Disney Weddings
Ed Holliman
Street Journal.
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PEOPLE ARE SO GOOFY ABOUT DISNEY WORLD THEY MARRY THERE
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Fairy-Tale Weddings Become a Major New Attraction; Cinderella Weds the Prince
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By Eric Morgenthaler
Staff Reporter of The Wall Street Journal
ORLANDO, Fla. - The bride, who lives in Arizona, has visited Walt Disney World
nearly 50 times. The groom ones three Mickey Mouse watches and was wearing one
the day he first met his intended. He keeps a Mickey Mouse doll strapped in
the back seat of his Nissan Sentra.
So when Tricia Bandell and Kris Strachan got married last Saturday, there
wasn't much question about where the ceremony would take place.
WHO'S GOT THE RING?
"The ring," intones the Baptist minister. He looks at the best man, who feels
in his side pocket, stares back blankly and shrugs.
"The ring," the minister says again, more emphatically. A groomsman fidgets. A
bridesmaid giggles.
"The ring!"
Suddenly, harp and violin break into "When You Wish Upon a Star." The minister
beams and gazes up the aisle. The bride and groom glance nervously over their
shoulders, and their eyes grow wide. A footman in white wig and gold livery is
walking slowly toward them, carrying a red velvet pillow with a glass slipper
on it.
In the slipper are the rings for this wedding on an emerald lawn by a silver
lake with a golden view of Cinderella's Castle.
"A dream come true," says Tricia.
It had to happen. As Walt Disney Co. built ever-grander hotels - there are 10
in all at Disney World - more and more couples wanted to get married in them.
Disney has obliged the demand for years. But in 1991, it opened a full-time
Disney Fairy Tale Weddings Department and has since put on about 200
full-service weddings, say Rebecca Miller, national sales manager for the
division. Prices typically start at about $10,000, though Disney will work
with couples who want to do it more on the cheap.
"Disney is very, very accommodating," says Jeanne Bandell, the mother of
Saturday's bride. She cooked up the idea with a Disney wedding coordinator of
surprising the happy couple with the ring-bearing footman. "They'll do just
about anything you want," she says.
Indeed, for $1000, Disney will supply a Cinderella coach, with footman and
driver and six white ponies.
Mickey and Minnie Mouse and other characters will attend the reception as
ren-a-guests. Other trademark characters will come, too, at a volume discout.
But they won't participate in the ceremony itself, though there's demand for
that, too. "We get that request all the time," Ms. Miller say. Disney has to
draw the line somewhere.
Walt Disney World will throw wedding receptions or dinners around just about
any Disney theme, from "Fantasia" to "Beauty and the Beast." One couple chose
a country-and-western milieu for their wedding in Fort Wilderness, a Disney
World campground and resort. In that case, the bride arrived by stagecoach.
Several couples have tied the knot at Disney's Polynesian Resort, with tiki
torches, leis and a luau afterward.
One couple pledged their troth with Donald and Daisy Duck hats, instead of
rings. A bride attached her veil to the mouse ears she was wearing. Another
bride actually dressed as Cinderella, her betrothed as Prince Charming.
"There are some real Disney fanatics that come here," says Tim Herring, who
officiates at many Disney World weddings. "They just worship this place."
The Rev. Herring looks kindly on the goings-on, "as long as what people do is
in good taste.... We have had some great times."
A fantasy wedding wingding can end up costing a fantastic sum. Dino and Joan
Chouest had at first planned a hometown affair in Galliano, La. They had lined
up a priest and hired a band; they had ordered the invitations. Then, during a
visit to Walt Disney World they learned that they could actually get married
here. They canceled the priest, disinvited the band and, early this month,
were united in marriage in the lobby of Disney's pricey hotel, the Grand
Floridian. About 100 guests, mostly from Louisiana, flew in to Orlando.
"Everything was first class," says Mr. Chouest. The wedding cost $40,000.
One appeal a wedding here has is the array of theme parks all can enjoy at
this 43-square-mile spread southwest of Orlando. Guests who attend from great
distances can make a vacation of it and bring the kids.
Disney makes everything easy. Its wedding department is a one-stop shop -
ready to handle everything from the invitations to the cake and honeymoon
suite. "Where else can you get all this experience under one roof?" asks Mrs.
Bandell, Tricia's mom.
Tricia Bandell was dreaming of a wedding outside Cinderella's castle long
before there was such a thing as a Disney wedding. Now 24 years old, she has
visited the park with her family two or three times a year since the place
opened in 1971. "I never wanted to leave," she says. "I wanted to live in a
cartoon."
Last February, Tricia's parents visited Disney World to celebrate their own
wedding anniversary and learned about Disney weddings. They phoned Tricia, who
was engaged and planning to wed close to home, which is Mesa, Ariz., to broach
the idea. She works at a golf resort. Kris, 28, is a stand-up comic and works
in a retail store.
Her parents weren't concerned about the cost, which ended up at about $16,000.
All they wanted to know from her was whether she wanted Mickey and Minnie to
attend the dinner dance in formal attire. The bride-to-be burst into tears.
At the bride's request, Mickey and Minnie came in street clothes. And when the
couple walked up the aisle as man and wife, it was to the strains of
"Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah."
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Ed Holliman Internet: holl...@sounder.csc.ti.com
CSL Speech Research Group TI MSG: EHOL
Texas Instruments Inc. Voice: (214) 995-6091
PO Box 655474 MS 238 Fax: (214) 995-0304
John Heiden UNIVERSITY OF TOLEDO
> The following article appeared in the October 28, 1992 edition of the Wall
> Street Journal.
>
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>
> PEOPLE ARE SO GOOFY ABOUT DISNEY WORLD THEY MARRY THERE
Gee, you don't mention if it's possible to get hitched inside of one of
the parks. I heard that this just isn't possible. But outside at one of
the hotel resorts is possible.
This brings up an interesting point. I know somebody who WAS married
INSIDE of the Disney-MGM Studios Theme Park! The wedding was going to
be held on an outside film set that a film was using, but was forced
inside when a major downpour came by to ruin things for them.
John Heiden
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John Heiden
Dept. of Computer Services
CSCO...@Uoft02.UTOLEDO.EDU The University of Toledo
CSCO...@Uoft02.BITNET Toledo, Ohio U.S.A.