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21 Responses
  • Chris Gladman
    February 21, 2023

    My daughter and prospective son in law got engaged at Typhoon Lagoon last July. They would like to get married at the Tree of Life and we understand we cannot begin a conversation with your planners until 15 months before the proposed date – October 2024.

    In the meantime, it occurred to me that this may be an interesting case for you Fairytale Weddings programme and I wonder how we might contact the producers; can you assist?

    • Carrie
      February 27, 2023

      Hi Chris! Unfortunately, I do not work for Disney or for the team that produces the Fairy Tale Weddings show on Disney+. They don’t seem to be producing new episodes at this time, but maybe if you keep an eye on Disney’s official social media they’ll announce it if they do.

  • Vanessa
    August 17, 2021

    Hello!

    I am interested in having a Disney wedding but I also want it to be very customized to ourselves. Do you have to get all the decor from Disney or can you bring your own? For example if we wanted each table to represent a different movie can I bring what we have collected?

    • Carrie
      August 17, 2021

      Hi Vanessa! It all depends on where you’re having your reception. Disney only allows outside vendors and DIYs for receptions in ballroom locations at the resort convention centers. I have a detailed list on page 123 of the Fairytlae Weddings Guide that lists exactly which types of décor you can DIY, and at which locations.

  • Tabitha Garcia
    May 6, 2021

    Hi Carrie,

    I was working the midnight shift and I found our page. It is so full of amazing information. We are hoping to plan a 25 person event for our daughters Quinces (15s), which is equivalent to a Sweet 16. We just want to get the family together at Isabelles favorite place in the whole world. We’ve booked at Grand Floridian for a few days as well. I need some guidance on the event venue and photography inside of Magic Kingdom.

    • Carrie
      May 6, 2021

      Hi Tabitha! So the only event venues inside Magic Kingdom for a reception are Captain Jack’s Dining Room, Storybook Circus and Tomorrowland Terrace. You can see photos of them on this page by clicking the Disney Theme Parks Venues tab. All catered events inside Magic Kingdom have a minimum expenditure of $10,000 and require approval from the park team. Right now it is very hard to get approval for events taking place during the 50th anniversary celebration. But there are tons of venues at the resorts and even the other parks that will be much easier to get. You would need to work with Disney Meetings & Events, which has a $5,000 event minimum. I have a ton of info on this page.

      As to photography inside Magic Kingdom, you will be required to book Disney Fine Art Photography, which starts at $599 for one photographer for one hour. If you do your event anyplace else, you will be able to bring in your own photographer, which I highly recommend as it is the only way to choose exactly the person you want based on their style. Plus, the local wedding and event photographers are usually cheaper than Disney’s. Hope this helps!

  • Tiffanie
    March 30, 2021

    Hi Carrie! I’m planning my Disney wedding! I noticed you had an early ceremony and reception and then had a dessert party. I was wondering what you did between reception and dessert party? Did you wear your dress to the dessert party? Did all of your guests make it to the dessert party after such a long break between events?

    • Carrie
      March 30, 2021

      Hi Tiffanie! Yes! If you click here you can see photos—we got back into our formalwear for the dessert party so that we could get fireworks photos all dressed up! I also talk in that post about what we did in between the reception and the dessert party (Spoiler Alert: NAP!!!). Everyone made it to the dessert party except one person. I know that couples are sort of thrown by the concept of a big break between the reception and dessert party when they first start investigating Disney weddings, but it happens ALL THE TIME at Disney and is totally not a big deal. In fact, I think it’s a nice treat for your guests because it gives them time in the day to do what THEY want. Some of our guests went to the parks, some swam or napped, some went shopping, and some even explored Orlando. The longer the break, the more time guests have to actually do something, especially if they are staying off-site. Also, I think it makes the dessert party seem more special when it’s not just another event directly following the reception. And it gave us something to look forward to instead of being bummed that our whole wedding was over at 2pm!

  • Kevin
    July 15, 2020

    Is there a way to just have an inexpensive ceremony for two this coming September, 2020. We’re older and don’t want to invite a large group given the situation with the Pandemic. We would plan to have a party a year later (provided we’re out of this Pandemic mess by then). Any suggestions? Thank you!

    • Carrie
      July 15, 2020

      Hi Kevin! Disney places no minimum guest count on ceremonies, so you could do one for just the two of you, but they start at $5,000. There are non-Disney venues at Disney Springs that do ceremonies for less. Paddlefish starts at $500 for just a ceremony if you book with them directly. The Characters in Flight balloon is another inexpensive option, if it’s operating. Local company Just Marry offers wedding packages at a variety of Disney Springs locations. These usually start around the same price as Disney, but they may be able to customize something for you at a lower price point if you remove add-ons like bouquets and photography. Hope this helps!

  • Drew
    April 28, 2019

    Thanks for all the tips. Still quite undecided here on which package to go for. Want a fairly relaxed affair with a very informal meal afterwards in a restaurant in the parks and was leaning towards the escape package which would be perfect however have at least 30 guests. It’s either whittle the guest list down even further or start looking at the wishes package.

  • Lowri Morgan
    November 25, 2017

    Your posts have been super helpful with planning my Disney wedding! Thanks so much. I’m hoping to get married October 2019 at Disney World. My question is: In terms of the wedding packages could you select the wishes package but only have 7 guests? I like all the extras that the wishes has, otherwise I’d have gone with the memories package. As were only having 7 guests were not that fussed about hiring a reception exclusively, we don’t mind being kinda mixed in with other guests at a restaurant. Do you know if this is an option? We’d quite like the be our guests restaurant.

    Thanks 🙂

    • Carrie
      November 27, 2017

      You can do Wishes with fewer than 20 as long as you pay for 20, but they don’t advertise that fact and if you mention your guest count to the first person who answers DFTW’s phone line, they will tell you it can’t be done. However, Wishes does require you to have a private catered reception, and the minimum expenditure is about $12,000 before tax and service charge. So if you’re OK with eating at a restaurant with other guests, it’s MUCH cheaper to do an Escape and then make a regular reservation at Be Our Guest (note that you may not be allowed into the park in your wedding attire; it depends on the whims of the cast members at the gate).

    • Carrie
      November 27, 2017

      This episode of the Disney Wedding Podcast talks about the basics of doing a Wishes event. This one covers Escape. And this one covers Memories.

  • Lauren
    March 13, 2016

    thanks for the heads up! we won’t made that treck then! my only other question , when you did you vows their, do you remember if you have a choice of venders to chose from that disney works with or just who they provide ? like the photography , music ect

    thanks so much for you info!!!

    • Carrie
      March 14, 2016

      Yes, for most things they give you a choice of vendors. For example, I couldn’t get an affordable quote from either of their 2 recommended floral endors, so they dug up a third option for me. At the time, they only had one vendor choice for photography and officiant, but that may have changed.

  • Lauren
    March 13, 2016

    HI!

    Love all your posts about your wedding planning ect. We are planning on getting married in Hawaii next year with friends and family so your posts really helped. I was wondering if you know if we can go to Franck’s studio in WDW any time or is an appointments only? we plan on booking some time in september this year, we have to wait till a year out to book anything for the wedding , im going to be in wdw this october so im just wondering if you know if a planning session for alunai can happen there in Franck’s or if it will just happen over the phone. if you happen to know anything , website doesn’t really tell you anything.
    thanks!

    • Carrie
      March 13, 2016

      Hi Lauren! Franck’s is usually open between about 9am and 5pm on weekdays, but I gotta warn you, they will have very little info about Aulani weddings there, and no bouquets, cakes or other options for Aulani. The Aulani planners are all on-site at Aulani, so you’d need to have your planning session with them over the phone. It’s a drag, I know!

  • Michelle Malatia
    January 8, 2015

    I love reading your posts especially about your wedding and I myself am trying to pull off a Disney World Wedding in Dec/Jan of 2015/16. My question is: at your reception you used a playlist on an I Pod, correct? How did you manage the MC-ing duties, I would have a very small bridal party and how do people know when its time to cut the cake, time to eat, etc? I dont really want to pay the huge costs associated with a Disney DJ but am worried. We are hoping to pull this off for 10-12k. Any pointers? Thanks!!

    • Carrie
      January 8, 2015

      Hi Michelle! We wanted to have more of a casual brunch and didn’t care about announcements. We all traveled to the reception venue together (cuz I didn’t want to make my guests wait around for us to take photos – the boringest part of any wedding!) and just arrived together with no announcements. We had Patrick’s cousin cue the iPod based on playlists I’d made and a timed cheat sheet, so that guided the activities. The catering staff let us know when the buffet was open. The only slight hitch was our planner had disappeared by the time the cake cutting rolled around, so I just let the catering staff know that’s what we wanted to do.

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