The first thing we had to decide is where we wanted to get married. The decision was easy for Chris and I because not only do we love Disney World, but we also got engaged there and immediately knew we wanted to celebrate our wedding there as well. The reason we chose Florida was because my family lives in Virginia and Chris's family is in California. We didn't want our families to feel as though we were choosing one side over the other if we got married in either state, so we settled for something in-between. Chris and I also knew that in choosing an in-between state, we would upset a lot of people because not everyone would be able to come due to cost and we are also limited in the number of people we could bring with the Disney package we wanted. We quickly realized you can't please everyone.
With our Disney wedding package, the guest list can include no more than twenty people (including the bride and groom). We knew that picking and choosing who we wanted to celebrate with us would be extremely hard, but were ready for the challenge. We quickly decided which family members would be invited and then decided we'd use the remaining number of seats for friends. The hard part was that people were upset we said only husbands and fiance's were invited due to the limited seating at the event. I quickly realized that picking and choosing was going to be a much more difficult process than I had originally thought. Chris and I really had to start picking our battles when it came our family and friends because the stress just wasn't worth it. You always hope that people understand it's your wedding and won't be upset and cause you stress, but with Chris and I that was not the case.
I think the one thing Chris and I figured out along the way is that no matter what you do and how hard you try to accommodate everyone, there is always going to be someone that is unhappy. I know that it's much different dealing with a destination wedding than a hometown one because everyone wants to celebrate with you and for a lot of people who have to travel, it's just not possible. The one thing I constantly tell myself, (because I hate hurting other people's feelings), is that this is something Chris and I really want and are so excited for! Would we like more people to be able to come? Of course! But this wedding is literally a dream come true and I wouldn't trade having it at Disney for anything. We're happy and that is the most important thing. :-)
If there was any advice I could give to brides planning a destination wedding, they would be:
- Even though you and your fiance have probably saved for a while for your destination wedding, a lot of other people probably have not. Take that into consideration when deciding on who to invite.
- Some places (like Disney) have a limit on how many people can be at the ceremony. Be aware who counts and who doesn't (for example: for Disney kids under the age of two don't count) and also make sure you know birthdays in case a child ages up before you get married.
- Make lots of lists! I've utilized Microsoft Access and Excel a lot throughout this process and found them very useful when needing to refer back to certain things.
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