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We're Back...Married on Carnival Conquest...Review**LONG**

J's Gal

By J's Gal,
in Honeymoon & Wedding Cruises

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J's Gal

J's Gal

Posted
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I can sum up our cruise ship wedding in one word…PERFECT!!!

A little background: We were engaged in May 2007, about 2 weeks after sailing on the Conquest (hence the choice of wedding venue). I quickly found CC and began reading and reading all of the reviews from all the cruise ship brides that have come before us. Among the reviews that I found on CC were the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly…kind of freaked me out a bit, but I decided early on to be prepared for the absolute worst and hope for the best. In the end, I do believe it was this attitude and preparation that made our day so perfect.

I am going to include some pre-wedding info, just in case there are some other Galveston brides that may be looking for some local information.

Hotel Prior to Cruise: We negotiated a contract about 10 months before the wedding, with the Hotel Galvez. We booked 20 rooms with shuttle service to and from the cruise terminal. All of our experiences with the hotel leading up to the wedding weekend had been extremely positive and one of the most stress-free things we had planned. However, upon check-in, things deteriorated quickly. Our guests were given the wrong rooms, charged incorrect rates, and none of our welcome gifts (Welcome Packets and Chocolate Cruise Ships) had been delivered to the rooms. I can say hands down this was my one and only Bridezilla moment! But very quickly my fiancé, well now husband J, and my father stepped in to save the day. The hotel did fix all the mistakes and we were able to move past it. The manager did have mimosas, muffins, and fruit delivered to my room the next morning as an apology. Apology accepted! J Also, let me add that the hotel shuttle service did a great job transporting all 59 of my guests to the cruise terminal…all on time!

Welcome Dinner: We hosted a Welcome Dinner (in place of the traditional Rehearsal Dinner) at Salsa’s Seaside Café for all our guests. It was a huge success! The food and drink were above and beyond what we had expected. Everyone had a fabulous time and I would recommend Salsa’s without any hesitation.

Hair and Make Up: I used The Perfect Face, they are out of Houston. They arrived in my hotel room at 6am and began their work on myself, my mother, and my mother-in-law. Danielle and Sandra were absolutely amazing! I have never in all of my life felt as pretty as I did when Danielle was finished with me. Definitely worth every cent!!! They finished up with us around 8:15. Just enough time to grab a few more bites of muffin and head over to the cruise terminal.

Embarkation: My father dropped me, my mom, and my 2 right-hand gals off at the cruise terminal at about 9:30 (I had to beat my groom there, we didn’t want to see each other prior to the ceremony). We went in and were immediately directed upstairs to the waiting area. I was met upstairs by, Jane, an independent consultant for The Wedding Experience. She began explaining a few things to me. She was our coordinator and officiant. I was later told by a friend that we did have a second coordinator, but I never met her. Jane was FABULOUS! There were 3 weddings that day, ours was the largest (we had 59 total, 24 sailing and 35 non-sailing), so she got the 2 smaller parties settled and then went over every detail with me. And let me also say that I am slightly (ok, maybe more than slightly) OCD, so I had my handy, dandy notebook with every receipt, email, contract, and all of my “lists” of wants and not wants. I had a general list for Jane (TWE), one for the DJ, and one for the photographer. I gave all the lists to Jane, as well as my ceremony and reception music CDs (I also had back up CDs, “just in case” and never had to use them!). I also had 2 friends who were my “go-to” girls for the day. They knew exactly what I wanted and where I wanted it! I introduced them to Jane and they worked with Jane the rest of the morning preparing for the ceremony (they told me later how they really changed things up to make them exactly how I wanted, not what TWE or Carnival wanted!). Jane and the other cruise terminal staff went out of their way to keep my fiancé and I from seeing each other! It was great. They would move me from one room to another, while moving him to the next room! It was pretty cool how the entire port staff got involved! J We were on board the ship by 11:15am. Once on board, we had 2 staterooms ready, one for the boys and one for the girls, Jane escorted me to my room. I stayed in there with my mom, sister and couple of friends, eating, chatting and hanging out…waiting to get dressed. Everyone had to leave me and go down to the ceremony location, the Taulouse Lautrec Lounge, to do a quick rehearsal minus the Bride. I have to say that those were the hardest 20-30 minutes of the entire day! Luckily, I had my BlackBerry and was receiving regular updates and pictures of the ceremony location, while I waited.

Ceremony: Our photographer, Edgar, came to the room to get me. He took some pictures in the stateroom before we left and took many on the way to the ceremony (walking down the hall, in the elevator, etc…). Once I got to the ceremony location, it was just a couple of minutes until the music started playing and my grandmother and the mothers were being seated. It was when I heard that music start playing that I got all teary, it was so surreal, I could not believe that it was final happening after all the 13 months of planning! I had planned on really just taking it all in as I walked down the aisle, looking at all our guests and just savoring the moment…well, that all went out the window as soon as I started down the aisle and saw my Groom waiting for me! I couldn’t take my eyes off him and I felt like I was sprinting down the aisle! The ceremony was beautiful and I only know that from watching the video over and over! J I remember when she said, “You may kiss your Bride,” I thought, “No, not yet…it’s not time for that yet!” It seemed like the ceremony was 5 minutes, it was actually close to 30. We did incorporate the Sand Ceremony and had our own music which consisted on 4 tracks (Parent’s Entrance, Bride’s Entrance, During Ceremony, and Recessional), which were played perfectly. Immediately after the ceremony, we took formal photos with the families and quickly moved over the Henri’s Disco for the Reception.

Reception: Who knew that 1 ½ hours could fly so quickly?!?!? The DJ announced our arrival into the reception and immediately played “The Love Boat Theme,” off our CD of course! J We then went straight to the cake cutting and champagne. We had 2 toasts, one by my father and one by my groom’s childhood friend, the DJ announce each one prior to their toasts. After the toasts, we began to mingle a bit and then it was time for our first dance, then Bride/Father dance, followed by the Groom/Mother dance. Right after the dances, our videographer takes my groom for “interviews”. 20 minutes later, still no groom. I found Jane and she thought it was insane that the videographer had kept him away from our reception so long. She promptly went to find him and returned within 2 minutes, my Groom in tow! We danced and talked with our guests. We did the garter toss and bouquet toss, for photo purposes only, we had no single guests! The next thing we knew, Jane told us it was about time for our non-sailing guests to exit the ship. We stood near the exit of the disco and were able to bid farewell to all our guests as the left.

Post Reception: As soon as our final non-sailing guest left, I went with the videographer to do my interviews. Once that was completed, we began our trek around the ship taking pictures with Edgar. We were about half finished when they announced that it was time for the muster drill. My father-in-law had our room key and we had no idea where he was, so we had no life jackets for the muster drill. Luckily, one of the staff members had mercy on us and did not make us line up, we got to stand to the side…Thank God, because it was soooo hot-Texas in June!!! Once we were done with that, we wiped the sweat off our brows and finished off the pictures.

Photographer/Pictures: Surprisingly, we were very impressed with our pictures. They certainly exceeded our expectations after reading so many subpar photo reviews here on CC. We did end up purchasing the largest package, but walked off the ship with soooo many pictures, its unreal.

Videographer: Definitely worth the money. We did not remember a lot of the ceremony and reception until we watched the video. Side note: The video does take some time out of your relaxing cruise. We had to meet for the “honeymoon” footage during one of our sea days. Then we had to set up time for editing the video. So just be aware that it does take a little time out of your cruise. And tell the videographer ahead of time that you do not want your individual interviews done during your reception, the time is too short!

DJ: Let me add one thing about the DJ, we brought our own CDs, one of all the special dance songs and the other of general music we had mixed to play for the remainder of the reception. I made very clear notes for the DJ. He did manage to play all of our special songs at the appropriate time. However, the second CD was not played in the order that we mixed, which would not have been a big deal except he did play at least 1 song twice!

Overall, we would not change a thing. It was a great experience, our wedding day was exactly how we envisioned and planned.

I think my biggest advice would be: 1. When making special requests, be specific. Get what you want, it is possible. 2. Have 1 or 2 people that know exactly what your vision of the day is; have them as your “go-to” girls/guys on the day of the wedding. And finally, 3. If you prepare yourself for the worst, it can only go up from there!

Here is a link to our non-professional wedding pictures:

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=234967893/a=124609380_124609380/t_=124609380

 

We are still getting all the professional ones organized, I'll post those soon.

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tameka94

tameka94

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I am so glad your wedding day went so well. I trully enjoy reading all of your posts. You were so organized with your planning. I appreciate you sharing your experience on this board. Although I am not getting married on Carnival, your wedding ideas and tips will help me have a more successful day. Thanks again. I loved your pictures too!

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glowingbride

glowingbride

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First off CONGRATS, you looked beautiful!!! Your pictures was great

 

OK now for the questions

Did you tell the wedding coordinator before hand that you didnot want to see the groom?

What about the buffet at lido was it worth paying for?

How did you pack all that stuff?

Did you bring your own flower petal?

 

Thanks in advance

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sjg1002

sjg1002

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First let me say congrats and wish many years of happiness!

 

Thank you for the review; I'm getting married on Liberty next Sat. I have the same attitude you do about the wedding so I hope it goes as great as your does. I have loved reading your post and looking at your pictures the entire time I have been planning.

 

Thanks again and congrats!

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rene4205

rene4205

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Bekah! I don't even know where to start! First off, CONGRATS!!! I have been checking on here everyday for your review and was so excited to come on and see it today.

 

You have no idea how happy I was to hear that everything went perfect for you. You really deserve it! And btw, you looked simply amazing! What a bride!

 

Thanks for being such a friend and thanks you so much for all your posts over the last few months! I think your posts are going to be a hot topic on here for awhile. Come to think of it, have you thought anymore about wedding planning? I think you found your true calling!

 

The photo's you have are gorgeous and I can't wait to see the pro's.

 

So what's next? I saw a few of your friends were pregnant.... first comes love then comes marriage......;)

 

-Rene

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TNGALOHA

TNGALOHA

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Congrats Bekah and Jeremy, :) The pictures are great. I am glad that your day went so great. Thank you for all the help you have given all of us with the planning of our days too. We definetly need more people like you on these threads.:)

Tom and Gerry

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J's Gal

J's Gal

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First off CONGRATS, you looked beautiful!!! Your pictures was great
Thank you so much!

 

OK now for the questions

Did you tell the wedding coordinator before hand that you didnot want to see the groom?

Yes, I had spoken with the Carnival wedding consultant over the phone about it and then when I met Jane, our coordinator at the port, that was the first thing that I told her. It truly was amazing to see how the entire port staff got involved to keep us apart!

 

What about the buffet at lido was it worth paying for?

I would have to say yes it was, because our shuttle service started at 9:30 from the hotel to the cruise terminal, then everyone waited around to get checked in. Once we were onboard it was nearly lunchtime and we did have several children with us, I think waiting until 1:30-1:45 for the reception food would have been a bit long for some. So it was nice that everyone could grab a bite to eat instead of thinking about their bellies during the entire ceremony! J

 

How did you pack all that stuff?

We live about 90 miles from the Port of Galveston, so we did have to fly with anything. I packed everything in the clear plastic crates (separated by ceremony and reception, of course! J). I had 2 plastic crates, my big dress bag, the huge slip, my aisle runner, 2 boxes of flowers and never once did anyone say a word about the amount we were carrying on.

 

Did you bring your own flower petal?

Yes, we brought our own flower petals. I wanted to use hydrangea petals (like my bouquet), so we bought silks and took them apart to use only the petals.

 

Thanks in advance

You are very welcome! Happy planning to you! J

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J's Gal

J's Gal

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Thank you for the review it makes me feel much better about our wedding in November! You looked amazing! I hope they can make me look that beautiful! Enjoy your amazing life together!

Thank you! The Perfect Face was unbelieveable! If you haven’t already been assigned your artist/stylist, try to get Danielle! She is awesome. Sandra did my mom and mother-in-law and she did a great job, too! Definitely worth every penny, even my husband agrees on that one!

 

Kind of off topic, but how did you get that amazing tan? It makes the wedding dress even more stunning with the contrast!

Well, I’ve been blessed with good skin. It doesn’t take much for me to get tan. Actually the week before the wedding, I had to completely stop jogging and biking outside, because even with SPF 45, I was still getting tank top lines across my shoulders!

 

Bekah did you apply for you license in Texas independently, or did you have carnival do it for you?

We were responsible for getting our own license. We live in Harris county and were married in Galveston county, but in Texas a marriage license is good in any county. It was super easy. We paid $41.00 and once the wedding was over, TWE officiant gave the license to my friend who was bringing all our wedding stuff back to our house, so it was waiting for us when we got home.

 

If you don't mind me asking who and how much did you tip????

Let’s see…tips…Before hand we had made envelopes for the officiant, coordinator, DJ, Videographer, and Photographer. They each had $20 in them, except the Videographer and the Photographer, they had $40. But in the end, our coordinator was our officiant also, so those envelopes got combined. I had my friend “who was in charge” handle all the tipping envelopes, because I knew I’d never rememeber. And I am so glad that I did, because it went so fast I would totally have forgotten!

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nklpikl

nklpikl

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Oh Bekah, I am so very happy for both of you. I was wondering how yours went as I was doing the final details for ours. The wedding looked beautiful. You looked beautiful! Best of luck with everything.

 

I want to thank you once again for all your ideas and imput on these boards. I think we should meet on a cruise sometime!!

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