Where should we do our vow renewal?

Are you planning on working through Disney at all, or are you planning on setting up all the arrangements yourself?
The reason I ask is that I've thought about this too, and it seems you could do it yourself for a fraction of the cost that WDW would charge you.

I had thought about doing this in a grand villa at one of the DVC resorts, but I LOVE the beach idea. Imagine doing this at the Poly at dusk, with the lights of the Magic Kingdom behind you.

The big question is how WDW officials are going to react to a ceremony, (even a small, simple one), if you aren't working through them.

<post edit> Found this website that talks about weddings at WDW where you DON'T go through WDW Weddings. http://www.mouseweddings.com/wdwwedding.html

Thanks for the link. We were planning on going through Disney, but I think that's because we never considered NOT going through Disney.

But it's a good question whether Disney would object to a small ceremony on the beach that wasn't under their immediate control.

Anyone know the general cost to go through Disney?

I'm of the mindset that it is better to ask for forgiveness than it is permission. Therefore, plan a "guerilla wedding"! Have everybody hit the beach at the same time in casual clothes, do the ceremony and be back upstairs at the bar in a few minutes BEFORE Disney has a chance to react and object.

Say you had a fifteen minute ceremony on the beach. Following this plan, you'd probably be five minutes into it before any cast members paid attention. MOST cast members are pretty easy to get along with, and aren't going to cause you problems if you aren't causing THEM problems. Even if they DID report it to upper management, there'd be another 5-10 minutes before they came out to investigate and at that point you're done.

I really think if you were doing a small ceremony and kept it simple and quick, they not only wouldn't have TIME to react, since you aren't really causing any interruptions they might not object too much.

You sacrifice the formality of the wedding process, but I'd trade candles and music and all that stuff in a heartbeat for the pictures of the ceremony in the Poly beach atmosphere with the Lagoon in the background.

I think you're exactly right. Any right-minded CM or manager is going to assess whether the negative PR and upsetting you is worth making you stop. More than likely if you look like you're not going to be long and you're not attracting too much attention you'll probably be okay. The only problem would arise if tons of people started doing the same thing. But until it becomes a fad, I suspect they'd figure the cost-benefit of letting you finish to be in favor of leaving you alone.

It's actually probably GOOD PR for them, right? Everyone else on the beach would look and think how interesting it would be to do the same...then they'd ask a CM about it and the CM would direct them to Disney Vow Renewal.

I love the Poly idea and also the WL and the BWI. It is expensive to go thru Disney. Depending on how many people you have it can be set up other ways and you can save money.

Is that technically a no-no with Disney?

I look at it this way, if I'm renting a room at WDW and are having a few friends over and one of them happens to have the authority to marry someone and happens to DO that while they are visiting, then Disney can 'get over it'.

I'm sure they'd rather you go through them, but the people who want to spend a bunch of money for a wedding will continue to do so. The people who would do this probably wouldn't be going through Disney anyway.

I doubt that this would be done by many, but if a few did, and the word got out, it might really take off in the WDW fan community.

Actually, this grass roots wedding plan could work to Disney's advantaqe. The more people who choose to do these 'private ceremonies', the more people who will be coming along for the ride, hence booking rooms, eating food, buying tickets, etc.

Assuming you love Disney enough to want to get married there, you're probably going to spend some money there as well.

And I've stated before that I would love to do this on our 25th anniversary in 2015. Invite a few close friends, get a Grand Villa and have a quiet ceremony that is important to us, whether anyone else (the weirdo NON-Disney fan world) thinks it is a cool thing or not.

Which leads me to a question. When people renew their vows, do they actually get a marriage license? After all, you're already married, so what would be the use?

(Could you be accused of bigamy, even though its the same person twice? )

Ohhhh... they might have a case in our situation then...

This thread kind of went to weddings...so I'm going back to vow renewal.

Our next trip will be for our 5th Anniversary. I would love to renew our vows with the minister that married us (and our next door neighbor). I would be willing to pay a couple nights for her to stay at WDW if she would do it. Renewing our vows would be quick and simple (You did this once...you dumb enough to do it again?) ((I'm kidding Donna Jane! I Love You, Baby!))

Would Disney object to that? Of course, we would try to be out of the general flow of traffic. I would be interested in hearing more views...or from people that have renewed their vows at WDW.

A CM who works boats recently told me that a couple once asked him to renew their vows at the spur of the moment while he was transporting them on a Friendship boat from DHS to Epcot. He agreed, and drew upon memories of wedding services he'd seen on tv to spontaneously come up with the vows. He 'remarried' them between DHS and the Swan and Dolphin aboard a Friendship boat.

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Upcoming Trips

July 2010 - Old Key West

Oct 2010 - Boardwalk Villas

Talk about spontaneous. That's the way to do it.

I would assert that Disney loves this kind of thing. They want nothing more than for you to celebrate or commemorate an occasion at their park. Of course you wouldn't be able to set up a chapel in the middle of Main Street complete with pews:) You could, however, have the minister and perhaps some friends and family in a non-obtrusive spot. Best thing to do would be to talk to Disney about it as the time draws nearer. In my experience, companies in general are very willing to work with you on things like this. They are typically willing to do things you never knew they would; you need only ask.

Really good points, LIFL