Review - our wedding for two on Golden Princess

[zurich72]

Hi all --

This is my review for our Golden Princess wedding on Feb 19th. We decided to go it alone for our wedding, and just have the two of us -- kind of an elopement, but everyone knew about it. We've been together for a long time, and I was never a girl who craved a big fancy wedding; and we have small families and a small budget. When I was planning, I wasn't able to find a lot of information about other people who did it this way, so hopefully this will help someone else!

We flew into PR on Friday for a Saturday departure. I carried on my dress, and despite it being cumbersome at times, everyone was really helpful, from the x-ray techs to the stewardesses -- in fact, we got upgraded to first class by USair, which was a great way to be spoiled! We got to the pier at 1pm on Saturday and boarded with no problem, even with our 2 bottles of champagne, 2 of wine and 12 pack of coke (love princess for that!). We had champagen and strawberrries waiting in our room from my brother and sister in law... very nice. That afternoon, we got a call from our wedding coordinator who wanted to meet us. I really forgot we had to do this and just didn't have high expectations since we weren't having a big to-do, but Sandra really made us feel like Princess cared that this went well. She showed us the chapel, and walked us through the ceremony and "reception". Sunday arrived and I had my hair done (also a pedicure and manicure the night before) -- the nails were worth it, but the hair -- it was simple, which I asked for, but a blow-out and pull back for $60 seemed a little high to me. While this was happening, my finance was getting ready in the room. When I came back, he left and I got ready. Sandra's assistants showed up at 10:30 and helped me with the final zipping and primping, then we walked to the chapel. Barry was already inside, and they gave me my bouquet of white roses which was amazing! No upgrade either... long stemmed white roses, wrapped with a white ribbon. Gorgous. The captain came out to introduce himself and see how I was doing. Then they opened the doors, started the piano, and well, the rest is a blur until the kiss. We then signed the papers and walked out of the chapel to a bunch of observers. The led us to a private little roped off area in one of the lounges where we had our cake (white on white, not very good, but I'm a baker) and champagne. By the way, the photographer was there the whole time, and was just great -- he even indulged us with all the silly poses we wanted to do. We then went to the bridge to take pictures, which was really cool, then pictures on the decks. (skip ahead a few hours). That night was formal night, and we were originally going to go to Sabatini's, but the dinner in the dining room sounded good, so we did that. We had anytime dining and had no problem getting a table for 2 to ourselves (I had my wedding dress on again at night). That night, they had the newlywed game, which of course we were picked for, and tied for first place! That was a blast! Then to the casino where we met a bunch of great people our age and drank and laughed and gambled til 2 in the morning. The rest of the week was just great... and we had people remembering us and congratulating us all week. The wedding photographs were AMAZING, and Lazslo our photographer was so nice and professional, even though we didn't buy one of the huge packages. We got a beautifully put together album with about 30 selected shots, and a few 8X10s for us and the families. I have some non-official shots of our trip, including shots from the web cam on http://kathyandbarry.*****.com, we didn't buy digital versions of our pictures, so I don't have those - sorry. Overall, it was fabulous, and exactly what we wanted out of our wedding. And as far as Princess and the staff -- they went above and beyond expectations. Any questions please let me know

[Princess Bride]

Thanks for the report. I'm sure I'll be getting back to you with questions.

 

*Congrats*

[Cruising Wonder]

Congratulations!! I'm glad you had a great time. Where did you stay in San Juan?

[love2vacation]

Congratulations.

 

The web cam is a really nice feature for Princess. Definitely great for the people at home who want to see the ceremony!

[zurich72]

In San Juan we stayed at the Gallery Inn in Old San Juan; a very cute boutique hotel that we found in "100 greatest resorts of the caribbean". We loved it! Short taxi ride to the pier.

kathy

[zappled]

nice to hear that, i think you love the cruise all the time, best wishes...