Princess Cruises Wedding Questions

Has anyone booked a wedding at sea via Princess' Royal Wed planners? I'm seeking info on what went well and what you may do differently.

I'm getting married next weekend on the sea princess... I could give a recap once we are back!

I'm getting married next weekend on the sea princess... I could give a recap once we are back!

Congratulations! I look forward to your recap. Cheers to smooth sailing and the launch of your life together.

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On 2/25/2018 at 11:45 AM, SwankieG said:

Has anyone booked a wedding at sea via Princess' Royal Wed planners? I'm seeking info on what went well and what you may do differently.

Did you ever get her "recap"  I see your post is from 2018 and I'm very curious to learn more about Royal Wedding Planners.  I had requested a very simple, private ceremony performed by the captain and was quoted $1600 for a full menu of things that we don't even want or need.  

55 minutes ago, WISH84 said:

Did you ever get her "recap"  I see your post is from 2018 and I'm very curious to learn more about Royal Wedding Planners.  I had requested a very simple, private ceremony performed by the captain and was quoted $1600 for a full menu of things that we don't even want or need.  

I did not post a recap. Sorry! $1600 is the static charge. Period. The third-party "planners" --who are based in Canada--aren't great but the onboard staff were lovely, kind, and did a great job for us. Our travel agent was amazing and was our fixer and communicator with the ship to resolve minor issues. We are so glad we had her to rely on.

Yes, there is a ton of extraneous, outdated stuff in the package but you will not have other options. I asked... repeatedly.

Our wedding was on a formal night (the first sea day is a safe bet) so everyone in our group would be dressed up anyway. Weddings are usually late afternoon--forget about a candlelight ceremony--but it was fine and we all went to Crooners for a drink afterwards. Needless to say, the pianist makes a thing of your arrival and you soon have new friends and well wishers. 

I could not imagine being in that dress for hours so I did change into a white evening gown for dinner. That offered a chance to freshen up and be a little less conspicuous while still being a bit bridal.

We didn't use the flowers in the package--they will be delivered anyway and can be sent as a bouquet in a vase. Instead, we had a sculptor (found her on Etsy) make the bouquet and other flowers out if paper clay. They looked real, were exactly what we wanted, were relatively easy to transport, and were something we could keep forever.

Photographers shot photo and video. We didn't originally want photos of the ceremony and any other outdoor stuff but they did turn out gorgeous. One tip: negotiate the price of what you want when on the ship.

We took an ipod with our own music: no problems there at all.

Choose your captain carefully. Some captains are amazing. Ours wasn't super social and just rolled in for the ceremony (quite late, btw) and quickly bailed and we never saw him again.

The cake was larger and far more attractive than we thought. We brought a basic, inexpensive topper that was great and we didn't fret when it disappeared after our dinner with family in the Crown Grill. For our small group, the grill was a much better choice than any of the "reception" packages offered.

Bottom line... if it is just the two of you and just want something simple, do a courthouse legal wedding and do a renewal of vows and perhaps request some additional photos on deck (seriously, the wake photo is amazing). If you have family and such attending, the wedding package may be a better choice. The onboard coordinators herd everyone for you, escort family where they need to go, and do a million other things to make the day go well.

Weddings are money drains... it is what it is.

Thanks for helping me out.  At least now I know that all the pleading and begging in the world won't get me past the $1600 which I think is just a stupid amount of money when all you want is to walk into the bridge (or wherever) and have the captain make it official.  Like you said, it is what it is.  

On 2/25/2018 at 11:45 AM, SwankieG said:

Has anyone booked a wedding at sea via Princess' Royal Wed planners? I'm seeking info on what went well and what you may do differently.

Me too!  

I did an embarkation day wedding with 60 guests on the Royal Princess 9/29/19. It was a disaster lol. So many delays, not enough chairs set up at the ceremony site, the violinist for our ceremony music got stuck in customs and we had to wait for them, and other issues. Also a bunch of problems with the officiant and her coordinators. Royal Wedding planners appologized and gave us a large refund, but your can never get your special day back.

I wouldn't recommend an embarkation wedding unless it's a super small group and you're keeping things really casual. It's very stressful and there are a lot of variables that can go wrong. I hear weddings during the cruise on sea days go wonderfully, however half of our guests couldn't sail with us so that's why we went with an embarkation day ceremony instead. 

Photography was okay. We got some beautiful shots on the skywalk and in the atrium after the ceremony. Our photography during the ceremony was so-so. The pre-ceremony shots were rushed and the flowers weren't there for them.

It was wonderful to marry my best friend, and we're still cruisers (leaving this Friday on a weekend cruise and hopefully doing Alaska in May) but if I got to do the day over again I wouldn't have done an embarkation day ceremony.

Seaturtle-808 Your photos are Beautiful...:)

 We are leaning towards a wedding at sea and were wondering about the pictures. Were you able to pick your locations or do they tell you where you have to go? Also how long did you have for the pictures?. We were hoping for at least an hour but preferable two so we wouldn't be rushed.

We are pretty confident that we will be doing a wedding at sea as well...but my best friend who I planned to have as my maid of honor just told me that she probably won't be able to make any of this happen...so now I'm trying to figure out how I can have everyone involved, but not cause any hardships...We could do the harbor side, but then I feel like my guests who traveled from Chicago to Fort Lauderdale just for a few hours isn't worth their time.  

18 hours ago, runner2013 said:

Seaturtle-808 Your photos are Beautiful...:)

 We are leaning towards a wedding at sea and were wondering about the pictures. Were you able to pick your locations or do they tell you where you have to go? Also how long did you have for the pictures?. We were hoping for at least an hour but preferable two so we wouldn't be rushed.

We took pictures for about 45 minutes. They wanted to take more but we were done. So I'm sure they'd be happy to do over an hour with you.

I knew I wanted Skywalk pictures, so I pushed for them. I'd recommend going on Pinterest and getting an idea of some cruise wedding photos and locations you want. 

The first place they took us to was next to Wheelhouse Bar and they pulled over an ugly chair and tried to take photos in the middle of the hallway. I was like "What are we doing here... there's nothing nice about this are" and I had to push them to go take photos in the Atrium and the Skywalk. Probably 20 minutes of our time was in the wheelhouse bar area and none of the pictures looked remotely good with that background. So just be ready to push to the places you want to go.