Finally Booked, what now?

[pinklily116]

Hey everyone! As of this past Friday, I am booked for the let us serve you package for August 16, 2015 on the carnival dream out of New Orleans. Right after I booked, I got an email with a bunch of different attachments for things like photography, the contract, directions for embarkation day. I'm a little confused tho.. I think she said the wedding coordinator was supposed to contact me within 24 hours. I thought it was the email with the attachments but that email is from the sales agent of the wedding department. So should I be receiving something from the coordinator soon?

 

Also, when should I receive the info on the actual ceremony? - what I want the officiant to say, sand ceremony stuff, and wedding party.

 

basically, what's the process?

[SarahOhara]

Congrats on booking your wedding. The first thing I can tell you is that there is no hurry with any of your forms. all that stuff is not due until 4 weeks before wedding so lots of time to get it all together. From my experience sometimes you need to be pro active with the wedding department. After sending us the info that you just got we waited and never got a call so we called the wedding department with our questions. As it turns out you will be dealing with the wedding department agent for all your things up until your sail date. If you have any questions just call the number and they will answer any questions you have.

 

What usually happens is...you are soooo excited to get started and the forms come and you go over them with a fine tooth comb analyzing ever piece of information. you start filling it all out only to discover that you have 9 months till you need to turn any of it in. Start with the things that need to be completed first. like do you want favors?? Do you want your own cake topper?? What are your colors going to be?? Invitations and save the dates. And get those out early because If the wedding is out of town or you plan on having sailing guest they will need plenty of time to plan their trip too.

 

Pace yourself and don't rush it and you should have no troubles. We are 28 days from our wedding on the Conquest and spreading out all the planning has helped the time fly by this past year for us. Do a little bit every week or so and you won't run into the problem of getting everything set and then nothing to do for 6 months which then will drag on like forever.

 

Congrats and enjoy.

[mrstriceasnice]

The only sheet that needs returned soon is the actual signed contract. Our wedding agent called after she received that just to touch base and make sure we knew how to get a hold of her. Honestly I have spoken to my PVP more than the wedding planner in the last six months.

[NL2134]

I think it took about 2 weeks for the coordinator to contact me... and I was married on the Dream in New Orleans also.

 

Like others said, the only form you need to worry about right now is the contract. After that, the entertainment/DJ form is a priority, since it's first come first serve, but I'm not sure if that pertains to you with the let us serve you package. Other than that, you don't need to send in anything until 4 weeks before the wedding... and it's best to wait in case you change you mind on something. But, it is definitely nice to see all the options up front, even just for curiosity sake.

 

When I booked, my first communication was an e-mail from weddings@carnival.com with the contract and, like, 16 attachments with info on NOLA boarding info, NOLA marriage license info, port directions, videographer, entertainment/DJ, Lido lunch form, Guest list form, cake choices, ceremony outline, formal wear rental, and hors d'oeuvres menu. This was sent by my wedding coordinator and had her contact info at the bottom of the e-mail. She also called me about a week later to make sure I had everything and see if I had any questions. About a week or two later, I received e-mail from The Wedding Experience with info on flower upgrades and more forms about boarding instructions.

 

But, the Carnival person was my main contact for wedding planning. I don't think I actually communicated with TWE at all, except via e-mail. The Carnival wedding coordinators are also the sales agents, and are assigned to particular ship. So, the e-mail you received probably is from your coordinator. Unless they changed in the last couple month, Gabby is the coordinator/agent for Dream. She was pretty good to work with from my experience. This is the person you will work with up until your wedding day. You may not receive anything from TWE until after you return the wedding contract to Carnival. But, don't hesitate to contact the wedding sales agent/coordinator if you have any questions before they contact you.

 

As far as ceremony outline & info, I received that in the initial e-mail with my contract. I was lucky that they sent me everything right at the start, but it sounds like not everyone gets that lucky. But TWE is actually in charge of everything related to the ceremony (ceremony, decorations, flowers), so they may be the ones to send you the ceremony outline. But, if you haven't received it, just ask the coordinator if they can send it to you.

[mrstriceasnice]

You definitely don't need the DJ or entertainment sheets with the let us serve you. When we first got our email they sent us the horsdouerves form instead of the luncheon form. I've had no contact at all with TWE thus far. Since we aren't using their flowers in the ceremony I guess it doesn't make a whole lot of difference for us. We also are fine with a standard ceremony and not doing a sand ceremony or anything like that. I officiate so many weddings that I find the ceremony the shorter for us the better. Of course we booked a year out so that may be why. Just be content to plan your details that you control until it gets closer. Of course somewhere in the paperwork we got there was contact info for TWE so I'm sure you could initiate contact if you wanted.