Our Reception Site

Originally we thought that we wanted to have our reception at the Grand Californian Hotel. I was really excited at the prospect of our guests walking through the sliding stained glass doors at the entrance, entering the lobby, and feeling the sense of awe I felt the first time I stepped into the hotel. Unfortunately that sense of awe did not extend to the ballrooms that were available to groups our size at the hotel.

These rooms were not terrible by any means. They were very nice and had some very nice details, wood paneling on the walls, tiffany lamps, and carpeting, but ultimately they just looked like a typical convention room. A nicer than usual convention room, but a convention room none the less. The rooms that are used for large parties look considerably nicer, it may be because of the hight ceilings, but we did not want to have a 200 guest wedding.

It turned out the perfect reception site was at the Disneyland Hotel. The hotel is older and nowhere near as nice as the Grand Californian, but the Sleeping Beauty Pavilion was perfect, and we decided to make it the venue for our reception.


It is an octagonal shaped room with floor to ceiling windows. It is on the second floor of the hotel, so when you are sitting in the room you feel as if though you are sitting in the trees. It will make a great site for the reception, and I think all the guests will be surprised at how nice a Disney wedding really is.

The moment we booked our reception site I started thinking about ways we might decorate it. I really like the lighted draping in the ceiling, but I get the feeling it might be a bit expensive, and I can think of a few things I would rather spend that money one. If we were to go with the draping I would like to see something like this, with many different shapes, colors, and sizes of paper lanterns.


So far this is only one idea, and there are many more. I am really very eager to be able to talk to our event planner and see how much some of these things would cost us. I will make choices based on cost of having Disney do things and the cost of having an outside vendor do it. No matter what we do I know we will have a great time and a celebration our friends and families will enjoy.