Wedding on a smaller ship, Pacific Princess

[OD2]

We were married on Pacific Princess on Nov. 8th 2013 while cruising the Black Sea.

 

This cruise was 12 days, and we had several sea days to chose from. We decided on a date toward the end of the cruise, to provide some time in case there were any missing details which might need to be cleared up when we arrived.

 

We chose this ship because we love the Library on her (and her sister ship the Ocean) and wanted to be married there. The larger ships have wedding chapels which admittedly can accommodate a good sized crowd, but on the 2 Princess smaller ships, the weddings are held in the small Library with its charming dark wood panelling and fireplace which can fit 12 guests or so. We are both in our 70s and have been married before, so a quiet intimate wedding suited us perfectly.

 

We began by calling the Princess wedding planner in B.C. , and were sent all the forms to fill out and fax back. As we do not have a fax machine we scanned them and attached them as emails, which was quite acceptable. Notarized copies of our divorce documents had to be submitted by mail however. They had to sent to the law court in Bermuda (where the ship is registered) no later than one month prior to the wedding. This is the only requirement that I would caution others about, as you can't decide to do this at the absolute last minute, as some suppose.

 

Once on board we met with the Customer Relations Manager to go over the details and review the wording we wanted, as there is no Wedding Co-ordinator on these small ships. I arranged for my hair and nails appointments in the spa. He had his rented tux delivered to our stateroom and tried it on. That was it.

 

We simply asked a few couples we met on board to attend, and they seemed delighted to be asked to come. That is how we obtained our witnesses.

 

Captain Lorentzen officiated very nicely and seemed genuinely glad to do so. They have few weddings on board these ships, so for the crew it appeared to be an occasion they enjoyed too. The ship's photographers, both of them, showed up and one took still photos while the other videoed the ceremony so that we would have a record to show our children and friends back home.

 

Martin Seelan, Customer Relations Manager, looked after all the details and indeed went above and beyond our expectations. He personally went to the market in Istanbul and bought gorgeous peach roses for my bouquet and found fake mini roses in a matching colour for my hair. Thanks also to JJ in the spa for so cleverly making my thinning hair look fluffy (!) and cleverly working the flowers into my hair.

 

We had a wedding supper just the 2 of us in Sabatini's that night. The next night we had the wedding cake delivered to our regular table in the dining room to share with others at out table, as we did not intend to take it home with us.

 

We sincerely thank the crew of the Pacific Princess and highly recommend this ship for others in our situation.

[flcruiser3]

Congratulations on your wedding and thanks for the review of your experience!