OPINIONS needed on issues

[bermuda triangle]

Hi Barbie,

To continue what I was writing last night.. Not everyone knows about the deck weddings. Kym, our photographer, mentioned that more people should be married outdoors, I explained the whole planning experience..she had no idea.

 

You can check on the princess website and look for webcams, they have both the ships cam as well as the wedding chapel cam. So if it comes down to not being on deck will you be happy in the chapel? A plus for the chapel wedding is that you can ask them to turn on the cam and your friends/family at home can view the ceremony.

 

The keyboard was nice, I remember here comes the bride being played, but otherwise I don't remember the other music. The choices are the same no matter where your ceremony is. If you have any other questions feel free to ask!

 

Also, I am sorry to hear about your mother.

 

Laura

[finn1913]

Hi Barbie,

 

We didn't elope, but we did get married at sea (Princess) and had a deck wedding.

 

We kept things really simple, so there wasn't much for TWE to mess up. Even if they had, the co-ordinators on board are fabulous and would have no doubt fixed any mess-ups. Because they are Princess staff, they really do go out of their way to make your day special.

 

We had requested the deck, and it wasn't a problem. You can have the keyboard player or bring your own tunes. You will still get the flowers/decorations outside. We really didn't like the chapel on our ship, but were told that if we needed a plan B, we could have the wedding in another venue and we wouldn't have to use the chapel.

 

TWE may be frustrating, but once you are on the ship, Princess takes over and it is all good! Having a day or 2 on baord before the wedding was also good... it gave us a chance to settle in and relax before the wedding.

 

Good luck!

 

Cheers,

Ann

[MalibuBarbie]

Thanks so much everyone! It really helps to hear of others who had intimate ceremonies! I have to say that I was starting to be jealous of all of you who were having these big-happy groups on board! LOL

 

I am not as "scared" of using TWE with Princess as I am if I use them with Carnival. I think its because on Princess, you know its ultimately going to be the Princess staff actually handling the wedding because you are in the middle of the ocean. I don't mind giving the initial information to TWE and just keeping copies of EVERYTHING in my planning notebook. I do hope all of you have one of these fat binders that you keep everything regarding your wedding in? (Please don't tell me that I am the only one who has one of these---Brent lovingly refers to mine as my bible! LOL

 

I couldn't sleep last night so I sat down and made a list of the pros/cons of using Carnival and Princess, the price comparisons between the two and what I would change about either of them if I could. Basically it came down to this---we absolutely love the idea of at-sea weddings. There is no stressful embarkation day ceremony, no rushing around trying to get ready, No hair-don'ts from an unknown hotel hairstylist, no rushing to courthouses the morning of the wedding, no restrictions as far as licensing goes and who can resist the awesome background of the sea?

 

We both love the 10 day cruise over the seven day. I work way too much and I hardly ever get more than one day off a week. Because of my work schedule and Brent's disability, we have NEVER gone on vacation since we have been together. It has been 6 years and its about time! We both thought an extended cruise would be the perfect way to unwind, de-stress,makeup for lost past vacations and be the perfect beginning to our married life together.

 

We do not want to have to fly to our port because again of Brent's disability, waits in long lines would make Brent miserable, etc. and lugging the dress, additional lugguge charges, etc so we wanted to leave out of CA. We live in Arizona so it is a 4 hour drive to LA and an 8 hour drive to San fransisco. I did check RCL, NCL, Princess and Carnival for itineraries leaving out of CA. We would like to go to Cabo San Lucas,Mexico and have formal beach pictures as well as do a mini trash the dress shoot. We have contacted several photographers in Cabo and found that several were more than willing to do this. And the price was great----just a little more than a great port excursion would cost and the pictures will be awesome!

 

Carnival had one 9 day cruise but we didn't really care for most of the ports and Cabo was not even one of them. The Princess itinerary was perfect! It gave us three sea days in the beginning and two after all the ports. We would be in Cabo about Day 7 and we would there a few more hours than Carnival is. (Carnival is there from 7am-3, Princess is there 9am-6pm) I don't know which night is the first formal night, but we would choose one of the other days to get married. We are probably two of the few people who actually are looking forward to getting all dressed up for the formal nights. I thought it would be fun to do a hair trial before the wedding day so if at all possible, I will try to do that on the formal night day and then have the wedding the next day. That way, I get to have my hair done for formal night plus get to see what they can do with my haor and make-up. I am all for any extra pampering that I can have. At home, I hardly ever do this sort of stuff.

 

The only problem we can see with Princess might be the dates. Apparently for some reason (which I have yet to find out), Princess only runs this cruise two times in April 2010....no other dates. Looking at 2008 & 2009, it looks like this is the way it always is. If it just the two of us, April would be fine. However, if we want my kids to be able to go with us, this would be a problem. My two kids are in college and I think being away for about 12 days right before final exams (I think the exams would be around May 8th or 10th) may be a major problem for them. I don't even know if either of them would want to miss school even for an all-expense paid cruise. Money (Princess is about 400 more for this cruise than Carnival) and time off for other guests may be a problem but that may be a good thing to my benefit--reduces the number of other peoples opinions that I would receive)-the only two people that we really want to be there would be the kids. I am going to ask the kids what they think and see what they say. They are adults now (19 & 20) and I am going to leave it up to them. I don't want to ask them on the phone because well, my son is really not a talker and my daughter talks too much! Getting the two of them together and back home for a couple of days to talk to them could be rather tricky but we are going to give it a try! LOL

 

Does anyone know why Princess only has this cruise two times a year? I know that there is a perfectly good reason, I am just curious as to what it is. I would think that they would run it more often for the people on the west coast who really seem to like the longer cruise. No one ekse really offers it!

 

If they only had this 10 day cruise in the last part of May or in June, my life would be PERFECT! Anyway....based upon what the kids say, I also have a Plan B.

 

If the kids say there is no way they can take off from school but they don't mind us doing it without them, than we will take the 10 day cruise by ourselves with a wedding at sea and we will "purchase" our witnesses.

 

If the kids decide that they are able to go, Great! 10 day cruise and we will just pay for them to go (which adds to our budget, but oh well!)

 

If the kids can't take off but INSIST on being there, then Plan B could be sticking with Princess but going on their 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise which goes to Cabo but leaves out of LA. Not the most perfect itinerary for us, (less sea days and one less port) but it is almost exactly the same as the Carnival intinerary that we had initially picked. 7 days wouldn't be horrible and maybe we could add some days to the end of the cruise and hang out in California for a few extra days.

 

I know alot of people have at-home receptions after their destination wedding but we never thought about doing it. We figured that we originally decided on the cruise wedding to save some money and having an at-home reception kind of defeated the savings. However, now we are thinking that if the kids can't go and we decide to go by ourselves, we could always have an at -home reception type party in June and we could show a videotape or our pictures at the party. Okay, so there goes that budget that we may have had! LOL We have already upped it twice now....and I think it needs another major overhaul! We are paying for this wedding all by ourselves so we did change the date to 2010 because of finances. I am just hoping that we don't need to change it again for any later because of the additional money needed YIKES!! :eek: Sheesh! I'll be 60 years old before we get married!

 

So that's how my thinking is going at this time. I think you can all tell by now that I am pretty much set on Princess (as if you couldn't notice!) and I am just justifying it all to myself. Brent & I decided this weekend that if anyone else goes, it would be nice but not crucial (sp?) the two kids are a different story, we will make our final decision based upon those two opinions only. If they can go, we will be ecstatic! If they can't, then we will either go on Plan B cruise or have an at-home party in June.

 

As far as the on-deck weddings go, we would love to do this (Laura's pictures convinced me of this :p )so it definitely would be our first choice. However, if we had to use the chapel, it would not crush me. Laura, you're right that the bonus with using the chapel is that you do have the complimentary web-cam. I have not seen any pictures of the chapel yet, but I am sure that it is pretty and they do provide the two fresh floral arrangements for the front. Ann, what was it that you didn't like about the chapel on your ship? Are all the Hearts and Minds chapels the same on all of the ships. I will try and google it and find some pictures. We have decided to add the videographer so either way, we will have a copy of our wedding ceremony.

 

I am a pretty easy going bride and I don't have a lot of MUST-haves that TWE could screw up so I am not really stressing about it. I am going to do some DIY projects on my own to personalize the wedding but as long as TWE gets our licence and Princess knows I am getting married on the ship, I think all is good. Another bride explained it perfectly in one of her posts: As long as she is married to her best friend when she gets off the ship, then TWE will have done their job and she will be happy. SAME HERE!!! If my flowers weren't exactly the way I wanted or the filling in my cake was the wrong kind...so what! I would probably be the only one who knew it! It wouldn't change the outcome of the day or of the cruise!

 

Yikes, I just realized that I wrote another book so I am going to go read of the posts!!! Gosh I feel so much better, writing can be such good therapy!

Barbie

[finn1913]

Hi Barbie,

 

You asked about the chapel... we were on the Golden and apparently it was one of the first wedding chapels they designed/installed (according to Mauritz - our co-ordinator). It was small and gave the impression they had stuck it there because there was a space they could convert. It just didn't suit us or our personalities. We wanted our wedding to reflect that is was on a ship.

 

I laughed because even Mauritz wasn't a fan of it, but said with heaps of effort/flowers/etc they can actually make it work! (He was right into the details -way more than I was).

 

I will say this, the wedding co-ordinators on Princess can make things happen. Salon appointments, last minute pressing... they are awesome! Mauritz just asked us to give him our stuff (CDs, flowers for cake, favours for the tables) and that he would take care of it. He even checked with me to see if I needed other appointments sorted (on top of pre-booked ones) or any pre-wedding pressing (which I had forgotten about, suits/shirts). He took care of it all and even had the laundry charges removed from our account!

 

Our planning process was similar to yours... the only people that we conferred with before booking were our parents as we really wanted them there.

 

Hope this helps...

 

Cheers,

Ann

[MalibuBarbie]

Hi Ann...I guess I am not too picky with the decor of the chapel. As long as it is not cheesy,(plastic looking flowers, etc) I think I would be fine with it if we cannot have an on-deck wedding. I am definitely going to google it and see if I can find some pictures. our first choice for the 10 day cruise is the Star and if we do the 7day cruise, it would be the Sapphire. Let me see if I can find any!

Barbie

[Moeve]

The witnesses are easy - when you have chosen you cruise head over to the roll call section and ask if any of the CCers on the cruise would be willing to help. Since CC are always helpful I bet you will find someone who will love the job.

[sibbyg3]

My fiancé was actually a witness several years ago for a couple he met on the beach! He was on vacation and had met the couple-to-marry a day or two prior to their ceremony. It was just the two of them and they asked him to be one of their witnesses. He still talks about it to this day and is part of the reason he was adamant about the beach wedding. The witnesses are the least of your stresses for the day! Good luck! ; )

[hollidaygal]

Thanks so much everyone! It really helps to hear of others who had intimate ceremonies! I have to say that I was starting to be jealous of all of you who were having these big-happy groups on board! LOL

 

I am not as "scared" of using TWE with Princess as I am if I use them with Carnival. I think its because on Princess, you know its ultimately going to be the Princess staff actually handling the wedding because you are in the middle of the ocean. I don't mind giving the initial information to TWE and just keeping copies of EVERYTHING in my planning notebook. I do hope all of you have one of these fat binders that you keep everything regarding your wedding in? (Please don't tell me that I am the only one who has one of these---Brent lovingly refers to mine as my bible! LOL

 

I couldn't sleep last night so I sat down and made a list of the pros/cons of using Carnival and Princess, the price comparisons between the two and what I would change about either of them if I could. Basically it came down to this---we absolutely love the idea of at-sea weddings. There is no stressful embarkation day ceremony, no rushing around trying to get ready, No hair-don'ts from an unknown hotel hairstylist, no rushing to courthouses the morning of the wedding, no restrictions as far as licensing goes and who can resist the awesome background of the sea?

 

We both love the 10 day cruise over the seven day. I work way too much and I hardly ever get more than one day off a week. Because of my work schedule and Brent's disability, we have NEVER gone on vacation since we have been together. It has been 6 years and its about time! We both thought an extended cruise would be the perfect way to unwind, de-stress,makeup for lost past vacations and be the perfect beginning to our married life together.

 

We do not want to have to fly to our port because again of Brent's disability, waits in long lines would make Brent miserable, etc. and lugging the dress, additional lugguge charges, etc so we wanted to leave out of CA. We live in Arizona so it is a 4 hour drive to LA and an 8 hour drive to San fransisco. I did check RCL, NCL, Princess and Carnival for itineraries leaving out of CA. We would like to go to Cabo San Lucas,Mexico and have formal beach pictures as well as do a mini trash the dress shoot. We have contacted several photographers in Cabo and found that several were more than willing to do this. And the price was great----just a little more than a great port excursion would cost and the pictures will be awesome!

 

Carnival had one 9 day cruise but we didn't really care for most of the ports and Cabo was not even one of them. The Princess itinerary was perfect! It gave us three sea days in the beginning and two after all the ports. We would be in Cabo about Day 7 and we would there a few more hours than Carnival is. (Carnival is there from 7am-3, Princess is there 9am-6pm) I don't know which night is the first formal night, but we would choose one of the other days to get married. We are probably two of the few people who actually are looking forward to getting all dressed up for the formal nights. I thought it would be fun to do a hair trial before the wedding day so if at all possible, I will try to do that on the formal night day and then have the wedding the next day. That way, I get to have my hair done for formal night plus get to see what they can do with my haor and make-up. I am all for any extra pampering that I can have. At home, I hardly ever do this sort of stuff.

 

The only problem we can see with Princess might be the dates. Apparently for some reason (which I have yet to find out), Princess only runs this cruise two times in April 2010....no other dates. Looking at 2008 & 2009, it looks like this is the way it always is. If it just the two of us, April would be fine. However, if we want my kids to be able to go with us, this would be a problem. My two kids are in college and I think being away for about 12 days right before final exams (I think the exams would be around May 8th or 10th) may be a major problem for them. I don't even know if either of them would want to miss school even for an all-expense paid cruise. Money (Princess is about 400 more for this cruise than Carnival) and time off for other guests may be a problem but that may be a good thing to my benefit--reduces the number of other peoples opinions that I would receive)-the only two people that we really want to be there would be the kids. I am going to ask the kids what they think and see what they say. They are adults now (19 & 20) and I am going to leave it up to them. I don't want to ask them on the phone because well, my son is really not a talker and my daughter talks too much! Getting the two of them together and back home for a couple of days to talk to them could be rather tricky but we are going to give it a try! LOL

 

Does anyone know why Princess only has this cruise two times a year? I know that there is a perfectly good reason, I am just curious as to what it is. I would think that they would run it more often for the people on the west coast who really seem to like the longer cruise. No one ekse really offers it!

 

If they only had this 10 day cruise in the last part of May or in June, my life would be PERFECT! Anyway....based upon what the kids say, I also have a Plan B.

 

If the kids say there is no way they can take off from school but they don't mind us doing it without them, than we will take the 10 day cruise by ourselves with a wedding at sea and we will "purchase" our witnesses.

 

If the kids decide that they are able to go, Great! 10 day cruise and we will just pay for them to go (which adds to our budget, but oh well!)

 

If the kids can't take off but INSIST on being there, then Plan B could be sticking with Princess but going on their 7 day Mexican Riviera cruise which goes to Cabo but leaves out of LA. Not the most perfect itinerary for us, (less sea days and one less port) but it is almost exactly the same as the Carnival intinerary that we had initially picked. 7 days wouldn't be horrible and maybe we could add some days to the end of the cruise and hang out in California for a few extra days.

 

I know alot of people have at-home receptions after their destination wedding but we never thought about doing it. We figured that we originally decided on the cruise wedding to save some money and having an at-home reception kind of defeated the savings. However, now we are thinking that if the kids can't go and we decide to go by ourselves, we could always have an at -home reception type party in June and we could show a videotape or our pictures at the party. Okay, so there goes that budget that we may have had! LOL We have already upped it twice now....and I think it needs another major overhaul! We are paying for this wedding all by ourselves so we did change the date to 2010 because of finances. I am just hoping that we don't need to change it again for any later because of the additional money needed YIKES!! :eek: Sheesh! I'll be 60 years old before we get married!

 

So that's how my thinking is going at this time. I think you can all tell by now that I am pretty much set on Princess (as if you couldn't notice!) and I am just justifying it all to myself. Brent & I decided this weekend that if anyone else goes, it would be nice but not crucial (sp?) the two kids are a different story, we will make our final decision based upon those two opinions only. If they can go, we will be ecstatic! If they can't, then we will either go on Plan B cruise or have an at-home party in June.

 

As far as the on-deck weddings go, we would love to do this (Laura's pictures convinced me of this :p )so it definitely would be our first choice. However, if we had to use the chapel, it would not crush me. Laura, you're right that the bonus with using the chapel is that you do have the complimentary web-cam. I have not seen any pictures of the chapel yet, but I am sure that it is pretty and they do provide the two fresh floral arrangements for the front. Ann, what was it that you didn't like about the chapel on your ship? Are all the Hearts and Minds chapels the same on all of the ships. I will try and google it and find some pictures. We have decided to add the videographer so either way, we will have a copy of our wedding ceremony.

 

I am a pretty easy going bride and I don't have a lot of MUST-haves that TWE could screw up so I am not really stressing about it. I am going to do some DIY projects on my own to personalize the wedding but as long as TWE gets our licence and Princess knows I am getting married on the ship, I think all is good. Another bride explained it perfectly in one of her posts: As long as she is married to her best friend when she gets off the ship, then TWE will have done their job and she will be happy. SAME HERE!!! If my flowers weren't exactly the way I wanted or the filling in my cake was the wrong kind...so what! I would probably be the only one who knew it! It wouldn't change the outcome of the day or of the cruise!

 

Yikes, I just realized that I wrote another book so I am going to go read of the posts!!! Gosh I feel so much better, writing can be such good therapy!

Barbie

 

FYI - There are MANY great reviews of Carnival weddings that TWE did not screw up. Many have been recently posted. Princess is excellent, but Carnival is excellent too. The relationship b/w what Carnival handles and what TWE handles is completely different than the relationshipwith the other cruislines. Sometimes, it's Carnival that "screwed up" and not TWE. Lately, there have been more positive reviews on here re: TWE than in the past. Please take that into consideration. Also, Carnival employees on the ship are awesome!! I always enjoyed working with them! Good luck and I'm so sorry to hear about your mother's diagnosis. My prayers are with you. God bless!

[bermuda triangle]

CLICK HERE!!

 

This should link you to the appropriate page. You can then select the ship you will be traveling on! They are all different.

 

Laura

[Creeks]

They don't have cruises out of California in late May and June because

by that time all of the ships are in Alaska. You might find a slightly later cruise going north to Alaska instead of south to Mexico, but you wouldn't have beach time.

 

I don't think I want to know about "dress trashing". Sounds similar to the "smashing cake in the face" nonsense.

 

As others have said, it is your wedding, your marry each other, no one else is necessary. Do it your way.

 

 

Thanks so much everyone!

 

The only problem we can see with Princess might be the dates. Apparently for some reason (which I have yet to find out), Princess only runs this cruise two times in April 2010....no other dates. Looking at 2008 & 2009, it looks like this is the way it always is. If it just the two of us, April would be fine. However, if we want my kids to be able to go with us, this would be a problem. My two kids are in college and I think being away for about 12 days right before final exams (I think the exams would be around May 8th or 10th) may be a major problem for them. I don't even know if either of them would want to miss school even for an all-expense paid cruise. Money (Princess is about 400 more for this cruise than Carnival) and time off for other guests may be a problem but that may be a good thing to my benefit--reduces the number of other peoples opinions that I would receive)-the only two people that we really want to be there would be the kids. I am going to ask the kids what they think and see what they say. They are adults now (19 & 20) and I am going to leave it up to them. I don't want to ask them on the phone because well, my son is really not a talker and my daughter talks too much! Getting the two of them together and back home for a couple of days to talk to them could be rather tricky but we are going to give it a try! LOL

 

Does anyone know why Princess only has this cruise two times a year? I know that there is a perfectly good reason, I am just curious as to what it is. I would think that they would run it more often for the people on the west coast who really seem to like the longer cruise. No one ekse really offers it!

 

If they only had this 10 day cruise in the last part of May or in June, my life would be PERFECT! Anyway....based upon what the kids say, I also have a Plan B.

[Slippinx12]

Just another option, too- Celebrity has started to do at sea weddings, too- i don't know what their schedules are like for May or June 2010 since they haven't posted those yet- but it's another option for an at-sea wedding!

[MalibuBarbie]

Just another option, too- Celebrity has started to do at sea weddings, too- i don't know what their schedules are like for May or June 2010 since they haven't posted those yet- but it's another option for an at-sea wedding!

 

Really? I had no idea. I might have to check there before I make my final decision. I got a chance to sit down with my daughter this afternoon after I visited with my mom. :( I realized today just how fast life passes us by.

 

I explained how I felt about all the wedding stresses everyone was putting on me. She basically said that she really wants to be there so she is hoping we pick the late May/early June date but both her and her brother would completely understand if Brent & I choose to do the 10 day without them. Well, I cried my little eyes out today so I need a nap and then I will discuss it with Brent again. I tend to think that Brent will want to do the 7 day cruise after the kids get out of school so they can go but who knows, he may surprise me. I think right now, I just want him to say this is what we are doing and that's it....but he won't! LOL He will give me the ole wishy-washy-whatever-you-think-honey speech!

Barbie