Carnival Miracle wedding review 9/4/10

[AmyD102]

Hello all,

Sorry it took me so long to write my review but my comp has been giving me problems, so here it goes!

 

We said I DO on board the Carnival Miracle Sept 4, 2010. We had 91 guests at the wedding and 79 sailing guests. So to make things easier for us we chartered a bus to NYC the day before the wedding. Myself and the girls stayed at the Wellington Hotel which is about 5 blocks from the pier, this was convenient for two reasons;

1. We got to walk to Times Square the night before and have fun!

2. With getting our hair/make done i didn't want to be too far from the ship!

 

The only downside to the hotel was it was very expensive, the rest of the wedding party stayed in a hotel across the river in Jersey which was much more affordable. We has the wedding party over the hotel the night before to pass out our gifts, explain how everything was going to work the next day and tell people there various roles/tasks we'd like them to perform.

 

The morning of the wedding the hair/makeup arrived at 6am, we had gone to bed around 1 so needless to say I didn't get much sleep! My dad went and got us a box of joe and various pastries, but i couldn't eat i was too excited! Our stylists were great, I went with GorgeousbrideNY.com, I found them on the internet and they were reputable, a bit pricey but it was NYC so i expected it! I will admit the hair stylist was not as good as i expected but i was happy with the end result and he did 6 styles in 4 hours! The makeup artist on the other hand was AMAZING! She made sure we all looked our best and she was very cool, would def recommend her to anyone. We finished up around 10:15, We were all kind of freaking out at this point we didn't want to be late! We managed to get downstairs, in cabs and to the pier in about 15 min, it was awesome!

 

When we arrived at the pier everyone was all dressed our wedding coordinator was waiting for us and all of the guests from Jersey as well as our non-sailing were already there and through the checking process. (We had told everyone they had to be there by 10am to make sure no one was late!) We were the last to arrive! Our wedding coordinators from a wedding for you took our favors, cake topper, guest book, pen and wedding CD. They had everything taken care of for us in the disco. We were escorted to VIP lounge were we checked in, and put down our bags. (we had our brides maids, my father, and my brother carry most of our wedding stuff thru security, all i had was my gown so it went very smoothly) Me and my hubby went out and greeted our guests, until the wedding coordinator pulled us back inside to explain how the day would flow.

 

Around 11 we were given the ok to board and were the first ones on the ship, where we met Alexandra, our Carnival wedding coordinator. I have to say she gets an A++ from me. She was amazing. She escorted us and the guys to the two rooms we had ready, even went as far as to go up and get us some food cuz we were starving, i had been to nervous to eat. Its weird but once i was on that ship, all the nerves disappeared. Myself, my mom, and my bridesmaids stayed with me till 12:45 when we had to go down to the wedding. Meanwhile all of my guests got to tour the ship and eat on the Lido deck. About a half an hour before we went downstairs i received a call from Albert our Photographer, asking if he could come up and take some pics. He was awesome! We had the best time, i got pics with my mom and dad, all my girls and a ton by myself. He is the best photographer i have met. The pictures came out amazing!! He also received an A++ from me when we did our survey on how the wedding went.

 

We went down to the wedding which was held in the Mad Hatters Ballroom. We picked that room because it very cute and lovely. It has hearts and roses on everything, even the seats have heart backs. It was beautiful. The only regret about this room was that all the pictures came out a little red tinged because of the lighting, but all in all i would do it again. Right before the ceremony the video guys came and did our pre wedding interviews, Eliver's (my Husb) inside the room, mine in the Hallway so he didn't see me all dressed up! The ceremony went by sooo fast. Our officiant was hilarious, i loved her! She made our wedding everything we wanted and more. Watching the video after was great! We did the wine tasting (which was amazing we each took two sips...lol) and the candle lighting (which was nice our mom's lit the outside candles so we could light the inside one together)

 

After the ceremony we took a few quick pics with our families and wedding party. We had rehearsed bustling my gown the night before so even that went smoothly! Then headed on over to the reception in Dr. Frankenstein's Lab. We were introduced and went straight into our first dance, then i had mine with my dad, then his with his mom. We had the cake cutting and the toasts from the best man and my dad. It went by very fast! After everyone was free to eat drink and dance! Which we did!! The open bar was fantastic, the wait staff kept everyone full of drinks and the bar upstairs let everyone order whatever they wanted. People even were taking shots! The DJ was awesome. We had brought along a CD with our music on it and a few songs we wanted played because he is Dominican and we needed some Spanish music! The DJ perfectly balanced the CD and Hits, the dance floor was never empty! The food was Fantastic!! As was the Cake, best wedding cake we have ever had! We even got the eat the left overs at dinner that night the waiters came over and sang Happy Honeymoon! It was great! They even let us extend the reception an extra half hour because we were having so much fun! We didn't have time to do the garter, but we did to the bouquet toss. which was a hit with the ladies. We had our best man pass out the tip money so we did't have to worry about it which was perfect!

 

After we said goodbye to our non-sailing guests Albert told us he'd meet us at our room after the muster drill so we could do our "couple" pics. The muster drill was hilarious. We had requested everyone stay dressed up till after dinner since we have early seating, so the whole wedding party was out looking their best. I was a little bummed we didn't have to wear the life vest tho, it would have been a great pic!

 

We then ran around the ship taking shots everywhere! The only picture i had to have was the Statue of Liberty pic and we got three of them! Thank god i had put on flip flops cuz my feet would have been killing me. My mom came with us and had my makeup so i could touch up and blot if i got shiny (thanks to other brides reviews) The positions were uncomfortable, but we laughed our way thru it and it was well worth it the pics are indescribable. I LOVE them! Will post some at the end of the review! Mid week we met with Albert and reviewed the pics, we loved so many we ended up buying the $1500.00 package. And we had all of our pics, CD, DVD, and 3 Canvas photos by Thursday night. Also midweek we met with our video guy came to do our "honeymoon" portion of the video and closing interviews. It was kinda awkward. He followed us around the ship and told us what to do, walk this way, go buy a drink, kiss, kiss, kiss, lots of kissing! I wish i had been prepared too cuz i was in my bathing suit for it! He also came to formal night in the dining room and took video of us with all of our guests it came out really nice. Worth the extra money, especially where everything goes so fast its nice to go back and watch it again!

 

Alexandra(Carnival coordinator) came to our table at dinner every night to see how we were doing, ask if we needed anything and give us a heads up for the next days events, our whole wedding party loved her. A few even tipped her extra at the end of the cruise. We found out this was her last sailing on the Miracle, she was going home for a while then moving on to another Carnival ship. Good Luck to her!!

 

All in all i would definitely recommend doing your wedding on a cruise and on Carnival, everything went smoothly. We even lucked out with beautiful weather all week. No rain and no hurricanes! If anyone has any ?'s let me know and i would be happy to try and answer them!

 

Thanks for reading my review! Sorry its so long!!:D

[AmyD102]

Here are some pics

[AmyD102]

More pics!!

[katieandaron]

Congratulations on your marriage! You're a beautiful bride- I love your dress! Thanks for sharing your review and your photos!

[joy2joy5]

Beautiful day congrats... I'm so excited for my day 11/26/10

 

Love Peace Joy

[hunniebee724]

Congratulations! We loved Alexandra and Albert too! Sounds like you had an amazing wedding!

 

Did you try your picture dvd yet? Ours doesn't work. I had to call Carnival to get a replacement, but I'm still waiting for it.

[hunniebee724]

Your pictures are beautiful!

[harrodsfan]

Great review. Have a happy life together!

[harrodsfan]

Great review. Have a happy life together!

[gijanemom]

You were a beautiful bride! Congratulations and thanks for sharing....coming up on my two year anniversay in March and we were married on the Sensation! We now cruise for our anniversary...all four kids in tow~:D

[AmyD102]

Thanks all, we are already thinking of planning one for our 1 yr anniversary it was so much fun!

[jpierce1979]

Thank you for the detailed review. Good lord, $1500!!! I hope they have some cheaper packages. I would like to stay in budget, but it sounds like a person just can't resist these great pictures! Gosh, and 2 canvas pictures too! Way cool!:D

[hunniebee724]

Thank you for the detailed review. Good lord, $1500!!! I hope they have some cheaper packages. I would like to stay in budget, but it sounds like a person just can't resist these great pictures! Gosh, and 2 canvas pictures too! Way cool!:D

 

I think the packages start at $750. We chose the $1000 package before we saw the pictures, and stuck with our budget. He was great and didn't try to push us to go over it.

[AmyD102]

Hi Hunnibee,

Yes our videos work, thank goodness! In retrospect about the pictures we would have bought a cheaper package. As long as you get a copy of the CD and DVD you can print your own pictures at home, i have made copies for lots of people and they came out great! No real need to spend sooo much!

[WendyinOC]

Congrats! I see you had the disco which is two floors like mine will be. Did you just use the bottom floor? Did the floor light up and could you request certain colors.

[AmyD102]

The food and dancing was on the bottum floor, we had "Congratulations Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez" scrolling acress the big screen throughout the reception.

 

The bar itself and smoking section were upstairs so people did hang up there as well. I Thru my bouquet from the balcony it came out awesome!

 

I'm not sure about requesting the colors i didn't even think to ask! It goes so fast i don't even think i would have noticed, the dont really dim the lights either, or not that i remember anyways..lol!

[LK0806]

Can I ask, did you guys pay extra to get the fruit trays or did they just do that?? It all looks wonderful!! Also what food did you chose?

[AmyD102]

Can I ask, did you guys pay extra to get the fruit trays or did they just do that?? It all looks wonderful!! Also what food did you chose?

 

 

Actually the only thing we requested was no salmon! The beautiful fruit was just something they must just do. All of the food was amazing, we had california rolls, lamb empanadas(which were my fav), stuffed mushrooms, so many different things!

[heatherandfred]

Glad you had a fantastic time! We LOVED Alexandra! She was so awesome. Our cruise wedding was wonderful. Glad you had a ball.

[jerseygirl79]

Your pics are beautiful! I spent $1,000 on mine. I was really annoyed when I returned home and saw that my husband's aunt (who didn't sail) had been standing behind the photographer and took many of the same ceremony and reception pics that I paid for! :eek: And I had no idea she was a professional photographer too!!!! SHEESH!

[aprilmay85]

First I just wanna say, CONGRATS to the new Mr. & Mrs. :D I read your story & it was sooo beautiful and Im soooo excited bc im getting married on the freedom jan 29th!!! so its getting close and im freaking :eek: haha We want the DJ to have the reception in the disco club not a lounge...but they said no burned CD's for the DJ, only entertainment tech :( you said you brought some...we wanted to bring maybe like 2 with some songs we want to hear & of coarse for our first song & parent songs!! would that be ok?! what kind of hits were they playing?!? everything else sounded exactly how im hoping mine goes ;) perfect!!! just worried about reception bc i LOVE to dance!!! congrats again, hope to hear from ya soon!!

[AmyD102]

First I just wanna say, CONGRATS to the new Mr. & Mrs. :D I read your story & it was sooo beautiful and Im soooo excited bc im getting married on the freedom jan 29th!!! so its getting close and im freaking :eek: haha We want the DJ to have the reception in the disco club not a lounge...but they said no burned CD's for the DJ, only entertainment tech :( you said you brought some...we wanted to bring maybe like 2 with some songs we want to hear & of coarse for our first song & parent songs!! would that be ok?! what kind of hits were they playing?!? everything else sounded exactly how im hoping mine goes ;) perfect!!! just worried about reception bc i LOVE to dance!!! congrats again, hope to hear from ya soon!!

 

 

I reception was so much fun, the DJ played very popular dance songs and even some cheesy ones like cupids shuffle and electric slide (we requested them) Yes we brought a burned CD with our song, and our songs for our parents on it, and also a bunch of spanish songs to cater to both sides of the family. We had typed up intructions for the DJ beforhand "Song One - Our first dance" etc. And requested he play the rest of the songs every 3rd or 4th song and it worked out perfectly. :)

[aprilmay85]

oh, good!!! im soo happy to hear that!!! the only thing is...i want to have a CD with at least 20 songs on it...I hope the DJ wont mind & just sit back & relax ;) I would of coarse let him play some songs BUT I want most of the music picked by us because sometimes I dont like all the top 40 hits :rolleyes: I just dont want carnival NOR the DJ to be like, sorry, we cant play that burned CD...only our top 40 hit list!!! I would be devasted!!! plus all the time spent burning the CD's....let me know what ya think!! thanks again!!! anyother advice I should know about !?!?

[cece9922]

Aww the Miracle is such a great place to get married! Congrats to you and your new hubby. The pictures came out great! I spent $4000 on our photos because our photographer was amazing! I got everything he had to offer haha and I don't regret it one bit!

[JcrusinRT]

Thank you soooo much for your review!!! I have been debating between the Miracle and the Freedom and am not sure which I want to get married on! They both sail to awsome places and the prices are similar so I'm glad to find a review! The miracle is looking like the stronger contender! Plus I've seen so many terrible cruise wedding pics but yours are awsome! You had a great creative photographer! I hope if I choose the Miracle that he is still there when I go! lol Congrats and hope you two have a wonderful life together!