Early December wedding - advice

[Jackie-ella093015]

Looking for some thoughts and advice!

We thought that the price increases would price us out of the "mini-wishes" DFTW we were "planning", but after crunching the new numbers in Passporter, it looks like it a Wishes wedding is still in the cards for us!

What has changed: We are going from "planning" a late-January 2019 wedding to an early December 2019 wedding, we think and are looking to request SBP instead of the WP. Why? To save more $$$ prior to the big day and to cut ceremony fee costs.

Our thoughts: We think January/February of 2019 is just a bit early ($$$ wise), and all of my research is pointing to staying away from March-October (flight/resort prices, hurricane season, Halloween decor, general crowdedness of WDW and the resorts all are factors). Our families are coming from Oregon, Illinois, and North Carolina and DF and I are coming from Arizona. We are both more familiar with Disneyland, and neither of us have visited WDW in December.

We are currently leaning toward an early December date, but are open to early November...or possibly late-January of 2020. We have read about some December blackout dates affecting DP availability in Epcot and MK photo shoot availability.... (both are HUGE reasons why we are "planning" a DFTW).

Looking for thoughts and opinions regarding some challenges to having an early December wedding, pros and cons we may not be considering to November 2019 or January 2020, any thoughts about March-October, and any other thoughts/ideas you have to offer.

We know we have tons of time to decide...but since we were almost ready to make our first call to Disney when the new pricing was announced...we are just still in "planning" mode. Any thoughts you have will be helpful for us! Thank you!

 

[LadyD]

We had a DL wedding December 14, 2014. While a lot won't translate between the coasts, one thing to take into consideration is how the holiday season will impact whether your guests come or not. About half to 75% of our guest list we sent invitations to was not local. Due to being around the holidays, very few out of town people could attend. We got a lot of "sorry we're going to see family for Christmas and can't take the time off" kind of thing. Airfare is also somewhat increased that time of year as well (though not as bad as actually near the holidays).

 

[Jackie-ella093015]

We had a DL wedding December 14, 2014. While a lot won't translate between the coasts, one thing to take into consideration is how the holiday season will impact whether your guests come or not. About half to 75% of our guest list we sent invitations to was not local. Due to being around the holidays, very few out of town people could attend. We got a lot of "sorry we're going to see family for Christmas and can't take the time off" kind of thing. Airfare is also somewhat increased that time of year as well (though not as bad as actually near the holidays).

Thanks @LadyD ...that's helpful. We didn't think of some of our guests not being able to come due to traveling for Christmas!

 

[Tara1979]

Hello, Congrats! I got married December 7, 2011 at WDW and it was better than perfect. The weather was fantastic in Florida at that time. We never had crowd issues either because it was before the busiest holiday time. A lot around WDW was decorated for the holidays so as long as you don't mind that being in potential pictures then it's fine. I would think January/February would not be very good times, especially if family is coming from Oregon and Illinois you said. I am from Maryland and Jan/Feb never make travel plans because of potential for too much snow to ruin plans to fly out. But I do agree with what the previous person said, some might not come due to only being able to take time off at Chrsitmas. We got married in December but have a small family so people taking off from work was not a concern. Whatever time you decide, Disney was the way to go for a wedding. They did everything for me so I never felt stressed at all. The wedding cake was delicious, the wedding planner assigned to us was great, the location was wonderful, the violinist, the flowers, etc. I never had to arrange anything except the pastor, my Disney wedding planner did the rest. Everything was far better than I could have ever imagined and getting free annual passes for a year was a nice perk too. I guess they still do that. A Disney wedding is wonderful so best of luck with whatever and whenever you decide at Disney.