran and set up centerpieces and place cards. My sound tech friend was a total lifesaver here. I set up one centerpiece and showed him how I wanted the balloons to be and which mouse ears were at which table, and he told me to go get ready and took care of everything. SO HELPFUL.

I was already super behind schedule, so while my makeup artist was getting my hair up in rollers, I was ribbon wrapping the bridesmaid bouquets. She put my makeup on faster than the speed of light and then it was out to the Brisa Courtyard to take first look pictures. I had arranged with the photographer and my mom to surprise Geoff (he thought he wouldn’t see me until I walked down the aisle) so I had my mom grab Geoff from his dressing room and get him to the courtyard, then let me know when he was in place. When I came out to surprise him, he told me I looked beautiful, we took a couple more pictures and then I had to rush off to finish getting ready.

I got to meet Michele, my planner, for the first time in person, and she was sick and supposed to go home, but had really wanted to see the culmination of our planning. I was really glad she was there, because I really didn’t like my day of coordinator. She didn’t really seem to know what was going on, put Geoff’s parents flowers on some of his friends who weren’t even in the wedding party, and for most of our reception I was having to rack my brain to remember what we were supposed to be doing next (quote of the day: “I guess you should all say toasts about us now guys.” – Me.) I know a lot of the DFTW coordinators are awesome and super on top of it, but that was definitely not the case for us.

Our ceremony was absolutely beautiful. Rev. Carolyn did an amazing job putting together a ceremony that really captured us as a couple (She even added “I will be your video game partner for life” to our vows. So Cute!) Our recessional was “Moving Right Along” by the Muppets, which we muppet walked to, and she told me afterwards that we had the most fun music selections of any wedding she’s done. Yay!

Next we did some pictures with our families while the rest of our guests headed all the way across the hotel to our reception room. Then we headed over and waited for our entrance to be announced. When we walked in, I was so happy with how everything had come together, from the floral to the cake to the balloons, to all the guests already wearing their mouse ears… It was amazing. Instead of adding a bar or drink package, I decided to add 9 bottles of champagne to the one bottle that is included in the package, and every place setting had a glass full of champagne waiting when we entered, and the servers kept them filled throughout the event. For a morning reception, I highly recommend going about it this way.

We headed to the dance floor for our first dance, which was to “Blue Eyes,” a song from the Garden State soundtrack, which was my all time favorite movie when Geoff and I started dating. Then we took our seats, and I kind of sat there for a few minutes waiting for something to happen. That’s when I realized we were supposed to be doing toasts, so I said “I guess you should all say toasts about us now guys!” My best friend since 4th grade, Geoff’s best friend since 4th grade, my brother, mom, and Geoff’s sister all made really sweet toasts (I cried when my mom said “I remember when we stayed at the Disneyland Hotel for your 5th Birthday, and you saw a wedding going on and said “Mom, I want to get married at Disneyland” and I said “Ok Baby” and now you are.” Awwwww)

After the toasts, the two servers working our reception started serving the first course, which was the Baby Field Greens, Sweet Currant Tomatoes, and orange Supremes with toasted pine nut dressing as well as the artisan bread baskets. A little while later the main course came out, this was Mustard Crusted New York Steak with Merlot Sauce, Butter Braised Carrots, Green Beans, and Portuguese Chorizo Mashed Potatoes. My best friend and her mom are both Gluten Free, and their food was amazing too! They had pretty much the same things we had, but instead of the mashed potatoes, they had roasted whole potatoes and no sauce on the steak. When the Vanilla Bean Crème Brule came out, they were served with macaroons, and the Gluten Free Guests had Gluten Free Cookies on the side! I was so stoked. The servers also offered all of our guests sodas, juices, and other non-alcoholic beverages in addition to the champagne, which wasn’t included in our package or BEO, but was really awesome of them!

After we were done eating, we went out to the Wisteria Room’s patio for more pictures. We got a lot of great group shots and had a really good time. Then the day of coordinator showed up to corral us inside for cake cutting. When we got inside, one of my favorite songs that I included in our reception playlist was on, so I made Geoff dance with me real quick, then we went to cut the cake. It was fun, and Geoff got me really good with dark chocolate mousse on the forehead. The cake was delicious, we had marble cake, dark chocolate mousse, and Kahlua soak. They even brought out plates of fresh fruit for the Gluten Free Guests. We spent some time after the cake chatting with guests and enjoying ourselves, and before we knew it, it was 2pm and time for us to clean up all of my DIY stuff.

When we got there that morning, I had 3 large Rubbermaid tubs in my mom’s station wagon, 1 with reception floral, one with ceremony floral, and 1 with all my other reception stuff (cake toppers, mailbox, guest book, laptop with music playlists on it) So, when the time came to gather all of our stuff, it was really easy! We loaded it all up, and our coordinator grabbed a cart from the kitchen, and we spent about 10 minutes loading up the cart, taking it to the curbside, unloading, and waiting for my mom to pull the car around. I’m so glad I decided to do my own floral, and it was so much easier than I had expected it to be. If you’re on the fence, go for it!

My mom drove us over to the DLH, and I went to the lobby to say hi to Becca, another Disneyland bride I met on Facebook who works at the front desk. When I went to say hi to her, she had my Disneyland bride Sercret Santa Gift for me, as well as an adorable little gold mickey head necklace from her. It was so sweet! We went up to the room and changed into the robes provided by the hotel and then we just kind of sat there for about 45 minutes before our park shoot.

After we relaxed for a little bit, I got changed into my casual white dress for our parkshoot, and Geoff put on a new pair of jeans and his blue dress shirt from the wedding. I packed my backpack with our bride and groom ears and a few signs I had made for us to hold up in pictures and we headed to California Adventure to get a few pictures in front of the Happily Ever After Sign in the Animation Building. In my hurry to pack all of our props, I forgot to put on socks with my new pair of Vans, which led to a LOT of pain and first aid trips during our honeymoon! Another lesson: WEAR SOCKS!

Once we met up with our photographer and got a few Animation building shots, we park hopped over to Disneyland for the rest of our photo session. We got some cute ones heading down Main Street, then we saw my mom in front of the castle, so we went over there and took a few shots. Then we headed over to the tea cups and got in line for the ride while my mom and the photographers got positioned on the Alice side of the tea cups. The ride operator was AWESOME and ran the attraction for 2 full cycles so we could get better pictures. It was great!

By that time, it was almost 4:30 which was the time we had asked our immediate family to meet us in front of the castle for some group pictures. Around 5, we finished up and said goodbye to our photographer, then Geoff and I headed back to the hotel to change out of our photo clothes and get ready for our Fantasmic! Dessert seating that night. On the way back to the hotel we stopped in downtown Disney to pick up a couple mochas and a sandwich to share.

When we went back to Disneyland, we picked up a couple Star Tours Fast Passes and then headed over to Rivers of America to check in for Fantasmic. We had dessert seating for the second show at 10:15, but went to check in at about 7:30. When we got there, we found out we were supposed to pick up our tickets at City Hall before checking in (whoops!), but they would check us in any way to get better seats before we walked across the park to pick up our tickets. We had a great time after we got done with our business at City Hall and went on a few rides together before we needed to be back at Rivers of America. It was so fun running into our friends and family in the park throughout the day!

When 9:30 rolled around, we headed back over to Fantasmic! And gave them our tickets. A few cast members came over to the podium before leading us to our seats, where they had set up 2 chairs away from the rest of the seating area for us, right at the front of the premium area. It was so amazing!! We had an amazing time, and both hadn’t seen Fantasmic in about 10 years, so it was really great to be experiencing it together, in such an awesome way, on our wedding night. After Fantasmic, we decided to head back to the hotel. It had been a very long day!

The rest of our honeymoon at Disneyland was really fun. We had never gone to the park together for more than one day at a time, so it was nice to be able to take our time exploring the park instead of rushing around to try and get to everything like we usually have to do.

I had so much fun getting married at Disneyland, and am so glad that I decided to throw caution to the wind and just go for it. It is something we will remember forever, and will be a great story to tell our children someday when we take them to Disneyland!


And here's our final budget breakdown:

 

[AlwaysCali82]

Thanks so much for putting up all that info on your Escape wedding! My husband and I are hoping to renew our vows with an Escape package in Sept so it's very reassuring to see what a beautiful wedding you could have on a smaller budget. Your pictures are GREAT and I'm so happy to see that your wedding turned out so wonderfully. Congratulations!!!
P.S.,
I'm also happy to see that you did all your own floral since the DLR prices for centerpieces are pretty extreme! Are they pretty lienient about DIY things or are they more strict about making sure that you purchase from their list of wedding extras? We are really, really trying to save $$$

 

[kipperoo]

Hey there! Thanks so much for the kind words. I didn't run into any trouble at all doing my own floral, you just have to make sure you have a plan for setting them up and taking them down at the end, because disney staff will not touch them and if you leave them at the end, they will charge you a 500 dollar cleaning fee. I reccomend using big rubbermaid tubs to and hidingh them under a table during your reception so its really easy to collect/everything at the end! Good luck!

 

[AlwaysCali82]

WHOA! $500?! That's a crazy cleaning fee. Thanks for the tip. I'll be sure to make sure our location is ****-and-span afterwards!

 

[disneynerdette]

Hello and congratulations. I am planning my escape wedding at Disneyland but was thinking the Adventure Gazebo. Did they have a full bar option? Do you feel that your guests would have enjoye a full bar? Did they allow cake upgrade.s? They are strict with sizand said only eighteen guests including bride and groom , they allowedyou twentythree? Did they offer good prices for tickets and rooms for families? Did you do welcome baskets? How much was your photography session? Thank you for your time!

 

[Mindyjoy]

Hello and congratulations. I am planning my escape wedding at Disneyland but was thinking the Adventure Gazebo. Did they have a full bar option? Do you feel that your guests would have enjoye a full bar? Did they allow cake upgrade.s? They are strict with sizand said only eighteen guests including bride and groom , they allowedyou twentythree? Did they offer good prices for tickets and rooms for families? Did you do welcome baskets? How much was your photography session? Thank you for your time!

I can help answer some of these!

You can add a full-bar upgrade to the Escape package for an additional cost. I'm guessing it's around $25-$30 per guest but I'm not totally sure on that. Keep in mind that most Escape weddings are before or around noon so guests probably won't be looking to drink heavily!

When Katelyn signed her contract, the Escape guest count was 24 + the couple. Now it has been lowered to 18 + the couple.

You do get a discount code for hotel rooms and tickets, but don't expect too much. I believe it's around 10% off.

Good luck with your planning!

 

[disneynerdette]

thank you Mindy Joy!

 

[aibarra5]

Thank you for taking the time to post all of the DETAILS. I am hopefully going to book an Escape Wedding in 2 months and it was driving me nuts not knowing any details about the enhancements and the reception.