How I found myself in the corner with the mouse and pumpkin

Jul 24 '01 Write an essay on this topic.

The Bottom Line Lots of cash for a cookie cutter wedding with Disney touches. Be certain your arrangements are confirmed--and have a back-up plan ready to go!

Once upon a time, an Ohio princess met a New York prince on the internet, and it was love at first click. They met. They kissed. They knew. A ring and many promises were offered, and the princess soon found herself planning a wedding.

I'd love to stop and say she lived happily ever after, but that wouldn't be much of an epinion, would it? And before I go any further, I should tell you that an early version of this sad tale was posted in the category Disney for Adults over a year ago. But, alas, now that this category exists, I'm updating and moving this to the proper area.

But I digress. Let's return now to my tale of woe. It may make you think twice about a Disney wedding.

The Issues
Like most couples, my prince and I faced a number of challenges when planning the logistics of our wedding. His town? My town? Get out of town? Chicken? Fish? Vegetarian? Wine or mimosas? Roses or daffodils? White,ivory, or for fashion's sake, black?

Family culture was another biggie. He's from a large, Italian, family-loving clan. My family is quiet and reserved.

And a few others: we were marrying in February, and I didn't want to fall on the ice.

Money was limited, and I knew I wanted amazing flowers, great photos, and a delicious, low-key lunch.

I didn't want a traditional wedding--yet I wasn't quite willing to elope, either.

We both wanted to honeymoon at Walt Disney World.

The Plan

After considering everything, and ruling out weddings in our hometowns, I realized a Disney Intimate Wedding might be perfect for us. After making several long distance calls, a package of wedding information was delivered.

My first impression: This is EXPENSIVE.

My second: this is so lovely and romantic--and fun! How do we sign up?

Within days, I was assigned a Disney wedding coordinator, who worked with me to plan every detail. Disney's Fairy Tale Weddings department has truly thought of everything--and my coordinator assured me everything was in place for our wedding. Our rooms were reserved, our guests' rooms were reserved, we'd paid for everything, the flowers were ordered, we'd had a nice chat with the minister, and our entire day had been planned. We were set for a small wedding (12 people) at the Yacht Club gazebo. . . followed by a private lunch at the Beach Club--and then we'd meet our guests for a private dinner in France (at Epcot, of course) followed by champagne during Illuminations, Epcot's marvelous sound and light show.

Being a bride, I checked in with my coordinator at least once a week--and was always reassured that all was well.

Enter the villain, stage right

And then I got the call.

Just four days before I was to move to New York, someone from Disney's wedding department phoned and started the conversation "I don't know how to tell you this, but. . ."

I refrained from hysterics. Surely it was just a computer glitch. I took a deep breath, hung up, and called Disney reservations. Yes, they said, she was right. Your reservations, along with all your guest reservations, were canceled for non-confirmation and payment.

Impossible, I said, we paid the wedding department. Although she was kind and gracious, the reservations person could not help me--our rooms were gone. And, since we were no longer Disney guests, we technically no longer had access to Disney facilities for our wedding or festivities. Nor were any other rooms available, and no, a supervisor could not help. Sorry.

The princess retreats to her corner, weeping

I did the only rational thing--I hung up and cried.

Then, of course, I called my wedding coordinator, who was on vacation. Her supervisor stumbled and bumbled and insisted that it wasn't their fault. I shrieked that we had paid, weeks ago, and we had reconfirmed everything with the wedding coordinator, and that if there was a problem, why hadn't she told us? When I didn't get an answer, I begged them to reinstate our wedding plans--and was told that another wedding had already been booked, same time, same place.

That's right--we were screwed. To make it worse, we'd purchased plane tickets for ourselves (first class) and for most of our guests, and they weren't refundable. We'd also purchased our Disney passes for the trip--and we'd bonded with the photographer and minister.

And gosh, we wanted to get married.

Knock, knock, I'm your Fairy Godmother

Once I had a good old-fashioned sob session, I realized I had very little time to put things in place. I started by calling all the Disney hotels directly, including those in the Hotel Village. All booked.

My next list includes places just outside the park--again, booked, booked, and overbooked. By the time I called the Marriott Orlando World Center, I was whimpering.

By the grace of God, a wise telephone operator, and the Marriott Corporation, we did. Someone had just canceled a group reservation, and the operator quickly booked our rooms. When she asked why we needed so many, the whole story tumbled out. Though she could've handled 10 callers in that time, she listened. And then she began working magic. She quickly discounted the rooms, and then she began waving her wand.

"A woman I know just got married here," she said, "and it was beautiful. In fact, she works here. Why don't you talk to her?"

Who was I to resist? With her help, our entire wedding was planned, booked, and paid for less than 45 minutes later. From the personal florist to her baker, every detail was perfect.

Not only that, my photographer and minister from Disney were happy to do our wedding--and the minister charged a lot less than Disney did for his services. My bouquet was enormous and stunning--and all our guests had flowers, all for far less than Disney.

The Evil Villain tries to make up for it

Back to Disney, though--a few days after the call, I got another call. We made a mistake. Your wedding is back on. Oh, but we do have to move you twice during your stay and the new room doesn't have a king bed, okay?

Since everything at the Marriott was nonrefundable, and Disney had already blown my trust, I declined. I sat down and wrote a scathing letter to Michael Eisner, Mickey Mouse, and every other senior executive I could find. . . with every lousy detail.

Oh, okay. Disney's no villain.

Disney did respond with grace--and with extensive apologies--and I'm told they changed their procedures as a result of our wedding disaster. They promised to credit our account for all the charges, and did, within weeks. They also offered several complimentary tickets for our trouble, and invited us to Epcot for our wedding dinner in France. Finally, they said they'd go out of their way to make our wedding and honeymoon at WDW special--and offered to get us reservations at restaurants and take care of our other needs.

We figured that meant something. The tickets were nice (we used the last ones to celebrate our fifth anniversary this year!). But dinner in France? Nothing special--no congratulations, no flowers, no bottle of wine, nothing but a surly waitress and a big check. And those reservations? Every last one mysteriously disappeared.

Although the Marriott did wonderful things for us (and we are still living happily ever after) our wedding was no fairy tale. . . and Disney was disappointing.

So you wouldn't recommend it, would you?

Based on my wedding, no.

Based on my fifth anniversary and how we were treated, in a heartbeat. In fact, we were showered with such good cheer and surprises during our anniversary week, it was almost like someone behind the scenes told every cast member to make our experiences extraordinary. Gifts and goodies were sent to our room. Drinks and desserts were offered on the house. We had wonderful seats for everything. Our room was upgraded.

It all made for a marvelous week--one that made me think. Had Disney kept up their end of the agreement, would our wedding week have been full of these surprises?

We'll never know. . . but we know one thing. We're planning a Disney Vow Renewal for our 10th Anniversary!

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