A Friday Visit with Jim Korkis: Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings
By Dave Shute
Welcome back to Fridays with Jim Korkis! Jim, the dean of Disney historians, writes about Walt Disney World history every Friday on yourfirstvisit.net.
YOUR PERSONAL DISNEY LIBRARY (35)
By Jim Korkis
- Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings by David Tutera
There are many different types of magic that can take place at Walt Disney World. For some it is the site of their first date or kiss. For others, it is where they proposed. Increasingly, it is the place where people get married.
Disney fans have always wanted to get married at a Disney park. I recall even in the late 1980s friends doing “guerilla weddings” by hiding the appropriate clothes like a tux or a wedding dress in the lockers and having a handful of guests attend a “quickie ceremony” at a pre-arranged time and location before Disney security was alerted.
The Walt Disney Company saw this desire as an opportunity to increase revenue (and to control the situation) by officially hosting weddings in September 1991. Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings & Honeymoon division was started in 1992. It is part of the Disney Parks Experiences and Products division.
The Disney Wedding Pavilion opened in 1995 near the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa with a wedding for the first episode of the television show Weddings of a Lifetime. In 2017, Freeform and Disney+ offered the Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings documentary television series profiling couples’ marriages at the parks.
Disney’s Wedding Pavilion is an intimate setting that hosts up to 250 people and is only accessible by the footbridge from the Grand Floridian Resort & Spa. It features a view of Cinderella’s Castle at the Magic Kingdom.
However, the Wedding Pavilion is not the only location to host WDW weddings. Disney has used the World Showcase pavilions at Epcot as well as locations like the BoardWalk Resort, Yacht Club Resort, and Polynesian Village Resort.
A wedding can cost from as little as $4,000 for just four guests at a small resort location to well over $12,000. For Magic Kingdom after hours, the minimum expenditure is $50,000.
And, of course, those are all just minimum prices. Including just one Disney character performer for thirty minutes can cost an additional $1,500. Including Cinderella’s Glass Coach can add an additional $3,500.
Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings avoids all those discussions of hard costs, not only because they keep increasing, but not to spoil the magic. It focuses on invitations, food and beverage, the wedding cake, lighting, decoration, fashion, flowers and other similar topics for upscale weddings.
Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings is written by David Tutera, a notable celebrity event planner whose portfolio includes weddings, with additional contributions by Kirstie Kelly, a bridal gown designer who works with Disney Fairy Tale Weddings to create bridal gowns, bridesmaid dresses, flower girl fashions and accessories.
The information provided in Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings is more for any type of upscale wedding rather than specifically focused on a wedding that might showcase a particular Disney movie, theme or characters. More recent information can be found at the Disney Fairy Tales Wedding website.
As with all Disney Editions books, Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings is overflowing with beautiful full color photographs on every page. For me, I was disappointed that the text was not more Disney-centric. Moreover, a simple search on the internet will garner many more creative (and less expensive) ideas for a Disney-themed wedding.
However, the appeal of getting married at Walt Disney World is an idea that appeals to tens of thousands of hopeful couples every year, with two thousand or more actually doing it.
Since Disney’s Fairy Tale Weddings lacks any historical data and information specific on creating a Disney themed wedding, I would have difficulty recommending including this book in your collection unless the topic is a particular fascination of yours.
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Thanks, Jim! and come back next Friday for more from Jim Korkis!
In the meantime, check out his books, including his new Halloween-appropriate Vault of Walt Volume 9: Halloween Edition, and his other new book, Hidden Treasures of the Disney Cruise Line.
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