Carnival Miracle Wedding Review 1/22/06 -it was great

[sd1029]

Carnival Miracle Wedding Review (this is long so I broke it up into sections so you can read what you had questions about)

I was 100% pleased with my wedding and it was perfect. I just got home tonight and have to work tomorrow. I don't have photos on my computer yet.

Planning:

I did not have many upgrades or special requests, but I had no problem reaching someone at Carnival or The Wedding Experience. I would recommend that you check your forms that you fax in b/c they show who is handling what. If you are not sure, ask. Carnival provided my photographer, video guy, the tux, picked the reception room and ceremony time, handled all food and beverage requests and made the cake. TWE handled the cake topper, favors, the actual ceremony, flowers, provided the officiant and wedding coordinator. I gave my ceremony music info. to TWE but it was a Carnival employee who played my CDs during the wedding.

Getting on the boat:

All my guests showed up at 10:30am in Tampa. We walked into the port building past the line of people and were immediately greeted by our coordinator and officiant (they were husband and wife). They got all guests a visitor pass and then took sailing guests to check into the ship. Everyone met up in a waiting area (similar to an airport) and we waited until 11:30am when customs let people board the boat. They gave me and others time to visit. We were the first people on the boat and it was empty except for crew.

Right before the wedding:

The coordinator told guests (not in the ceremony) to meet in the chapel at 12:45pm for the 1pm wedding and they were free to explore the boat. They went into cabins and explored everything. This was very fun for all guests. The wedding party had a rehearsal in the chapel. We gave the coordinator our music CDs. The groom was taken to my mom’s cabin to get dressed. The best man took him his tux that was in our cabin. Her room was ready and his tux rented from Carnival fit perfectly and he had it for the rest of the cruise for formal nights. I was taken with my mom and MOH to my cabin to finish getting ready. All sailing guests’ rooms were ready. I had about 40 minutes to finish getting ready which was fine, but the time went by really fast. I highly recommend you have almost everything ready except for putting on your gown so you don’t feel rushed. My aunt is a florist and made a silk bouquet for me. I gave the bouquet from TWE to my MOH. I saw that it was from a local flower shop. My basic flowers from TWE were actually quite nice, 7-8 white roses in a round bouquet.

The ceremony:

About 12:50pm the coordinator got me and she escorted me to the chapel. There were silk flowers decorating the chapel (this is standard) and they played the right music, everything went smoothly. Guests were able to take photos. The ceremony lasted about 10 minutes (we only had a prayer, no poem or candle lighting). They say that they don’t go over 15 minutes. After the ceremony we took some photos of wedding party and close family in the chapel for about 5-10 minutes. The other guests were taken to the reception next door in the piano bar. I was able to tell the photographer what photos I wanted.

Reception:

We walked in and the piano player Mark was playing. He did an excellent job and I had all ready chatted with him prior to the ceremony on our Roll Call Board on this site. We right away had the cake cutting and champagne toast. I purchased a flower cake topper that had fresh flowers on it and looked nice (the regular topper that was not used was put in my room with champagne glasses after the wedding. The glasses were nice, but the topper was basic so I recommend you upgrade or bring your own). The reception area was decorated with an ice sculpture and a watermelon that had Congratulations carved in it. We had the Deluxe Romance package which has hot and cold hors d. and open bar. The food was, sushi, crackers w/ cheese/ham, fresh fruit (strawberries, kiwi, pineapple, blackberries), chicken kabobs, some type of egg roll, and some other things I can’t remember. Cake and food was very tasty. As soon as a guest took some food, a server immediately replaced it so there was plenty of food. Guests ordered drinks and had no problems. All dirty plates, glasses were immediately cleaned up. If I finished what was on my plate they immediately took my plate away. They gave children and a pregnant guest ginger ale for the wedding toast. Towards the end of the reception we had the bouquet toss and garter thing. My aunt made a small bouquet for me to toss.

Video:

We paid for the video months before the wedding. I think there are only 2 video guys and their boss on the ship so if more than one person is getting married in one day I am thinking whoever faxes in their forms first requesting the video will get one (it is also first come first serve for the piano player and such). Our video guy Blake was great. He did add his own music to the wedding video and we did not hear ours. I am sure if I wanted it added, he would have done it, but it was no big deal. He got good footage of the reception. Then the next day we walked around the boat with him and filmed us so we had “honeymoon footage.” He also interviewed us. The video is great. We were able to preview it in the tech. room before he put it on DVD so we were 100% happy with it.

Photos:

The photos were not pre-paid. The photographer is paid by commission. The photos on the disc look great. When they were blown up to 8x10 by Carnival he did something to them so they look different (softer instead of clearer). The 5x7 photos look great. Tell your photographer any specific photos you want. After the reception was over we took one big group photo on the stairs (some of my guests had to leave early to catch a flight and did not tell me ahead of time so they were not in the group photo). Then when non sailing guests were off the boat we took photos with the photographer. This worked out great b/c we were able to enjoy the full reception. We took “studio” portraits, photos on the stairs and photos outside. Cruisers were on the boat, but they were more than happy to move so we could get the photos we wanted. Make sure you touch up your make-up before these photos. I had my lipstick with me but forgot to put more on. We did outside photos last b/c it was VERY windy outside and it messed up my hair. *very important* tell your photographer before he develops them WHAT YOU WANT. Our guy spent hours and hours making a DVD of our photos that was similar to what was going to be in the Video we all ready paid for. Then he printed about 125, 8x10 photos and expected us to pay for all of this. We ended up paying $700 plus $100 tip for about 85 of the 8x10 photos and 35 5x7, the DVD he made, a special wedding photo album and all photos on disc. The original price he was quoted was $3000 for ALL of this. I am embarrassed to say that I made a scene, yelled and stomped off saying we would not buy any photos (He had us look at photos in the atrium when tons of people were around). Then DH went back and talked to him calmly and got him to come down in price. I suspect the fair price for what we got would have been $1000 and I feel bad that the guy only makes commission. I think he was scared of me making another scene (other cruisers thought he had ruined our photos b/c I was so upset). Had he not spent hours making the DVD that we did not want then I don’t think the price would have been so high. So if you don’t want 125 8x10 photos then tell him before he prints them and with a large cash tip you can probably get all the photos on the disc.

Overall:

This was a hassle free wedding that was a great price. Guests all had fun touring the boat and anyone who did not go on the cruise wished they had booked it. I tipped the coordinator $40 b/c she was great, the Officiant, piano player, video guy, head bartender/waiter $20 a piece. I had envelopes w/ the money in it and my mother and MOH gave everyone the tips. I only tipped the photo guy $100 to get all the photos on CD and not have to pay over $1k for photos. The coordinator had a basket for my favors and they were set out by the cake, she had a small bag for me to put my lipstick and a tissue in. The wedding chapel got warm (our video guy was sweating but no one else was) and we had 16 guests. If you are going to have more than 30 guests then plan for it to get hot or ask Carnival to set the A/C on high prior to your wedding.

The cruise was lots of fun and we had a great time. We were in the ship's newlywed game and it aired on all tvs 24 hours a day the rest of the trip so we were like celebrities all week. Everyone came up to us saying congratulations and we saw you on tv. Even flying home tonight when we were on our layover in Arizona someone came up to us and said that he saw us on the newlywed game. We had wedding cake almost every night at dinner and we got 2 more bottles of champagne (one was given to participants of the newlywed game).

[Karita]

Thanks for the great review and congratulations. I'll be getting married on the Carnival Legend in July out of New York city, so it is just good to here that every thing went well with Carnival.

[cruising_bride2b]

Everything sounds great I'm happy it all worked out. I can't wait until October for my wedding on the Carnival Miracle. Congratulations!!:D

[monkey1]

Your wedding sounds terrific! Congrats!

[Liberty Bride]

Congratulatons! I am so happy to read that you were happy with your wedding. I was married aboard the Carnival Liberty on Nov. 20th, and also had a great wedding. I am curious about your pictures though ... did the photographer give you the option to make your own package up? Or did he offer to sell you the photographs at an individual cost? The reason I am asking is because we had an awesome photographer who sold us a package that suited our budget and that was a lot less than $3000 and I also remember a price list that was mailed along with the wedding package that we received right after booking the wedding. :o

[babyclaytonmom]

Thank you for the review! Im getting married on the Miracle this summer and it was really helpful. Cant wait to see pictures :) I had a couple questions that I hope you can help with-

-You mentioned favors- did you bring your own or can you get/purchase them from Carnival?

-Were your guests able to eat in the Windjammer while you were getting ready?

-What music did you bring/use?

-Is there room to dance in Sam's?

-Did the coordinator stay for the whole reception?

-If you dont mind me asking, what was the photographer's name? (so I can be prepared).

Thanks! I feel more at ease hearing how nice yours was!

You can email me directly if you dont want to post it- babyclaytonmom@aol.com

[sd1029]

I did not get any price list for photos. Our photographer hinted that the wedding photos were negotiable. His original price was to sell us the photos for the same price you buy the other photos they sell on the ship (those are not negotiable): $19.99 for each 8x10 and I think $7.99 for 5x7s (and of course he printed almost all of our photos in 8x10). He came down to $15 for each 8x10 and that is when I got upset and left. The photo prices would not have been so bad except he stayed up until 5am making a fancy DVD of the photos that we did not need and wanted paid for his time. It all would have gone smoother if he had just talked with us about what we wanted before he printed all the photos and made the fancy DVD.

[sd1029]

favors- we brought our own (breath savers we bought from theknot that were wrapped saying "mint to be" w/ our names and wedding date on it. The coordinator from TWE put them in a basket for me and set them on a table near the cake so people could get them. You could buy favors from TWE but they were nothing I was interested in. You have to ask TWE to send you a price list for favors and flower upgrades.

 

Windjammer - I was on the boat a week and don't remember seeing anyplace called the Windjammer, but I could have missed it. I heard on here that for a small fee non sailing guests could eat at the buffet on the Lido deck 9. Sailing guests would be able to eat there like the other cruisers. I don't know how they would tell a sailing guest from a non sailing guest (you don't need to show your sign/sail card to eat lunch) and our coordintor told my non sailing guests to hide their visitor badges so they would not show in the photos. I told my guests to eat a decent breakfast and that they would be getting hors d'orvs at the reception which was 1:30pm. The food was excellent at the reception and people had plenty to eat.

 

Music- I used Scott Botti - Emmanuel for when people were being seated and also for my processional (it was on a wedding on Y&R). I bought it from ITunes. I used Maxwell -Fortunate for my recessional. Pick whatever you want to use, just burn it onto to a CD.

 

Dancing at Sams- If you wanted to dance you could have I suppose, but there was not much room. There is a dance floor in there but waiters and guests were walking around it. They set up the piano bar differently depending how many people are coming. When we were going home I peeked in there and they had it set up for another wedding and the room was set up smaller for less people. If you really wanted to dance I would fax that in as a special request to Carnival and they could probably set up the room so the dance floor is more open.

 

Coordinator- she stayed through the whole thing and so did the officiant (they were married and probably came together). The coordinator walked with my non sailing guests off the boat. She was absolutely the best. Her last name was Stone and if she is your coordinator your wedding will go perfectly, she had everything under control and was the best. When we checked in for the cruise Carnival did not have me sitting at dinner with my sailing guests and they said it could not be fixed until the next day. My coordinator had it fixed for me before the wedding even started.

 

Photographer - I don't remember his name and there is another photo guy on the boat who looks just like him. He was nice and my photos were just fine. He was just trying to make some money. If you tell him what you are interested in before he prints out 125 8x10 photos and spends all night making a DVD you will be just fine. It was basically a miscommunication.

 

I highly recommend getting the video, Blake was great.

[babyclaytonmom]

Thanks for answering all the questions! Oops- the Windjammer was the name of the buffet restaurant on Royal Carribean, forgot what line I'm getting married on! :p You answered the question anyway.

[cruising_bride2b]

Your review has really helped me alot thanks, can't wait to see pictures :)

[sd1029]

share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AaN2bZm4aNGEF Here is a link to some of the photos. Some of my guests left early so they were not in the group photo. If it does not work let me know and I can email you an invite to view them.

[babyclaytonmom]

What beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing them. The chapel and piano bar were more decorated than I thought they'd be. Everything was beautiful, loved your dress too :0)

[sd1029]

:) Thank you.

[2007CarnivalBride]

Thank you for the great review and information I actually printed it out to show FI later since we both still had a million questions!:) I'm so happy that your wedding day turned out just the way you wanted, and I'll remember to take a page out of your book if our photographer tries to quote us $3000. :D I am not trying to pay more that $1000 for our pictures either but I noticed that if you give them a list of must have pictures that they seem to make sure your package is just the requested ones and a few extras so maybe that will prevent me from having to make a scene but if not, I'll do what I have to do and transform into Bridezilla! LOL :)

[AmazonWmn]

Congratulations! And thank you for your review!! My Fiance and I are getting married on the Miracle 05/14/06, and we've been worried about the cost of the photos. Your post answered alot of questions I had, and covered some details I hadn't even thought of yet. Thanks again!

[stardest17]

Sd1029, do you happen to have the list of upgrades and prices at Carnival? I don't understand why we have to book first before I can see those prices/upgrades. I'm trying to do a comparison with the other cruises. (Celebrity and Norwegian show the upgrades and prices)

[sd1029]

Sd1029, do you happen to have the list of upgrades and prices at Carnival? I don't understand why we have to book first before I can see those prices/upgrades. I'm trying to do a comparison with the other cruises. (Celebrity and Norwegian show the upgrades and prices)

 

You posted your email on another thread so I emailed you the info. I had about upgrades. About a month ago I posted on here the other prices. I sent it from my hotmail account so check your junk mail if the email does not turn up. Let me know if you have any other questions.