dbrown13

I also went with a maggie sottero dress. First fitting March 3rd eek! I ended up spending more than I wanted but I plan on wearing that baby all day!! Congrats!!!

 

ps doesnt quite look like that on me as im a bit more valuptuous lol

 

 

[ATTACH]375336[/ATTACH]

Let us know how your fitting goes tomorrow!! Good luck!

I think your dresses are perfect! I had my fitting and should be picking up my dress on March 15th!

My dress is HEAVY! I had to make sure the alterations were just perfect and tight enough to hold it up. I unfortunately didn't consider the weight of my dress in advance so we'll see how I do. Now that I'm thinking of the weight... if I get in the water with that dress I might not be able to get out with it :eek:

I love your bags! I have most of the items for mine, but now I feel like I need more! I can't believe the work you have put into your bags. I thought mine were a lot of work just coming up with what to put in them, but these are amazing!

We are 59 days from the big day!! We can't wait to say "I Do!" aboard the Carnival Freedom on April 30th. I'm totally excited and can't wait for a vacation!

We are finalizing the details for our welcome dinner party which we have decided to hold at the Marriott that we are staying in for convenience. We are having a buffet style dinner, drinks and a live musician in order to achieve that laid-back mingle and have a good time feeling. We only have 16 sailing out of our 50 guests so we wanted to make sure we had the opportunity to spend time with all of them.

I still have quite a few things to do (and making this list is setting off a little stress!):

• Find wedding make-up. Going to try MAC - any other suggestions?
  
• Complete personalized Tumblers for OOT bags
  
• Complete centerpieces for the welcome dinner
  
• Create slideshow for welcome dinner
  
• Come up with flower girl dresses - 7 & 8 years old and the oldest hates dresses!!
  
• Attend my last dress fitting
  
• Break in my wedding shoes
  
• Find a veil - thinking birdcage - where can I get one cheap?
  
• Get a tan - anyone experienced with spray tan? Will it rub off on my dress?
  
• Order wedding bands - I can't believe this isn't done yet!
  

I thought I was ahead of the game when I started this journey 12 months ago. But now being just 2 month out I feel like I have procrastinated on a few too many things! I guess the time just crept up on me :D

I just *knew* I wanted strapless, lace, sparkly belt, you get the idea, UNTIL I tried on this dress. I just loved it. I see so many girls with that strapless, lace, sparkly belt look (esp in Georgia with all these outdoor farm weddings) and my dress just felt and looked special to me. It's by Casablanca and is style 1975. Casablanca never retires their styles and they let you customize your dress. It came in multiple colors and you could have it any way from strapless to a more custom strap. They also make the dresses to your length/measurements so you shouldn't have to have many alterations done (well, unless you lose more weight like I did)!

I love the style of your dress! I wanted to get a dress with straps but what I wanted didn't exist and I wasn't going to pay for a custom dress! I ended up going with just one strap after all.

I had a short, knee length, lace dress picked out as my dress mostly due to the fact that I wasn't getting married in a church. But one of my bridesmaids called the dress ugly so no I'm thinking of a longer lace dress I saw at Davids Bridal. I'm kind of bummed because the first dress I found on sale at Nordstrom for $130, I just know that whatever option I go with, I refuse to spend more than $800 on a dag on dress

I'm not sure how you feel about a shop sample or maybe a secondhand dress. But if you are up for it you might want to check Tradesy. They have great deals on wedding gowns! I got my $1400 Maggie Sottero dress from there for $475. It was a store sample so I have to clean it before we get married but totally worth the savings and not having to worry so much about the money!

we were married on the Fantasy, sorry.

 

here are my photos. we used the on board photographer. both him and the wedding coordinator were GREAT!

 

https://flic.kr/s/aHsk9cNxC9

Did the on board photographer do the photos on the beach also?? We were thinking of hiring someone from Cozumel to do some beach photos but haven't started looking yet. If we use the on board photographer for off ship photos is it crazy expensive? (Sorry... hope you don't mind me asking! Just trying to budget for the memories :D)

I will definitely make sure to have some flip flops on hand. Although the deck won't be hot in April I can't rush around in my shoes and I wouldn't want to kill my feet the first day of the cruise and not be able to wear cute heels the rest of the cruise!!! ;)

I also went with a maggie sottero dress. First fitting March 3rd eek! I ended up spending more than I wanted but I plan on wearing that baby all day!! Congrats!!!

 

ps doesnt quite look like that on me as im a bit more valuptuous lol

 

 

[ATTACH]375336[/ATTACH]

My First fitting is Tuesday the 9th... talk about stress!!! I bought my dress a year ago when I was at my goal weight and have gained about 15 lbs since then after tearing my ACL. I'm I can fit into it and that I don't lose too much more weight between the alteration and the wedding! :eek:

I'm curious what type of dress you have chosen for your cruise wedding, how long do you plan to wear it and what you plan to do with your dress afterwards?

For our upcoming nuptials on April 30th I have opted for a Maggie Sottero dress that I found on Tradesy for less than half of the usual cost! I'm a bride on a budget and couldn't have been happier with the floor sample that I received.

I do plan to wear my dress the entire first day of the cruise. I figure, "Why not?!?" I spent good money on this dress and I may only get to wear it this once so I should get the most out of it right? The ceremony and reception are so short and by the time we finish the Muster and take our photos it will be just about time for dinner so I think I'll bask in it for as long as possible.

I have been debating what to do with my dress after the wedding. I know I don't want to spend the money to preserve it and I don't plan on passing it down to anyone... so I've been considering a "trash the dress" session in Cozumel. We haven't made any plans and my FH thinks it might just be nice to get dressed up again and take photos out on the beach, so we'll have to see where our budget is and if we want to spend the time getting all dolled up again. What are you thoughts?

I was somewhat curious about this myself. I also have a fairly big dress. Hopefully my shoes are nice and worn in by then because I'm not sure how I'll feel strutting all over the ship in my fancy heels! ;)

How much did they charge you to upgrade? I currently have the time to celebrate and also want to upgrade. I'm just curious what the difference in price was

The package itself was $200 to upgrade plus tax, plus the additional cost to upgrade the DJ for the extra time. It ended up being just shy of $300 extra to extend our time. It also ups the cost of the additional headcount to $30 pp from $22 per person. It also adds an ice sculpture to the package for the reception as well.

So on to Dinner in the Dining Room, we were in the Dining Room, Posh, Deck 3 Aft. We had a good table, great service. It is the new dining menus, American Table, I liked the new tables without table clothes and it is good for laundry too to save water, etc.

Dinner was good, had the Salmon and the Warm Chocolate Melting Cake for dessert, was perfect! Sorry didn't take any pictures of the menus in the dining room.

I was somewhat concerned when I heard they no longer have table clothes in the dining room. Is it still a nice dinner? Is there still a dining room dress code? And do most people still get fairly dressed up for dinner?

One of the things we truly enjoy about cruising is having the opportunity to get dressed up and have a nice dinner every night since we don't get to do it much any other time.

We are sailing on the Carnival Freedom April 30th for our wedding! Thanks for the review! We have been on several Carnival ships but not the freedom. How were the rooms. Were they new and updated or still old? We sailed on the Triumph last year and the mattresses that were pushed together to make a king were old and sagging in the middle so it was much less than comfy :(

Have you thought about providing your own officiant? I asked my brother to perform the ceremony since he will already be joining us for the cruise. Hes not a minister but is planning on getting ordained online. Id much rather someone I know marry me versus the person provided my Carnival. just a suggestion but either way I hope you get to have the longer reception!

I hadn't really thought of having my own officiant. I did hear back from the coordinator though and they were able to book a second officiant for us.

So our ceremony will begin at 1 and the reception at 1:30 until 3pm when the non-sailing guests will have to leave. I think that will suit us much better.

We are scheduled to get married on the Freedom on April 30th... just 3 short months away.

Were you in the Swingtime lounge for the Ceremony? What about the reception? Although she cannot confirm until 2 weeks prior, our coordinator stated we are slated for the Swingtime lounge. We will be in the club for the reception because we booked the DJ.

I'm doing my wedding on the Carnival Freedom this coming April. I was also told the hors d'oeuvres are replenished so that the guests will have plenty to eat.

I've been on the boards for a while now and a lot of the brides said it seemed that there was a lot of food left at the end of the reception. So it seems like they stay on top of it. :)

Hopefully that helps! The other option (we considered this as we have many non-sailing guests as well) is to pay for your guests to be able to go up on the lido deck and partake in the lunch buffet before the ceremony starts. Chances are they will have about 2 or so hours on board before the ceremony actually starts.

Other brides have stated that their guests were able to eat at the buffet without paying, and some stated their guests just had to put their visitor badge in their pocket to eat there. I personally do not need any bad karma on my wedding so I'm not taking the chance... but just so your ;)

I finally got to speak with Dinah our wedding coordinator yesterday. I ended up speaking to my Carnival vacation planner and asking about it and he transferred me over to weddings and got her on the line. FINALLY!!

She spent almost 40 minutes on the phone with me answering all my questions and talking to me. She even asked questions about us and about the wedding which made me feel like she actually cares! Dinah stated that due to the overwhelming number of proposals on Christmas and around the holidays they are extremely busy this time of year. She apologized and made me feel better :)

As far as extending our package to the Time to Celebrate Big, she stated they usually only have one wedding officiant on board and that is why they can only do one package. I guess our ceremony would start later since we had the shorter reception. She is reaching out to see if there is any way they can schedule a 2nd officiant to be there that day so that they can accommodate 2 ceremonies starting at the same time.

Are you going through Royal Caribbean? I am having similar issues with their royal romance wedding coordinator. We just signed our wedding contract, but have yet to hear about what venues we can pick from, etc. I got my invoice today and it had "Olive or Twist" listed as our venue space. We never even talked about venues with anyone!! I am beyond frustrated. All they did was send us the contract and we signed it and gave it back. They wont return our calls or e-mails. Did you have this issue too? Royal Romance needs to get their crap together!

We are getting married on the Carnival Freedom. How far out is your wedding? It is my understanding that contact isn't made immediately for weddings that are far out. But I'm not familiar with Royal's policies.

I'm less than 4 months out from my April 30th wedding on Carnival Freedom and let me tell you the stress is getting real!! ;)

Our guest list grew throughout the process and we have now invited 84 people, of which only 13 people are cruising! We only have 28 confirmed wedding guests but the invitations just went out last week so that number could grow. We are praying that the people we sent invites to that we were certain wouldn't go really don't end up showing up otherwise we might be over the limit of 50 non-sailing guests!

I'm finishing up gathering items for my OOT bags... they have ended up being rather costly. I went a little overboard because all of our guests are first time cruisers. I'm regretting it a bit now but it's too late and we must move forward.

I have been having issues reaching our wedding coordinator Dinah which is very frustrating. I haven't spoken to her once since we booked the wedding. Not sure if this is common but I have seen a couple of threads where people actually get help from their coordinator so I'm lost as to what to do about that.

We booked the shorter package with 1 hour ceremony and are now worried about the short time so we are trying to upgrade... but alas I cannot reach Dinah. :confused:

Other than that things are moving along and I'm getting excited for the big day!

We actually bought clear tumblers with straws and I am using our Cricut machine to place vinyl stickers on them with their names and the date of the wedding.

Thanks for the review! Congrats on your wedding :)

We were also debating renting the tux through Carnival but I think we will opt to bring our own or buy a suit instead.

I hope they can get your CD issue resolved, although I have a feeling it won't be possible because they probably already cleared the images :( I will be sure that someone in our group has a laptop so that we can check the CD to make sure the images are actually on it!

You can bring anything you like, but remember you have to carry it through the terminal and onboard with you in the morning. The problem with things like table clothes and chair covers is that you don't know which venue you will be in until about 2 weeks before the wedding. Some of the venues are in comedy or night clubs and seating is more like sofas rather than chairs. It all depends where you are. I would focus more on the necessities like guest book, card box, OOT bags, flowers (if you are using something other than what is provided), and cake topper if you wish.

Our wedding is April 30th. We are taking guest book, card box, polaroid style camera for our guests to take selfies to put in the guest book - I'd rather have a photo than an autograph ;) ), flowers and OOT bags.

This isn't exactly decor... but i recommend a rolling garmet rack to carry your dress and tux on through the terminal and onboard! Wedding dresses are heavy!

I agree, schedule a tour, but know that if there is another wedding the venue will be based on the head count for each wedding and how to best accommodate both.

Although many of the venues are dark I have seen many photos with different backgrounds depending on which room they place you in. You can also call TWE and have them send you photos of the potential venues set up for weddings which will give you a much clearer idea of what to expect.

Our wedding is scheduled for one hour also... it is making us nervous so we are in the process of trying to upgrade to an hour and a half.

I do think the time will go by very quickly. We are not doing most of the traditional reception activities so that should help a lot! Decide how many dances are really important and get the guests involved at the end of those dances. We are expecting a total of 50-60 people and with such a small group, most of whom are already married, we are also forgoing the bouquet and garter toss. They will send you the paperwork on which items to include during the reception but consider how long each of them takes and what is really important. If you have 6 people toasting and each toast takes 5-10 minutes you could be using up the whole hour!

I also recommend having a get together the night before. Ours is more so for the guests who are not sailing. Since the reception is so short it will be tough to get quality time with each of them so we're spending time together the day before. You'll have plenty of time with everyone during the cruise so focus on the non-sailing guests and set up something the night before the wedding!