My experiences at the Grand Floridian are more of a detached view. I was a member of a wedding party based at the Grand Floridian in November 1999. The bride and groom (dear friends of mine and my husband's) had nearly 50 guests and VIP events were held daily before and after the wedding - most centered at the GF. I had the pleasure of partying off-site with most of the wedding party in a condo, but the bride and groom were guests at the GF and used their honeymoon suite as a kind of wedding command center.
Being the bride's right-hand, I enjoyed the GF in a most unusual way. Behind the scenes.
The GF is a very formal, elegant resort hotel. Ideal for a romantic wedding and honeymoon setting. (Ideal for my much more formal and affluent best friend.
) It's the height of luxury at WDW for those not able to afford the high-end Presidential-type suites on WDW property. For a night or two, ANYONE can feel like a princess at the GF. My friend's room (wedding command central
) seemed a bit small to me, but there was lot going on - papers, plans, gowns, and tuxedos took up every available surface pre-wedding.
However, after we cleared out all the wedding clutter while the bride was at her last fitting, the room appeared cozy and lovely as a honeymoon retreat. My friend was really pleased with her room.
As wedding guests, we were treated to an amazing VIP experience as the wedding was held at the Wedding Pavilion. The Ketubah Signing was held in the Wedding Pavilion's replica of Franck's Salon from the movie Father of the Bride. The Wedding Pavilion is every bit as white and etheral as a princess could wish. The window behind the altar area in the Wedding Pavilion is unique. It perfectly frames Cinderella Castle and actually magnifies it so it looks larger and brings the magic that much closer.
The bride and groom had a three-part reception: a memorial toast to the bride and groom's departed loved ones on Commander's Terrace (
MouseWeddings.com - Pictures of the Commander's Terrace at Walt Disney World) followed by a viewing of the Electrical Water Pageant from the terrace before moving inside to Victoria & Albert's for dinner and dessert. Despite having dessert at dinner, the entire wedding party and all 44 guests moved to buses waiting in front of the GF to take our group to the Magic Kingdom for the cake-cutting inside the breezeway in Cinderella Castle.
Having sampled some of those amenities as a wedding guest, I can comment on the ambience of the resort and it's flagship restaurant, the V&A. I remember so clearly the walk following the wedding up to Commander's Terrace. The wide, carpeted stairs seemed like something out of Titanic. It was a little too grand for me.
I felt like I was in a fairy tale.
It was a wedding and I'm sure everything was carefully staged by Disney's wedding planners, but they made it seem so happenstance - like magic happens there all the time. I couldn't help but feel like a princess, too.
Dinner at Victoria and Albert's was everything and more than I expected. Our dinner was a very late seating - about 10 PM - and most of the wedding party had been up since 6 AM. Coffee, apparently, is traditionally served at the end of the meal at V&A, but we begged our servers to save us from embarrassing the bride by passing out cold in our sorbets from fatigue and they took pity on us. Dinner was a 5 or 6 course affair carefully orchestrated by the head chef and the bride with a wine pairing for each course. 6 wine tastings and a huge meal caught up with us fast. Coffee never tasted so good. I couldn't say for sure if it was our gratefulness or just the excellent quality of the coffee and expertise of the brewer that made it taste so good.
It's been a long time, so the sequence of events at dinner is a little muddled, but at some point during the part of the evening at the V&A, the bride and groom were presented with a heart-shaped, braided Challah. I don't know much about the tradition of Challah bread, but I believe the rabbi blessed the couple before dinner and the Challah was served to either all of the guests or certain guests. I was one of them, so I have no idea.
My friend was really pleased with the service and care taken by the staff at the V&A. It was an amazing meal and an amazing evening.
One more area of the GF that I can comment on is the GF Convention Center. It's every bit as grand and lovely as the rest of the resort. I was a little bit surprised at the detail that went into the space even on a day when there were so few people actually using the space. The wedding party was allocated several rooms the day of the wedding in the Convention Center to prepare. Maybe 12 of us total and there were floral arrangements in every room. NOT arrangements for the wedding or provided by the bride and groom's parents. Just everyday (HUGE!) floral arrangements on tables in gathering areas and restrooms even.
My friend's wedding planner even arranged for hairdressers and make-up artists to come to us in our temporary dressing rooms.
If you're looking for a fairly tale, you can find it at the Grand Floridian Resort and Spa. While it is just a little too grand for me and wouldn't be my first choice, I can understand the draw for couples and honeymooners who want to be enveloped in that ethereal magic that seems to encapsulate this resort hotel.