Hello dear readers! Today we have a guest post from a Real Disneyland Bride who is planning for her Wishes wedding in May. Yep, another May Disneyland Bride, woohoo!! Brittney shares the story of her engagement, and how her and Zack decided on a Disneyland wedding. I hope you enjoy!
(All photos are from the couple’s personal collection.)
Hi! My name is Brittney and my fiance Zack and I are planning a Disneyland wedding for May! My fiance and I have been together for about 9 ½ years, so we had been talking about getting married but neither of us were in a hurry since we wanted to finish school and get jobs! It was really important to Zack to surprise me since I am nototious for figuring gifts out and ruining surprises. Anyway, since I am childlike and full of wonder, he made me an Easter basket and hid a dozen plastic eggs around our condo, placing the very last egg (the pink one laying open in the photo) in the hardest to find location. When I found the egg and opened it, he asked me to marry him.
Post-engagement |
We initially wanted to get married in Colorado, where we live, because it is very beautiful and there are many places available. We didn’t want to have a particularly long engagement so we decided to look at the following summer. We began planning a local wedding where we would be very involved and do a lot of DIY; however, due to my last semester of my MA program having a series of very intense exams during February-April and finals plus graduation in May, we decided to plan a wedding where we didn’t have to plan as many of the details. I had looked into getting married at Disneyland long before we were engaged, just for fun, and it was immediately where we looked when we decided to do a destination wedding. We considered a few other places but for our budget and with the experience Disney offers, we knew this was place for us.
We are doing a small (50 person) Wishes wedding because it’s important for us to have our families and a few close friends present. Our ceremony site is the Rose Court Garden at the Disneyland hotel and our reception site is Brisa Courtyard at the Grand Californian. We booked them after viewing them in pictures because we both wanted an outdoor, garden-y feel to the wedding. We are adding a few elements of Disney but we really didn’t change what “feel” we desired- Casual Elegance.
Ceremony site – Rose Court Garden |
Reception site – Brisa Courtyard |
We were able to make it in for a tasting and site visit over Thanksgiving weekend when we were visiting family in Southern California. The sites were even better than in the pictures. The Rose Court Garden is beautiful and the size is perfect! The Brisa Courtyard is a lush green enclosure, and much larger than it appeared in photos. I had been a little concerned with the monorail running through the reception venue, but after seeing it in person- we loved it! It’s quick and quiet, doesn’t seem to run very often, and it adds just a touch of Disney! The tasting itself was amazing! We are having a brunch reception since the ceremony is at 9:30 am, and it was fabulous – with all kinds of breakfast foods including waffles shaped like Mickey Mouse, another tiny Disney touch. We are sooo excited and cannot wait for the wedding!