The "I Do's" Before the "I Do's"

As Marzz and I are navigating the wedding planning waters, trying to obtain quotes for venues and vendors to compare.  Thinking about dates, locations, colors, events, and other logistics for ourselves, and our guests.  We are not surprised by how many decisions need to be made, but we are surprised by how quickly things add up.  I don’t want to go so far as to say it is nickel and diming, but it’s close to that experience. 

Let’s start with venues.  We have reached out to several venues in the area, Disney, Bella Collina, and one more.  Most of them require some meetings before they let you tour the grounds, which is a bit annoying, because if we don’t like the venue, I don’t want to talk to you because the conversation is already over.  So why should I basically start planning something only to find out after a couple of meetings that we don’t like the venue?  I think that is really dumb, I also think it’s very shallow.  In my opinion, they do it this way to make sure you can afford it.  Screw you!  If I’m reaching out to you, just humor me, and assume I can afford it since I’m the one coming to you.  Now I know, people will want to visit places that are completely out of their budget just to walk around there.  But I would assume those folks are a low percentage.  At the very least, combine the visit with the consult, so you could find out if the people were serious during the first 30 minutes. 

Surprisingly, Disney has been the most accommodating.  Not only do they let you visit their Disney Fairytale Wedding’s Pavilion and shop, on select dates, for free, they have staff onsite to help answer questions.  You can technically visit most of the other locations for ceremonies and receptions and what they call, “celebrations” such as a fireworks dessert party, you may just need to purchase a ticket to enter one of the parks.  Some locations are at the various hotels and resorts, so for those, you could technically visit for free as well. 

Continuing with Disney, they made it easy to setup our first video chat on Zoom with a consultant to help answer our questions and even guide us a bit, as some of the items, we truly didn’t know what we wanted, and through their questioning of us, we were able to narrow it down. 

We’ve actually had a couple of video chats with a Disney Fairytale Wedding’s cast member now, and we are definitely leaning towards a Disney wedding.  Now to be fair, we sort of knew we wanted a Disney wedding before we began searching, but we weren’t sure if that was going to be a real thing.  After a few sessions in, we are thinking that we can do this. 

There are many variables to choose from, and each one can drastically alter the cost of the wedding.  The biggest impact on cost is the guest count.  The funny thing about our current estimated guest count is that Marzz thinks we are too big, and I think we’re right on for what we want, but I also think that we’re low compared to the average American wedding.  Based on the numbers, our current guest count is between 80-100.  Based on what I’ve researched and also using real life examples of people I know who have had weddings, the average seems to be 150-200 guests, so in that sense, we are low.  My reason for wanting more than just close family is that I intend to only do this once in my life and I’ve actually always wanted a fairly large wedding. 

Now how the guest count affects the cost for a Disney wedding. 

First, we must mention that Disney has a policy that all food and beverage must be their people, no outside vendors for those items.  Alcohol is allowed, but again, through Disney.  No discounts are applied to alcohol, although Marzz does get some discounts for food for being a cast member. 

Because food and beverage must come from Disney, they control the cost.  They offer brunch, lunch, and dinner, and they also offer “celebrations”, which can be a dessert buffet, or cocktail hour.  Let’s apply some numbers so you have an idea of what I’m talking about.  For dinner, there is a cost of $240.00 per person!  Wow.  That is quite the cost for dinner.  There are children’s prices in some cases, but it’s not much different, you will still be paying quite a lot.  So, as I’m sure you’re doing the math in your head, for one hundred guests for dinner is $24,000.00!  That’s a used car or a home renovation, and that’s only the meal.  Then you add in alcohol, the venue cost, flowers, the bride’s dress and bridesmaid’s dresses, the tuxedos, a DJ, table decorations, a photographer, or photographers.  Are there transportation costs?  Hotel rooms?  Then what about a bachelor and bachelorette party?  Then there’s save the date cards, invitations, pre and/or post photo sessions.  Hair and make-up costs.    

Once you start adding all of these things up, you’re easily talking tens of thousands of dollars and possibly a stroke.  It is certainly a lot to take in, digest, and then do something with. 

As it stands, the last day of January, approximately 396 days until we hope to get married, we have a lot of decisions left to make.  One thing is clear, it won’t be cheap.