Hello everyone! There is no Friday Favorites today as I’m busy celebrating our wedding! Instead please welcome guest contributor Victoria. Victoria and her husband Brian were married at Disney’s Grand Californian Hotel in 2011. You can see the highlights here! She wanted to share her favorite things about her Disneyland wedding with you all. Reading her Top 10 list makes me so excited for my own wedding day! Thanks for sharing with us, Victoria!
(All images from Root Photography)
There were so many little things that combined to make our Disneyland wedding everything we wanted. Having our family and closest friends together at one of our favorite places allowed us to make memories we’ll treasure forever. We couldn’t be happier with our Disneyland fairytale wedding; so, without further ado, my “Top 10” favorite things about our Disneyland wedding.
1. Getting married at the Disneyland Resort. Disneyland has always been a special place for me, and many of my favorite memories have to do with our family’s Disneyland visits and my trips as an adult with my husband. Getting married at what I consider my “happiest place on Earth” just felt right.
2. Our photographers. The Roots were so much fun to work with, and are so great at what they do, we immediately felt comfortable with them. We had taken professional photos before, but with Nathan and Jensey we felt like we were just hanging out with friends that happen to be wonderful photographers.
3. Our wedding photos. I don’t think we could be any happier with our wedding photos. They tell the story of our wedding day perfectly, and showcase everything that made us happy about our wedding day. It’s truly impossible for us to pick favorites because we love them all (and have a new – very large – photo gallery wall to prove it).
4. Disney’s customer service. From the check-in staff to the servers at our reception, every cast member was happy for us and glad to help us. Throughout our entire wedding weekend we didn’t feel rushed, nor did we feel as if our requests were an inconvenience. Many cast members went above and beyond what was required of them, which was an unexpected surprise. I’ll be honest, there were a couple “hiccups” during our wedding day, but they were remedied as quickly and as best as our day-of coordinator was able.
5. Feeling like a princess on our wedding day. We received so many congratulations from guests in and around the hotel on our wedding day, which made us feel incredibly special. The Roots commented on how they don’t see people congratulating brides and grooms like that anywhere but Disney, and even if this wasn’t our wedding, as a bridesmaid several times over, I have to agree. It was so neat when a little girl in a Jasmine costume came up to me and shyly said “congratulations!” Later, a couple of little girls walked by with their mother on the way to meet real princesses, saw my husband and I taking pictures and started whispering about princesses while I heard their mother telling them to say “hello” and “congratulations” before they continued to the parks. It seems a little silly, but I think I’ll remember feeling special, like a princess, forever.
6. Our intimate wedding. There are pros and cons to a destination wedding, which weighed into our decision to get married at the Disneyland Resort. Most of our family and friends live several hours away from the Disneyland Resort, so not everyone was able to make the trip to Southern California. Our immediate family did make the trip; however, so we were able to spend quality time throughout our wedding weekend with them without having to stress about hosting a large group of friends and family. For us, an intimate wedding was perfect.
7. Having a Disney wedding coordinator. It was incredibly convenient to tell our coordinator what we wanted for floral, cake, table linens, and many other details, and have her handle it. We didn’t have to worry about anything like directing vendors or setting up floral, which made the planning process and our wedding day more fun than I expected after participating in non-Disney weddings (including some that had coordinators).
8. Our ceremony location. The Wedding Garden was lovely, rustic, and didn’t need additional decoration. I loved it the first time I saw pictures of it, and we knew it was where we wanted our ceremony when we began looking into a Disneyland Resort wedding. The entire Grand Californian Hotel is beautiful; from the grand fireplace in the lobby, to the quiet and private back corner of the Brisa Courtyard where we had our first look. The photo opportunities and theming throughout the Grand Californian Hotel were exactly what we envisioned for our “big day.”
9. Our reception location. The Wisteria Room was perfect in every way. Not too big, or too small, we didn’t feel as if the small size of our wedding relegated us to an old or less-attractive banquet room. All of the Disneyland Resort is lovely and well-maintained, so this might seem odd in a Top 10 list, but after viewing local options that are significantly less well-kept and/or attractive, it was good to know the care Disney takes with everything is reflected in even the smallest banquet rooms.
10. The “walk-ability” of the Disneyland Resort. We parked our car (as did all of our non-local guests) and walked to everything during our wedding weekend. We didn’t have to worry about parking or guest transportation, and were able to enjoy the time spent with our guests rather than worrying about people getting to the various get-togethers we planned during the wedding weekend.
