cruise ship weddings

Re: cruise ship weddings

• CMGragain member

  

  January 2016 edited January 2016

  There are two kinds of cruise ship weddings.
  
  1.  You get married on the ship while it is docked in port.  You are married by the laws of Florida, or whatever state or country where the ship is docked.  This is a great option because your guests can attend your wedding without going on the cruise with you.  All the major cruise lines have this option, but you must work through their event organizers.  It is like any other destination wedding.  Time of day is not flexible unless the ship is docked overnight.  I don't think many ships overnight in Florida.
  
  2.  You get married while the ship is at sea.  Princess and Royal Caribbeean can do this, but Carnival cannot.  You pay for the cruise for all your guests, but not the shipboard charges, their transportation to and from the ship, or hotel expenses the night before.  Be prepared for a lot of declines.
  
  You cannot invite people to be on your cruise and then expect them to pay for the cruise.  No matter what the cruise lines tell you ($$$), this is horribly rude.
  

  

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• CMGragain member

  

  January 2016

  @ princessleia22.  I think you can answer this one.
  

  

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• princessleia22 member

  

  January 2016

  I had a cruise wedding in June 2014 on Carnival.  We did the wedding at port, before leaving for the cruise.  This worked out great because it allowed our guests to have the choice of joining us for cruise or not (14 of our guests cruised and 11 did not).  The wedding package was affordable, especially for all it includes.  I think ours was around $2k (prices may have increased since then) which included everything needed for wedding & reception.  It included officiant, wedding coordinator, ceremony, flowers, reception, full open bar (includes all top shelf alcohol), food/appetizers, cake, DJ (I think DJ was $150 extra), photographer (photo packages are extra).  That price also is in addition to your cruise fare. The included reception appetizers were heavy enough to be a meal, but our guests also ate at the buffet prior to the wedding ceremony.
  
  Some of the cruise lines will marry you at sea (Royal Caribbean, Princess, Celebrity), but it depends on where the ship is registered. The disadvantage to this is that all guests have to go on cruise to attend the wedding. And most have packages to get married at port, but there could be risk of ship skipping the port if bad weather, which would cancel your wedding. I really liked the wedding at port, mainly for the flexibility it left for our guests. We had a few guests that couldn't afford the time and/or money to go on the cruise, so it worked out great.
  
  The ship really provides everything, where you could just show up with your clothes (and wedding license, if needed) and have a great wedding. I loved the simplicity of planning, which was the main reason I went with the cruise wedding in the first place.  We had to book the trip, fill out a few forms selecting entertainment, cake flavors, etc. and the ship did the rest.  But, the downside to that is that there isn't much room for customization, if you want to do any (I really didn't want to do much).  You don't have many options for decor and carrying stuff on-board for decor (along with your attire and luggage) is a pain.  You don't get any choice in room/venue of the wedding.  The only guarantee you have of space is if you book the DJ for reception, which has to be in the nightclub.  My ceremony was in a conference room, which wasn't the prettiest room, but I didn't care... it served it's purpose. And you won't know many of those details until the last minute. So, if you are the type to be concerned about details, this probably isn't the best route for you.  We brought fake flower petals & ribbon to decorate our cake with (which the coordinator decorated beautifully with little input from us).  But, otherwise, we just went with what was provided. 
  
  We absolutely LOVED our day-of coordinator.  She kept everything moving so smoothly.  And our photographer was great.  Our guests all had a great time and said it was one of the best weddings they have been to. But, we also had no issues with boarding or timing, which can happen on occasion.  Guests can't board the ship until customs clears it, which can get delayed sometimes.  Mine ran on the ideal time frame.  We got to port around 10:30am and checked in, everyone boarded ship at 11:30am and went to have lunch at buffet.  Wedding ceremony was at 1pm, followed by family photos, then reception from 1:30-3pm.  At 3pm, all non-sailing guests had to leave ship.  We did the muster drill, then posed photos with our photographer, and dinner with our sailing guests that evening. This is pretty standard timeframe from what I've seen for most sailings.  Most of the time it works flawlessly, but there is the rare case where things get delayed and rushed.
  
  Our sailing guests consisted of our parents, siblings, and nieces/nephew. My family lives across country from us, so it was awesome getting to spend the week with them on the cruise after the wedding.  And it gave opportunity for my family and DH's family to get to know each other better.  Cruise ships are big spaces with a lot to do, so we were able to hang out with our family when we wanted, but able to do our own thing and enjoy our honeymoon on our own too. Just make sure to get a cabin in a different part of the ship from your guests, otherwise getting that alone honeymoon time may be more difficult.
  
  Feel free to ask any other questions you may have. I was lucky to find a lot of helpful prior cruise brides to help guide me through the process and am always willing to help future possible cruise brides.
  

   

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