Guest Post: My Disney Fairy Tale Wedding

Guest post by Elizabeth Atwood from Rock-A-Bye Parents

I was born into a Disney loving family. It was no surprise that in 1995 when Walt Disney World opened their wedding pavilion, and really jumped into the wedding planning business, that my mother started dreaming of my Disney wedding. The fact that I was just finishing up elementary school was a moot point. Fast forward many years to when I meet my Prince Charming and marriage comes up. I told Jason right at the start that we had to get married in Disney. Jason’s not much of a wedding person, so he didn’t really care where it was as long as we got married. We decided on December 23, 2005 and I planned for two years. There was no detail that went unnoticed. A few months before the wedding we even flew down to Disney to have a planning session. While there we went over everything, had a site visit, and taste tested all of our food. By the time the big day came Disney had everything under control and all I had to focus on was enjoying my day.

The morning of our wedding started very early. Our photographers picked us up at 6:00 a.m. for a special photo shoot in the Magic Kingdom. We met performing opposite each other in a performance of Carousel, so the fact that we could get pictures taken on a real carousel made it a must do. We got some amazing photos around the castle as well.

When our time in the Magic Kingdom was up we were taken to Epcot to meet up with our wedding party. Our ceremony was at 9 a.m. in the American Adventure Rotunda. The site is stunning and the Christmas decorations were a nice bonus since they went so well with my Christmas theme. We had thought about using the Wedding Pavilion, but it just didn’t feel right to me. I love that we got to have our wedding in one of the theme parks. Now every time we go back we can visit where we got married. I can go in and even tell you exactly where we stood during the ceremony. We were married by a wonderful minister fondly known as Rev. Jack. He did a fantastic job. From the way he acted, and the extras he put into the ceremony that we wrote, you would have thought that he had known us since we were little kids.

After the ceremony our guests were taken up stairs to the VIP Room for pastry items and drinks while we took more pictures. When we had finished all of the family shots we went outside to take some pictures in Epcot. Most of the pictures were taken around the Italy Pavilion. While we were taking pictures the Cast Members were getting ready for the day. As we were finishing up a Cast Member, that was setting up one of the food and drink stands, called us over. He congratulated us on our wedding and told us that he wanted to give us a toast. He handed each of us a Strawberry Bellini to toast with. It was such a wonderful and magical moment.

When our pictures were done we went to join our guests, but first we went into the dining room that was connected to the lounge where our guests were. I like to refer to the dinning room as the dish room because it has a lot of built in china cabinets displaying crystal and china pieces. If you’ve seen the movie The American President then you’ll know what I’m talking about. They took us here partly to give us a breather, and to let us eat some of the pastries, but they also wanted to give us a chance to see our wedding cake. I had hand drawn a basic idea of what I wanted for my wedding cake. I had asked for some color in the ribbon, but had said to use white frosting because my mother thought anything else was too much. Well, the Grand Floridan Bakery (they do all the wedding cakes) had loved my idea and really ran with it. It was the most amazing cake, and I later hated cutting into it, but what was inside was really good too!

After our breather we immediately had our first dance, and then it was time for lunch (if you could call our huge meal that). The food was wonderful. My favorite part was between the salad and our main meal when every guest received their very own individual ice sculptor (shaped like a star) with raspberry sorbet in it. We had to throw in some special touches that only Disney could give us. When our meal was over we did some family portraits, and then cake. After that it was pretty much over since we didn’t have any dancing.

My wedding day truly was one of the most amazing days of my life, and I honestly would give a lot to do it again. A lot of people think of Disney and they picture a corny wedding where the bride and groom are married by Mickey. That is so far from the truth though. Yes, you can have the characters come to the reception (we did not), but Disney can truly create the most beautiful and upscale weddings. On my wedding day they helped make all of my fairy tale dreams come true, and I wouldn’t have done it any other way.