Wedding Review Mariner of the Seas 6/22/09

[horseypharm]

We just got back today from our wedding cruise and I have to say that for the most part everything was perfect with a couple of minor glitches that had no effect on the wedding. All of our guests arrived at 10:30am as directed to. Our day started with a rude security guard that would not even let us in the terminal, but that was quickly resolved by one of his superiors. A couple of my sailing guests were given a hard time about what they were carrying on and they were not let in their rooms early as we were told they would. However, they did finally get in the rooms and were able to change just in time.

 

My MOH and I had a hair appt as soon as we got on board. We were finished by about 12:25pm so we had just enough time to get dressed and touch-up make-up before the ceremony. The ceremony was a blur, but all of my requests were followed. The wedding coordinators were awesome! I was so glad we had two of them because of a mix-up with my parents luggage. Apparently, my brother helped unload my parents luggage and placed the bag containing their travel documents with the checked in luggage. After much searching, the 2nd wedding coordinator took my mom down to the room where they were loading luggage and helped her search cart by cart. Apparently she had just informed my mom that my parents could attend the wedding but not go on the cruise when a porter pulled up with the missing bag. (It had been loaded into the wrong section of the ship). Luckily, I was completely unaware of this mix-up.

 

We had a one hour reception with hot and cold hor d'oerves. Everything, including the cake was delicious. We paid for an extra hour of photography. Our photagrapher did a great job. I asked him to wait to take pictures of us around the ship until after the reception so that we could mingle with our guests and so he could get shots of everyone there. My only regret was waiting too long to get a group shot of everyone there. They usually take a picture of all the guests on the staircase. I held off until the end of the reception. By that time a storm was rolling in and our non-sailing guests were rushing out to beat the rain, so we never got that shot.

 

One final word on the pictures - when we met with the photographer during the cruise to view the pictures and select our package, he started out by offering a package that was more twice the price of any of the packages on the RCCL website. We stuck to our guns and said we wanted one of the less expensive packages. He was very insistent that we spend more that what we planned. He would offer 2 packages at a time and then go "talk" to his manager and come back with 2 slightly lower priced packages after 30 minutes or so. He eventually returned with one of the 2 packages we were interested in and we closed the deal. When he delivered the photos, he threw in the CD that he kept trying to use as a bargaining chip to get us to spend more money. I wish I had printed the descriptions of the packages I was considering so that we could haved saved time and frustration. But, I love my pictures!! I will post them when I get a chance.

[tameka94]

What type of wedding package did you have (Harmony, duet, symphony)? Did you use the flowers that came with your package or did you substitute? Was your reception only an hour and how quickly did it start after your wedding? What type of cake did you get? We are going to get the additional hour of photography too. Thanks for the input on the pictures. I will make sure we bring the packages with us. Great review and look forward to seeing your pictures.

[MarinerBride]

DH and I got married on Mariner in December! I think that paying for the extra photography is a great idea! I wish we would have done that, because we missed a lot of time with our guests, including saying good-bye, because we were off taking pictures. I'm glad everything went well!

 

Tameka - feel free to look at my pictures (link in my signature). We did the harmony package, and I got the flowers included with the package with white roses. We did the one hour buffet reception, and it started almost immediately after the wedding. The immediate family stayed in the chapel for some pictures, but then we headed over to the lounge for the reception. We got the traditional white cake, and it was delicious! Our buffet also included some small desserts that were heavenly. We ended up getting the biggest package listed on the brochure, which included 5x7s of every picture he took, two CDs of the pictures, 10 8x10s, plus several frames and photo albums.

[tameka94]

Your pictures are awesome! Did you think the ice sculptures were worth getting? I love the Centrum pictures! Did you have a Balcony room? If so, was it large enough to have 3 women in there getting ready? I will be putting my dress on and need two people to assist me. Thanks for you assistance and sharing your day. We will probably purchase the Platinum package too. I love pictures and if they are good, it will be hard for me to leave the ship without them.

[MarinerBride]

Thanks! :)

 

I actually didn't ask for the ice sculptures. To be honest, I didn't ask for anything specifica at all - the only thing I ever specified about the reception was that we have the 1 hour buffet with drinks, and that we have a small white cake. The photographer chose all of the picture locations - I think we may have skipped some of his casino ideas, and then we added the life jacket pictures.

 

We did have a balcony room, and there were several in the room with me - at one point, I think there were close to 10 in the room with me. It's cozy, but doable. My mom, sister, and I all got dressed in the room, while my two friends helped out, plus we had a couple of family members in with us taking some pictures and videos for a while.

 

We liked the platinum package for several reasons. One, for everything you get, it's a great deal, especially if you compare to what you'd pay for a photographer onshore. Two, they don't give you a TON of time to look through all of the pictures and decide what you want. By getting everything, we got to take it all, and with the CD we had more printed of our favorites at home. My favorite of the albums and frames was this small white album that fit about 20 5x7 photos - it's a great album to carry around to show people highlights from the day.

 

Anyway - feel free to let me know if you have any other questions! I have hundreds of additional pictures uploaded to Picasa (http://picasaweb.google.com/abeckphd) if you want to see more. I've got several video clips too, but right now they're not uploaded. I've been meaning to put them up, so if I do that I'll let you know as well. I know it can be stressful not knowing what to expect! I didn't find these boards until after the wedding, so I'm very grateful everything went smoothly for us.

[tameka94]

Thank you for information. That is great that they provided sculptures. I am glad to hear about room sizes. I will look at videos later.

[horseypharm]

We got the duet package. I upgraded my bouquet to the round bridal bouquet and gave my MOH the flowers that came with the package . The reception was an hour long and started right after the wedding ceremony. We got the cake that serves 40 with vanilla with rasberry filling. It was really very delicious. In fact, all of the food was great.

 

I think the picture package we got was the Diamond package. It included 2 albums with 30 5x7's, 12 additional 5x7's, 6 8x10's, and some picture frames. The photographer threw in the CD which had all of the pictures he took. I was able to download them and print them at work for about $20 in 4x6 size. I can also print out any others that I want in whatever side.

 

I will post my pictures tomorrow or the next day.

Maureen

[horseypharm]

Link to some of the professional pictures. The photographer took over 350 pictures. I cut out some duplicates and a lot of the family pictures.

 

http://www2.snapfish.com/thumbnailshare/AlbumID=237084330/a=114244524_114244524/t_=114244524

[tameka94]

Thanks for sharing! It looks like the photographer had difficulty focusing on some and with lighting (flash). You looked super and so did your husband. What room were you married in and where did you have your reception? I really loved your sand ceremony items. Where did you get that? I like the size and the personalization. It would be easy to pack up and display at home.

[horseypharm]

Thank you! Our photographer took almost 400 pictures. I just picked some from the thumbnails, so I probably included some that were not perfect. When looking at all of the images on the CD, it looked like he took multiple pictures of the same view and played with lighting and other effects to get different views. I was really pleased with the pictures though - there were so many beautiful ones that I could easily ignore a couple where the lighting was off or the focus was off.

 

We were married in the wedding chapel and the reception was in the Seven Hearts lounge and another lounge that it connected to (They opened up a room divider so we had a nice sized room). I ordered the sand ceremony kit from Foreverwedstore.com. I was really pleased with how it came out. I would order 2 bags of each colored sand that you want so that you fill the vase up. Otherwise when you are traveling home, all of the sand shifts. I only ordered one bag of each and we were not able to fill it to the top which I think would help hold it in place.

[MarinerBride]

Beautiful pictures!! I really love the mirror, and the first stairwell - we didn't get those options. A lot of our pictures had some lighting issues, and my dress was blown out.

[Mlkkc]

My dd was married on the mariner on the 29th of june on my wedding anniversary and man oh man what a mess we got thru it but I would never throw another wedding on sail day in port. We order the hot and cold hor'doruves [sp] for the reception and we added on the chicken cesar salad.First of all they told everybody including nonsailing guest to be ready to board by 10:30 am the wedding would be a 1:00 pm they didn't pick us up untill 12:30 pm and most of our non sailing guest didn't know where the pier was so the plan was to follow us to pier.When we got to pier we had to wait to board like everyone else andwhen we finally got on board we had to rush getting my daughter and self ready.Dhubby and groom in my cabin also rushing they told us we were in our reception time and I said no we're not this is not our fault and I paid for a reception so they said everything will be push back 30 minutes which still was no time but we managed and got ready even though we weren't ready to run and rush. The photographer name Robert was wonderful even though he was waiting outside their cabin when we arrived and ready to take pic's.The marriage went off a 2pm and was beautiful and everybody was crying including the groom oh, all except my hubby.Ok now the reception ordered a double heart ice sculpture we got the ship logo not pleased and the guest had to leave by 3:30 understandable because muster drill and had to sail ok. They did not bring salad untill guest had to leave and did'nt have chicken I complained because hubby and I footed the entire bill includind their suite as a present so it's time for muster drill and here they come with chicken for the salad the reception was over and time for muster drill and of course coordinator said she would put in her report she also ask to eat I said help yourself no one else had time to eat, because we had to take pic's which by the way were gorgeous and the photographer was very nice he gave us all the pic's and cd's for 799 dollars which I was very pleased with and so were the bride and groom I would post but just don't know how to do.I know I just rambled on about nothing but it was something to us because we could have gave her a at home wedding with out the headache now the cruise was great,oh by the way we stayed at four by shearton across from a waterpark not far from universal studio which we were pleased with because everyone had dinner at red lobster right across the street.