Rhapsody Wedding Review - Cruise To Alter

[cruise to alter]

This is Part I - Arrival & Ceremony

 

Part II - Reception and Cruise Recap will follow in a few days.

 

Summary - 16 Sailing Guests, 10 Non-Sailing, Ship Board Ceremony 1:30PM, Ceremony Grade=A, Informal Reception Grade=A, Photographer=A-, Video - TBA

 

Abbreviations for easier reading/typing:

DH = Groom

MOH = Maid or Honor

BM = Bridesmaid

RR = Royal Romance

AC = Air Condition

BP = Bridal Party

 

All of the BP and guests arrive at our designated parking area at 9:30AM. We were shuttled to the port and had our luggage checked by the porters by 10:00AM. We didn't have to be at Priority Check In until 10:30, so the "guards" had us wait just outside the area. We were still in an AC building so we didn't have to tolerate the Houston heat.

 

Approx. 10:30AM, our minister Connie (RR provided) and Janet & Robert w/RR arrived. Unexpectedly our minister was a woman. I will expand on that in a minute. We were ushered thru security and began check in. Very smooth. Our non-sailing guests were taken to get guest IDs. Also very smooth. By 11:00AM we were all checked in and asked to wait in an AC holding area for boarding.

 

As we were waiting to board, Connie went over our presubmitted ceremony. She had a few suggestions. We liked them all and used them. Her personal touches went very smooth with what we submitted. She also asked me if RR asked me my preference about a male or female officiant. The DID NOT! This really wasn't a big deal with me or DH and I am extremely happy we ended up with Connie. She was wonderful and I highly recommend her for Houston area weddings. She is a non-denominational ordained minister. She had a special touch that calmed my nerves. In retrospect & not to be sexist, I don't think a male minister could have understood me on this given day as well as she did.

 

At 11:30AM customs cleared the ship and we were able to board. The BP and sailing guest were able to go to their cabins & drop off carryons and prepare for the ceremony. I did not hear about any rooms not being ready.

 

I and BMs started our makeup and at 12:00PM Janet fetched me and one other BM to go to the salon for our hair appt. I brought pics with me on how I wanted my hair, but the one I really wanted would have taken too much time. I left my hair in the hands of the hairdresser. See the pics, but I thought she did a great job.

 

I was back in my cabin to finish makeup and get dressed by 12:45PM. And now the nerves started to set in. More about everything going smoothly rather than the marriage part. DH hasn't been back to the cabin to change and our rings are still in my makeup bag. My MOH is still working on her hair, so I'm getting a bit frazzled on my own. (Mom would have made it worse - that's why she wasn't there).

 

DH has gone with our guests to make sure they get something to eat and drink. So I'm pacing (about two steps each direction, given the size of the cabin) in my slip and munching on my king size Snickers. I highly recommend packing one. There is no time for the bride to eat.

 

DH finally comes barreling thru the cabin door at 1:05PM, gets changed and takes the rings and is out the door by 1:10PM. Thank heavens we did a casual wedding. MOH arrives and helps me do touch ups and get into my dress.

 

Janet picks me & the BMs up at 1:20PM and off to the Crown Viking Lounge we go. The photographer snapped a few pics of the girls and everybody got lined up for the processional.

 

DH seated his mother, followed by his dad and wife, and then my folks. Robert started the CD we submitted, the bridal party headed down the aisle and I waited my turn. As the Bridal March started, I took a deep breath and headed down the aisle. Tina (the photographer) took my picture, and then I froze. I really had no idea where to go. The way the room was set up, I could not see DH. Connie (bless her heart) saw my confusion and with eye contact guided me the rest of the way. At this point I was shaking uncontrollably (haven't seen video yet-should be interesting). It wasn't until I handed by bouquet to my MOH and took DH hands that I stopped.

 

The ceremony itself was just what we wanted and took less than 15 minutes. Light hearted with a touch of seriousness. The Best Man even joked about not remembering which pocket the rings were in. Everyone laughed and Connie even lost her train of thought, but recovered nicely.

 

I'll write more about the reception, a short cruise re-cap and my dos/don'ts and recommendations list in a few days. But here is an explanation of the pics on shutterfly.com. At this time, we have over 650 pics. I finally have them all loaded on my PC, but am far from getting them organized. The pics I have in shutterfly now are for you ship board brides. They show the layout, the cake, the bouquet and a few other things. There are a few of our professional pics in there too.

 

A note about the bouquet: My MOH and I made ours. Because of our casual theme, I didn't want white roses. But because they are part of the package, I gave the bouquet to my mom. However, because the flowers are real, she was not allowed to take them home with her. Keep that in mind.

 

Ok, well that does it for now before my carpal tunnel sets in.

 

Link to pics:

http://share.shutterfly.com/osi.jsp?i=EeANXLhw3bsXDlY

 

[Aloyicus]

YOU GUYS LOOK GREAT!!!! Your theme was the best idea yet, it really made the pictures stand out. Thanks for the review as well, it really gave me an idea of what to expect.It sounds as if everything went very smoothly for you and your guests. I can only pray it goes as well for us. The flowers you brought really added nice color to the pics. Was the ceremony and reception in the same area? You mentioned the guests were able to get lunch,was that included or did they have to pay for it? We are trying to decide whether or not to offer lunch? I can't wait for part 2. Thanks again for all you help and imput.

 

 

Amber

[monkey1]

Andrea-

 

Congratulations! And, thank you for posting such a detailed review and your pics. You looked beautiful!

 

I can't wait to read the rest of your review.

 

~Traci

[jerseygirl3]

OMG, I can't believe you guys wore the same wedding attire we did for our cruise wedding 3 years ago. Did you purchase yours at Paradise on a Hanger?

 

Ours were exactly the same, except I (the bride) and my bridesmaids wore the more fitted, sleeveless version (same colors, though). And our guys wore the same shirts (groom in the off white to match my dress, groomsmen in the black matching the bridesmaids), but they all wore white pants.

 

I had taken my dress to a floral designer prior to our cruise, and she matched the flowers in my bouquet to the ones in the dress (silk version).

 

We had four bridesmaids and four groomsmen and they all loved their outfits. They truly are clothes they can wear again.

 

It was like deja vu when I saw your photos. When we got married, Paradise on a Hanger had just come out with that style/print, and when I told them I was ordering them for our entire wedding party, they said nobody had done that before. They had us submit a photo to include in their catalog. Now I've seen lots of people wearing "our clothes" I guess they turned out to be popular for weddings. When I originally saw it in their catalog, even though it wasn't advertised for wedding attire, I thought it worked well for a cruise ship wedding.

 

I think you have very good taste...LOL!

[cruise to alter]

Part II is a little less detailed as for as a time frame. We had the 2nd and 3rd level of the VCL at our disposal until 3PM. All of our guests hung out on the 3rd level where the cake was displayed on an out of the way table. Everyone mingled and had pics taken until it was time to go. At 3PM we went to the Centrum to have the group pic taken and from there the non-sailing guests were escorted off the ship. Have not heard any horror stories about their departure. The rest of our guests dispersed while we and the BP had more pics taken. Not too much happened in that time frame, so I'll cover some of the details you worry about but don't generally get answer for.

 

The Champagne - I don't like champagne, but all of it was consumed, so someone did. I forgot to look at the label, but MOH informed me it was a generic brand served on the ship.

 

The Cake - The cake itself was very smooth and tasty and looked very nice. We had the white cake with vanilla filling. The icing was not so great. It looked like they used a "heavy" fondant. It was really hard to cut and very chewy. This was my worst experience with fondant. A heart shaped cake was provided for us and a 2 tier for 25 guests. We ended up cutting the heart and ended up w/both tiers delivered to our cabin. Too much cake that never got eaten = waste of money. Be careful ordering extra cake for your guests.

The Video - I think we had one, we paid for one for 2 hours ;) . He was so inconspicuous; I never knew he was there. No bright lights in our faces. He did ask most of our guests to say a few words of wisdom. We have not seen the video yet, but I'll let you know the outcome when we do. I'm expecting it to be very good.

 

The photographer/photos - Tina was a lovely person and over all did a wonderful job. We are very pleased with how our pics turned out. We purchased an extra hour and glad we did. There was no way we could have taken as many pics as we did and had time to mingle if we didn't take the extra hour. My only complaint and word of warning is the purchase of the negatives. We came across additional charges we did not budget for. In order to purchase the negatives, we had to purchase an additional package over and above what was included in our RR package. The additional cost was $800. Ouch, but we ended up with printed 20 8x10s, over 200 5x7s, 3 5x7 books, 1 8x10 book, 2 silver 8x10 frames and all the negatives. In doing some comparison pricing, this charge is a little (not much) above the average we would have paid here at home for this type of package. I've also learned that these packages can be negotiated with the photographer, but I didn't know that at the time. Although it was a shock, we decided it was money well spent.

 

The Music - We didn't have a DJ or entertainment, but I had made a CD to play. So Robert popped it in and put the player in an out of the way place. The music was played at a nice background volume level.

 

Overall, the cruise was wonderful. We had a great time with everyone, but the next vacation we take will be just the 2 of us. Our presence in different places was in demand and taxing.

 

 

Oh, and before I forget. . . One other wonderful thing happened to me on the cruise . . .I won Jackpot Bingo on the final day. Split $9000 with 2 other winners. We'll add this money to our other monetary gifts that are going into our adoption fund.

 

 

OK, that's about sums it up. One of the best days of my life and I wouldn't change it for the world. The small things I mentioned are not meant as complaints, but only warnings to you future brides.

 

 

Questions??? Ask away . . .

 

 

Andrea

[cruise to alter]

OMG, I can't believe you guys wore the same wedding attire we did for our cruise wedding 3 years ago. Did you purchase yours at Paradise on a Hanger?

 

OMG is right!!! Yes, we do have good taste. We actually purchased the dresses and shirts from AlohaZ.com online. We had to have some alterations done to the dresses. They were straight cuts from the arm pit the floor. My MOH tried to make them a little more curvy, but had trouble without messing up the pattern.

 

I've gotten alot of compliments on our attire, so I feel like we made the right choice. This was a second for both of us, so we didn't do anything "white traditional."

 

How neat!!!:D

 

Andrea