Anyone getting married on a cruise ship?

dew3162

Good morning ladies, my name is Denise and I have suddenly become a destination bride.  I live on the beautiful island of St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands and although many couples come here to get married we will be leaving the island and getting married on the cruise ship while it is docked in Tampa, FL.  The cruise was our honeymoon anyway and a bunch of our family and friends will be joining us.  We were planning to get married here on the beach then fly to Florida for the cruise.  My family is from Florida and it was going to be to hard for them to fly down here for the wedding then back for the cruise so we decided to change it to the ship so that my family could be there.  So with all that being said, I became a destination bride pretty much overnight and I was wondering if anyone else is getting married on a ship or knows anyone that has and how the expirence has been so far. TIA!

Future.Mrs.H.

Welcome to the board!We are going on a cruise, but we are getting married ashore (on the port rather than the ship).If you get married on the ship you have to do all your wedding planning through the cruise's wedding planning company (Royal Romance or The Wedding experience...same company) and you have very little control over the wedding panning aspect; if that is ok with you then you should have no problem and you can have people come to the ship before it sais and have your reception there and then the people that will not be traveling will dissembarka nd the people joining you on the cruise (if any) will continue on the trip.In my case we hired a wedding planner local to the port we are getting married at they are taking care of all the wedding planning aspects. I just told them what I wanted and we e-mail back and forth ideas and decisions. By choosing a local wedding planner we saved some money, plus I get to choose everything the way I want it, from the decorations, the music that will be played and the type of cake that we wanted. Which works out great for me because I'm a bit of a control freak and when you do a DW you don't get much control over some things.If you have other questions feel free to ask...the girls in this board are awesome and very helpful.Happy Planning!

allison5210

Congratulations!! I'm gettting married on the Carnival Liberty, and I'm very pleased with the whole thing. All I had to do was give them my credit card, and wa la, Wedding! Everything else I choose to do is just gravy. The Wedding Experience has been great, they're pretty supportive if you have certain things you'd like done. I want a Unity candle for us and my 2 children and they've been able to accomodate that. I'm writing my own vows, choosing my own music, and have designed the whole ceremony itself and they've been great. Or they have a preplanned package that everything is all settled on. It's up to you. The one thing I wish I could control is the cake. I have the choice of chocolate or vanilla, filling of vanilla, chocolate, or strawberry. It's a standard square cake, with acheesy topper, so I'm bringing my own. I would have liked to do something a little more beachy, but like Chris said, it's a cake, it will taste great, and we're just going to mash it in each others face anyway. The other downside is photography. You cannot bring a pro photog on, so you have to enlist friends and family to really fill up those memory cards. Carnival provides a photog for most of the ceremony/reception and such, but the packages are pricy. That won't stop me from spending too much on the photos though. Flowers, they allow you to upgrade, $$, or you can do silk. I went silk, and they're gorgeous. They handle getting our license, have options for getting hair done, ( i still want to find my own stylist), transportation, and Carnival has pre wedding hotel options. When we were looking at planning a wedding at home, there were so many more things to worry about. Now I have much more time to devote to make my gift bags, luggage tags, slide shows, and all the little extras that I hope show the guests that it means a lot that they're there with us. Let me know if you have any other specific questions. Again, Congrats! Allison

dew3162

We thought about doing it at one of the ports but we both have children from previous marriages that will not be sailing with us and we want them there.Allison, thanks for all the info!  We are getting married on the Carnival Legend.  I know what you mean about the cake and flowers, although, I was told I can send photos of cakes I would prefer and they will check with the chef to see if they can be done, but they have to be white, I also hated the topper so I asked about adding fresh flowers and they said as long as I get them from the vendor that can be done.  I have not contacted them regarding the floral upgrades yet, but the package says it includes a bouquet of 8 roses and I'm not a rose person so I will check into the upgrades.  Where did you get your silk ones from?  We'll bringing our own music CD for the ceremony and we're having a piano player at the reception hour.  Oh, let me ask you this, how formal is your gown and what is the groom wearing?~Denise

Future.Mrs.H.

Wow girl...it seems like you are well on track! My gown and FI's attire are in my Bio. Also you should check out this Bios (they all got married on board): [url]http://community.theknot.com/cs/ks/user/default.aspx?username=Cruisebride1208&NestProfile=0[/url][url]http://www.mywedding.com/miamibride909/index.html[/url][url]http://trryckman.googlepages.com/home[/url]

Marci17154

Hi and welcome!! I am a fellow cruise ship bride! We are going on a 4 night cruise out of San Diego and have decided to get married on the ship while in port the 3rd day of the cruise. We went this route so only the people cruising with us will be at our wedding. (doing this keeps costs down for us) We are sailing with Carnival, and like the PP mentioned tons of things are taken care of for us, and we still have the option to upgrade or personalize things that are important to us. I would be happy to help with any questions you have! Happy Planning!!

allison5210

Denise, Glad to help! I love Carnival! I'm bringing my own topper, it's a dress and a tux hanging on a heart. You can also bring your own silk flowers for the cake too, or a topper. (The fresh flowers from TWE are more than I want to pay.) That's neat that the chef is willing to work with you. The upgrades, i found to be again, more than I wanted to pay. That rose bouquet my MOH is going to carry.I did ivory roses, and hydrangea for my bouquets that are hand tied. I got mine from Budget-Brides.com, and they did a lovely job with the flowers. BUT, I've been waiting since Feb for my hairpiece and they do not answer calls or emails. I'm beyond frustrated with them, and will NOT reccommend them to another bride. What they did provide was gorgeous and at a great price. But the BS, lack of customer service and the fact that I still DON'T have my headpiece is an utter dissapointment. =( We're having a pretty traditional ceremony. I'm wearing a strapless Alfred Angelo gown, (you can see it at this link http://www.bridalco.com/catalog/Off%20the%20Rack%20-%20Sale%20Gowns/1246.jpg ) It's got a chapel length train, in ivory. My bridesmaids are in Riveria Blue (periwinkle). The groom is wearing a black tux with a platinum vest. The groomsmen are in a black tux with periwinkle vests. So, it's pretty formal. You can rent the tux's on the ship, or shop around for them. I've picked up the tux's for $25 each! The silly vest cost more!! We're doing the open bar reception with a DJ so we can have dancing. I've got the playlist all worked out. AFter the 90 min reception, it's up to the Lido deck, to watch us set sail. Then the formal dinner and time to change, that'll be enough of me running around in that big dress. I have a smaller grecian style one that i'll wear for the rest of the night.

allison5210

I guess my post was too long, it cut some of it off!! We have between 35-40 guests right now. 26 are sailing definitely, and of course a few wishy washy people. We're doing the open bar reception with a DJ so we can have dancing. I've got the playlist all worked out. AFter the 90 min reception, it's up to the Lido deck, to watch us set sail. Then the formal dinner and time to change, that'll be enough of me running around in that big dress. I have a smaller grecian style one that i'll wear for the rest of the night. I can't wait!! I'm not sure whether the fiance is more excited about the wedding or the cruise. Sorry this is so long, I tend to talk alot. Allison

dew3162

I know what you mean about the picture packages, I just really sat down and started looking at them, wow!!! FI said I can get the one for $749.00 because we want the 16x24 canvas, but what the heck are we going to do with 25 8x10's? I don't know what we'll end up doing about that. I had originally wanted the DJ too and he wants the piano player so just to make him feel like he's getting to choose something I'll let him have it...LOL!! I faxed over my form to TWE yesterday so I'm waiting to hear back from the flower upgrades and if they are to high, I'll check into silks as well. I did find a hair and makeup artist in Tampa that will come to my hotel room that moring and do me, my daughter and my Mom so that's awesome! The only other thing I would like is a photographer to capture pics of us getting ready at the hotel so I may look into that but it will only be for an hour or so and I don't know if any photographer would take a job that small. Oh, and I hope you don't mind, I stole your weddingmoon wording on your ticker, I love that!!

smashleyh1027

Hello ladies, you all have been very helpful answering many of my questions and concerns. Allison, I am also getting married on the Liberty next year and your posts were extremely helpful!! I just had one question for you, did you get those 25 dollar tuxes from the ship or did you buy them??