newly engaged couple, help with wedding cruise!

[kmcg8r]

Hello! I got engaged this week and am just starting to think of our wedding plans. We are considering getting married on a cruise, and I honestly don't even know where to begin. What are the pros/cons? Is this usually done on the ship or at a port? Can anyone just give me any pointers on where to start?

 

Initial thoughts are March/April 2011...And we are thinking Royal Caribbean....

 

Thank you in advance!

[Cruisintink]

Congrats!!! Well I think to start off...what do you envision for your wedding? Inside a room onboard a ship? On a tropical beach? High up overlooking the ocean? If you want it on the ship, keep in mind that you need to be flexible because you don't get to pick which room and won't find that out until about 3-4 weeks before the cruise. I don't think any cruiseline will perform the ceremony on deck except maybe Princess (not sure). Anyway, decide where you want it and go from there. Keep reading through this board because it helped me plan my vow renewal immensely!

 

Oh by the way, we were just on Royal Caribbean Navigator of the Seas and it had a lounge and a couple smaller gathering rooms that were up on like deck 12 or something and had windows all around. Very beautiful views. Would have been nice for a ceremony. We had our ceremony on St. Thomas on the beach while cruising on Carnival Freedom last November.

[epicbride16]

Congratulations! We also just recently started planning our wedding cruise - so here is a little of what I have figured out so far.

 

The pros to me are a beach wedding (!), turning the wedding into a week-long celebration instead of just a few hours, limiting the number of guests to those I truly care about being there, cheaper cost for wedding, less stressful to plan, etc.

 

The cons may be having a limited guest list based on who can take the time off work and afford to go

 

Weddings can be done on the ship or in port - up to you. Another alternative could be to have the wedding on the ship on the day you depart - the ship will allow nonsailing guests on...this may allow more people to attend as they could just fly into the departure port for the day or weekend, attend the wedding but then not go on the cruise. We considered this option, but I really just envisioned us getting married on the beach and not on the ship....

 

The first thing I would do is talk to the small group of the people you HAVE to have there (for us that was our parents, siblings and a few close couple friends) after you have done a little research on overall cruise line date availabilty and pricing and have picked out a couple dates/ships that you and your fiance like. Once you figure out which cruise ship and date works best for you and for these guests, then quickly send out a send the date with information on booking the cruise to your other guests so that they can have as much time as possible to in advance to budget for and schedule this vacation.

 

Some of the first major decisions we had to make were: what date to take the cruise (which one will allow the people we care about to take time off and come - for us that was January 1st - as well as the length of the cruise - some people may be able to take off for a 4 day cruise but not a 7 day cruise, etc.), which cruise to take (costs can prohibit guests from coming - have to decide if its more important to maximize the # of guests or to pick the ship that you all really want to be on), and whether to go with the cruise ship's wedding planner or if you are doing a wedding in port, a local planner. We found that the ship's wedding planner was not very helpful or pleasant to deal with (as it seems most people do) and decided to use a local planner that came highly recommended through the CC boards. Not only am I relieved to be dealing with a planner that is so responsive and pleasant - but the wedding is costing half as much!

 

Then of course you get to decide all of the fun details of the wedding! One of the best tips I got from this board that I am planning on using is to make a "Welcome Bag" as a wedding favor for all of the guests who take the time to come on the cruise with you. If you search the boards, you will find several threads on these.

 

I am so happy that we decided to do a cruise wedding and can hardly wait until January! I would be happy to answer any other questions that I can about the planning process. Let us know what you all end up deciding!

[LilBlackDress]

Congrats and best of luck

 

We recently got married on Royal Caribbean. I wish I had found the boards before doing so as I would have changed so much about it.

 

All the cruise lines use the same subcontracted wedding planner company. It is called 'The Wedding Experience'. You are not told they are a subcontracted company when talking to them or even in the planning stages as the sub-contracted name changes per cruise line. If you plan on getting married on board, you can ONLY do so using them.

 

Some people have great experiences dealing with them and others have total nightmares about it. For us it was a complete and total nightmare! They are on the more expensive side, they don't offer as many custom plans as they originally led me to believe, and they do not own their faults, and more... (all this I can explain more if needed/wanted)

 

If I had to do over again, I would get married on the beach using a local wedding planning company or get married at one of the ports again using a local wedding planner, and take the cruise as our semi honeymoon (since we did have family sailing with us). There is a great deal of help finding local planning companies on the boards if this is a way you would like to go.

 

If after weighing the pros and cons (I will list some below) and you would still like to get married on the ship the process to get started is pretty simple.

 

First you need to decide which cruise. I was told the bride/grooms cabin had to be paid in full before you could reserve your wedding date. but you can call and put a hold on the date. I think we had 3 days to book our cabin or they would lift the hold. It would really suck to pay for your cabin only to find out that they are booked up for weddings.

 

Getting started is pretty much that easy a few phone calls, hold the date with the wedding planners, booking your cabin, paying the deposit for the wedding.

 

If you are getting married in the USA on the ship it is while the ship is docked on the day of embarking.

 

Pros and Cons and a few options

 

Pros

Early boarding

 

Not feeling rushed thru a ceremony/reception at the beach to make sure you are done in time to board

 

They claim they take the stress of planning out of it for you (i found this to be untrue)

 

you can have pictures taken in different areas of the ship (keep in mind this could also cut into your reception time with your guests)

 

you can have a limited number of non sailing guests attend an on board wedding.

 

Cons

You MUST use The wedding Experience

 

'The Wedding Experience' coordinators don't seem to have the best knowledge base, don't return calls or e-mails in a timely fashion, all can leave you very uneasy.

 

No real personal touch (hard to put in words)

 

More expensive, not much is included in the price and everything is extra

 

limited guest count unless you want to keep paying more and more

 

No specialty wedding cake (they may claim you can order one through their baker but they reserve the rights to cancel it on you as they did us 5 days prior to sailing)

 

No real rehearsal. the groom has a rehearsal in front of all the guests, the bride is pretty much led down a dark alley. Although I guess this is pretty much standard for all destination weddings

 

I am sure there are more pros and cons just not right on the top of my head.

 

Options

 

beach wedding pre-cruise/ port wedding

 

You can use a local wedding planner with a good reputation

 

Most Likely more cost effective.

 

Can have all the personal touches you want

 

not limited to guest count

 

depending on your sail date you can do the wedding the night before at sunset, or the day before or the morning of. It is all up to you. (pre-cruise, port would be date/port/time dependent)

 

you can still have wedding pictures done on the ship. This would involve a sitting fee and getting dressed in your wedding attire again (we had a 2nd sitting during an at sea day so we didn't have to take time away from our reception)

 

Endless possibilities

 

If you have any specific questions I will try and do my best in answering without writing another book LOL

[fayemike1]

Hi! Where exactly on this board can u find the names of the reputable wedding planners? I would like to know one for the port Canaveral area! Thanks!

[6rugrats]

OP - keep in mind that Easter will be on 24 April 2011. Prices will be much higher around that time. Also, spring break can be from sometime in March, until the week after Easter, depending on the school district, which means more kids on the ship.

[LilBlackDress]

Hi! Where exactly on this board can u find the names of the reputable wedding planners? I would like to know one for the port Canaveral area! Thanks!

 

I would do a a Google search for Port Canaveral weddings (coco bay is near by too I believe). Pick out your top 3 after looking through their sites and then search reviews both on the boards and google. independent reviews give you more information then the testimonials people list on their sites.

[WTigger42]

TO: kmcg8r

 

Congrats on getting engaged! I got married on the Carnival Dream on 04/10/10, so if there is anything you want to know about how they do things, or for anyone that is thinking about getting married on Carnival, please send me an email! I can fill you in on anything you might need to know!

 

andrea_bergoich@hotmail.com (underscore between my names)

 

I had the best time with this, and would recommend it to anyone thinking about it!

 

Happy planning!