Let me tell you, I never thought I would be a Disney Bride, I never really even considered it my whole entire Disney-loving life; but when the circumstances for Brian’s and my wedding changed drastically (involving lots of drama including the event planner stealing a bunch of money from our original reception restaurant venue and then taking off into the sunset), I was back at square one after a few months of planning and deposits.

We had already booked a trip to take all four kids to Disney World in February of 2016 as one of our first trips outside of the Midwest together, and I was simply browsing around and realized that Disney World, at that time, was offering elopement-type wedding packages at around $3,500.00 for six guests. Hey! That’s us! I literally started planning this wedding on January 20, 2016! That’s four weeks from the day, people!

For that bargain price, we actually had a bunch of stuff included. We were assigned a personal wedding planner who arranged almost everything Disney-related. We were provided a choice of venue, and we chose Luau Beach at the Polynesian Resort (RIP). We had a violinist (who played a TON! Way more than the three songs that were included!) and a photographer (with 20 printed 5×7 photos included), as well as the bride’s bouquet.

We also had a choice of a few other extras. The main other included item was a choice between three hours of limo service versus a romantic room decoration. We chose the room decorating, and when we finally returned after a long day, our room was fully decorated with about a billion rose petals everywhere, personalized towels with our names embroidered on them, and a few other little trinkets including a spa basket and a personalized matted photo of Mickey and Minnie congratulating us! There was a bouquet of a dozen roses on the nightstand and candles lit all over the place as well. This was definitely the right choice!

What was not included was the minister, the wedding license and food and beverage. Extra flowers and hair/makeup etc. were additional as well. That said, Disney did have a list of preferred vendors for hair and makeup who will come to your room, as well as preferred ministers who will arrange everything for you. I loved Fairytale Hair & Makeup! Jackie did a great job on my makeup and hair, and did Anna and Clara’s hair beautifully as well!

For the officiant and getting our wedding license and all of those technical deals, we went through Sensational Ceremonies, who took care of everything seamlessly, and made sure we had a very personalized ceremony. We also wanted to involve the kids as much as possible, so we also arranged for a sand ceremony, where we all poured different colors of sand in a jar together, symbolizing all six of our lives together.

The day of the wedding was exciting, and really, Disney service shined here. After we got our hair and makeup done and we were ready to go, we were whisked from the Yacht Club Resort to the Polynesian resort, where our personal wedding planner Samantha was waiting for us with all of our flowers and stuff for the sand ceremony as well as the minister, violinist and photographer. There were hidden Mickeys in all of the flowers including a few embedded in my bouquet and on the boutonnieres. After we were all gussied up with our flowers, we walked over to Luau beach, where the ceremony was, and our violinist began playing the songs that we picked for the ceremony (“When You Wish Upon A Star” was my walk down the “aisle”). Clara threw her rose petals along the way with much vigor, Eli delivered the rings without losing them in the sand, and it was all very sweet.

We had a short, 20 minute ceremony in all, and then we were off to take some photos with our photographer. I have to say this was kind of the biggest disappointment for the experience. He took us all around the Polynesian resort snapping probably 300 photos which was totally fun. But, when we got the proofs, but it was actually hard to pick 20 good ones. Things weren’t spaced very well, photos were blurry (usually Brian’s face was blurry for some reason) or weirdly posed, and the results were pretty underwhelming. While we were able to pick a few photos, we definitely would have preferred having a lot more than 15-20 good ones out of 300 to choose. Here are a couple of the better ones:

Following our photo shoot, we went back to the Yacht Club/Beach Club to hang out at their arcade. My Mother- and Father-In-Law were on hand with their minivan to take us to start our “best wedding reception ever!” The kids were 4, 5, 12 and 13 at the time, so the arcade was the perfect spot to let off some steam after the “boring” ceremony. Brian and I snuck off to the Crew’s Cup Lounge for a cocktail and to have a moment of alone time.

Eventually, it was time for our dinner, and we booked a table for the eight of us at the Yachtsman Steak House, which was, and continues to be, one of the best steakhouses on the entire WDW property. Beforehand, I had called their bakery to order a wedding cake. This was one of the best parts of my planning experience with Disney. I was able to send them a few styles of cake that I liked, ordered the flavor, and requested that the topper be similar to my bouquet. I can’t even describe how perfect the cake was and it was totally customized. The sugar flowers (which I still have) were so detailed, and a perfect match to my bouquet, and the cake might have been the most delicious vanilla with vanilla buttercream cakes I have ever had in my life. Everyone 100% agreed and luckily, there was leftover cake, which we had for breakfast the next day! All of us dream about this cake to this day!

All in all, we had an extraordinarily magical wedding day. The services Disney provided were top notch, and everyone was super responsive, and I was able to put this whole thing together in just four weeks! I was reviewing the Disney Wedding website for this article, and unfortunately, it doesn’t look like they offer these small, elopement packages anymore, which is a huge shame. I don’t know how popular they were, but now, it looks like the lowest minimum price for a wedding at Disney World in Orlando is $15,000! You also can’t get married on the beach at the Polynesian anymore, because I’m pretty sure they are building a whole new tower at the Polynesian Resort where Luau beach used to be. Either way, things really came together for our special day, and I am so happy I chose to be a Disney Bride!