Red84

Oh my goodness!!! Thank you so much for sharing!!!

Wow! She should do her job and people wouldn't complain

Haha I know!

Thank you for keeping me from making a mistake lol Spoke with Carnivals wedding department and they gave me to Sasha I told them no I want someone else and they asked why I told them that friends of mine used her and had a horrible experience...Seems they have been getting that a lot lately lol...wonder why lol

Thank you everyone looks like I need to do some more research!!!

How exciting!!! your Bags look wonderful and your center pieces are lovely! cant wait to hear more. Thank you for sharing!!!

I'll try really hard to learn as much as I can for the future brides!

Thanks!!! This site and all you wonderful people are a God send!!!

I don't know the answer, but these a great questions! I hope someone is able to answer them so we all know.

You must be getting so excited!!!

I got them online at Zazzle

Here's the link

http://www.zazzle.com/cruise_ship_boarding_pass_save_the_date_magnets-160110253538264842

Thank you so much!

So we finally decided to go forward with wedding favors and these are what we picked out. Thank you all for helping me out I really appreciate it :-)

These are what we have tentivly decided to go with all together they will com out to $3.00 a piece

Carnival will only offer discounts on the cruise fare for veterans, they don't do anything special within the weddings department. Carnival does do sales for veterans from time-to-time, where they will offer discounted rates for you, plus two other cabins. They usually run it around the 4th of July and Veterans Day in November.

 

https://www.goccl.com/~/media/GOCCL/Files/Sales/MilitaryJuly_consumer.ashx

Thank you so much!

I am not aware any cruise lines that offer discounts on wedding packages to active duty military. Cruise fare discounts are often offered for military, police and firefighters, and other first responders. But be aware that these discounts are not necessarily offered on every sailing or in every cabin class and may also be offered only for limited time periods. So definitely check with your travel agent or directly with the cruise line to see if any discounts are offered on your sailing. Good luck, and thank you for your service.

Thank you so Much for answering my questions!

I don't believe they offer any discounts on the wedding packages. They do offer military discounts on the cruise fares, but it's not always the best deal out there. We had a few vets that joined us on our wedding cruise. They looked into it, but none of them ended up booking the "military pricing" because there were better deal offerings at the time.

 

I was told that usually the early saver pricing (about 6 months or more before cruise) is usually going to be your best pricing available, even better than military discount, and you get price guarantee to lower your rate if the prices drop, which you don't get with other booking options. Although, we got a suite cabin and all the suites sold out, so by the time the rates started dropping significantly, there weren't any comparable room rates to get ours lowered.

Thank you that gives me some stuff to think about

You could also initially book Early Saver and then price match to military/veteran fares. As long as it's available and you're eligible, you can match to it.

Brilliant advice thank you!!!

We want to do this on our vow renewal. Using a small cut glass bottle with a topper and we want the sand to mix together to symbolise our union.

Sounds lovely!!!

I just wanted to post our Save the Dates! We actually sent them with the invitations because we planned the whole thing in 3-4 months!! I put the registry info and our wedding website on our actual invitations.

 

These were magnetic Save the Dates :)

 

OMG!!! Where did you get these done? I love them!!!

Sure thing, My military son is hoping to go on our wedding cruise so I looked into the cruise discount. You have to call to reserve instead of doing it online.

Thanks I'm a Veteran and my Fiancé is Military. I'm grateful for your help:D

As far as i know you can get a discount on your trip if you have military ID. I don't know if you will get anything on your wedding as a discount though

Thank you :D

We included the date, website and place. There was no need for specific information since we sent them more than a year in advance. Since we were originally going to get married on embarkation day, we did add Baltimore, Maryland under the ship's name.

 

Food for thought--according to the conventional rules of etiquette, registry information should never be on any announcements or invitations that comes from the couple. Modern etiquette experts say that it's ok to include it on your website (if you have one), but otherwise it should only go on your shower invites if one is thrown for you or by word of mouth.

 

We did create a website to keep everything organized and share information with our guests. We originally thought we'd have about 50 sailing guests, so it was handy for that. We hosted our site through ProjectWedding, so we could add online RSVP and Google Maps as an option instead of the traditional RSVP card and map insert.

 

This was our luggage tag STD. We borrowed the the old sail and sign card design.

These are stunning!!! Thanks I didn't know that about the registry :-)

I have been on the phone with carnival almost all morning but no one can give me a defining answer so I decided to go to "The Source" lol. Has anyone planned a wedding on Carnival Cruise who was military or veteran? If so was there any discounts that you got or suggest? Any suggestions or advice? Thank you :D

A word of caution, at least about what happened to my sand ceremony - we did two colors, blue and green, and by the time we got the frame home the colors were all mixed together. They didn't stay separate layers. So either have a plan for getting the frame home upright or expect for the sand to get all mixed together. Not to discourage you, just a word of advice. :)

Thank you so much!!! I wont lie it is something I had thought about :D

No worries on all the questions..I'm happy to share my experience!

 

*I have not posted my review yet, as I just realized today that I never did that, so when I get it posted in full, I'll give a link!...I will attach a few pictures here in the meantime

*The cost to transport guests to the site was $38.50 per person (price of bride & groom already in package). I did chairs on the beach, which were $7.25 each, with floral arrangements at $37.50/each. I also paid for the arch on the beach, which was another $457.50. Of course, this is all just for the extra beach stuff that I personally wanted. If you do one of the on-ship weddings, I would assume chairs and all that would be included in the price on the brochure, and you would only pay for extra flowers, etc. Also, there were no fees that I had to pay that I did not know about upfront.

*I knew that I wanted an off-ship wedding, and I personally had always wanted one on the beach, so I chose the beach site instead of the on-ship ceremony, or even the Waterfall site that is available in Ocho Rios. I also googled a couple pictures and decided I liked the location on the beach (they list the name of the beach on the Carnival site). That was just a personal preference as far as the beach, so that made it an easy decision for me

*The wedding license was a couple forms to fill out with our information, and I had to mail it to the planners in Jamaica with a check for $145 attached for processing. I believe a copy of our driver's licenses were also included in that package

*On the marriage license note...I live in Alabama. I called to confirm that an international wedding in Jamaica would be legal in Alabama first. There are SOME states that require you to get married in that state, in order for them to recognize it as legal. You will have to check with you local offices for that requirement! I never did anything in the state of Alabama

*I actually did not choose to do a reception...mainly because the only guests we had were both of our parents. If I had planned on having more people come, I was just going to reserve a table at the specialty restaurant for all of us and tell them we were celebrating. My husband and I had a dinner as just the two of us at the specialty restaurant on board instead. I did see Carnival rope off some rooms that were for events, so they can definitely do a reception for you on board if that’s the package you choose.

*Also, you do have the cake/champagne while at the site (on or off ship), and we did it on the beach for ours, but I assume it would be part of an actual reception if you choose that on the ship

*The bouquet...okay, this was one of my only issues with the place...the bouquet itself was very pretty, and fit my requests...but the RIBBON they used was hideous!! Just a personal preference though...and they did not exactly do the shade of blue that I had asked for...but that being said, it still all turned out beautiful!

*Also, if you choose to do your ceremony ON the ship instead of off, I believe Carnival will deliver the bouquet to you in order for you to add embellishments, etc on it, but that is not an option that I know of for an off-ship ceremony

*Also, if you do an On-ship ceremony, I am not sure if they will let you get off the ship and take pictures on shore. It would most likely depend on your wedding time. They did not assign my wedding time until a week before my wedding day, but that was also because it was the island planners having to fit everyone in. Carnival might be able to assign times well ahead for on-ship ceremonies. But that is something to ask about if you want pictures both on and off the ship.

*I did NOT trash my dress!! =) ...I loved it WAY too much to get it dirty…in fact, I decided that I loved it SO much that I want to do a vow renewal in a few years and wear it again haha. I MIGHT decide to trash it then though ;0)

*The formal marriage certificate came VERY fast!...A cousin of mine had flown to Jamaica and gotten married just last August, and hers took several months to come in, but I got mine within 4 weeks, which I thought was fast! They do give you a copy of the register that you sign right there to take with you, but the actual marriage certificate does not come until later. I do not know if this process would be different if it is an on-ship ceremony. I am also wondering if Carnival’s captain performs the ceremonies on ship, instead of someone from the island??

*I was actually able to change my name at the Social Security office with just the register, and not even the certificate!! I actually couldn't believe it, but they let me...Then I had to take the letter from the SSA saying it was changed, in order to get my license changed at the DMV. It was all a pretty smooth process, and no one questioned the Jamaica thing at all. Again, that might just be an Alabama thing...

*The certificates look VERY different from the ones in Alabama (not sure if all states look alike)...they are actually way prettier IMO lol. It is very colorful, and they give you two certified copies, and they mail you back the information you gave them in order to file for the license.

*The officiate I am not sure about...we originally were looking into providing our own, but the person we wanted to do it could not go, so we did not pursue that option any more

*Carnival assigns someone on the phone to help with questions before the cruise. Then, they assigned me someone on board to help with things like where to be at what time, etc. Then, they assigned me a photographer (I actually had 2, because 1 was in training)...The photographers went with us to the wedding site, but the ship coordinator did not. There were 3rd party coordinators on the island that Carnival specifically uses that we used to give the specific details of the colors, setup of chairs, etc. They had an invoice where we paid for the "extras" on top of what is included in the package. Which of course was the guests transfer fees, and for us we did the 4 post arch, and some chairs with ribbons. I am assuming that Carnival handles all details without a 3rd party for on-ship ceremonies, but you would have to ask them. Both the Carnival people and the people on the Island were mostly helpful, and I was confident that it would be what I requested

*The people on the Island are the ones that processed our licensing...Carnival did not do anything with that. In fact, the only thing Carnival technically does for an OFF Ship wedding, is coordinate what time for you to get off the ship, and gets you your photographer/videographer. We did not have ours videoed though

*The photographers had all our pictures printed and our canvases printed and everything ready to go by the end of our last night there. We got married on the 2nd full day on a 6 day cruise, and they had ALL the photos printed in hard copies, the nice books you get, and the canvases by the end. Of course, that all depends on what you plan to purchase…I was pretty impressed with their pictures, so we bought ALL of them…Super expensive though…

*For the cake cutting and champagne toasts, they have you do a Jamaican tradition of how they do their weddings there..it was very interesting and fun!

*It was definitely all that I had hoped for!! One thing I really wanted, was pictures both on the beach AND on the ship, and the photographer was willing to take as many pictures that I wanted. I felt extremely special all day and it was truly a wonderful experience!! I had heard a few bad things about Carnival and their weddings, but I can honestly say that our experience was just plain beautiful and blessed!

*One piece of advice...be prepared with pictures to show the island planners an idea of what you want the ceremony setup to look like...it makes it a lot easier for them...they had mine done almost exactly like that pictures I sent them

*One other piece of advice...be prepared to know that there’s a chance something might not be EXACTLY like you wanted, since you are not there to coordinate all your desires and someone else is remotely trying to get it all together for you. But also, just be clear and persistent in what you want, and they will do a good job of making it special for you as you want

 

I hope these things helped answer a few questions...feel free to ask more! And good luck with all your planning!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!! You are wonderful! You have given me some much to think about and now I'm even more excited!!! While I am not a Bridezilla I am a planner and I'm so grateful you took the time to answer all my random out of order questions! Your Pictures are sooo lovely!!! I hope mine turn out half as beautiful as yours!!! Many Blessings of love and laughter

We are doing a sand ceremony also for our wedding in Sept. You bring your own items (vases and sand) just bring it with you in your carry on and give to coordinator when you board. :cool:

Thank you so much!!!

Something like this :D:D:D

Ok I'm sure this was answered somewhere and if so I'm sorry. I have a question about being able to do a sand ceremony during the wedding ceremony. Can you bring you own items? like we are hoping to use a sand frame with a picture of us. Does the Cruise line offer this as an addition to their "personalization"? If so does anyone know if their are a variety of options or is it just a vase with two types of sand? can we bring our own sand? on the way home will it get through customs?

Please and Thank you!!!

I presented it to him as it would make traveling by car and air so much easier along with it would be a shame if he had to miss out on fun because he has to trek to the casino to smoke. :) So I bought him one to try and now he takes it when we go out or to friends houses where no one smokes.

You are BRILLIANT!!! I might just have to steal that idea ;)

Also did you use a personal Wedding planner a Jamaica wedding planner or did you go through CC? did the wedding planner assist with getting the wedding license? but most important was your wedding everything you dreamed it would be? Do you have any advice for anyone else who plans to get married in Jamaica? Thank you for taking time to answer my many many many questions :D:D:D

Makes me even more glad that my fiance has started using his electric cigarette to adapt.

Lucky!!! I have been trying forever to get mine to transition over...he's an old stubborn fool though lol :D

I was also wondering if you got your marriage certificate in Jamaica did you get it right away or did they mail it to you? if they mailed it to you how long did it take? Did you have any issues with places like the social security office or DMV because you used a Jamaican Wedding Certificate? Do they look any different then the ones the US uses? Are we able to provide our own Officiate or are we required to use one that is provided? Thank you again :D