Phoning it In

Not long after we were assigned our wedding coordinator, Danny, we scheduled a phone call with him to discuss our thoughts and options. This was at Danny's suggestion, I might add; he said that he was looking forward to building a rapport with us. Unfortunately, due to the realities of wedding scheduling, Danny had to postpone our call to this week, but that turned out to be a good thing for us. You see, despite the fact that we're still over six months from our wedding, we seem to have gone from super-high-energy-ferrets-on-Red Bull wedding planning to...something with less energy than that, which would cover just about everything that has energy.

Before the call, Girl Scout Fiancée and I were supposed to compile a list of questions that we had, so that we could go through them all during the call. At first, we just kept a document on my computer with questions that randomly popped up during our discussions, with no real method to it. As we got closer to the call, though, Girl Scout Fiancée had the great idea to print out the Escape Wedding Planning Kit document (a PDF that Danny e-mailed to us shortly after he was assigned to us as wedding coordinator) and then write our questions directly on that document. This was great, and something I highly recommend to other couples, as it helped us group our questions by topic, and ensured that we walked through every single page of the packet and identified places where we were confused or wanted to make changes.

This is what our questions would look like, transcribed onto a chalkboard.

For some reason, the morning of our call, my alarm didn't go off in time, and I was late going out for my run. By the time I got back inside, hit the shower, and grabbed a cup of coffee (also known as the Official Seattle Resident Morning Routine), Girl Scout Fiancée was already on the phone with Danny. Fortunately, since we had just gone through the packet the night before, Girl Scout Fiancée was already working her way through our questions, so all I really had to do was sit and listen, and interject where I needed clarification. Over the course of a little over an hour, we worked our way through the entire Planning Kit, every single one of our questions was answered, and we marked the answers down on the planning kit. We probably could have gone on longer, but Girl Scout Fiancée has started taking tap dancing lessons (for real; adults do this, apparently) and she had to leave.

Going into the call, I know Girl Scout Fiancée had a lot of concerns and reservations about the wedding plans, particularly about the floral arrangement (Girl Scout Fiancée wanted to make sure that she had some control over the colors, which she will), and the floral add-on for the cake (again, Danny assured us that we can put in requests for colors and see what comes back). I was also pleased to note that my question about the peanut butter cup flavor of cake came back with a "maybe" since our cake is likely to come from the Boardwalk Bakery, and that's one of the flavors they do there.

Now, make it white on the outside...

Here are some of the more important things we learned and clarified:

• We can bring our own cake topper, which we will give to Danny before the ceremony and he will see that it gets on the cake.
• We can bring some of our own decorations for the cake table, but not for the pavilion at Sea Breeze Point itself. Girl Scout Fiancée is going to provide some fabric bunting in our colors for the table.
• We can't bring our cake to the dessert party in Epcot.
• We can have a guestbook set up at the ceremony, on a table our wedding coordinator will arrange.
• We can arrange a towncar to take us to the dessert party, saving our limousine (included in the package) for the night during the honeymoon when we go to Victoria & Albert's.
• We can add an hour to the photography for $200, and we can (probably) have the same photographer for our dessert party. We can make requests for a specific photographer, but there are no guarantees.
• The cost of getting the Archival DVD of photos (the super-hi-res images suitable for very large prints) is $995 (!!!), while the High Resolution DVD (which is for photos up to 9x11) is $795. At that point, one of the Cinderella packages (which include the High Resolution DVD, and also a leather-bound, engraved and personlized wedding album) might be worth considering.
• We can request specific songs for the music during the wedding, and our coordinator will consult a database to see if they already have the sheet music. If not, we can provide sheet music for any songs we want to request.
• The timeline of the wedding starts 30 minutes before the wedding with me, and the guests, meeting in the lobby of the Boardwalk and then walking over to Sea Breeze Point. At about 15 minutes before the wedding, Girl Scout Fiancée will go to the lobby for photos, and then begin the walk to SBP for the ceremony, which lasts as long as it lasts. After the ceremony, we'll do cake cutting and photography.

One of the things that Danny suggested that we have to put some serious consideration into is the possibility of doing a "cocktail hour" following the wedding, where we would provide hors d'oeuvrs for our guests through Disney's catering. This would not only reduce the need for our guests to try and find a fast dinner (since they will need to meet at the International Gateway entrance to Epcot at 7:40 for entrance to the dessert party), but it would also give people something to do after the ceremony, and keep them from wandering off while photographs are taken. Between these small bites and the cake, that should tide people over before the dessert party. Of course, as with anything that sounds like a pretty good idea, there are always drawbacks; in this case, picking a menu that will work (between picky eaters, vegetarians, and gluten allergies, these days that is no mean feat) and the ever-present specter of yet another increased cost. If that latter hurdle can be overcome by reducing costs elsewhere, though, it seems like it could be a pretty good idea, especially if we plan to add on an hour of photography to get some photos of our families at the wedding site.

Apparently, food bribes are the only way to make sure this happens.

Thankfully, Danny seemed to understand my reservations about ballooning costs, and reassured me that many of these decisions won't need to be finalized until well into next year. That will give me the opportunity to evaluate our budget as things get paid for (for example, right now I'm probably way over-budgeting for our airfare, which I likely won't finalize until January or even February. Additionally, Danny said that as the process moves along, he can continually provide itemized estimates that take into account all taxes, fees, and costs, helping me budget more accurately. That should help me out a lot in the coming months, keeping me sane while still making sure the wedding, honeymoon, and Seattle party are as memorable as we want them to be.

Overall, both Girl Scout Fiancée and I feel a great deal more comfortable now that we've had our initial call. Danny was very nice, accommodating, and seemed genuinely interested in helping us make our day magical, and the information he gave us went a very long way toward assuaging some of the concerns that Girl Scout Fiancée had expressed after receiving the initial Planning Kit. For my part, Danny really seemed to be aware of my concerns about the budget, and though he did suggest some additions he seemed to focus only on those that would really improve the overall experience, and I never felt like he was trying to up-sell us on things that we really didn't need. My comfort and confidence is definitely at a much higher point than it has been in the last few weeks.