Discussing a wedding at WDW

[hncameron]

We sre thinking about having our Wedding at WDW in florida. We would have approx 60 guests, and are wondering if anyone has thoughts on the venue and possibly the costs of this. We have budgeted $30K for the wedding. Dress and rings are already taken care of. We also have a friend who would like to wed us… can we do that?
Please let us know about your ideas as this is really exciting and overwhelming!

 

[gummybear091]

Hey! Looks like you are looking into exactly what I'm doing as far as guest size and budget. I picked locations that wouldn't need much decorating- the wedding pavilion and the living seas. I also booked outside photography and plan to stick right at the enhancement minimum of 8000. A lot of the bells and whistles we won't be able to get but I'm okay with that! I'm also doing a Sunday evening wedding instead of a Saturday evening, as Saturday requires a 10000 enhancement min. If you do a weekday your enhancement min is 5000.

Food is 125 per person for brunch, 150 for lunch, and 175 for dinner.

So just for an example. A Friday or Sunday evening wedding not at the wedding pavilion would run:

Ceremony fee: 3500
Enhancement min: 8000
Food 175 x 60: 10500
Total: 22000
There would also be taxes and service fees on top of that so round it up to 25000 just in case. And then you could add in your photography, dessert party, and other items with the extra 5000.

 

[elphie101]

I'm probably not the best person to chime in on this, as my wedding fell under a now-outdated price structure, but our wedding was around 70 people for just about 30K (this includes what we paid to Disney in addition to outside vendors like photo & video). Probably the biggest factor in keeping things affordable for a group of that size was that we had a brunch wedding - our ceremony was at 9:00am with a reception till 3:00pm.

Do you have any particular venues in mind? Time of day? If you're wondering if it's possible I would say maaaaaaaybe, depending on what you're looking for. I would say something like a Saturday evening played dinner would be off the table with your budget.

 

[edeneye]

Yep, you can have a friend wed you - we were going to but he was recording and touring at the time so we changed quite late. I'd say the best thing you could do (besides being on here of course) is listen to the Disney Wedding Podcast. You'll learn a ton about what is possible and what corners you can cut budget-wise - we crammed EVERYTHING we could've wanted into a wedding with 21 guests for $18k and I never could've done it without the tips I learned listening to hours of podcasts (thanks Carrie if you're out there).

 

[lurkyloo]

I'm so glad you found the show helpful!