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[DisneyDmbNut]

I just looked back at your budget..does that include gratuity? I don't know how it works but onboard but we had to add gratuity in for the servers and bar staff.

 

[MainStMandy]

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[Lindsay22]

Town Car $25.00 Hoping to use this just for the two of us to get to AK

MoH Bouquet $183.00
Officiant $10.50
Mother of the Groom $26.00
Grandmother $31.00

Altar Flowers doing ourselves

IPOD $1,105.00

We are holding off on the aisle runner and petals...

Okay... Here I go:
1.) Have you confirmed that you can get a Town Car for only $25? Until you confirm that, I would bump that up to $100 just for the sake of my budget. (I find that it can't hurt to pad your prices)

2.) MOH bouquet- Ask the floral person how to drop that in price. $185 for flowers that are going to die seems extreme. They aren't your flowers, they'll really only be seen for an hour. See if they can do something similar with a different flower (I'm thinking about how Lurkyloo used Dahlias in her bouquet, but a mum in the bout because it was cheaper and looked similar)

3.) Who is your officiant and why do they need a flower?

4.) Why are your grandmother corsages more than the mother corsages?

5.) Have you spoken to a designated guest at your wedding about setting up the altar flowers? I would schedule a practice session with them

6.) I think you need to seriously think about this iPod. It's just not worth all of that money. Have you thought about a steel drum band or something? That's not amplified music

 

[MainStMandy]

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[Chilly]

I think a steel drum band would be so cool.

 

[MainStMandy]

I think a steel drum band would be so cool.

Ya maybe...but for 4 hours??? I think we are just going to go with regular music.

 

[Chilly]

Ya maybe...but for 4 hours??? I think we are just going to go with regular music.

yeah probably not for 4 hours.

 

[Lindsay22]

One of my girlfriends had a steel drum band for her wedding and they were PHENOMENAL. She didn't get married at Disney so they played at her ceremony and the whole night long. They did have a CD player for when they took breaks and things. I really wanted one for our wedding but that didn't quite fit with our theme at AAR.

Mandy, have you thought about shortening your reception by an hour? I did and my sister did and I don't think anyone noticed and it certainly didn't feel too short.

 

[MainStMandy]

Mandy, have you thought about shortening your reception by an hour? I did and my sister did and I don't think anyone noticed and it certainly didn't feel too short.

I'm not sure they would make a difference. We aren't paying for anything by the hour except the Motorcoach.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

Since the food and alcohol had a 21% service charge AND 6.5% sales tax I didn't figure in gratuity. I figured that's what the service charge was for.

that 21% probably is the tips... We also gave money to our wedding planner and musician. It was included in our package, but both went over and above so you might want to figure in for that. Drivers too. Just something to keep in mind because the poor drivers usually work for tips unless they own the car.

 

[malibustacey]

oh gosh, being from the UK where we dont tip at all- its so confusing on who to tip- the make up artist, the hairdresser, the wedding planner, the assistant, the photographer......eeeekkk! im very scared of this situation next year at the wedding time because i would hate to offend anyone who is meant to get a tip and if i dont give them one! I dont have a clue who to tip- i mean, if we hire the coach from Disney, do we tip the Disney coach driver? I know if we got an outside company, we would have to tip them..

This year, we went to a restruant and the waiter was really over the top friendly and nice to us, not charging us for bigshots of liquor in our champagne ect and we knew that the tip is like 15-20% and our bill came to about $100 and we decided to tip him $20, perhaps a few dollars more- and we know for SURE that he was a little taken aback by it because he must have expected more. Us Brits dont understand tips and i will be aking for help in who i need to tip later next year! hehe!!

 

[LLLBelle]

I love your song choices! We may be using My Wish too for DF and his mom.

I googled some alternative aisle decor instead of petals. One wedding used feathers, which looked neat. Another had an aisle runner with colored seaglass along the sides.

But if you do an aisle runner, I think you could get away with a light sprinkling down the middle and get your petals for $10 I do think it would lovely with nothing on it as well.

 

[MainStMandy]

I love your song choices! We may be using My Wish too for DF and his mom.

I googled some alternative aisle decor instead of petals. One wedding used feathers, which looked neat. Another had an aisle runner with colored seaglass along the sides.

But if you do an aisle runner, I think you could get away with a light sprinkling down the middle and get your petals for $10 I do think it would lovely with nothing on it as well.

Feathers!! How cool! I bet they would blow away when people walked by them though...but still so cool! I have been trying to come up with alternatives.

 

[greenpea89]

Hi Mandy! Long, long, long time lurker here!! I love reading your PJ -it's so much fun and definitely one of the first things I look at every time I log on to the DIS!

Sorry if this question is too personal, but I just wondered if you had a total overall budget? Not just the DFTW portion but everything - including the photographer, tips, invitations, your dress, etc. I could be wrong but looking at the total picture, excluding the honeymoon, even with your new cuts, you are still looking at about $20,000 minimum- overall for everything. I'm just a little confused. I know you really want to stick to your DFTW minimum - is that because a family member is taking care of that portion of the cost? Or is someone else paying for the honeymoon and/or Roots? I'm only asking because sometimes stepping back and taking a look at the big picture is helpful when you are really trying to find where to make difficult budget cuts. I know you love, love, love the Roots but since they won't be able to photograph the reception maybe that's something that should/could be cut (unless it's a gift of course) and then that amount could be put towards those special touches that make a DFTW different from an offsite wedding (like Mickey and Minnie, the steel drum players in addition to the ipod set-up, or themed reception dining).

Again, sorry if these questions are too personal! Financial issues are always so tricky and sometimes its easier to compartmentalize rather than look at the overall big picture.

Oh! One other thing - have you talked to your WP about having a signature drink instead of the beer/wine package? Sometimes that can be a great cost saver. Have a lovely wedding!!

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

If you don't have the aisle runner are you still doing roses? I don't think they will show up very well on the carpet and that could be a big savings to just eliminate them all together.

 

[MainStMandy]

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[MainStMandy]

If you don't have the aisle runner are you still doing roses? I don't think they will show up very well on the carpet and that could be a big savings to just eliminate them all together.

No I wouldn't do just petals...If we don't get an aisle runner then no petals.

 

[greenpea89]

Thanks for the thoughtful reply and for not being offended by my question!
I will go back to happy lurkdom again!!

 

[PeytonSdiz]

I LOVE Ben Folds.

I see some country music choices on your list. For some reason I didn't peg you and Eric as country music fans. LOL.

 

[MainStMandy]

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