Fairytale Themes: Cinderella

Our Disneymooner Member and Pixie, Katie, wanted to share her Cinderella Theme for her Disney Wedding:

I always knew that I was a princess. And I always knew that I would have my wedding at Disney. So of course, once I was engaged and everyone was on board with a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding, it was decided that the theme would be Cinderella, but not the character, the aspects of the story instead. We would focus on the slipper and the coach, and focus we did.

Even before our wedding even started, we had our theme in place at my bridal shower, we, of course, needed a coach cake

For the wedding, we started with our locations at Disney, The American Adventure Rotunda…there is no place that looks more like the castle ballroom in the world, no place else in the world that I could imagine floating across the floor dancing with my own prince charming, my new husband.

And of course, we needed to add Cinderella’s Coach… there was never any question there…

But it’s the little things that really make a theme…

We chose Cinderella coaches as our centerpieces and used them as ceremony decorations as well

And made little slippers on pillows to put in the middle instead of floral

We had the slipper sorbet

The white chocolate slipper dessert

Our Sparkling Wishes cake had the white chocolate castle topper

My Swarovski Crystal tiara and jewelry had a hidden coach

The table cards were held by little coaches

We wrapped up slipper bottle openers as our favors

We had a coach gobo

We tried to think of every little area that we could tie into the theme and in the end, I truly felt like Cinderella and I did marry my Prince Charming 😉 You can too! If you are a Disney Bride and would like to read my full recaps of my wedding day, join the Forums!

What Theme will/did you have for your Disney Fairytale Wedding?

14Sep2012

Custom Disney Wedding Cake Design

Posted in The Finer Details by FantasiaSam

Custom Wedding Cake Design by Disneymooner Vanessa

One of the advantages of having a Disney wedding is that they offer every service needed for your big day including providing your wedding cake. Disney chefs are known for their unique designs and couples are offered a variety of choices for their cake through Disney Fairy Tale Weddings. Classic designs topped with the chocolate castle to more unique offerings with the Mad Hatter cakes give most brides a choice that will meet their needs. However, if you are looking for something a little different do not worry because Disney will work with you to make your cake dreams come true.

During my planning session I chose one of the standard cake designs offered by Disney. However, a few weeks later I started to have second thoughts about my choice. My planner had me send over pictures and descriptions of what I wanted to have in a cake and then set up a conference call with one of the pastry chefs at the Grand Floridian.

In advance of our call my planner forwarded the pictures and requests I had made to give the chef to give him an idea of what I was looking for in a design. We then had a call that included the pastry chef and my planner. During the call, I described my vision and was given input on a possible design by the pastry chef. After our call I was sent over a sketch that showed the proposed design for the cake. Then I had time to review the sketch to provide input for any additional changes.

I purchased a Jim Shore castle to sit at the top tier because I wanted something that was easier to keep compared to the chocolate castles that are often used. I had pastry chefs duplicate the design of the castles’ walls on the sides of each layer. I also had the banner of “And They Lived Happily Ever After” copied off of some of Disney’s other cake designs. They even created custom flowers that matched those in my bridesmaids’ bouquets.

Other unique touches that I requested came into the shape and placement of the tiers for the cake. I did not want a standard round or square cake, so I requested hexagon shaped layers. These shapes added to the size of the cake, but provided a unique design that is not typical of most wedding cakes. In addition, I asked for the layers of the cake to be staggered giving more height to the design and allowing other items such as floral and a small glass Mickey and Minnie bride and groom to be placed on the table.

I was able to incorporate the bouquets from my bridesmaids in the layout of the cake table. Many brides will choose to have the bouquets adorn the table, but they often end up placed in a circle around the edge of the cake. Brides do not often know that you can rent clear vases to have the bouquets stand upright adding height and depth to the arrangement on your cake table. At my reception we used 9” clear cylinder vases to hold the bridesmaids’ bouquets.

Many custom designs that are created might have a minimum size for the cake based on an estimated number of servings. For many couples this might mean paying for a larger cake than your actual guest count. At my wedding we had 50 guests, but our cake design was based on pricing for 65 guests. Therefore we had to pay the additional per person serving costs for 15 people.

Besides the design of the cake another tip is that there are more flavor options for the wedding cakes than what is offered at the standard tasting. When arranging your tasting make sure to let your planner know any flavors that you would like to sample that might not be typically offered for you to taste. Having these options added to your platter will let you broaden your selection for your final cake. The cake flavors include yellow, chocolate, marble, carrot, red velvet, lemon, orange and almond. The biggest selection for Disney cakes comes with the filling options. For my wedding we had chocolate cake with peanut butter cup filling, orange cake with orange mousse and carrot cake with cream cheese filling.

The current fillings listed on the Disney Fairy Tale Wedding site include the following options:

White Chocolate Mousse
Dark Chocolate Mousse
Milk Chocolate Mousse
Raspberry Mousse
Orange Mousse
Amaretto Mousse
Strawberry Mousse
Passion Fruit Mousse
German Chocolate
Cream Cheese
Bavarian Cream
Peanut Butter Cup
Bailey’s Mousse
Blackberry Mousse
Mocha Mousse
White Chocolate Mousse with Fresh Strawberries or Raspberries
Bavarian Cream with Fresh Strawberries
Passion Fruit Mousse with Fresh Raspberries
Dark Chocolate Mousse with Fresh Raspberries
Strawberry Mousse with Fresh Strawberries
Raspberry Mousse with Fresh Raspberries

No matter what your dream is for a wedding cake, Disney can help make it a reality. I am happy that I worked with my planner to create a custom designed cake that followed our theme and that was unique to our wedding.

Thank you to Vanessa for a mouth-watering blog post and if you would like to see more Disney Wedding cake designs please go to the Disneymooner Forums

6Jul2012

A Disney Bride’s Favorite Moment: Katie

Posted in Favorite Moments by Living Seas Bride

Some of our Disneymooner Forum members have been sharing their favorite moments from their Disney Wedding

by Katie

I think that *my* favorite wedding memory was the walking into the American Adventure Rotunda and seeing how beautiful it looked and realizing that all my planning came together just as I always imagined!

Thank you for sharing your favorite moment Katie. To read more Disneymooner’s favorite moments please visit our forums.

27Jun2012

Specialty Desserts at Disney Weddings

Posted in The Finer Details by Living Seas Bride

We all know Cinderella wore a glass slipper, but did you know that slipper comes in chocolate and ice as well?

Disney’s excellent chefs offer Disney wedding couples the opportunity to add several special treats for their guests.

Typically the cake is the traditional dessert served at weddings, but brides and grooms can also choose to serve other treats that will make the “ooooh’s and aaaah’s” flow.

Some of the choices are:

Serving sorbet as a palette cleanser from one of these spectacular light up mini ice sculptures

Cinderella’s Ice Slipper
Beauty’s Ice Rose.
Mickey’s Icon in Ice
Mickey Hand

Want to give your guests individualized attention for dessert rather than a slice of cake?

Serve a chocolate slipper filed with your choice of chocolate mousse and fresh fruit such as raspberries.

Mini cake designs for each guest

Have you served one of these specialty treats to your wedding guests? Or Have you done something even different?

Come share your stories and pictures on the Disneymooner Forums.

Other brides have shared images and details on these treats, including surprise ways to present them and pricing details.

We always remind brides to ask their planners for other options

8Jun2012

Featured Venue Fridays: Napa Room

Posted in Featured Venue Fridays by Living Seas Bride

This week’s Featured Venue post includes images from Disneymooner Jill’s Napa Room reception, from her Photographer Egomedia Photography.

The California Grill, located at the top of Disney’s Contemporary Resort is a great choice for a bride and groom who want incredible views of along with top-notch cuisine.

See our recent venue review of the main dining room reception. Receptions in the main dining room must end before 3 p.m., however couples wanting an evening reception can utilize one of the restaurants two other private rooms. The Napa Room and Sonoma room offer secondary options for brides and grooms interested in this captivating venue. The Napa Room seats 50 and has a view of the Magic Kingdom. The Napa room can be used for morning or evening receptions and events starting after 4:00p.m. will have a higher food and beverage minimum.

One of the greatest aspects of using the Napa Room for and veining reception is a private show of Wishes fireworks show at the Magic Kingdom. If timed correctly, you and your guests could see a one of a kind view of this incredible fireworks display.

The Sonoma Room is a great location for the cocktail area for Napa Room events, or even for those weddings with a smaller guests list. The Sonoma Room seats 40 guests and has a wonderful view of Bay Lake. Even though the room does not offer a view of the Magic Kingdom, guests and couples cold use the walk way from California Grill to see the fireworks display.