Shipping Off Our BEO

The least fun part of a Disney wedding and honeymoon? Paying for it.

So, let's talk about the BEO. This is your Banquet Event Order, which is pretty much just a fancified way of saying, "Here's the bill." Throughout the process our wedding planner(s) have constantly referred to the BEO like it was some sacred document, on par with the Declaration of Independence or the Magna Carta. Admittedly, to them, it is; this is the final tally, the true locked-down, here's what you're getting, no going back from here document that itemizes every little thing about the wedding and assigns a cost to it.

Back in February, our wedding coordinator at the time (Danny) offered to put together a preliminary BEO for us so that we could not only start budgeting for the wedding, but also start verifying that all the details that we wanted were correct. At first, I was scratching my head; we've spent months working on this wedding, why would anything be incorrect? I had forgotten my mantra ("everything changes") for a moment, as, once we received this preliminary BEO, I knew I immediately wanted to make changes.

And not just the grammatical errors...

Yes, despite months of planning, we ended up making the following changes to our plans after seeing the preliminary BEO:

• We decided to use the four hours of complementary limousine service for our transportation backstage for our dessert party, instead of as transportation to our Chef's Table dinner at Victoria & Albert's.
• We decided to go with the complementary Mickey and Minnie cake topper after our plans for the Robin Hood & Maid Marian statue fell through (there's a whole other blog post in this one...)
• Girl Scout Fiancée changed what was going to be in her bouquet. 
• We added notes that our officiant (James) is gluten intolerant, and requested a gluten-free cupcake for the wedding and a gluten-free dessert for the dessert party (all of which Disney seemed happy to accommodate).

It's not that many changes, but there are more things on that list than I would have expected. Anyways, we went back and forth with both Danny and our new wedding coordinator, Sarah, until we had all of the details right.

I couldn't resist using this picture for the "back and forth" paragraph.

Once everything was locked in, Sarah sent us a finalized BEO, along with a price breakdown for everything. I was happy to see that we did receive a small credit toward getting the high-resolution photo disc instead of a physical wedding album. There was also one other thing I wasn't expecting, a $250 extra deposit for "any charges that might come up on the day of the wedding." I have no idea what those charges might be, but our wedding coordinator assured us that this deposit, if unused, would be refunded to us after the wedding. Additionally, if any of our family members have their own Epcot park admission (for example, the annual passholders, or anyone that goes to Epcot that day), we'll be refunded the viewing fee for those people.

At that point, Girl Scout Fiancée and I had to print out the BEO, initial and sign every page, and fax it back to Disney Fairytale Weddings. I also sent back a credit card authorization form, and the day that it was received they charged my card for the remaining balance. All in all, it was pretty simple, and now the wedding and dessert party are paid off.

...for the wedding.

For anyone thinking of doing a Disney wedding, I'll share a little bit of financial information: the total cost of our wedding, with dessert party, is probably less than we would pay to have a wedding and a reception here in Seattle. The Escape package, which is the small-wedding package, is very affordable, and I think we are spending more on our hotel stay than we are on the wedding package itself. Don't let cost be a barrier to exploring a Disney wedding; it's more affordable than you might think, at least until you start adding on other amenities.

Some other takeaways for prospective planners:

1. Don't be afraid to ask your wedding coordinator for preliminary estimates for anything. Danny was able to get us both an estimate for the dessert party, and for our BEO, well in advance, and it was a huge help to me in our budgeting.
2. Don't be afraid to ask for something unusual, but be prepared to pay for it. For the wedding cake, we'd heard of people doing a chocolate cake with a peanut butter cup filling; even though that wasn't one of the standard options, Danny looked into it for us and the chef at the Boardwalk gave us the OK for our special request at no charge. However, other special requests (such as the fresh floral on our wedding cake) do come at a price.
3. Don't be afraid to tell your wedding coordinator what you want, and ask them the best way to make it happen. There are a lot of options out there, from transportation to decorations, and your wedding coordinator might know ways to pull things off outside of the standard, rigid packages.
4. By the same token, don't be surprised if Disney refuses certain requests based on your wedding package, especially if you're doing an Escape wedding. We ran into a few issues when finalizing our BEO where our coordinator informed us that a particular option was available to Wishes weddings, but not Escape weddings. Given the amount of flexibility Disney showed with a lot of our requests, I think this is reasonable.
5. Finally, once you've done your initial planning with your wedding coordinator, ask when you can get a preliminary BEO. Having everything itemized and laid out for us really brought everything into focus, and helped us identify the trouble spots we hadn't yet considered (for example, which music selections we need to provide sheet music for).