361

As I write this, we are 361 days away from our wedding day.  What was just a thought, a dream, and idea, is quickly becoming a reality.  Soon, it will be hurry up and wait.  Then just hurry up. 

As I mentioned before, we’ve been working with the Disney Fairytale Weddings team to plan our wedding.  Working with Diane Mahoney-Brown for the initial discussions has been great.  She’s been very informative, listens to what our wants and needs are, and has been very patient with us as we seemingly ask a million questions, and sometimes repeat questions. 

The only part of the process that I don’t like, and it’s just the way it’s designed, is the fact that we will end up going into a contract before finalizing all of the details.  I say details, but things like what food items will be served, decorations for the ceremony and reception, these are fairly large items that need to be resolved prior to the wedding and we’ll be on the hook for a minimum amount to pay regardless; so, entering this contract without knowing those details seems crazy to me.

I did mention this Diane, and acknowledged that I know it’s not her rule, just a weird feeling to do it this way.  She was kind but didn’t dwell on it, and we moved on. 

At this point, we’ve laid a lot of the framework.  The next steps will be to iron out those details I was mentioning.  To do this, we’ll be passed to another coordinator.  Before that point, we need to enter the letter of agreement, or contract.  All that remains for us to do before they send us the contract agreement to sign is our room block. 

The room block will be a set number of nights that we think out guests will book over three hotels.  There are perks to this, starting with a small discount on the rooms for our guests.  The next is for us, the first 10 nights booked gives us one free night’s stay at a standard room at any hotel.  The next 25 nights gives us another night free, and so on with an additional 25 nights.  The way the nights are counted, if we have three families for example, and the first two families, book for 3 nights each and the last family books for 4 nights, even if each family is at a different hotel, that would be ten nights.  We will be designating three different hotels for people to choose from, however, if someone really wanted to stay at a particular hotel, we could still add their reservation to our list, and they would count it towards our room block. 

We are scheduled to speak with the room block specialist this Fri, 3/8/24 at 9:30am.  I anticipate the phone call to be rather short compared to our recent calls with the wedding planner.  With the room blocks, you are on the hook for a certain percentage, so you don’t want to reserve too many, but want to walk that line of requesting enough for the guests in case the general public books out the rest.  I think we’re going to go with 20, or something close to that.  We did come up with about 60 in one scenario, but I’m not sure if that would happen or not.  I already know Matt plans to rent a house while they’re here, so they’re not going to help reach out nightly goal.  If others do the same or back out altogether, then we’ll need to hope the remaining reaches our goal, otherwise we’ll have to pay out of pocket.

Once we complete the room block, they will send us a link for a DocuSign the letter of agreement.  Then we pay our first bill, the non-refundable deposit of $4,000.00.  At that point, we’re in, and we better see this thing through to the end. 

I just hope that as we iron out those details I mentioned that we can keep the costs down but still get what we want.  I don’t feel we’re asking for anything outlandish or over the top, so hopefully they agree.  We know what our food and beverage minim is, so we’ll just work backwards.  Meaning, let’s pretend our minimum is $15K.  You take that number and subtract the bar cost.  They have options, so we’ll just say that cost for the bar is $5K.  So now you have $10K for the champaign toast, and the food. You can request that they try and find a menu to fit your budget.  This is not always possible, but it’s a good way to start the conversation and try to remain on track.

We’ll do the same for the decorations and flowers and for the dessert party.  By doing it this way, we do hope we can stay close to our budget.  I have no doubt that we’ll go over a little, but I’m really hoping it’s just a little.

Then after we get these things in order, I will still need to figure out the cost of my suit, her hair and makeup, and engagement photos we want to do, and the bachelor and bachelorette parties. I’m sure there’s some other costs in there that I’m just not remembering right now. My point is that the wedding costs are just one part of it, although the largest part, but still, there’s more to this thing.