Once upon a time, in a land not so far from here, I was the princess in my own fairytale (wedding). From start to finish, this event was one for the books. There’s a lot to unravel so let’s start from the beginning.
Back in 2020, I started looking into having a Disney wedding. Brock and I were not engaged but were in talks of getting married and I knew that I wanted to have a Disney Fairytale Wedding. I’m not sure exactly when, but I can distinctly remember Disney coming out with an advertisement regarding a wedding in Pandora. This is the moment where my interest peaked, and I was originally dead set on getting married in Animal Kingdom as it is Brock and I’s favorite park. A few months went by and my research pertaining to Disney Fairytale Weddings died down. It wasn’t until July of 2021 that Brock and I actually sat down, filled out the application for Disney fairytale weddings, and started getting serious about the entire process. The application that I filled out consisted of a few questions such as bride’s name, groom’s name, contact information, what type of event we were planning, the desired date or time frame, estimated guest count, destination, celebration, plan, rehearsal dinner, farewell breakfast, budget, etc. Upon entering the information, I received an email from a Disney weddings assistant, stating what our next steps were. She gave us a few links that had great information to help us decide where we wanted to host our event, and reception, and what services we want to include as well as menus, and wedding planning timelines. A few days later we were sent another email introducing us to our wedding consultant and point of contact from this point on, Joe. We were then told that we would have to wait until the 12-month mark prior to the desired date of our event to hold our venue. This email was received in August so that meant that we were at a standstill until October 2021.
The second week of August, we reached out to Joe to let him know that we had a few dates and venues that we were considering. By this time, our original plan of getting married in Pandora had changed. Every time Brock and I talked about our event; I couldn’t see it taking place in Pandora. I wasn’t sure what theme I was going for, or what exactly I wanted, but I knew it didn’t align with the DAK/Pandora vibe. After some time and consideration, we narrowed down our top three venue choices. We decided on (in order from top-last resort choice) Tower of Terror, Tree of Life, and Disney’s Wedding Pavilion. Our first choice for the date was October 12th but we were told to have two potential backups, so we also included October 11th and the 19th. Prices significantly differ from weekend to midweek events. To allow us some flexibility with other “magical enhancements,” we opted for a midweek event. Brock, Joe, and I mutually agreed that we needed to set up a zoom meeting to talk a little bit more about details in the early stages of planning our wedding, so we set up a meeting two weeks later and mid-August was the first time that we “met” a member of our DFW team. During our zoom meeting Joe, Brock, and I talked about all the fun things that come with wedding planning. From what our ideas were regarding catering, to character involvement, theming, etc. No details were finalized as we were still in the early stages and after that meeting, we had another “halt” in our planning. Early in October of 2021, I reached back out to Joe stating that I was just checking in regarding the planning process. Joe informed me again that at the 12 month mark from our date (being 12 months out from the earliest potential date we chose, in this case, October 11th) we could hold the ceremony space and at the 10 month mark we could hold the celebration— so we were still in a bit of a waiting period. Once we could hold the event space tentatively, he would reach back out to create a room block and then we would sign our letter of agreement. In December 2021 I reached back out to Joe asking where we were in the planning stages and he informed us that he was unable to get Tower of Terror for the 11th or 12th but it looked hopeful for our third choice of the 19th. He would have an update for us on December 20th letting us know if we were able to hold our event on October 19th or if we were back to square one. I received the anticipated email on December 20th, 2021 that Disney was tentatively holding the Tower of Terror courtyard for our event.
Our next steps were to prepare the letter of agreement, create a room block, and check for the availability of theme park portraits/transportation. We originally had planned to take theme park portrait sessions in all four parks but closer to the time of our event, we realized that we were spreading ourselves too thin and decided to only do a morning session at Hollywood studios (we will get more into this later). In January our room block specialist reached out to us, and we began to book our families stays. From this point on it was a lot of work behind the scenes on my mom’s part making sure that each family was taken care of, tickets were purchased, resort stays were booked, each individual family was accounted for and all needs were met. January was a little hectic for us as we were nine months away from the wedding. I was starting to dress shop and the biggest kicker of all, I was still not engaged.
February came along and on 2/22/2022 Brock proposed. We were nearing the seven-month mark and hit another stopping point for wedding planning. During this time, we did a lot of things on our own, such as researching the aesthetic we were going for and planning (as much as we could) what we wanted the space to look like. In June, our main wedding planner, Kami, reached out to us and we began looking into menus, planning resources, creating Pinterest boards, and talking with her about the “vibe” of our ceremony/set up the celebration as a whole, etc. Me being my true anxiety ridden, Type A self, began to stress and hyperventilate at the fact that we were four months away and didn’t really have anything finalized. There were a lot of meetings regarding the “how about this” or “what if” aspects but no concrete decisions were made. With that being said, Kami did an excellent job of not letting me get overwhelmed and helping me create the wedding of my dreams via Zoom an email conversation. She made me feel heard and was my go-to during this hectic time. There were several individuals that worked with us throughout the planning process. There were separate teams for floral, photography, entertainment, etc. While there is a lot of information that I can share about the conversations and planning with these individuals, it is a lot of fine details that would make this blog significantly longer— I will just make the general statement that each individual that I worked with was extremely helpful, kind, and resourceful when it came to planning my wedding. I greatly appreciate each of them and they made this planning process very enjoyable.
Brock and I were in conversation with individuals on our planning team even up until the day before our wedding finalizing details. If you are someone who needs to be in charge of every detail of your wedding, a Disney wedding is NOT for you. While they let you play a significant role in your event, there are a lot of holes to jump through, rules/requirements, and delegation is a MUST. It is an impossible task to plan and be in charge of an event like this by yourself.
Fast forward a few months and we are now in October. As mentioned before we were finalizing details, even up until the day before our wedding with our team. I can remember having an almost hour-long conversation with our DJ on the phone while on my way to Magic Kingdom on the day of my bachelorette party. Now, here comes the tea… what exactly happened the day before and the day of my wedding.
Our wedding rehearsal went really well minus the fact that it was a little chaotic due to our entire wedding guest list minus 10 people being at the rehearsal. We chose to have a rehearsal dinner at Raglan Road. It was AMAZING. The staff made our evening stress free and very enjoyable. Our legitimate rehearsal was at the Grand Floridian Conference Center. It was a very quick and to the point meeting with everyone and I feel that it went really well. We did not have our main planner with us. Disney has what they call “day of” teams. This can consist of individuals that have worked with you prior to your event or new people that are there just for that day. Our day of planner was a different individual, someone who I had never met. But they were there to make sure that the day went according to plan, and that all my needs were met. I left the rehearsal feeling prepared and excited for the next day. Then this is where things took a turn.
The day of my wedding was a little chaotic from forgetting laundry that I needed for the ceremony in the washer an hour prior to my ceremony, to being about 45 minutes late getting to the venue, to “wine gate” (which I will get into a little later) I was a little taken aback by how the day went from 10:00 PM on.
My saint of a photographer, Candi (aka my saving grace that day), showed up to the Yacht Club to be with me, and her assistant, Eric, arrived at The Boardwalk to be with Brock. We also had our team from Cinemedia come for videography. Both photography and videography had their liberties while Brock and I were getting ready capturing special moments with our family. I won’t share all of the details that took place while getting ready. As I mentioned before it’s pretty chaotic so we will fast forward to the moment that we left for Hollywood Studios.
Disney provides transportation for the bride and groom plus 6 others via van. Brock headed to the venue with his dad and Eric— I was with my parents, my future sister-in-law, my future mother-in-law, Candi, and her other assistant. We arrived at Hollywood Studios, where I was greeted by a cast member with a wheelchair. This piqued interest as many thoughts that I was injured—I in fact was not. Once Brock made it to Hollywood Studios, he noticed how far of a walk it would be from where they dropped us off to where I would be staged until going down Sunset Boulevard. He asked that they provide a wheelchair for me so that my feet wouldn’t hurt walking through the park in high heels. My day of planner wheeled me down through security, and to the Brown Derby.
Guests were arriving while Brock was already stationed at the Tower of Terror getting pictures and videos taken of him in the queue.
Fun Fact: The Fantastic team was practicing right before our wedding as the show was set to return soon and Brock heard them announce over the loudspeaker that they had to halt production due to our wedding taking place.
I was staged at Brown Derby for quite some time and, while this was originally not intended, we were able to get some of my favorite shots during this time.
I was unsure of why it was taking so long for me to go outside to get into the Rolls-Royce, but it was brought to my attention that my brother and future sister-in-law, who were bringing supplies for communion and for my father were stopped at security and had some things confiscated from them that prolonged guests entering the park. This was the first issue that arose from the day— a cast member was very rude to a wedding guest and a small conflict arose. Nonetheless, the issue was remedied but it did cost us some time. I was escorted to the Rolls-Royce and met my dad at the top of Sunset Boulevard while my guests were placing their phones in envelopes due to our no phone policy. This was also a choice of ours and many had questions as to why we chose to do this. Cell phones didn’t really fit our “vintage vibe.” Brock and I also agreed that this event was very special and (more than likely) a once in a lifetime thing for us and many attending. We wanted all of our guests to be present with us in the moment. While my guests did not see my dad and I in the vintage car, it was a sight to behold. This will forever be one of my favorite memories. Our driver was telling us the story of the car while my dad and I shared our last few moments together before he handed me off to my now husband. There is nothing like strolling down an empty Sunset Boulevard in a Rolls-Royce—I can now check that off my bucket list!
Once we reached the bottom of Sunset Boulevard, I could hear the violinist playing (Which is included in our wedding package. Couples have the option between a guitarist and a violinist). I saw my wedding party begin to walk down the aisle. I neared the corner and saw my ceremony space for the FIRST time—it looked beautiful!
One thing that stressed me out was that I was unable to “ok” the ceremony space before the wedding took place. I drew out what I envisioned and talked about it over zoom, but it was really up to my wedding team to meet my needs without me being there to “yay” or “nay”. One thing that I was unaware of, but I was told by many wedding guests, was while my wedding party was walking down the aisle there was a cast member (in a bright orange vest) cleaning the gift shop outside of the Tower of Terror ride exit. This was not supposed to happen as all staff in Hollywood studios knew that a special event was taking place.
The ceremony continued and went very smoothly until communion. Remember, when I said that there was a small mishap at security before the ceremony began? Our communion supplies had been confiscated, as there was a miscommunication between my wedding planner and I regarding food and beverage rules. We did not have a set up for communion until about two minutes before people started walking down the aisle, and even then, it was still not what we had anticipated or asked for. My day of team gathered supplies throughout the park and did the best they could. They did allow us to keep/use the Naan-bread we purchased but they failed to place it on a plate, and it was still in the wrapper with a bright orange $9.99 sticker on it. This definitely didn’t fit our vintage Hollywood vibe, but I didn’t sweat over it. We laughed it off and, thanks to our Pastor, had a beautiful faith-based ceremony that I still tear up over when looking back. After the ceremony, we exited to meet our friends and family on Sunset Boulevard to take a few pictures while they rearranged the ceremony space for our celebration. From this point on the day was kind of a blur. All I remember was being pulled in 1-million different directions. I was told I needed to be here to take pictures but then I needed it to be over in the celebration space for something else. It was a lot of back-and-forth especially for someone in high heels that we’re not the most comfortable, but beauty is pain and I pushed through!
Looking back and I felt like I was, for lack of a better term, at a guest appearance being told what to do, where to go, etc. We would go from taking pictures, back to the ceremony space to sit and have a “staged” toast then back for more pictures then back to the ceremony space for them to have us “stage” something else. We did not have any time to converse with our guests, so I felt like there were a lot of people who felt as if they didn’t even get to see us on our wedding day minus exchanging our vows. We were back on Sunset Boulevard taking pictures when our wedding planner pulled us and said we need to be over in the celebration space because Mickey and Minnie were coming over to help us cut our cake.
We cut our cake, had a dance with them and the guests, and then headed back to Sunset Boulevard for more pictures.
During this time, we staged a photo with the vintage car we had purchased, the Tower of Terror, and Mickey and Minnie. After a 10 to 15 minute set up for this photo, we were told that we cannot do this due to licensure conflict so that was 15 minutes wasted that we did not get back. This was a major frustration that I verbalized to our wedding planner after the fact because you only have a set amount of time in the park during your event. Keep in mind it does not matter if you show up late or if a scheduling mishap occurs— When the time comes for you to leave, regardless of what you have or haven’t done, it’s over. This issue could have been remedied very quickly with a simple “hey, you can’t do that.” This in my opinion was something that should have never happened. Disney is known for its attention to detail, why were we told after everything was set and ready to go that it couldn’t happen? As I mentioned before, it was very rushed. Brock and I only had one bite of cake and it was for a staged photo. Other than that, I think I had one sip of Diet Coke. I never go to try our food; I didn’t get to try the other two flavors of cake we chose… I was a little disheartened. We were then told that we needed to get ready to exit the park as our contracted hours were ending. One thing that we were adamant about having was staged except for our videographer. By that time, he had already left as his contracted hours were over. Our last hope was to get photos of the staged exit which didn’t happen due to our day of planer telling our guests that it was time to leave. Unfortunately, this meant Brock and I exited the park by ourselves without our guests seeing us off. Thankfully, Candi was shortly behind us taking pictures, but we did not have any exit photos with our guests. We left with a few takeout boxes and that was that. We did not get to say goodbye to our guests. Thankfully we had a few more days in the park with some of them but some were leaving the next day, and that was our memory of our wedding with them. No conversation, no photos, just a few VERY short/rushed hours. Overall, our experience was really great. I feel as if the planning leading up to the wedding went more smoothly than the wedding itself. I don’t feel that it was a lack of planning—it was more of our day of planner letting the day run him. Candi took control on our behalf and thank the Lord for her organization skills and directness with our guests. If it wasn’t for her and Eric, our event would’ve been significantly less enjoyable.
Now, for the major letdown, Disney Fine Arts Photography. We JUST received our wedding portraits about two weeks ago, and they are subpar at best. I am so thankful that we contracted our friend, Candi, to be there the day of. If it wasn’t for her, and I had to rely solely on Disney Fine Art photography, I would feel as if I wasted all of my money… well, my parent’s money. The photos that we received from Disney looked as if they were taken on an iPhone. I hate that our beautiful event was not captured the way we wanted via Disney. Hollywood Studios is a ridiculously aesthetic park and the pictures do not do it justice. Again, thank the Lord for Candi and Eric!!! They saved the day and their pictures knocked it out of the park—absolute perfection. Be on the lookout for Eric as he works for Disney Photopass. Also, if you’re looking for a BOMB photographer in the Orlando area… I know a girl!
After being married for almost 4 months, I often look back at our day. I am thankful that I can now laugh at some of the mishaps, but also reflect on how blessed and grateful we are to have hosted such an amazing event. Regardless of minor issues that took place, if you were looking into having a Disney wedding of your own, please be advised that things are not always what they seem. Also, keep in mind that although our event had a few setbacks that don’t mean that yours will.
While there are a few things that we would’ve changed looking back, we had the best time with our closest friends and family and are very thankful that we had the opportunity to have a Disney Fairytale Wedding. I still can’t believe that we were able to host 50 of our closest friends and family in empty Hollywood Studios!
