A Vegan Disney Fairy Tale Wedding

Every girl has dreamed of a fairy tale wedding and I was not excluded. So when Corey and I were talking about getting married we both knew exactly where we would do it, Disney World. So when we decided on a Disney Wedding I started research about vegan weddings offered through their Fairy Tale Weddings service. I personally was unable to find anyone else’s experience so I figured we should share our own.

We first had to speak with our very own Disney Wedding Advisor over a year out from our desired date. There are three options for Disney weddings, since we chose a Wishes wedding which includes a ceremony and reception with over 18 guests we needed to book a year in advance. When I talked to our advisor, Joe, I informed him of our diet. He assured me that they have sample menus for full vegan, kosher and gluten free weddings they have done in the past. Joe also told me that our cake could be made vegan through Disney. We were able to book our first choices for our ceremony and reception locations, both at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort. We also picked a not so busy time of year, beginning of May, for our wedding so that the crowd levels were lower and that we had a better chance to get what we wanted for our locations. 

Once we had our locations booked we could then start a conversation with our actual wedding planner, Carol. Carol was great, she was very quick to respond back to me about any questions we had, most being about food. We told her of our vegan diet and she asked what we would be wanting to have for our buffet. Since we got married on Cinco De Mayo we decided to have a full mexican buffet, which is also easy to make vegan. She told us that we would have to get a cake through Babycakes NYC and that Disney does not do special diet cakes, which is not what Joe had told us. For Disney Fairy Tale Weddings they suggest an in person planning day to be done about 4-6 months before the actual event. We were already booked for a trip in October for Food and Wine so we managed to squeeze in a planning session too. My parents even came to help with the planning and enjoy drinks in Epcot with us.

The wedding planning is supposed to consist of cake and menu tasting, meeting with the florist and figuring out what magical things you want to add to your ceremony and reception. Prior to our planning session we received a sample menu from our chef and Carol. We decided to make some minor changes to it, adding empanadas and tamales, and they quickly responded back with the items we requested on the menu. Unfortunately we were unable to sample our menu during our planning session due to a giant conference going on at Disney’s BoardWalk Resort, but we trusted the Disney chefs to do a great job without trying the food before-hand.

During our planning session we were able to sample cake and icing flavors for our wedding cake. After trying everything on the platter we decided on a two tier cake with Blondie, vanilla with chocolate chips, and Brownie, chocolate with chocolate chips, with vanilla frosting and a small cake that was Cinnamon Toastie with Cinnamon frosting as well. We had to order and pay for our cake separately through Babycakes NYC and not Disney. Emily at Babycakes was easy to get ahold of and knew exactly what I wanted. We thought we ran into a problem when Babycakes NYC closed their store front for Downtown Disney’s expansion, but we were assured that this wouldn’t be an issue since they are still supplying sweets to the parks.

May arrives and it’s time for our wedding! Everything went so smooth the day of, anything we needed we had. Our planner had her team and they made sure everything ran smoothly. We had our photos taken separately and then the guests and Corey were sent to Sea Breeze Point for the ceremony. My dad and I came in and our fairy tale began.

After our beautiful and quick ceremony, our celebration began. We took our photos while our guests enjoyed appetizers upstairs in Atlantic Dance Hall. Our guests enjoyed:

Fresh and Grilled and Chilled Vegetable Crudite with Roasted Garlic, Dill and White Bean Dip
Grilled Flatbreads and Papadums
Traditional Hummus and Sun-dried Tomato Hummus

We were able to enjoy some of this too in secret after our photos were done, that papadums and sun dried hummus were absolutely delicious. While we were enjoying the appetizers the chef came out to talk to us about our buffet. He told us that this was his first all vegan menu and he said he even enjoyed some of the vegan versions of what we had over the “normal” ones. After an hour of appetizers the guests moved downstairs and we were announced into the reception.

Once we were introduced by Major Domo, and had our first dance. We were then seated and waited to enjoy our buffet. Our full menu for our buffet was:

Assorted Baby Greens with Avocado, Tomato, Cucumber, Citrus Segments, and Crisp Tortillas on the Side
Agave Chipotle Vinaigrette and Creamy Avocado and Cilantro Dressing
Roasted Corn Salad with Sweet Plantain Tossed with Cumin Vinaigrette
Green Chili Tamales with Roasted Tomatillo Salsa
Potato, Fried Onion and Vegan Cheese Empanadas
Cerveza Braised Black Beans
Garlic Scented Brown Ric
Quinoa Stuffed Peppers with Fire Roasted Tomato Ranchero Sauce
Vegan Beef Fajita with Peppers & Onions Warm Tortillas, Guacamole, Jalapeños, Black Olives, Fresh Pico de Gallo, and Vegan Cheese Shreds
Sautéed Seasonal Vegetables
Fresh Baked Bread

Both of us were so overwhelmed from the day that we weren’t able to eat that much. The empanadas were the best part of the menu, I have not eaten an empanada in years and we were excited that the chef was willing to make them for us. I was told from several guests that the quinoa stuffed peppers were their second favorite to the empanadas. The tamales were a little dry but everything we had from the buffet tasted very fresh and was the best meal we had the whole trip.

After filling up on our food from the buffet it was time for cake! We were ready to devour our beautiful cakes. Mickey and Minnie joined us for a dance and helped us cut the cake.

Our cake was just as good as it was when we tasted them in October. The cake was moist and Cinnamon Toastie was still my favorite. Everyone loved the cake and no one seemed to notice that it was both vegan and gluten free. My gluten intolerant friends were very happy to be able to enjoy our cake too.

Our experience with Disney Fairy Tale Weddings was great. They were very accommodating for our vegan needs and everything was just so easy. I know plenty of other women who have planned weddings and complained about all the work they had to do and the stress. I didn’t deal with any of that because Disney, specifically Carol, made everything so easy. Anything I wanted changed it was done immediately. If you love Disney and are planning on having a smaller wedding, I suggest looking into a Disney Fairy Tale Wedding. Cheers,
Melissa & Corey