Carnival Sensation 05/24/2015 Wedding Review

[wed2015]

Hello Everyone!! We are back and settled in from our amazing wedding on the Carnival Sensation. I used this board a lot during the planning and wanted to share my experience with you. I am a mother of three children and work full time so it will have to be done in parts.

 

 

Here we go ... Ryan and I went to middle school together and lost contact for about 15 years. Of course we found each other on Facebook and talked over the computer about a year before actually meeting up. We met at a Titans football game. Our first date was a Titans football game and he proposed to meet at the stadium where we saw each other for the first time. So yes our wedding has a touch of football in every part of it. We are hug Titans fans. We booked our Wedding in July 2014. We decided to use a Travel Agent to help the process. I am glad we did. We sent our a letter with the cruise information with our Save the Dates about a month after booking. Our guest have six weeks to get in the group rate. The deposit was only $25.00 . This truly made it possible for many of our friends and family to attend. Our TA was very helpful along the way and dealt with any problems that came up. We had a total of 66 sailing guest and 8 non sailing.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 9, 2015 by wed2015
missing pictures

[wed2015]

I am trying to post the pictures within the message. Please bear with me.

 

The first thing I did after booking the cruise was looking for flowers. The prices through the wedding experience was very pricey and I didn't want real flowers. I am not a fake flower person so I wanted something different. After searching I decided to take a chance and order wooden flowers from over seas. Let me tell you. They were amazing. They were amazing. I will attach the listing for anyone to view them. It took about six months to get them sent to me and they were half the price of real flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

[MsFox]

I am trying to post the pictures within the message. Please bear with me.

 

The first thing I did after booking the cruise was looking for flowers. The prices through the wedding experience was very pricey and I didn't want real flowers. I am not a fake flower person so I wanted something different. After searching I decided to take a chance and order wooden flowers from over seas. Let me tell you. They were amazing. They were amazing. I will attach the listing for anyone to view them. It took about six months to get them sent to me and they were half the price of real flowers.

 

 

 

 

 

I have never heard of wooden flowers. They look amazing! Where did you get them?

[MsFox]

Aww, just saw "6 months"😟. Mine is in 161 days

[wed2015]

The next step was booking hair and makeup.

 

This took a lot longer than I thought. Let me start by saying THIS WAS THE BEST MONEY I SPENT. There were only a couple of recommendations for someone to come to Port Canaveral on a Sunday to do my hair and makeup. I called that company first and did not get a response for several weeks. I had read in reviews that the communication was bad. I knew that wasn't the person for me because I need communication or I stress. So again I started reading reviews and looking all of Orlando and found About Face Design Team. Nina the coordinator and the girls that she sent to me were AMAZING!!! The were so easy to work with. They arrived at the hotel in Port Canaveral at 5:30am. Our makeup still looked perfect 12 hours later when we were having pictures done.

 

 

[wed2015]

I have never heard of wooden flowers. They look amazing! Where did you get them?

 

 

I ordered from a place called accents and petals. They advertise on Artfire. Contact them and give them the date you need them by. They will probably work with you. They were great. They send pictures to you along the way to make sure you like them. If you don't they change it then

[wed2015]

Hotel Prior to Cruise....

 

So we had people flying and driving in from all over. Many people were talking about coming in the morning of the wedding. That stressed me out so I decided to host a dinner for everyone the Saturday night before. I choose to stay at The Radisson at the Port the night before. The group coordinator and the Event planner were great to work with. They gave us a great rate that included the parking for the entire cruise and shuttle service to the port the morning of.

 

Saturday night is when I decided to hand out my OOT bags. Attached to my OOT bag was a welcome letter/door hanger and a welcome letter. The welcome letter had all of the directions for the next day on it. This made it easier to relax the day of the wedding. I knew that everyone had already arrived and it also gave us all more time to spend together.

 

We did a buffet style dinner with BBQ chicken, hamburgers, chicken tenders, potato salad, house salad, baked beans, fruits, cookies and brownies. We did have a cash bar that was available. It was a great time. They decorated the room and it was very nice. We had a couple different color choices. The Radisson at the Port offer many different prices packages. Everyone truly loved it.

 

I forgot to take pictures but will see if anyone else did so that I can post them here.

[wed2015]

Sorry the pictures are so big. I can't figure out how to make them smaller.

 

So we choose the Time to Celebrate big package and also the DJ. Carnival Wedding Department was very easy to work with. I would read information on this website then call them and ask questions. They got approval for my flowers and sent me an email so I would not have any problems the day of.

 

I sent all of my choices and outlines for everything two months for the wedding. They called me a couple days late to confirm they received them and to let me know what I forgot.

 

They also gave me the standard two week prior call and a week prior call.

 

I also used the Brevard County Clerk office to obtain our wedding license. They were also awesome to work with. DO NOT PAY THE WEDDING EXPERIENCE TO OBTAIN YOUR LICENSE. You are throwing away money. You can obtain a Florida marriage license from any county so it doesn't matter what port you are leaving out of.

 

Okay so my kids are needing my attention. I will post the day of the wedding stuff tomorrow night.

[MsFox]

Thank you for the response and the add'll details. I like your idea about a handout for how the next day would go. It would make things smoother.

 

Tell us what your timeline was, and how the actual getting on board was, how your decorations were set up, tell us everything!

 

I'm a major lurker, but as my day gets closer, I get a bit excited to see the positive reviews.

[mrstriceasnice]

Absolutely beautiful

[spazzy216]

Im loving the big photos along with the review! I cant wait to read the rest!!!

[wed2015]

The big day!!!

 

I failed to mention that I appointed one of my good friends to act like me for the day of the wedding. I gave her a copy of all the important documents and my cell phone. All of my guest were told at the dinner if they had any problems to contact her. TIP: DO THIS... It lets you enjoy your day. I went over all the details with her about a week before.

 

Like I said the Hair and Makeup started at 05:30am. You want this done prior to getting on the boat. I did not want my children or my bridesmaids wearing their dress on the boat so I hung them all in the same bag with my wedding gown.

 

We took the shuttle from the Radisson and arrived at the terminal at 10:30am. It was so crowded and hectic. When we got to the first entry way they keep telling people they were not on the list to get on the boat. ( Some of these were cruising passengers.) I was very organized through the entire process and had a three ring binder with everything in it. ( I highly suggest this.) I made a couple of copies of everything including the guest list (which had every cruising passengers booking number). I gave an extra copy to the man at the door and he was so thankful. They were only given one copy and it kept getting passed back and forth and pages were missing.

 

I had all of my favors, cake decorations, flowers, guest book, and sand ceremony stuff in three boxes. All of the boxes were labeled and had instructions inside each box. The night before at dinner I asked who was willing to carry this stuff on the boat for me. It worked perfect. I also had one of the guys carry on all the dresses.

 

Most of the computers were down at the port and everything took a lot longer. Most people were unable to get there pictures taken for there sail and sign card. We all made it through about 11:15. While I was standing in line to check in the Main Wedding coordinator came and found me. Her name was Carol. Let me just say that she was my least favorite thing about the whole experience. She was rude and pushy but because my group was large I had two coordinators. Laura was the other one and she was great. Carol was really rude to her also. But they told us were to meet them after getting checked in.

 

Ryan and I knew there was no way we would be able to not see each other having three children the day of. We decided that we would not see each other until the wedding once we got on the boat. I honestly don't know how people would do it. It was slightly crazy.

 

We sat down with Carol and went over all the details. I explained to her several times that I had everything labeled. She told me about ten times that I didn't need to let my son carry my rings down the aisle. (Yes I know he is two but we had practiced this and he knew what to do). She would not shut up about this and I just politely let her know it was my wedding.

 

We were done with our meeting and we had to wait about 20 more minutes. (11:30-11:45ish) Because of the problems with the computers they had to take pictures as we were coming onto the boat. This took another 10-15mins. We were finally at the room around 12:00. The entire wedding group had to be at the Fantastia Lounge at 12:45 for rehearsal. I stayed in my room. TIP: Request multiple rooms to be ready if you have more than a couple bridesmaids. One for the guys and two for the girls. We had a suite and a connecting balcony room. Two bathrooms and two vanities made it much easier for all of us to get ready. Carol dropped us off and told me she would be back at 1:15 to get me

 

Once on the boat I met Nina the Carnival Coordinator. She was very helpful and nice. She called the room several times to make sure we were ok. It was very warm in the room and they sent someone right away.

 

Kat the amazing photographer called around 12:15pm. She asked if I wanted pictures getting ready. I said yes and she came and hung out until right before the wedding. She did go and get some pictures of them rehearsing.

 

1:15 came and went and Carol did not show up. Our ceremony was scheduled for 1:30pm. This started freaking me out because I wanted all of our reception time. Finally at 1:25 I called my appointed person and told her to come now or I was walking by myself. Finally she showed up.

 

We had brought a cd with our music on it. I did choose to fade it out and not let the entire song play. I didn't want the ceremony to be long.

 

Our ceremony was in the Main Lounge. I did not take any other decorations except for the sand ceremony stuff. I honestly did not care what it looked like. You could have people decorate but it would probably add more headache.

 

The ceremony was PERFECT. About 15 mins long. Then pictures started. I had a least of all the pictures I wanted done. Kat was great and was trying to get all of them but Ms. Pushy Pants Carol (who was rude to everyone) repeatedly let everyone know that we were not going to have a reception if we didn't hurry. I did not get all that I wanted but Kat found opportunities during the reception to get them.

 

Ok well I will post about the reception later. Here are some more pictures

 

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[IrishLassie]

Just loving your review & your pictures are beautiful, along with you & your children. :) Your flowers were spectacular! I've never seen anything like that, amazing. Good luck in your coming years as husband & wife. You make a beautiful family. :D

[atinys]

I am looking forward to hearing more about your big day..... Those flowers look magnificent......

 

Congrats.

[MsFox]

Thank you so much for your photo heavy review. It really helps to see the placement and how it works. ....AND for the wooden flowers idea. I love your flowers so much, I contacted the people for my wedding.

[wed2015]

Sorry it has taken so long the stomach virus hit our house so it has been a rough week.

 

The reception was great. We had the hour and half. It was held in the Kaleidoscope Lounge. We decided that they would introduce us and we would go to the cake table to do the cutting of the cake then. That way we did not have to stop what we were doing at any other point. It was time to celebrate

 

We also paid for the DJ. I honestly can't remember his name but he did a great job. The dance floor was filled the entire time. He was able find all of our first dance music and last song without a problem.

 

We originally said that we didn't want to do any speaks, toast, grater or anything because I had read that the reception was really rushed. Our oldest daughter wanted to do the toast so we let her. Honestly again it was perfect. If we would have added the other things we would have not had any time to spend with everyone.

 

Our special drink was the "Something Blue." Everyone loved it.

 

Our Food choices were assorted veggies, assorted sushi, chicken brochette, fried shrimp, chicken nuggets, lamp empanadas, roast beef with brie, chicken galantine, spicy drummettes, stuffed mushrooms, and smoked salmon with cream cheese. They added fruit cups because I requested them. I don't think there was an extra charge. The food was very good.

 

THE CAKE WAS AMAZING!!! The cake worried me the most about the reception. I did not want piping but I didn't want it to be too plain. So in my boxed stuff, I had extra wooden flowers, my cake topper, and two different sizes ribbons. I just wrote a note that asked them to make the cake pretty. LOL. I instructed to use some or all of the decorations. I walked in and was amazed by it. Oh and it tasted delicious also. We did Chocolate with chocolate filling, Vanilla with vanilla filing and red velvet with cream cheese filling. They were supposed to bring the rest to dinner one night on the boat but honestly there was so little left I don't know it if they ever did.

 

I did anchor and ship wheel key chains for favors. Everyone loved them. They were so easy to make pretty, pack and not be too bulky.

 

We had a football for everyone to sign as our guest book. I did bring the wooden decorations for the table. I had it made months prior as a gift to Ryan because he saw it online and loved it.

 

We had the most amazing Photographer ever. Her name was Kat and she was so fun to work with. I told myself going in that there was no way I was buying the $3000 package. Well all the pictures were amazing and I couldn't decide. She worked a deal with me and I got everything for $2000. A large 12X12 book (which I also said I wouldn't purchase.... yeah I ate my words because it is the best way to show everyone how amazing the day was.) all 500 prints, a cd with rights to all the pictures and a video. The video was generic but nice to have. I choose the larger book instead of the canvas. I knew I could make my own canvas. Get to know your photographer.... they will take care of you.

 

 

I will upload as many pictures as I can on Monday of other things such as OOT bags, cups that I made for each guest, OOT bags stuff, welcome letter, door hangers and any thing else I can think of.

 

I am happy to answer any questions or send you anything I have. Please don't hesitate to ask. This board helped me so much

 

 

 

http://i722.photobucket.com/albums/ww224/jakaylor/6p227_zpsrl3sarpn.jpg

 

 

[wed2015]

 

 

 

 

[wed2015]

 

 

 

 

 

[wed2015]

 

 

 

 

[waitingtocruise2012]

Hello,I'm getting married on the Breeze in October, and I'm just wondering if any of the pictures are taken after the mustered drill. Thanks for any information!

[wed2015]

Hello,I'm getting married on the Breeze in October, and I'm just wondering if any of the pictures are taken after the mustered drill. Thanks for any information!

 

Yes all of the portrait photos were done after the muster drill. It took about and hour.