Wait, We CAN have a Disneyland Wedding for less than 10K?? Sign us up!!

[MouseFiend]

Hello! I'm a long time lurker and occasional poster and this is my first stab at a planning journal of any kind. There are so few Disneyland brides and even fewer DL Escape brides that I thought I'd share my experience planning our Disney wedding.

So I guess I'm supposed to start with introductions first

I am Erin, 32, from Gilbert, AZ. I love, love love with rainbows, sunshine and big puffy clouds everything Disney! Me, my mom, aunt and cousin started going to Disneyland every year back in 2000 and as I got older, my annual trips started becoming more frequent (living 5.5 hours away has it's advantages ). I work full time for a large online college and am finishing up my MBA this fall.

Don is my DF, 33. He is an electrical engineer and, sadly, does not share my love of Disney. In fact, he loves to tell people how his first trip to Disneyland was at the age of 25, when he started dating me, and he has now been at least 15 times (plus one trip to Disney World). He, um, tolerates my obsession and I can usually talk him into going at least one a year.

So, on to our story: We will have been together for 9 years this September....yes, 9 years There were several points in our relationship where we didn't think we were going to make it, but we got our stuff figured out and he proposed this past September on a cruise we took to the Caribbean (cursing is my second vacation fav vacation behind Disney!) Since I'm not getting any younger, and we want to have a family, we decided to have a short engagement and we will be married on May 2nd, 2011 at Disney's Grand Californian Hotel.

Here are a few pics of us from vacations past :[/SIZE][/FONT]

The night he proposed (before said proposal)

Is Sponge Bob allowed on this board?

Since it took me for-ev-er to figure out how to size my pics correctly, it is now bedtime. I'll be back with (hopefully) more exciting stuff tomorrow.

 

[Fay]

Congratulations and Welcome! Enjoy the planning... you havent got long now! YAY!

XXX Looking forward to seeing photos of wedding things!

 

[Torrance]

Hi Erin! Congratulations on your engagement! Looking forward to hearing more about your plans

 

[BecBennett]

You're right, there aren't enough DL weddings on this board. I was wondering if they did escape weddings too, so I'm going to enjoy reading along.

The DL weddings are always so beautiful!

 

[KristiLyn]

Congrats!!!! You don't have much longer!! Can't wait to hear all about it!!

 

[MouseFiend]

Hello and thank you to everyone who has joined me so far!

So we knew from the jump that we wanted to do a destination wedding. We are paying for this whole shindig ourselves and knew we wanted to keep it small. We figured a destination wedding would give us an excuse not to have a full-blown reception which is where most of the cost was coming from. We threw around a few ideas including Vegas and a cruise but I'm not crazy about Vegas and we both felt bad asking our familes to spend the money needed to go on a cruise. Of course, Disney was at the top of my list, but we were 2 guests over for a Disneyland Escape and they wouldn't budge and WDW Escape had an even smaller guest count. We thought about a Swan Dolphin wedding, but ultimately we didn't feel good about asking everyone to make the trek to Florida, during the school year none the less.

So just as I was feeling that all hope was lost and that we were going to end up having to settle on a place that wasn't special to us when my cousin informed us that he had a new job and wouldn't be able to take time off during the week. I was said that they couldn't come to the wedding, but the moons and stars were aligning for our Disneyland Wedding!

I had been communicating with Cynthia Autry a few months back when we started looking for locations, so I sent her an email and we had our location and contract within a couple of weeks We were given a choice of ceremony/reception locations at either the Disneyland Hotel or Grand Californian. Originally, we were going to be married here in the Dreams Gazebo:

With our reception in one of the small ballrooms at the hotel similar to this one:

I loved the ceremony location but was kinda bummed with the reception location. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted an outdoor reception. The Disneyland Hotel didn't offer any outdoor reception locations in our package. Then, I saw a reception set-up that another Disney bride had used at the Brisa Coutyard with the same color scheme as ours (red, black and white) at the GCH and I fell in love So I borrowed her set up and we moved our ceremony to the Parkside Terrace and the reception to the Brisa Courtyard (and if the Disneyland bride who's setup this was is reading this....it's beautiful, I hope you don't mind that I stole it and thank you )

Now, our original plan was to go bare bones with not a lot of upgrades. I'm probably not your typical bride in that I have a hard time justifying spending a big chunk of money on just one day so we are going without a lot of things. I thought DF was going to divorce me when I told him how much the upgrades to the linens and chairs cost (he is definitely more conservative with money than I am...shocking, I know!; while he wasn't crazy about it, he told me it was my day and I could have whatever I wanted. I knew there was a reason I was marrying him

So now, our wedding is 18 days away and I'm starting to re-think our expenditures. We were originally not going to have a bar because we couldn't justify spending even more money. But the lunch reception is 3.5 hours and I'm having a hard time with the fact that there will be no booze! The most important thing to me about this wedding is that our family and friends have a good time...and we have some drinkers! And although I know no one would complain if we didn't have alcohol and they would probably have a good time anyway, I'm still thinking of making some concessions so we can have a hosted bar. What will I do? You'll have to come back to find out...and to see our rings, the dress, and more

 

[DoomBuggy0922]

I am so excited to read more about this! I know nothing about Disneyland Escape Weddings!

 

[princess_ariel_85]

Hello and thank you to everyone who has joined me so far!

So we knew from the jump that we wanted to do a destination wedding. We are paying for this whole shindig ourselves and knew we wanted to keep it small. We figured a destination wedding would give us an excuse not to have a full-blown reception which is where most of the cost was coming from. We threw around a few ideas including Vegas and a cruise but I'm not crazy about Vegas and we both felt bad asking our familes to spend the money needed to go on a cruise. Of course, Disney was at the top of my list, but we were 2 guests over for a Disneyland Escape and they wouldn't budge and WDW Escape had an even smaller guest count. We thought about a Swan Dolphin wedding, but ultimately we didn't feel good about asking everyone to make the trek to Florida, during the school year none the less.

So just as I was feeling that all hope was lost and that we were going to end up having to settle on a place that wasn't special to us when my cousin informed us that he had a new job and wouldn't be able to take time off during the week. I was said that they couldn't come to the wedding, but the moons and stars were aligning for our Disneyland Wedding!

I had been communicating with Cynthia Autry a few months back when we started looking for locations, so I sent her an email and we had our location and contract within a couple of weeks We were given a choice of ceremony/reception locations at either the Disneyland Hotel or Grand Californian. Originally, we were going to be married here in the Dreams Gazebo:

With our reception in one of the small ballrooms at the hotel similar to this one:

I loved the ceremony location but was kinda bummed with the reception location. The more I thought about it, the more I wanted an outdoor reception. The Disneyland Hotel didn't offer any outdoor reception locations in our package. Then, I saw a reception set-up that another Disney bride had used at the Brisa Coutyard with the same color scheme as ours (red, black and white) at the GCH and I fell in love So I borrowed her set up and we moved our ceremony to the Parkside Terrace and the reception to the Brisa Courtyard (and if the Disneyland bride who's setup this was is reading this....it's beautiful, I hope you don't mind that I stole it and thank you )

Now, our original plan was to go bare bones with not a lot of upgrades. I'm probably not your typical bride in that I have a hard time justifying spending a big chunk of money on just one day so we are going without a lot of things. I thought DF was going to divorce me when I told him how much the upgrades to the linens and chairs cost (he is definitely more conservative with money than I am...shocking, I know!; while he wasn't crazy about it, he told me it was my day and I could have whatever I wanted. I knew there was a reason I was marrying him

So now, our wedding is 18 days away and I'm starting to re-think our expenditures. We were originally not going to have a bar because we couldn't justify spending even more money. But the lunch reception is 3.5 hours and I'm having a hard time with the fact that there will be no booze! The most important thing to me about this wedding is that our family and friends have a good time...and we have some drinkers! And although I know no one would complain if we didn't have alcohol and they would probably have a good time anyway, I'm still thinking of making some concessions so we can have a hosted bar. What will I do? You'll have to come back to find out...and to see our rings, the dress, and more

Congratulations on your engagment. Like previous posters I too know nothing about Disneyland weddings, so I'm eager to see how it works out.

You haven't got long left, how exciting! Congratulations once again & I look forward to more updates/photos

 

[MouseFiend]

I thought I'd share by BEO info since this was one of the things I found most helpful from other brides when we were in our scouting stage and trying to figure out if a Disney wedding was even financially do-able for us.

Disneyland doesn't advertise their Escape package like WDW does and it was only because of this board that I found out it even existed. The maximum number of guests allowed is 26 and that includes the bride and groom. Children under the age of 3 don't count towards your guest limit, but I later found out, that also means they do not receive a meal. We have a 2.5 year old and an 18 month old attending, so it's not a big deal for the 18 month old and we will just have to figure something out for the 2.5 year old who can take down 2 Happy Meals easy.

Escape Package $5,000

Includes:

· Floral: Bride’s bouquet and Groom’s boutonniere

· CD Player at the ceremony

· Standard linens and chairs

· House background music for reception

· Champagne toast

· Three course lunch menu

· 2-tier wedding cake

Upgrades Added:

Chivari Chairs (27) $405

Satin Floor Length Linens (8) $320

Table Runner (1) $400



Total Package: $6,110

As I mentioned before, I am conflicted about some of the upgrades we added...specifically the $400 table runner I found out that it is costing that much because they are custom making it to match the shade of red from David's Bridal that we have for my MOH's dress and tux's. As I mentioned before, I'm not that picky to where I need the colors to match exactly....I'd rather spend that money on something my guests can enjoy (aka a hosted bar). So I'm in the process of finding out if we can get a regular table runner in a basic color (red, black or white) that the florist alredy has and doesn't have to have custom made, for less. Then we will put the difference towards the bar. It's not that DF and I are cheap...ok, maybe we are...but we both agreed we have put enough $$ into the wedding and we'd rather save any extra money for our honeymoon (which will hopefully be a cruise to Alaska!)

 

[SleepingBeautyBride]

Yay a DL wedding. Can't wait to read more

 

[Deb loves Disney]

I love your plans and it's nice to see what the differences are in the Disneyland vs Disney World Escape Weddings.

We recently had a WDW Escape wedding and had to pay more for our base price and it didn't even include the food. I love that they include a three course meal and that you can invite a few more people. We had a really hard time limiting it to just 20 including us.

I love your plans so far and the GCH is just gorgeous! Can't wait to read more. Your date is so close!!

 

[PrincessNurseMRA]

Congrats on your Wedding !! I have been looking into this option for our 5 yr vow renewal (we had a small 1st wedding withought family.) I would love to hear more about this from your trip or anyone else that has more details !! I have had such a hard time finding pics or any other details other than disney website and its still too early to reserve for us.