Destination Wedding?

[BritAshMom]

Hi All,

 

Almost 2 May's ago, my fiancé and I cruised out of Boston to Bermuda (we live in Maine, so only an hour drive to port) on the Norwegian Dawn and had the best time of our lives.

 

Since this last cruise, we got engaged (in July). We plan on marrying on June 4, 2016 and we found a great venue about a half an hour from home but with 150 guests, its going to easily set us back about $25,000+++. From everyone I've spoken with that has had a wedding, they say if they could do it again they would go away with their closest family and friends and spend a week just enjoying the company and get married there. They say the day goes by so fast you barely get to enjoy it and then you're left in debt for a few hours of everyone else drinking and eating while you stress over table settings.

 

I've spoken with the most important people in our lives and they are all game for going on the cruise. My question is, do you have any advice for me? Would booking thru the cruise line help me with this process? Any links for helpful information? Have you had a wedding on a cruise or been to one? I would love any and all advice you may have. You all helped us through our first cruise to make it such a wonderful experience. Thanks in advance!!!:)

[chars]

I got married on Carnival and it was fantastic. Check out the honeymoon/wedding blog on cruise critic. You will get tons of information.

[fridaythe13th]

Maybe this forum would help. http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?s=&daysprune=365&f=31

 

Have fun planning!!

[Corby114]

I have been married over twenty seven years and when we look back my wife and I always say we should have had a smaller wedding with only our closest friends and relatives. We had over one hundred sixty guests because we had to guarantee a minimum of one hundred sixty and I think one hundred of them I really couldn't have cared if they came or not. As for your wedding I would have a small ceremony with your closest family and friends in Maine. The following day or next week or whenever I would invite your same guests to go along on your honeymoon on their expense. That way your expenses are reasonable and the people that you really want to accompany you come. Many couples also have the wedding onboard the ship prior to leaving from the ships homeport. After the short ceremony the couple usually has a short reception for the invited family and guests. After the reception some guests leave the ship and some guests stay onboard for the honeymoon voyage. A destination wedding is tough because on some cruises due to unforeseen circumstances a port may be missed due to weather or something else and guess what happens to you planned wedding. A destination wedding is easier when the wedding party, relatives, and guests fly to the location instead of cruising to it.

[brookie848]

Not to be negative, but think carefully how you plan this. I read a review not too long ago that a bride and groom were on a cruise ship and they were to meet the rest of their family on an island in order to get married. And then the ship was diverted.

 

I vote for getting married at home or on the ship...just in case. :)

[Cattie]

My DH and I were married in Bermuda in 2009. 3 weeks after we arrived home we had a blessing at our church and a reception for all our friends and family that couldn't cruise with us (we also had another cake and did our dances we didn't do on the cruise)

 

We were on RCCL out of Bayonne, NJ. It was a 5 day cruise, we had 2 days in Bermuda so I arranged our wedding the evening of the first day (6pm). Had cake and champagne on the beach then we headed back to the ship and treated everyone to the Italian restaurant. We had 18 guests not including ourselves. It ran us around $5000 (Way cheaper then it would have been at home)

 

I didn't go through the cruise ship, we had a wedding planner on the island that handled everything. The resort we used was called 9 Beaches. It was everything I wanted.

[rjtfdx]

My fiance and I are getting married on the Dawn this weekend. NCL offers a number of packages which looked quite nice and ranged from about $2,000, without a reception, to some ungodly sum at the high end (almost every service/feature is an additional cost). They are all handled by a third party that NCL contracts with. Their info is here:

 

http://www.ncl.com/freestyle-cruise/wedding-and-romance

 

In addition if you go direct through NCL you can form a "group" if you and your friends/family will total at least 8 Cabins AND 16 people. The nice thing about the group is that they give you 1/16th of the pre-taxes cruise fares back (they call it 16th guest free I think), and they also throw in 50 "Amenity" dollars (not to be confused with an OBC) per cabin which can be used in a variety of ways. We are spending 40 of the 50 to have a 1 hour reception with hot snacks and an open bar. This was a great value since the same reception is normally $40+ per person, not per cabin, and it cost us nothing out of pocket. The downside is that certain super cheap fares are not allowed in a "group." If you form a group, don't let anyone "go rouge" and not book through the group. Our four that went off the reservation cost us about $160 to add to the reception.

 

We went a slightly different route than the standard wedding packages. The two Garden Villas on the Dawn are almost 7,000 square feet each (about 4,000 of those are private outdoor space) each and can house 7 (or 6 without getting awkward). We reserved one of those and are having the ceremony conducted by a friend on the private sundeck upstairs during the at sea day. I don't think you will save or lose much money going this way, but you have more control over a few parts of your event AND an awesome space to entertain the few that make the trip with you for 7 days not several hours like a traditional reception.

 

The downside to our method is more stress since there isn't a coordinator making it all happen. However, my fiance is one of those highly organized types that was able to handle multiple balls in the air and not go Bridezilla at any point.

 

Also, we were still able to get them to make us a full size wedding cake on board without a wedding package, but they will only do custom cakes for 50 people or more at about $10/pp. The 28 of us are going to be eating cake for a few nights. We are also taking advantage of the discount offered on bulk wine purchases and keeping a few cases in the room to entertain guests. The wine is still overpriced, but at least that discount makes it competitive with bringing our own and paying the $15/bottle fee.

 

I almost forgot! If you want to do the wedding at the embarkation port, you can have up to 10 non-sailing guests come on board for free.

 

Hi All,

 

Almost 2 May's ago, my fiancé and I cruised out of Boston to Bermuda (we live in Maine, so only an hour drive to port) on the Norwegian Dawn and had the best time of our lives.

 

Since this last cruise, we got engaged (in July). We plan on marrying on June 4, 2016 and we found a great venue about a half an hour from home but with 150 guests, its going to easily set us back about $25,000+++. From everyone I've spoken with that has had a wedding, they say if they could do it again they would go away with their closest family and friends and spend a week just enjoying the company and get married there. They say the day goes by so fast you barely get to enjoy it and then you're left in debt for a few hours of everyone else drinking and eating while you stress over table settings.

 

I've spoken with the most important people in our lives and they are all game for going on the cruise. My question is, do you have any advice for me? Would booking thru the cruise line help me with this process? Any links for helpful information? Have you had a wedding on a cruise or been to one? I would love any and all advice you may have. You all helped us through our first cruise to make it such a wonderful experience. Thanks in advance!!!:)

[timetaffy89]

My husband and I were married on St. Thomas through NCL. It was a beautiful ceremony and great food! I just called NCL and they emailed me a list of all of their packages and took it from there. It was amazing and I highly recommend it!

 

 

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[abs711]

We cruise to St. Thomas with about 20 people. We where married on the Island and a couple people met us there. I did not go through the ship I hired a planner on the Island. We chose St. Thomas because they didn't have a residency requirement. We wouldn't change our wedding for anything.

 

That being said you do need to be prepared for disappointment. People who couldn't wait to go will all of a sudden not be able to go when it comes time to book. You do also have to be prepared for missing your port. That was another reason we went with St. Thomas it is rarely missed in February.

 

Best of luck to you!

[gymbomb]

We were married on the Dawn in 2012. Had our wedding on embarkation day in Boston. We had 6 non sailing guests and 15 who sailed with us to Bermuda. It was just perfect for us! Link to review is in my signature.

 

 

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