My weddings plans are ruined!

[Guest]

Some of you may know I had been waiting to hear about extending my reception at Paradise Cove. Well I had an email back from my wedding planner to say it's an extra $595 PER HOUR

I wanted the ceremony at 3pm, then photos and champagne hour which would take us to around 5pm and then the reception until 11pm.
Helen said this would be classed as two block bookings which would seem very strange to Americans. So if we had the four hours by the time our photos and champagne were done we'd have just two hours for food and drinks. I just can't beleive it is the norm over there to have everything all over and done with within four hours All that work and planning for not much of a day/night.

My wedding proposal is $6995, adding on my extension it would be nearly $9400 that's before we even think of adding a band (which we would have liked) or buying dresses/suits or all the other little extra involved.
I feel so disheartened now I'm really upset because I totally had my heart set on Paradise Cove. I just know DH2B will say we can't do it, it just doesn't mean as much to him as it does to me, he'd probably rather get the garden done. In my mind though it's the biggest day of our life, we're only going to get one shot at it and I want the day and memories to be perfect.

[Summer-Caitlin]

Oh I feel so disheartened for you. I know what you mean about wanting your day to be perfect.

However that is a huge increase in cost, would you be okay with spending that extra money on it? I would think the best thing to do is to sit down with your plan and work out the things that are most important to you, if the band and of course buying dresses and suits are more important, then you need to think very carefully. It is very easy to let costs spiral out of control but at the end of the day you will still have a beautiful wedding and your memories will be just as great. What is your timeline for everything so far?

During my planning there were loads of things I really wanted to do but couldn't justify the cost. Looking back I don't have any regrets, I was overjoyed with the way our wedding turned out and I am sure you will be too.

[Guest]

Thanks Summer

I think to have the day I want I would be ok with spending extra but I know Anthony wouldn't. As I said it's just not that important to him, he'd be happy to just have it somewhere else.
I originally wanted Disney but it was too expensive for what you get so I settled on Paradise Cove and it's happened again.
The dresses and suits are non negotiable (we have to have them) and to be honest so is the reception. I think it's just as important as the wedding, it's the day/night as a whole. We could do without the band, although it would be nice it is an expense we could do without.
I'm waiting for a quote from Cypress Grove now, apparantly they don't charge so much for an extension. My heart just isn't there though
In terms of time, we have two years, so quite a bit of saving time.

In the mean time I am going to enter the £25,000 competition on GMTV

[BevS97]

Americans don't have the day reception/evening reception concept that we have over here, they normally just have one reception.

[Summer-Caitlin]

The fact that you have two years to save would probably be the bargaining tool you need. To be honest if it were me and the reception was really important then I guess I would find a way to make it work. If you break down the cost over the two years it isn't a huge difference if it means it will make your day perfect.

However the fact that you are two years away makes me think that there will be a lot more little bits that aren't accounted for as the day grows near. I have a planning journal on the DIS and I had a huge amount of unforseen costs (one right up to the week before the wedding) I ended up having to buy another wedding dress and this was obviously not accounted for. There is a fine line between what is sensible and what your heart wants. If you really, really, want it then go for it. To me if it means looking at other locations that you just can't make work and your heart isn't in it, then it is worth the extra expense. I actualyl thought our disney wedding was cheap in comparison to other venues I looked at. When I looked at what I got for the day I was really impressed with the value for money. I originally wanted The Celebration Hotel in Celebration but I fell in love with a Disney wedding, I am so glad I went with what my heart wanted. Do what you feel is right.

[Leanne1977]

Oh hun, I'm so sorry you are feeling down about this. Thats a big increase in cost.
There must be other options. Have you looked into a wedding at Celebration?
Carrie might have some ideas for you. There must be a way for you to have the reception you want at a reasonable cost.

[BevS97]

Maybe you need to stop and have a complete rethink of your day. I read a trip report the other day, where they had the wedding in Morroco, reception in the Attic, and an Illuminations Party (I think that's right) and she was exactly on the $10,000 minimum disney require.

It must be possible to do something lovely for $7k offsite if you can do all of that for the $10k through Disney.

Have you thought about somewhere like the Swan/Dolphin or the Hotel Plaza hotels, which are practically onsite but much cheaper.

[Kim]

Originally Posted by BevS97

Maybe you need to stop and have a complete rethink of your day. I read a trip report the other day, where they had the wedding in Morroco, reception in the Attic, and an Illuminations Party (I think that's right) and she was exactly on the $10,000 minimum disney require.

It must be possible to do something lovely for $7k offsite if you can do all of that for the $10k through Disney.

Have you thought about somewhere like the Swan/Dolphin or the Hotel Plaza hotels, which are practically onsite but much cheaper.

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I agree with Bev... there must be another way. The wedding Bev's talking about was... Lurky Lou's.. she had a wonderful wedding and kept it on budget.

As I said to you the other day Disney allowed us to have 2 seperate receptions for Amy's wishes wedding.

I really feel for as I know you had your heart set on Paradise Cove.

Kim

[kaboomba]

could you not do the wedding at your chosen place and then have your dinner at say disney in one of the sepeate rooms that you can hire, i've heard quite alot about these recently. Although I dont know how much it would be myelf if you do a quick search im sure you'd find it. hoep you get something that really love!

[NatsyNoo]

Have you considered doing a separate Disney ADR rather than having the private? The reason I didn't want a private reception, aside from the cost, is that there won't be enough of us to make an atmosphere, especially with divorced parents (eek!) so the ADR in a restaurant might relax that a bit and I have no doubt that Disney will let me put some placecards and confetti on the table to make it look a bit weddingy!