Carrying Wedding dress on Ship

[demos]

Curious if others stuffed their wedding dressing a garment bag 11 x17, or did you bring it in a long dress bag. I think the dress in a long bag will fit thru xray machines but is not the required size. We plan on bringing a steamer to freshen the dress before the ceremony but if it has to be folded that will require alot more work. The wedding is scheduled for embarkation day and not sure how much time we will have to get ready. We will also have 4 long bridesmaids dresses to bring.

 

I would appreciate your imput!

Thanks!

[chickipoo21]

You can take your dress in the long dress bag. They will just lay it down and send it through the x-ray machine. I carried mine on the airplane and the ship this way. It held up very nicely and only took a couple of minutes to steam. Just remember to put your steamer in your carry on luggage. Good luck and enjoy the wedding!

[dcdiva]

Getting it on the ship is no problem. It was gettting it on the airplane that was the challenge.

 

I put mine in a 60 inch long garment bag. Laying flat in meant folding only the train. But in order to fit in a crowded overhead compartment on the plane, it meant folding it three times. Fortunately, I was able to convice the flight crew to let me hang it in the first class closet. It ended up being a godsend. Our plane -- leaving on a Friday night -- was fully booked, Overhead space was packed. So laying in the overhead space just wasn't an option. If there was room at all, it would have meant folding the dress in three and guranteeing it would be a wrinkled mess.

 

We got in on Friday and did not sail until Sunday. So I had some time to get it pressed again on Saturday just in case it was a complete wreck. But the first class closet minimized the damage. I transferred it to the dress bag supplied by the bridal shop and hung it my hotel till Sunday morning. I was able to carry to the long dress bag onto the plane without incident. My cabin wasn't ready yet, but they let me in to deposit the gown. Just some minor touch ups with a steamer and it looked great at the wedding the next day.

 

The worst problem I had was the panic that something would go wrong. I was going to have it shipped to our departure port and then have a local cleaner steamed it. That way I could pick it up just before I boarded the ship. But I was convinced something would go wrong. Better to have a wrinkled gown, than no gown at all.

 

To demonstrate how compeltely paranoid I was, I actually packed an emergency dress -- a simple long white chiffon dress. I ended up wearing it on the second formal night, so that actually worked out for me as well.

[MandyGirl]

I had no problems on the plane or ship carrying my dress in the long white bag I bought at the bridal store. Passengers were very accommodating in letting me place it on top of their items in the overhead bin. Under no circumstance should you "check" your dress - don't let it out of your sight!! When you get to the gate, nicely ask the airline gate agent about the possibility of you (not your entire group) preboarding so that you can get a good spot for it (particularly if the flight is booked). It would be much better to have your dress folded up a few times for a few hours than checked and possibly damaged/lost with the millions of bags that are handled daily. Steamers can work magic!

[dcdiva]

Let me echo MandyGirl. Under no circumstances should you check your dress!

 

I tried the pre-boarding idea, but was shot down. The flight was completely full, so they wouldn't make any exceptions. We were the 5th group to board, so the overheads were already pretty full by the time we got onboard. But I very nicely explained my situation to the flight attendants. As I said, they allowed me to use the first class closet to hang my dress.

 

Actually, the flight attendant was a bit of a comedian. He came back to my seat before we landed to remind me not to forget to pick up the dress on my way out. PLEASE!! Like I was gonna forget my wedding gown!

 

I was also really careful about our other carryons. The only thing I was carrying on was the dress and my purse. My DH2B had one carry on bag that had our other essentials -- wedding rings, gifts, jewelry & other things we could not risk checking.

 

Just smile and ask as sweetly as you can and I am sure they'll help if they can.

[demos]

Thank you for all the info.:) Thank goodness we are driving down so we will not have to worry about the plane. I was afraid of having problems when they see us with 6 long dresses to carry on the ship. The wedding will be held the first day of emabarkation before the ship sails out of port.

[kadiebug12]

I used to be a flight attendant, and if you are very nice to the flight crew and explain to them you are getting married and you would love their advice on the best place to store the dress, I'm confident (most) will help you out. I've put a wedding dress in the cockpit with the pilots before on a full plane that had no closet. The worst thing you could do, is walk on and "direct" them to put your garment in the first class closet, you'll almost always get shot down, but if you ask for their help on the best place to store your beautiful dress I'm sure they'll help you! It wouldn't hurt if it was early morning and you brought the crew some donuts, you would probably even get a free bloody mary to start off your trip! :)

 

Good Luck!

Kadie

[dcdiva]

Demos - I wouldn't worry about bringing the dresses onboard the ship. They were very accomodating. In addition to the wedding gown and four bridesmaids dresses, we also carried onboard all the wedding bouquets and flowers (silk) and a huge duffel bag filled with goody bags for our sailing guests. It was a chore carrying all that stuff, but we didn't want to risk checking it. Even though my the cabin wasn't ready, they allowed us to "drop off" our haul. Getting it through port security was no problem at all.

[demos]

dcdiva I feel much better now. We also have to bring the bridesmaids bouquets, favors, cake top, personalized napkins, in addtion to THE DRESSES!!! Whew! I was afraid we would have to squeeze the wedding dress into a small garmet bag!! I am trying to pack the other stuff in small carryons. It helps to hear frrom others who have done this before, Thank you.:)