Warning! The WishBook (and Guest List Drama)

The wishbook is a great online planning tool for Disney Wedding brides and grooms. We used our book to set our budget, choose basic and special additions for the wedding, and to track and list our guests. We had great fun adding thing we liked to the wishbook (the Carriage, confetti cannons, a violinist..) Maybe too much fun. As we added all of the friends and family we hoped to share our big day with, the guest list grew quite large. Although we have a budget, we were skirting the upper echelons of our available cash. But money aside, there turned out to be a much bigger issue lurking: space for everyone.

Disney pulls your guestlist from the wishbook, all online and so easy for you, then sends out save-the-dates to all of your guests. All of them. Even when Disney knows your venue choice is the Napa room at the California Grill. Which apparently only has a max occupancy of 50, but really only seats 40 people. 40. People. So, a few months after our mammoth list of all of our favorite people in the world went out, we discovered from our Wedding Planner, Michelle, that we were limited on the number of guest that could attend our reception. Yikes!

We have since had to un-invite many people. The email went out with a bit of apology and a bit of tongue-in-cheek humor, and most of our friends were understanding and gracious. (It's an expensive trip for all involved, no matter how you spin it, so it may have been a relief to some.) As rude as that was, it was the only way we could avoid starting all over- picking a new wedding date and choosing a new reception location. Since we had already booked our rooms, as have a number of our family members, along with plane reservations, (EDIT: plus the booking the officiant and photographers)...that was really not an option.

Sorry Miss Manners!

EDIT: I must add, to clarify- I don't blame Disney for our mistake. I think in the frenzy and excitement of the start of our wedding planning, we weren't prudent about obvious issues like space and availability of reception locations. I do recommend, after living through such an embarrassing mistake, that you find out all pertinent information up front, and make sure you think clearly when making the guest list and picture your reception. I hope my rudeness can at least help other brides avoid the same fate.