Katie -
When we scheduled our planning session, they preferred that you do it AFTER the contract is signed and you are assigned an EM - we did ours 6 months before the wedding. This is simply beacuse after the contract is signed you are officially scheduled and locked in to your location and times. For example this way you don't spend a lot of time planning for a morning wedding and a reception at the Whitehall room and end up with an afternoon wedding and reception at the Living Seas - Completely different times and venues! Also, the prices that you receive with your service quotes will be closer to the actual numbers the closer you are to your event. Keep in mind that with Disney you don't have to have everything set until much closer to the wedding when compared to a traditional service and reception (with Disney it's more in the range of 30-60 days before the event as opposed to months and sometimes a year with a traditional at home event). Also, you may find FTW to be a bit unresponsive to your needs until you've signed your contract and it is MUCH closer to your wedding (again closer to a couple months before the big day.) After your planning session you will understand why those darn EM's are so hard to get ahold of! Good luck!
Marne
