Welcome back MentalVacation!! How did it go?

[Cruising Wonder]

I have been thinking about you all week. Can't wait to hear all about your big day. I would love to see your pictures if you don't mind!

 

Have a great weekend and take the time to relax.

 

 

All the best,

Shari:p

[BobVv]

This is a repeat of a message I left on Roll Call thread 5/21/05 for mentalvaction:

 

Wasn't sure if it was you or not, May 14 at 2 on the aft of Caribbean Princess?

 

Tall Blonde(your description per some of your emails I just check back on tonight-if so I took about 4-8 minutes of video of your wedding, not great video, but thougth you might want it if so, give me a email address and we will work out the details.

 

It was a beautiful wedding, had to be to stop both my wife and I to watch the whole thing. Hope it was you. As you had been posting on the roll call.

 

When I remembered the meeting, the weather had driven everyone off from the meeting on sunday, so didn't get to meet everyone, to check it this wedding was you.

 

Bob V.

Huntsville, Al

[MentalVacation]

Hello everyone! We just got back TODAY! Whew. Exhausted and a lot to write(good and bad) but need some time to process first.

 

I will post pictures asap.

 

Bob -- we did get married above the aft pool that day -- ironically, however, another tall(ish) blonde bride got married right before us in the same location....... I had the bridesmaids in pink. I don't know what her attendants wore, but if it is in fact our ceremony, that would be GREAT!!!! We had the two little kiddos obliterating the floral arrangements.... :-) Toddlers are so amusing!

 

We missed the meeting on Sunday due to the weather/exhaustion! We were viewing a "slideshow" of wedding pics in our room with our wonderful photographer, but I was sad to miss it. I did have someone approach me the day of the4 wedding (still in the dress!) and ask me if I was "Mental" -- he he! I can't remember now what his name was (it was a crazy day!!!!)

[BobVv]

Could have been both, but I believe it was you. Two kids sat on the floor and tore up flowers. A small girl was in one man's (grandfather?) arms during ceremony on the grooms side. Lisa and Mark I think are the names I heard. That any help?

 

Let me know if that was you.

 

My wife and I just watched it yesterday.

 

Bob Vv

Huntsville, AL

[Cruising Wonder]

Mental Vacation,

 

Glad to see you are back and can't wait to read your review, as well as see your beautiful pictures. I leave in 40 days and am getting married July 4th on the Caribbean Princess. I am so excited!!

 

Shari:p

[MentalVacation]

Bob- that was definitely us! :-) Those two boys were full of it all weekend!

 

I would love to see the video you have. I could send a blank tape/DVD or however you'd like to do that? I am not the most technologically advanced but my husband (that still feels weird!) is very much technologically forward, so maybe he can think of an easy way to do it.

 

My email address is lisaandmark77@cableone.net

 

I can't wait to see it!

 

Cruising Wonder -- I will try to post my review/thoughts on the ceremony and stuff ASAP. I am still sorting things out in my mind. Don't be nervous. It will be wonderful, if chaotic.

[BobVv]

Got the segments of your wedding that I captured downloaded on my computer,.......now I'm working on getting it on a DVD (yikes, lots to that, but I am doing it for the first time, so the learning curve is LARGE, but so far so good.)

 

Getting out of the computer seems to be more challenging. Going to TRY to make it DVD-better quality-and as this is a really important event in your life-I don't want to half do it. But if the DVD portion seems to be to difficult for me to master, I will get it to tape and email you with what I have.

 

The downloaded sections are somewhere between 7-8 minutes long- not bad either, for home video.

[MentalVacation]

Bob -- Thank you so much! I can't wait to see it!!!!!!

[BobVv]

I emailed you, needing you address.(haven't heard back, it's a holiday weekend ..) I have completed copying short video of your ceremony to a DVD. Computer genereated DVDs can be funny however.... This one will play on my new toshiba laptop, on my old sony DVD player, but not my toshiba DVD player.....If you can't get it to play, I'l convert it to a tape and mail that.

 

I hope you enjoy it. It is taken from a deck above you so you can hear some of the vows if you listen closely. It is not the complete ceremony,....

 

You need to remember, we had just gotten on the ship and were exploring and when I saw the setup for a wedding, I remember vaguely some of your emails on the rollcall, so I kind of hung around as it unfolded.

 

As the wife and I were celebrating our 11th anniversary, she was all to happy to watch a wedding,

any wedding......especailly ones with kids and grand kids.

 

So remember: it was just "a random wedding watcher"...

who didn't know you or who anybody was...

who decided to video a stranger's wedding?????

who had one very large rumpunch....

(After reading your review, I know you have high standards, so I'm hoping to set a lower level of expectations for when you complete the DVD review......:):):).... just kidding .....

it's not that bad, but I'll let you decide what you think.....

 

If you haven't seen an email from me, please check the email address you gave me above and if I should use a different one just let me know. I'm not much for putting an address on the forum.

 

Have a great holiday.

 

Bob V.

[MentalVacation]

Bob,

I emailed the info! Thanks!!!!!!

[ceeceebaby1982]

:mad: Let me see if I can figure this out. Your nephews destroyed two flower arrangements on the boat, and you are amused by this. I am getting married on this boat next month. Will I have flower arrangements avaialble since you wrecked them? You are glad they didn'y get hurt by the wires? You should pay to replace them for the rest of us, since your family destroyed them.

[MentalVacation]

CeeCee --

 

first of all, destroy was perhaps a bit strong. And, it was one arrangement. They pulled the silk flowers out of the arrangement. It was completely capable of reassembly, I am sure. Otherwise, I'd have undoubtedly heard about it later.

 

second, yes I was amused. It was a better alternative to pitching a bridezilla fit, which I am sure some people would do. what were my choices halfway through the ceremony? Turn around a scold them? I chose to take the other approach and find it amusing.

 

if they had asked me to replace the flowers so you (and other brides in the interim) would have the ever so stunning creations at YOUR ceremony I would have. Clearly it wasn't that big of a deal, and didn't cause any permanent damage to the arrangement. If you had read my review of my wedding you might be a little LESS concerned about the condition of the silk flowers and more concerned with other aspects of the wedding you are planning.

 

You sound quite judgmental. I wish you much luck in dealing with TWE and the cruise ship coordinators as you make arrangements for your upcoming nuptials. I hope things go smoothly for you and you and others can learn from some of the troubles I experienced. Yes, I was amused. There were many un-amusing things about that day. Give me a break.

[MentalVacation]

ps it is a ship, not a boat.

[kadiebug12]

Regarding the negative post aimed toward Mental Vacation:

 

I've been on these boards for over a year (planning and then helping soon to be brides) and this may be the first time I've seen a negative post toward another bride. With any luck, it will be the last. Cruise Brides really should stick together and help each other out when and where we can, there's enough negativity out there in planning your wedding that coming to this board and receiving it is unfortunate. I've seen other message boards where people get slammed all the time, just trying to help out other people or asking simple questions. I truly hope this board doesn't become one of those.

 

 

Sorry, should have left it alone, but had to drop in my 2 cents on this post.

 

Kadiebug

[GemOnboard]

Let me assure you, things are destroyed on cruise ships all the time and are promptly replaced. C'mon, we're talking about a very profitable industry that prints different menus for every night of the week. One night we saw drunk passengers go around and break several of those glass like directories--they were replaced several hours later. Selling drinks and dealing with the occasional destruction of property is still much more profitable in the long run for the ship --- same thing for weddings. I bet they rotate the flower arranges around on a monthly or seasonal basis, anyway.

 

Mental Vacation, sounds like you handled it all with grace and class.

 

Kadiebug, I agree... these boards should remain a great place for sharing information and supporting one another.

[MentalVacation]

GemOnboard, kadiebug -- thanks for the support!

 

Cruising Wonder and other interested parties -- here are some of our photographer's pictures. I have tons more from him and from our own camera, but need to upload them to webshots or snapfish or somewhere. For the record, you will be able to see exactly what the two boys did to the one arrangement in a couple of these photos. My nephew is the one who is also minus articles of clothing throughout (first the tie. then the vest. then the shoes. he is barely three, and it was a long day) DH's nephew (the darker haired one) was sort of an instigator and beat up on my nephew all weekend. :-( Literally. Poor guy.

 

PS The flower girl is DH's niece -- sister of the trouble maker. Isn't she just a doll?????? Way too young to do a full proper flower girl routine, but she made it work just the same. :-) We wanted all of our nieces and nephews involved in the wedding (we are the last ones in both families to have kids, so we have a lot -- six total, and we spend a lot of time with them -- especially mine, as they are close by). We managed to get four of six there, and despite many mishaps and probably trying moments for everyone, it was fun and I'm glad we didn't go "kid free". If I'd have done a 300 person sit down black tie, that might have been different. (my nephew did in fact end up in the pool at the rehearsal.....it was almost inevitable....we rehearsed right in front of the steps leading into the water. Fortunately his room was near by!)

 

In any case, enjoy. :-) I will post our personal pictures eventually. Lots of ship pictures in that bunch, too.

 

http://www.sendpix.com/albums/05052907/za1ubygwv6/

 

http://www.sendpix.com/albums/05052820/tjs4fo8c74/

 

http://www.sendpix.com/albums/05052820/ey7rdocgd6/

 

http://www.sendpix.com/albums/05052907/9xmmerueh3/

 

NOTICE OF COPYRIGHT: It is ILLEGAL to copy or reproduce these photographs elsewhere without express written consent of Dustin Jones Photography.

[txrn]

Lisa,

The pics are great...I'm sooo excited now I can barely stand it and I have 25 weeks to go!

I can't believe someone would go on about "damage" to silk flowers....that is "Knot" talk at its finest!

You looked beautiful and everyone appeard to have a great time!

Congratulations!!!

Kristin

[BobVv]

I just watched the DVD of your wedding...which I mailed today to you. Hope you enjoy. Went regular mail.

 

Please email me or post here when you get it and your comments -if you enjoyed. I really want a tough review, because of total cost of my videographic services....:):) If I had access to you photos I could have intergrated them into the video, but I didn't....my firewall apparently will not let me easily access them.

 

Oh by the way...... I really don't care for negative posters..either(they just seem to crawl out of the woodwork, sometimes don't they)

 

Sorry that when you are taking your busy time to share your ideas, experiences and reviews to all to consume.

 

Although I didn't visit this section of the forum, I know it has to be a great value to future brides, just as the hotel and general sections were to big helps to me over the four princess cruises we have taken.

 

So don't let the few (pains) take the luster off a great event or your active sharing for future brides and their plans. Your experience and insight will be invaluable to them.

 

I have little to offer this forum, other that being the hopeless romantic I am and just always want every trip to be great for my bride of eleven years and share with folks like you and Mark.

 

Have a great week

 

Bob V.

[kadiebug12]

Mental Vacation-

 

Thanks so much for sharing your pictures, they are gorgeous!!! You look stunning and I LOVE your dress. Congratulations on your newlywed status!

 

What did you end up thinking of the location for the ceremony? Would you recommend it as a good option for other Princess brides?

 

Kadie

[monkey1]

Thank you so much for posting your pics--please disregard my post asking about them on the other thread--they're right here.

 

 

You looked fantastic!

 

Traci

[MentalVacation]

Bob -- I can't wait to see it. I am sure it will be great. (But I do understand about the rum. We had our share that week too!!!!! Too bad we didn't get to meet you and your wife. I suspect you'd have fit right into our group. :-) ) Maybe another cruise. :-) I'm always ready for another one. Too bad I have next to zero vacation time left........back to the grind! I will be "brutally honest" -- Kidding! I'm just happy you are willing to share it! What was your fee again? I think I have a spare bottle of rum, trekked out of St. Thomas by my dear new husband!

 

kadie -- location....hmmmm. I am torn. It was good and bad. Good -- on deck, nice view of pool, in shade (from Skywalkers' walkway I think), and entering from the staircase was sort of neat. Bad -- blue flooring. eck. also, the "Fun Zone" or whatever it was, with the climbing net, in our pictures was a negative. I wonder if an "At Sea" Bride could ask to have it taken down. Overall, I'd say yes, it was a good location, and probably better than the way I wanted to do it with the Aft Pool.

 

Thanks for all the compliments on the pictures! I am very happy with them. I just love our photographer. He is going to put them in a "Zook Book" for us -- it is something you guys should check out....I imagine you could order one yourself with the pics the ship does if you buy the CD of all the images. They are a really unique style of album, not the standard Art Leather deal. (I am partly biased against the Art Leather thing b/c that was what I had the first time I was married.....and I want something completely different. I loved the photographer for that wedding too, but I want this to be different.....boy have i digressed.......)

 

Anyway, check out http://www.zookbinders.com if you are curious. We are doing a "flush" style album....our photog took a ton of panoramics all week and lots of pics on the beach, etc....i can't wait!!!!!

[MentalVacation]

Bob -- we got the video and had a viewing last night. i think for an amateur you must know a little bit about the software. it looked pretty good to me!!! all the editing features were very neat. i think you did a great job and i'm happy you shared it with me. I would highly recommend your video services to any bride. :-)

[BobVv]

I admit I did your video ......was my first attempt.

 

I used it as a test bed for doing a second video for my step daughter's wedding, one year ago on May 29th-also my birthday, which my wife carried to Memphis, this weekend, while I stayed home and watched the dog.

 

I felt like I had put so much effort in to something for somebody I didn't even know I felt guilty not doing something for somebody I knew..........So I felt doing my stepdaughter a video like yours would keep me out of the dog house and keep me from feeling quilty and it let me just use your video as a "going to school" effort.

 

My stepdaughters video had a menu at the beginning-your's didn't-so I learned on yours and the second one I tried a menu. Kinda cool.

 

Maybe I can suck some of your photos off the internet and redo yours and add the photos(a very professional photographer I might add) and a menu. I think my attmept is very pale compared to his work-but I'm just a guy.......

 

Well glad you guys enjoyed it ...I know it was lame in many ways, If you had been one of my girls it would have been awesome. I did the best I could with what video I had.

 

No matter what, I really enjoyed re-living your wedding. Such great looking couple and a great location.

 

Have a great week.

 

Bob V.

[kadiebug12]

Hi Bob,

 

I'm trying to make a DVD for my family that includes a pictures slideshow, music and the short video clip we have of the ceremony. What software did you use to make the video? (We were married onboard CP in January)

[BobVv]

The one I used is by Pinnacle, it's kind of a computer hog, so you need some real horsepower to use it.

 

It is a PC based program, the easier approach is Mac based and the package the ship with the systems very good.

 

Video editing, with transistions takes fast disk drives and usually P4 2-3+mhz processor with fast front side buses. read the software's system requirements first.

 

"Windows movie player" is a package that comes with windows XP home and it offers almost everything you are asking about, except it puts it on a CD or tape rather than a DVD. No matter what start with something cheap and easy to learn and just try out and just play with it and try to figure out how to do different things. Just take some different photos and a little video and play with transistions and make a quick CD or tape before you work long and hard on your wedding as it's easier and quicker to do a short video with a title and transistion or two and a couple photos to do the editing, rendering and producing a video, with a 1 or 2 minute practice project than a long wedding etc. I spent about 7 hours on Lisa's AFTER I had done a quick short project learning how to use everything. The first time you do something takes the longest.

 

Hope that helps.If that is all over your head, just let me know I might be able to do it for you, depending on the time I have available. Dependent on your video is digital or analog and if your pictures are downloadable or on a chip, that you could mail me.

 

I am planning on doing project on my first grandchild, from birth to age 6,pretty big deal,,, to me that is.(hours of video to work through and select what is important and what is best.) Getting captured to the system and then building the storyboard music and the creative side takes the most time.

 

Bob V.