Where to start?

[MrsWoody]

Hi everyone,

I found this forum recently whilst planning for my Disney holiday. Anyway, I got engaged on last Christmas morning and have not really given my wedding a second thought as I didn't think we would be able to afford it in the near future (We have just bought our first house, then OH was laid off).

Then I took a quick nosey in this forum and looked at a few prices of packages and thought possibly I could have an affordable wedding sooner than I thought (still a couple of years off, but sooner).

What I thought I would ask was how much approximately would you say you weddings have cost or are going to cost if upcomming. I mean everything all in, like accommodation, flights, tickets, package etc. I know this will vary greatly due to personal choices, but just to give me a general idea so I can start saving (or begging for money).

Also where is the best place to start?

Thanks for any replies in advance,

Emma x

[NatsyNoo]

Gosh, what a question! I'll get the ball rolling

Our plans:

3 weeks, OKW/SSR, free DDP, upgrade to deluxe, 2 adults, September time (2012), 3 week Disney tickets & 2 week Flextickets - £4700 (ish)

Escape package - £3100 (current Virgin price)

Spending money - £2000

Photography - Randy Chapman - $500 (basic package, no photos)
MK & Epcot bridal shoot - $1300

Dress - £500
Suit/Groom - £150
Rings - £500

The rest of anything else is really little bit but I have overall budgeted £12500

My mum and dad are covering the ceremony cost (I hope!)

The rest we will be saving from the beginning of next year once our credit cards are paid off, not really planning on spending on credit cards - should be able to do it!
I am very spoilt at Xmas/birthdays so using the money I get for those to pay for the dress etc
The holiday is largely what we will be saving for
The other bits I'm sure will be fine, we'll find the money somehow!

Still cheaper than a UK wedding and honeymoon!

I hope that helps a little bit, would be interested to hear other people's plans in this respect!

[Guest]

We're working on a budget of about £8600 for the whole wedding in Florida which includes -

£3835 - 1 week POR & 1 week Wyndham Orlando on I-Drive, flights with virgin, park tickets, 1 night stay in Gatwick and 15 nights parking.
£30 - Insurance (we only have to pay the extra on our current annual insurance for the wedding).
£700 - Wedding dress
£100 - Veil, shoes etc
£130 - Suit & shoes
£40 - Ties for the men
£100 - Hair & make-up
£1700 spending money
£300 - rings
£100 - Licence
£600 -(approx) Cypress grove wedding package with Virgin.
£200 - Wedding breakfast
£800 - Wedding extra's (car etc)

We'll have a party when we come back with a band etc and my folks are paying for this (thank god!) which is around the £2500 mark.

We were adamant on getting married here at first until we priced everything up and the cost was astonishing! Getting married in Florida is so much cheaper for us and much less hassle!

Good luck with your planning!

[MrsWoody]

Thanks for you replies, they are really useful. Keep them comming!

I had a figure in my head of around £10,000 for everything, but cheaper if possible. I didn't know if that was a realistic amount but it seems as though it can be.

My OH's brother is thinking of buying a place over there next year or so, so we will hopefully be able to stay there for the majority of the holiday to cut down on costs. Would like to spend the week of our wedding in a disney resort though.

Will take me forever to save up on just the one wage, but you never know there is always the lottery, that or i'll be a very very old bride lol.

[NatsyNoo]

It's absolutely realistic
All you'd need to do is take out our bridal shoot and dining upgrade and you'd basically be there!
And we are going 3 weeks onsite, you may not want to do that
And you may not want a Disney wedding but another Florida wedding, e.g. Fultons, Cypress Grove
so that would save even more pennies!

Ours isn't a cert yet but it's all about how money stuff goes! The more we save, the more we have to spend! Just praying for impending payrises and bonuses at work!

Keep us updated with your plans

What are your thoughts so far?

[pennycrayon]

Hiya - the breakdown of mine scares the heck out of me so I will just breakdown the wedding part

Flights - £800 x2 (booked Virgin with miles and money)

Hotels and 1 week disney western caribbean cruise £2750 roughly

Escape package $4750 (2010 prices), in addition I am having a private reception and dessert party through disney and have to spend a minimum of $7500 in order to do this (not a problem as there is 15 of us, we would spend that anyway!)

So £4750 for escape

$1000 roughly for lunchtime private reception at the Flying Fish Cafe

$800 for private dessert party in Morocco to watch illuminations

and the remaining $1000 were planning on spending on extra floral, upgraded chairs for ceremony and a few other surprises depending on the budget!

We have also booked Randy Chapman for 3 hours of photography on the dvd only package I think this was $550

We have also booked Rev Knox to perform the ceremony and Beaute Special to do hair and make up.

Phew!

[NatsyNoo]

I know, the cost is scaring me! Eek!
Still cheaper than here and amazing too!

[MrsWoody]

I think I really want a disney wedding, would also love the MK bridal shoot. Thats about as far as I have got!

Another question I wanted to ask was do you have to stay at disney for you whole holiday to get ddp? Is there anywhere you can book this without flights etc. Am I also right in thinking you get annual passes with escape?

[Sarah84]

Originally Posted by absolutechic

I think I really want a disney wedding, would also love the MK bridal shoot. Thats about as far as I have got!

Another question I wanted to ask was do you have to stay at disney for you whole holiday to get ddp? Is there anywhere you can book this without flights etc. Am I also right in thinking you get annual passes with escape?

See more...

Yes you'll get AP's with the Escape package, which could mean you could book your Disney hotel direct with Disney USA and use them to get AP holder discount on the rooms. You will need to stay at Disney for 4 nights with the Escape package

[Sarah84]

OK, I hate putting this down as it scares me how much we need to save but I know it could be worse, alot worse if we were to having a wedding over here.

I would deffiently say it can be done less than £10,000 but it really depends what you want from the day, what type of hotels you're prepaired to stay in, time of year etc

Here's my rough budget/estimate for a Disney Escape wedding.

$4750 - Escape package at Seabreeze point (although im sure by 2012 this will have obviously gone up, fingerscrossed it won't be more than $5500)

$1300 - MK & Epcot Bridal shoot, im really hoping we can save enough to fit this in

about $1500 for reception meal at Yachtsman Steakhouse & Wishes cruise on Grand 1 Yacht

$500 ish for Randy Chapman (Non Disney photographer)

$140 ish - Hair & Make up

£1100-1200 for flights & weeks villa hire

$1500 for 4 nights at Contemporary, hoping I can get it around that amount otherwise might have to re-think or cut something elsewhere

$2000 Honeymoon (week in Mexico)

Obviously on top of all that is my dress, rings, suit, bridesmaid dresses, shoes etc etc which Im hoping will not be much more than £2000 but as my dress as taken up a HUGE chunck of that, praticually half im not sure if that's being realistic

I am really, really hoping the dollar rate improves in 2011 into 2012 as the better it is the cheaper everything will be