Ladies, what made you choose a cruise for your wedding?

[heatherandfred]

Was it the cost? The "all inclusive?" The honeymoon/wedding thing?

 

For me it was cost and honeymoon. I was able to score a sweet suite for us and it's going to be a small wedding and hopefully, we won't have anybody cruising with us. My first wedding was a big deal..can you say big bucks? I wanted to go smaller the 2nd time around.

 

What's your story?

[maddam_5maria]

Was it the cost? The "all inclusive?" The honeymoon/wedding thing?

 

For me it was cost and honeymoon. I was able to score a sweet suite for us and it's going to be a small wedding and hopefully, we won't have anybody cruising with us. My first wedding was a big deal..can you say big bucks? I wanted to go smaller the 2nd time around.

 

What's your story?

 

 

 

1) Got engaged Oct of 2006.

2) Started planning a land based December 2006. It was going to be huge and we were planning some serious adult partying!!!

3) Found out I was pregnant in March of 2007.

4)Planning was put on hold till after my daughter was born for financial reasons...cause ya really just never know what can happen!

5)Nov of 2007, daughter was born.

5) December 2007, realizing how important family was more than ever, we started planning the wedding again...but with less partying in mind..and more family oriented.

6) Jan 2008, we decided to get married on a cruise ship and bring our family with us for a family vacation! Our parents (8 of them) work their butts off and were WAY over due for a vacay, our siblings (6 of them) lived on tight budgets so could never really afford to have their own family vacations with their children (7 total)..so we fit their cruise bill so we would all have one wonderful and memorable time!

7) Oct 2009, married and don't regret having our immediate family with us! It was money well spent and we were very fortunate to do it for them!

 

We ended up with a total of 44 sailing guest (including other family members and friends) and everyone had a blast! Now everyone is bugging us for an anniversary cruise...still working on hubby to give in though:D

[jerseygirl79]

I started planning a land based wedding, but once I realized the cost of the reception alone, I had second thoughts. My husband and I aren't drinkers and I couldn't see spending so much money for one day feeding and liquoring up 150+ people was a turn off. Then we'd have to pay for a honeymoon.

 

Since I love cruising the wedding cruise seemed perfect. We decided to bring our parents along, as they never been anywhere. We ended up with 10 sailing and about 50 non sailing. It was great. So glad I did it.

 

In the end, for what I would have paid for just the reception I got the entire wedding, reception, my dress, his tux, charter bus from MD to NY roundtrip, limo bus from pier back home, photos, video, our cabin and my mother's!

[lowash67]

Well I chose a cruise wedding because this was both of our second marriage and we love to go on cruises. Most of our families have never gone on a cruise before so we thought this would be nice for them also to have a vacation at the same time enjoy our special day with us. The cost was descent also and you can wein out the people who just want to come and be noisey and eat up all the reception food.lol I'm glad we decided to go this route. We have a total of 54 cruising with us and 5 non sailing..I'm very excited

[MalibuBarbie]

Started planning a local wedding and it started causing D-R-A-M-A. It was making me crazy so hubby to be started looking into alternatives. We Have wanted to go on a cruise so just out of curiosity we just decided to look into it. Found out that we could have the wedding we wanted and have a great trip for less than we could have a small wedding with a steak dinner in Vegas.

MalibuBarbie

[Juniper00]

Finances played a big part in my decision, in addition to just the general stress of a land-based big wedding. I knew I wanted something different, and there was no way I could afford the type of wedding I wanted on land. In addition to working a full-time, stressful job, I'm in graduate school, and I just didn't think I could handle the stress of planning a wedding while working and going to school....one day I was searching online and found an article about "elopement packages" at different resorts. I asked my fiance if we could spend all this money we would spend on everyone else at a wedding on OURSELVES where would you want to go? We both agreed on Alaska, and the cruise seemed an easy route.

[Angel_hushpuppies]

I always wanted a destination wedding. The romance of the Beach just was what i had to have! Plus not to mention I didn't want to spends thousands of dollars on a traditional wedding. My main reason was that I am Catholic and my husband is Muslim. Both of us wanted something that was special and neither of us had to compromise any believes. So the beach was perfect!!

[angela111509]

We would have had people coming in from all over the country and they all would have needed to find hotels, rent cars, find entertainment and food and after all of that we wouldn't get to spend much time with people that had flown in to come! So - we thought that we should take everybody with us! It has worked out great, the people that are coming get a vacation and the people who aren't probably wouldn't have been able to afford the trip anyway!

[attorneybride2010]

For us, it was definitely a financial decision. We looked into reception places in our area and fell in LOVE with one (it was a community art gallery). After we got the price, we knew we had to start thinking outside the box. I started looking at other reception halls and just wasn't interested in any of them, we wanted something a little different. We looked into a lot of different ideas including vegas, eloping, having a wedding in a park, etc. After we discovered the cruise idea and how affordable it is, we did a little more research and thought it was a nice fit! I have very little family and my fiance's family is scattered all over the country so we figured just our immediate family and friends would join us. Well, not even three months after booking, we have over 40 people joining us so far and it'll STILL be cheaper than having a traditional reception!

[4evercruiser]

Far cheaper than a land-based wedding. I got engaged December 2008. After the holidays were over, my fiance and I started looking into places to get married at, but after looking at a few places we realized that the cheapest wedding packages were at least $10k. I was starting to get discouraged and my fiance suggested we call Carnival and see what wedding packages they offered. I am glad we did. We were both shocked on how inexpensive it was. We chose to get married on the ship so that all our friends and family can attend the wedding, but none of them will be able to cruise with us.

[bonjourvn]

It's so romantic and unforgettable!

[merocket59]

First of all, I love hearing everyone's stories :) My story is that I had been engaged for a couple of years and hadn't started planning because the thought of having my FH's mother and father in the same room gave me a huge headache (big ugly divorce with custody battle over his much younger brother), not to mention both sides of their families. I thought strongly about eloping because big fancy parties where I am the center of attention makes me want to crawl in a hole. Then I was taking prerequisite classes for nursing school and a girl told me she was planning to do a cruise wedding but then she didn't. I wanted to know more so I researched it and talked to FH and we knew that it was def for us! And this way if people decided to make the committment and pay for the cruise then I would think that they would behave. Things are much better between his parents now b/c his bro is 18 and time has healed some wounds so I think this is going to be a great cruise wedding~! Only 24 days left!

[Cruiselover7279]

We threw around a bunch of ideas but we new it was going to be a destanation weeding of some sort. We both have been married before so we really don't want anything big. So in the begining we were going to get married in Jamica. Well we went on our first cruise in 2007 and were on Emerald beach in St. Thomas where there was a weeding taking place. We both fell in love with it almost instantly. Before we even left the beach to get back on the ship I said to him this is what we are doing!!!

 

Nine months later both the cruise and wedding were booked. We figured we love to travel and love to cruise why not. It's our special day and we are doing what we want and this is what it is!!!

 

So 169 days I will be on Emerald Beach having a Blast!!!

[cjc55dmb]

Like most, finances. We could afford to have the wedding in Jersey - but weren't willing to shell out the $30k for it! On top of that we just got tired of hearing people (mostly the older family and friends of the family) tell us how much money we were wasting and that a wedding shouldn't cost this much....it's Jersey and it does cost that much!

 

So off to Miami to get married on the beach and then cruising! We will have a small casual reception/bday bash after we get home, in all between the "destination" wedding and cruise with the home reception - we're spending a little less than half of what the wedding at home would have been! AND we're happier with it. SO much less stress. More money saved for the house. More intimate with just us. Neither of us were looking forward to getting up in front of the 200 guests for the ceremony either, so that is a plus! :p

[Taters77]

Was it the cost? The "all inclusive?" The honeymoon/wedding thing?

 

For me it was cost and honeymoon. I was able to score a sweet suite for us and it's going to be a small wedding and hopefully, we won't have anybody cruising with us. My first wedding was a big deal..can you say big bucks? I wanted to go smaller the 2nd time around.

 

What's your story?

 

For us we knew that we wanted something smaller...It was my second wedding so I couldn't ask dad to pay for another so we were paying for whatever we decided on. We started looking at sites around town and found out that everything was so expensive, and nothing was packaged nicely so it all adds up and fast. My fiance was reading a travel magazine and found an article about weddings onboard cruises and that was that. We just had our wedding last month onboard the Carnival Conquest and it was the best decision we ever made. Not only was it at least 10 times cheaper than anything else we looked at, but it was so beautiful too. I was very impressed by the whole thing and honestly wasn't expecting it to be that nice since the price was so low. We had 50 non-sailing guests and took 8 family members along with us and we all had the most wonderful time and got to know eachothers families a little more. Also all the guests were genuinly excited about our wedding because it was onboard the ship and not your usual boring wedding and reception. We had all our guest wear "cruise attire" (hawaiian shirts and slacks for guys and summer dresses for gals) and they loved the laid back vacation atmosphere and all had a great time. This was the best idea for a wedding and now we actually have money left for our new life together. (and the extra souvenir we brought back that I just found out about...honeymoon baby!) :)

[angela111509]

For us we knew that we wanted something smaller...It was my second wedding so I couldn't ask dad to pay for another so we were paying for whatever we decided on. We started looking at sites around town and found out that everything was so expensive, and nothing was packaged nicely so it all adds up and fast. My fiance was reading a travel magazine and found an article about weddings onboard cruises and that was that. We just had our wedding last month onboard the Carnival Conquest and it was the best decision we ever made. Not only was it at least 10 times cheaper than anything else we looked at, but it was so beautiful too. I was very impressed by the whole thing and honestly wasn't expecting it to be that nice since the price was so low. We had 50 non-sailing guests and took 8 family members along with us and we all had the most wonderful time and got to know eachothers families a little more. Also all the guests were genuinly excited about our wedding because it was onboard the ship and not your usual boring wedding and reception. We had all our guest wear "cruise attire" (hawaiian shirts and slacks for guys and summer dresses for gals) and they loved the laid back vacation atmosphere and all had a great time. This was the best idea for a wedding and now we actually have money left for our new life together. (and the extra souvenir we brought back that I just found out about...honeymoon baby!) :)

 

Congratulations on the baby!

[Cattie]

For us, alot had to do with the fact we where together for 11 and a half years. We where supposed to do the big fancy wedding however my job decided that they where going to lay me off. So we postponed and never reset a date. The whole family loved cruising, so we figured it would be perfect!

[rbarritt]

My fiance wanted small and i kept making the wedding big. We had decided on marrying on a tall ship in Lake Michigan but the invite list kept growing. My parents helped us build a house last year and we owe them a lot. So we decided to take a cruise/wedding. We are paying for our parents to attend, including their air fare, and the cost was less than to have 1 day with family at home. Now we get 5 days of pure pampering. We have 22 total cruisers and of them, only 4 of us have cruised. We are all in need of a getaway.

 

We are getting married on Carnival Destiny in port. I know the cruise can't be bad, we aren't picky people, but it seems that i see more negative than positive regarding Destiny. Anybody been married on Destiny or cruised recently and can say could things?

 

Our wedding is Jan 16th 2010! Yippy:rolleyes:

[merocket59]

They refurbed Destiny and there are more positive things since then, I'm getting married on her in 23 days so I will be sure to let you know my opinion (however I haven't cruised before so I don't have much comparison)

[bellasteena]

I have never wanted a fancy wedding and when we started talking last year about getting married I just wanted to go to city hall but he said no way. We went on our first cruise in April 08 and absolutely loved it!!!! We have done everything backwards (kids first, then bought a house and after 14 years together finally getting married) and didn't want to go the traditional route with a regular wedding. We are getting married on a beach in Jamaica with our kids, parents, best friends and other assorted family/friends and the cost of the wedding will be covered with the free berths we get from the cruise line! So we will not be spending much more than we would have to just go on a cruise. I can't wait!!!

[Powriv]

Our situation is slightly different. Future bride(Elisa) has already been married twice so basically left most decisions to me (AL). This is my first and hopefully only wedding.

 

I am not good at formal stuffy occasions, get very nervous and really didn't want a fancy expensive wedding. I want a casual, easy going, fun wedding and when I had heard about getting married on a ship, it really made sense to me. So we are going cruise casual, no tuxes, suits, ties, long gowns, anything remotely resembling formal attire.

 

So we are getting married on the NCL Pearl on embarkation day Sept 19, 2010 in Vancouver.

 

Vancouver is central to all our friends and families, which would make life easy for those that just wanted to see the wedding. We also got a good deal on the Pearl's relocation to LA and hoping some of our friends/family will join us on the 5 day cruise. Elisa and I are going on to Miami through the Panama Canal as the honeymoon cruise and don't expect friends/family to join us on the 2 week cruise.

[attorneybride2010]

rbarrit, I am getting married on the Destiny on June 28, 2010 and was also really worried about the condition of the boat. I actually went crazy last week and googled the Carnival Destiny reviews and read a bunch of them. It's true that there are a lot of bad reviews about the boat but I also saw an equal number of good reviews. I noticed a lot of the bad reviews came from people who cruise ALL THE TIME and who actually prefer different cruise lines other than Carnival. Personally, I have only been on one cruise so I dont have much to compare the Destiny to so I'm hoping I wont be disappointed! Again though, after reading a lot of the reviews it seemed like the people who were really unhappy were frequent cruisers of different lines and a lot of the complaints came from people who didn't want to be on a "fun boat" and would have preferred peace and quiet.

 

Merocket59, I can't wait for your review!! You were the first bride I found on here getting married on the Destiny! I know this may sound crazy but I feel like I am just as excited as you for you to get married! :)

[heatherandfred]

Sounds like everybody is happy with their decision. That's cool. I really never thought about it, until DF thought of it (yes, Ed, I'm giving you the credit on this one). We've got a really nice suite, that I picked out and everything is costing us less than a pretty penny. So very happy. I can't wait to marry the love of my life.

[merocket59]

Merocket59, I can't wait for your review!! You were the first bride I found on here getting married on the Destiny! I know this may sound crazy but I feel like I am just as excited as you for you to get married! :)

 

Haha I know get really excited too, although most of the other Destiny brides I have met since I started on here (pre itinerary change and dry dock) were married on land.

[AmyD102]

When my fiance finally popped the questions we realized what a task this wedding was going to be, his parents are both from huge families, he has around 50+ first cousins, and he didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings by picking and choosing who could and couldn't come to our wedding(his fam is VERY close), since we would be on a budget. We have been on two cruises together and loved them both, on our last one while we were debarking we saw a bridal party arriving, and thought it was a great idea. This way everyone's invited, but those who can't afford it or don't want to cruise won't come, and no one gets left out! Best of all we are way under our budget so everyone wins! We are booked on Carnival Miracle Sept, 4 2010! Can't wait! We already have 15 rooms and 41 guests booked, and more still to come! I think its going to be great! :)