How in the world did you bring everything on board?!

[flgatormom29]

OK, I'm 21 days away from leaving, so i decided i would start packing the wedding stuff tonight. I have a nice carry on, that has wheels and a handle so i figured that would work for my OOT bags, flower girl bags and Josh's soda. WRONG!!!! I can't fit the soda or 2 of my OOT bags in. (not so worried about the 2 OOT bags-1 is for a non-sailing guest so wont need it until monday, and the other is for us)

 

We will also have a backpack with extra clothes and swimwear in. Plus, i always carry on my bathroom suitcase. Plus my dress....I don't want to have a MILLION carry ons!!!

 

I was also thinking about checking the other wedding stuff (flower girl baskets, cake decorations), but we are meeting with the coordinator at dinner and what if my suitcases aren't there in time? Mine and my daughter's shoes and undergarments will be in a checked bag, as we wont need them until day 2.

 

It's looking like we will not be bringing on any soda. Probably buy a soda card instead (which was my first choice, but josh wants to bring cans!)

 

I know i will need a suitcase for Josh and I. One for the girls. And a smaller one for the wedding stuff. I'm already up to 7 bags for 1 week!

I just don't know how i'm going to get all this stuff on. I don't want to have to depend on anyone else to help us, because we are all staying at the hotel, but who knows when everyone else will be up and out. My kids get up early, so i know we wont have any issues making the first tram, but others might not since checkout isn't until 12. So I have to figure out how to get all this crap on with 2 adults, a 7 year old and a 2 year old! UGH

 

Please give me some ideas on what i can do to make this work! What did you girls do?!

 

THanks

[tlmoad]

I just posted earlier about delivering our OOT bags. We have the same problem; I have no idea what I am going to the bags in. We currently have 11 bags, with the possibility of 2 more. We have 5 of us, so I know there are going to be several suitcases. I am anxious to see how all the other brides got all their stuff on.

[JulieRose]

We're depending on our parents and grandparents to carry on for us. As I don't fly, we're taking the train to port and can have 2 checked and 2 carry on each. Everything else will be sent to my parents who are within driving distance of port ahead of time. (It will still be challenging as they both drive convertibles, who wouldn't in FL?) You can probably have stuff sent to a fedex location and held for a small amt of time if you have no relatives near port. Still leaves the issue of who will carry on for you. Maybe your attendants?

[JulieRose]

Revision: on the train we can have 3pcs checked and 2 carry on.

[Cattie]

I handed my OOT bags out in the limo bus on the way to port. Maybe you can hand them out in the hotel the night ahead of time? That would free up some space, then just leave the empty bag in a trunk? The rest of the crap I spread out with everyone. I made sure no one touched my dress though! That was mine to carry.

[flgatormom29]

I handed my OOT bags out in the limo bus on the way to port. Maybe you can hand them out in the hotel the night ahead of time? That would free up some space, then just leave the empty bag in a trunk? The rest of the crap I spread out with everyone. I made sure no one touched my dress though! That was mine to carry.

 

I really want the bags to be delivered the first day. I even put the shirts in seperate boxes so i could hand those out at the hotel, and save the bags.

 

I just might have to leave my bathroom suitcase with my mom to carry on and just suck it up and carry it all on....

 

Just no idea it would be this much to carry! I thought 2 bags would be perfect for EVERYTHING, but those OOT bags take up a LOT of room. Plus the flower girl backpacks are thicker than i thought as well.

 

Oh well, looks like i will have a ton of room to bring back goodies! :rolleyes:

[Li'lImp]

Anything that is essential for the ceremony/photos, put it in a carry-on. Anything that isn't, put it in checked baggage. So the OOT bags, though important, won't ruin the ceremony by being late. As you said, all but one of your guests are sailing with you, so you'll know where to find them should the bags arrive late. And you've already solved the soda issue.

[Mara4166]

Put the soda in a checked bag or in a carton with a luggage tag on it and let the ship porters deliver it to your room!

[ciarra220]

I am planning on sending them in the mail (USPS) to the hotel so they are all there ahead of time and then having them deliverd to the rooms of all the guests. maybe that will help?!

[Artemis908]

We stayed overnight at a hotel the night before the wedding. I was traveling with 5 men (all of the groomsmen and my husband) in a limo, so I had...

 

1 dufflebag with everything we would need for the wedding day like shampoo, etc. I didn't have to bring much since my hair and makeup was being done at the hotel

 

2 garment bags carrying out wedding clothing

 

2 large suit cases and a duffle bag with vacation/honeymoon clothes with two bottles of champagne

 

1 cooler that had all of our munchies and alcohol for the long drive to New York

 

2 large macy's shopping bag full of wedding day stuff--bouquets, boutonnieres, corsages, bubbles, family glasses that my father-in-law asked us to use for our toast, sign that said we were donating in lieu of favors, and postcards, pens, and tins for people to sign in lieu of a guest book.

 

The hardest part I feel was coordinating who would take what and which car it would be in. I had about 17 people staying at the hotel with us and we were all taking separate cars. I had to ask everyone to take a little bit of everything to put in their trunks because each car had 5 people and 2 people took a taxi. I kind of panicked at the terminal because I was afraid someone would forget something. I gave the bouquets and boutonnieres out the morning of the wedding. The best man took care of the bouts to the fathers, I should have asked my maid of honor to do the same for the corsages but the problem is no one knows what each other look like. The best man was wandering around trying to figure out who my grandfather was. lol So you may want to make sure your wedding party knows the essential people if they are helping you hand stuff out.

 

I ended up asking my dad to take the duffle bag, the cooler back, and bag of wedding stuff home with him so we could pick them up after the cruise. I was somehow able at the end of the honeymoon to fit my wedding dress in our luggage so we had less to carry. I plan on making my wedding dress into a christening gown when we have our first baby.

 

Another good thing to remember is designate someone to take all of your cards back with them. I ended up asking my dad and his wife to do that last minute, for some reason I didn't think about that.

[Lipz]

We found medium sized travel bag for less than $10 and packed all our flowers in that. Then we used those large recycle bags that you buy from like a Duane Reade and packed our OOT bags in there. We only needed 3 of those with 12 sailing guest. Our OOT bags would be delivered to everyone's cabin that first evening by the cruise line, and they didn't even charge us. Other wedding essentials went into a bag and that was it. Since we traveled with our two kids, 14 & 21, we had enough hands to carry it all. Once we got to the cruise terminal the cruise line wedding coordinators carried our gown and other items. Our guest offered to help bring things on the ship and that will probably happen for you too.

[jebuell]

I've been to a few cruise weddings and have seen many methods used. The best on seems to be to use those large plastic storage bins that have wheels on the bottom. You can cram a ton of stuff in there and I believe most airlines let you check them. You will probably have to pay a weight overage fee, but it would be cheaper then some other options. You can also look into shipping it to your departure port, either to the hotel you are staying at or perhaps a friend or family member who lives near there.

 

As for carrying it all on, utilize your wedding party and guests. I walked through security at my last Carnival cruise wedding with 6 OOT bags, all with wine in them, plus three extra bottles of our own that we snuck into them, and the lady didn't bat an eye! I find boarding with a ton of "gift wine" is an easy way to sneak on extra booze. ;) And it helped the bride get her stuff onto the ship without having to carry it all herself. In fact, the wedding party and guests volunteered to carry everything and she was able to go through without getting all sweaty or breaking a nail (she'd just had her hair and make-up and mani done).

[mrsgomez2011]

Moving boxes the dimensions of the security scanner.

[cruiseonthebrain]

I can't help with the airline part of this, but having just gone through the "how the heck am I getting this all on the ship" freak out, I can tell you what we did- and that it went off without a hitch.

First- we changed our minds about carrying on the OOT bags at the last minute and decided to borrow a huge suitcase from my mom and just checked the OOT bags. They were at our room right after we were done with the ceremony/reception/pictures and we just handed them out ourselves. This worked well for us because our entire party was on the same deck. One worry taken care of.

Second, we put the flowers in plastic bins that would fit through security screening and used a collapsable rolling cart to wheel the bins.

Then we used one small roller for my DH's ceremony "stuff" (shoes, etc.) and his extra change of clothes, meds, bathing suit and anything else we couldn't cruise without if our bags were lost. And we did another rolling bag like that for me.

We had a third roller board for the weddings wands, favors, cake topper and memory photo matt. All of our cameras and copies of the paperwork, wallets and passports went in a backpack. We put all of our toiletries into a fourth roller bag.

Our guests were so willing to help that I didn't end up carrying a thing except my purse and my DH just had the backpack and the dress and suit.

I tagged all checked luggage with Carnival's tags and tied a special ribbon on all of the bags that had to be catrried on to make sure they didn't get checked. We also wrote and labeled each carry on with the location the bag had to be dropped once on board.

Miraculously everything got where it needed to go and set out correctly with time to spare. I had asked our weeks guests ahead of time if they had a spare hand, would they mind helping us. And they helped and helped and helped!

Good luck!!!

[muah3iluvzu06]

Lots of great ideas on here! We leave in 60 days and started packing our wedding stuff up last night and I had no idea how we planned to get all our stuff on the ship! Love these ideas! =]

[aprill121]

I am also sending them UPS to the hotel, (OOT bags, pretty much everything but the dress!) usually if you call them, they have no problems. I did not want to have to pay a ton of fees and cart tons of bags through the airport :) Embassy suites Miami told me they would hold anything I sent for up to 3 days BEFORE we arrive, so I can send it out and make sure they get it before I even leave home. Contact your hotel, and see what your options are. Once to the hotel, just picking up the box and taking it on board with me the next day. It seems the biggist issue is getting the stuff down there, getting it on the ship doesn't seem to be an issue.

[Carnival_Brides]

Since we are getting married at sea and have to wait in zones to board, we bought an adjustable garment rack that folds. That way we can hang the two gowns and the BM dresses (instead of them getting wrinkled in our laps or worrying about people putting stuff on top of them) and pull it up on the ship with us once we get through security. We'll also be able to stick the flowers on the bottom rack and everything else is getting checked.

 

http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/1/1/13003-commercial-grade-adjustable-folding-garment-rack.html