All of this Disney Fairy Tale Wedding nonsense started as a part of my quest to get the Magic Kingdom wedding portraits from Disney Fine Art Photography. I’m not a particularly princessy person (seriously, when asked my inner Disney Princess at the Wedding Showcase two years ago, I said Wonder Woman), but as long as I can remember, I have wanted these silly park pictures.
In the first part of this series I talked about this, but in case you’re new to the blog, I never thought I’d be able to afford my dream dress to have said pictures, but an interesting twist of fate resulted in me getting my dream dress for a fraction of the cost. Trading services is so much better than buying things. However, in order to take Magic Kingdom Disney Fine Art Photography wedding portraits, you have to be having a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding, so here we are.
Magic Kingdom has three options for portrait sessions, referred to as “Routes” because they go to different locations. This is all actually on the Disney Fine Art Photography website. All the routes start at the castle and then work their way through the park, before the park opens for the day. Back when I worked for Disney, I actually saw a handful of couples taking photos outside Pirates of the Caribbean. I’m fairly certain they drive the couple around in a black SUV instead of walking through the park, or at least they used to.
Route one starts at the castle and then heads into Fantasyland. (Actually, I guess they all technically start in Fantasyland, but only one goes outside of Fantasyland.) The first stop is Prince Charming’s Regal Carousel, then the Mad Tea Party, before finishing at the Wishing Well. Route two goes to New Fantasyland! It starts with Enchanted Tales with Belle, then the Be Our Guest Restaurant, and ends at Under the Sea – Journey of the Little Mermaid. Route Three begins at Rapunzel Tower, then goes to the Haunted Mansion, and ends at Pirates of the Caribbean.
So, for each route you essentially get four backdrops. The Castle, and then the three stops along the route. The big draw for us is the Castle, of course, but which route was obvious.
Part of the beauty of the Disney Cruise Line wedding is that you only have to put 20% down up front, and can make payments as you have the money up until the pay in full deadline. Sadly, this is not the case for the Disney Fine Art Photography Premier Portrait Session. Boy, that’s a mouthful. I had to have the full amount of $2,400 plus tax up front, which was no easy task. At the same time, I was afraid if I waited too long, the date we wanted wouldn’t be available, because only one couple can use each route per day.
What to do… what to do…
I thought about spacing out the wedding and the portraits, until I realized that wouldn’t be nearly as much fun and a lot of the “magic” of the wedding would have faded. Plus, it wasn’t like moving the date would let me pay later. I still needed to get it reserved, but there was no real way to come up with that kind of cash all at once, quickly enough.
So, I did the thing everyone tells you should never to do to pay for a wedding: I opened a new credit card. I never was good at doing what I was told.
Before you jump to conclusions about how irresponsible I am, I did my research. I was specifically looking for a credit card with no interest for the first year, and a good cashback bonus, like my Discover card had when I opened it. I finally landed on the Chase Freedom card. No interest for the first 15 months, and 3% cashback on all purchases in the first year, and 1% cashback after that. (The offer is now $150 cashback after you spend $500 in the first three months, and 5% cashback in rotating categories, and 1% cashback on everything else.) So that gave me the ability to pay it in full, and 15 months to come up with the money to pay it off, plus 3% of $2,400 so that’s $72 in cashback. You can apply for the Chase Freedom card here, and I get $100 for referring you. You also get a $200 statement credit after you spend $500 in the first three months. No, this article is not a plug for a credit card. This is really how I did it, and I’ve been getting cashback on just about every cent I’ve spent on this wedding.
Now that I had the means to pay for the Premier Park Portraits, I had one more monster to face, my arch-nemesis: the phone call. I avoid phone calls by any means necessary. I would rather drive somewhere and talk to someone than make a phone call. Why can’t the world just operate by email?
So, I sucked it up, and I did it. I just called the 407 number on their website. It was pretty simple, and the lady was very pleasant. When do you want to do it, which route, where are you getting married, etc., are some of the questions she asked.
Then we got to the total, and she said a number over $2,800. I froze.
“I thought it was $2,400 plus taxes for Magic Kingdom.”
“Oh! It is. I’m so sorry, that’s the two park price. I just got off the phone with someone who was doing two parks and I had that number in my head.”
“Oh good. No problem.”
I finished the payment and waited for my confirmation email. With it came a discovery form for us to fill out about what we had in mind, if we had any specific photographer we wanted to request, and if we were bringing any props.
My brain had started spinning. It was roughly only an extra $300 to add a second park?
A couple days later, I sent a follow up email asked exactly how much the difference was. It was a little over $300 with taxes, but not by much.
I brought it up to Jay.
“Its only $300 for an extra shoot?”
“Yeah!”
“We’d be stupid not to.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
Another follow up email. We would have to do two days, unless it was Magic Kingdom and Epcot. Since World Showcase doesn’t open until 11, the photos there can be taken later. There was no way we would do Epcot though, it’s our least favorite park. Hollywood Studios doesn’t have as many cool locations, so there was only one logical choice: Animal Kingdom. It is the prettiest park anyway.
Now I had to make another phone call to give them the payment information again. Ugh. However, I got it booked, so now we had Magic Kingdom at 6:00 am planned for the first day home after the cruise, and Animal Kingdom at 7:00 am the second day.
The photographer meets you in the lobby of your resort the morning of your shoot, or if you’re not staying in a Walt Disney World resort, you meet them at the Grand Floridian. I thought about meeting them at the Grand Floridian and staying home to save money, but I decided against it for two reasons. One, it would be easier to get ready in a hotel room, and easier for a hair and make-up artist to come to a hotel. I certainly wouldn’t want to go to someone’s house if I was a make-up artist. Two, we have a husky. I don’t even want the wedding dress in the house until everything is all said and done, or it’ll be covered in fuzz. So, I booked us two nights at the Yacht Club. I’ve always wanted to stay there, so this seems like as good a time as any.
I looked at a couple of make-up artist companies, and wound up going with Stacie from Fairytale Hair and Makeup after reading some wonderful reviews. She will be coming to the Yacht Club both mornings, at an ungodly early hour, to help me get ready for these photoshoots.
Now with the cruise and the photoshoots booked, that took care of our two largest expenses. Sadly, the park portraits ate any and all photography budget we had, so we’re actually not planning on having a photographer on the ship. We’re going to bring my cameras and our phones and hope for the best.
Out of pocket expenses so far:
Cruise Fare: $4,944.06
Invitations and Postage: $89
Disney Fine Art Photography: $2875.50
Fairytale Hair and Makeup Deposit: $100
Total: $7908.56*
*I’m not counting hotel stays as part of the wedding expenses totals here, because they vary so much from time of year and what special offers Disney is running at the time.
