Escape Wedding w/ 24 guests?

[BrittanyRose428]

This may be a stupid question, but our wedding is so far away (2014) that were not seriously planning anything yet, we're more focused on school. But does anyone know if it would be possible to do an escape wedding with 24-25 guests including the bride and groom? I know it's supposed to be 20 or less including the bride and groom, but there's family members that I can't leave out and we don't want a larger wedding.

The FAQ section of the wedding site says:
I have 21 guests. Can I have an Escape Wedding?
We are sorry, but service quality issues require that we limit Escape Weddings to parties of twenty or fewer, including the bride and groom. If you would like to have more than twenty guests, we invite you to look into a Wishes Wedding.

With only 25 of us at the most I can't see paying for a reception like the ones in the Wishes package. We're not even completely set on Disney yet. Our dilemma is basically that my family is huge, I want a destination wedding with only a few people, but since there's too many people we can't leave out were sort of torn. We may just end up having it close to home with more people, but if anyone has any input that would be great. :wave:

 

[TomHendricks]

It has to be 20 or less to be an Escape Wedding and they wont change that number. Your talking about only eliminating five guest for you to make it. If it was more, I would tell you to forget about it. I know that maybe hard but thats what you should do, nothing better then a WDW wedding. Send invitations out to the 18 guest you want to invite, keeping a few back just in case you get some people who can't go and then invite them the others if you get a few no RSVP's.

 

[The Mom]

I think Tom ^^ gave you your only option. They are absolutely firm on the number, because if they let one bride have 1 or 2 extra, the word will get out and they'll be dealing with brides who "only" want to add a few more, then "only" 7 or 8 - after all, I know you let so-and-so add 4, and I only want 3 more.

I know how hard it can be if you have your heart set on something, but reality interferes.

 

[Master Yoda]

I can tell you from experience that they will not budge on the number....not even by 1.

 

[Fashionista007]

I can tell you from experience that they will not budge on the number....not even by 1.

Yoda is right and I am also having an Escape wedding and I asked my wedding planner the same question. You can't even have 1 more person if you are adding a reception or dessert party. My idea was to have just 18 people at the ceremony and then open it up for the reception but no dice. I will tell you that it is possible to have a Wishes wedding for the $10k minimum, you just have to be really smart about it. Check out Passporter's Guide to Disney Weddings & Honeymoons. This book answered almost all of my questions and she just updated it for 2011 prices.

 

[BrittanyRose428]

Thanks everyone, I'm thinking we'll probably go with a Wishes wedding, but keep it under 25 guests and do more of a dinner for the reception.

 

[TomHendricks]

Thanks everyone, I'm thinking we'll probably go with a Wishes wedding, but keep it under 25 guests and do more of a dinner for the reception.

You realize the significant cost difference between the two right? Just want you to be forewarned.

 

[wild01ride]

Just to throw my experience out there...


We did an Escape wedding and also had more than 20 guests in mind.
What we ended up doing was sticking with the 20 guest max. that they allowed for the ceremony and the extent of the package.
Then, we booked:
(a) dinner at a WDW restaurant for our entire party
and,
(b) an Illuminations Dessert Reception - at first, they told us we had to coordinate it separately, but eventually, because it was on our wedding day, they asked our wedding coordinator to handle all of the scheduling and coordination.
Of course, we paid for these two events in their entirety, but we were at least able to accomodate the 28 or so guests that we had invited for what was the equivalent of our intended reception.

Of course our ceremony was important, but our time together with family and friends was the most important part of the wedding experience, so we were completely satisfied with this arrangement.

With enough patience and perserverance, you should be able to pull off the wedding that you're hoping for!
Good luck and congrats on the wedding!

:wave:

 

[streetlight]

One way to sneak another guest in is to have a friend/family member be your officiant.
Also, I have seen on older posts people paying a $500 fee for going over guest counts. They have been dated though.

 

[Eeyore]

The limit is usually due to location. The spots reserved for the escape weddings usually can only accommodate 20 people, like the Yacht Club gazebo and sunset point etc. That was the case over 5 years ago when we were married anyway. We went with the wishes wedding, but it wasn't called that at the time- the Disney wedding planners are fantastic. I was the most relaxed bride! Best wishes and congratulations!

 

[Sweet Melissa]

Are you considering an Escape wedding because you're set on a certain location or one of the DFTW-exclusive perks like a Magic Kingdom portrait session? If not, you might want to look in to a Swan/Dolphin wedding. You can get married at one of their locations for a flat rate with no limit on the number of guests you can have. We're getting married at the Swan, and I just love the service and flexibility we've had from our wedding planner.

 

[TomHendricks]

The limit is usually due to location. The spots reserved for the escape weddings usually can only accommodate 20 people, like the Yacht Club gazebo and sunset point etc. That was the case over 5 years ago when we were married anyway. We went with the wishes wedding, but it wasn't called that at the time- the Disney wedding planners are fantastic. I was the most relaxed bride! Best wishes and congratulations!

We got married at the Yacht Club Gazebo with over 50 guest, so for that location it's not about size. I would agree that Sunset Point is a location where it would be unwise to have over twenty. I have to completely agree with you that the Disney Wedding Planners are amazing. After seeing so many people not enjoy their weddings, with them it was the most stress free day. We simply had the greatest day of our lives, so much so we would do it again in a heart beat.

 

[BrittanyRose428]

Woah completely forgot about this thread! In case anyone would like an update, we're one of those couples with a neverending engagement as now we're thinking about September 2017. I've decided that I'm going to do the Disney College Program next Fall, (and just to be safe we're assuming that I will extend to the next Spring season as well. I was planning on doing the program while I was still working on my undergraduate, but my school does not recognize the program so I would lose my scholarship if I take a semester off to go. So I will be (hopefully) doing that in the Fall 2014-Spring 2015 if I extend the program. In the mean time, my fiance switched schools (from jewelry school to college) so he wants to at least finish his Bachelors before we get married. And we would like to work full time for a bit to really save up for the wedding we want, so we're thinking that with me working full time after the college program and getting my masters part time, and him working part time and getting his Bachelors full time, we'll be done with school and have some money saved by May 2017, and that will give us the the summer to relax a little bit before the wedding in September.

We've also completely decided on a Disney cruise wedding. We realized that the only way for us to do a small destination wedding with such a large family would be to really limit it to our immediate family. Initially we wanted to do a Disney cruise for our honeymoon, but the more we thought about it the more we realized we wanted our honeymoon to be in the parks. We're both really close with our families, so we thought spending time together on the cruise would be a nice little pre-honeymoon trip as well. We love the weddings on Castaway Cay, so that is our first choice right now. The wedding will include myself, the groom, my parents and grandparents, his parents, nana, and sisters, so only 11 people total.

So thats where we're at. Longest engagement ever? Maybe, but we're really in no rush, school is very important to us and its kind of nice to plan the wedding in our heads with a long time to do so.