Ship Board Wedding

nickiero · November 2013

Has anyone ever gotten married onboard a cruise ship? I am planning my destination wedding but I haven't been able to get any good suggestions about shipboard weddings. We are planning to wed in port prior to departure to allow our family and friends the option to join us with or with out sailing. Any information is greatly appreciated.....

Julyet06 · November 2013

would you like to join our private fb group? there are a couple of cruise brides on there that can probably help you.

my privacy setting don't allow friending but you can send a message to my "other" mail box (include your knottie name) and i will friend you and add you to the group!

that goes for any other brides that would like to join the fb group!

princessleia22 · December 2013

I am having embarkation wedding on Carnival Dream, at port of New Orleans, in June 2014. We went with Carnival due to price, but at least we are on one of the newer class of ships and get an awesome 7-day Western Caribbean Cruise following the wedding. It looks like we will have about 35 wedding guests and 18 of those plan to join us for the cruise. We fell in love with the cruise wedding idea because of the simplicity of it. Once everything was booked, invites went out, and I bought my dress, there really isn't anything else for me to do until a couple months before the wedding, except maybe a few things to customize the wedding a bit. I also love the price, because it is much cheaper than a traditional wedding. Many of the cruise lines wedding departments can provide a lot of information, but some of the details can be hard to get until after a contract is signed.

My one suggestion is to avoid this type of wedding if you have specific ideas about how everything needs to look or how you imagine your dream wedding. There are few opportunities for customizing the on-board wedding. For the most part you are stuck with the standard decor (they put a couple cheesy column pedestals with flowers) for ceremony & reception. You can do some simple customization to cake and maybe some simple decor items, but you need to carry everything on in limited carry on space and have one of your guests set everything up for you. Same with the food choice, there can be very limited options. You generally don't get a choice about location for ceremony or reception on the ship... and they don't tell you location until a couple weeks prior to the wedding. You can generally do some customization to cake and flowers though (for added cost). I've seen some people start turning into bridezillas on forums because they wanted their cruise wedding in a specific spot, at a specific time, etc. and that just isn't an option. So you have to be more laid back and open minded about it all. The other downside that I've heard complaints about is that the reception is pretty short... and in the middle of the day. But, if you aren't picky about all those details and know that, with minimal planning stress, you will have an awesome wedding and be married to your best friend, followed by an awesome vacation, then I think the cruise wedding is a great choice.

We plan to make our own silk flower bouquets. We plan to add some silk flowers, ribbon & our own topper to the cake. Other than that, we plan to just go with the flow and utilize what they provide for us. I love the simple, no planning needed approach.

I found a lot of my information regarding cruise weddings on Cruise Critic Wedding & Honeymoon Forum (http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31). If you haven't already looked there, I would definitely suggest checking it out and searching through past posts. There are a lot of reviews, suggestions, info, and advice regarding cruise weddings to be found there... more than I've found on The Knot or any other forums.

Ausome13 · December 2013

@Julyet06 what is the facebook group?

luckystarz · December 2013

@Julyet06 - I'd like to join the fb group, please.

Julyet06 · December 2013

Hey ladies! It's a private group so you would have to send me a message on fb castlechic@aol.com Nicole M. Jones. I will friend you and then add you guys to the group!

Let me know if you have any trouble finding me!

luckystarz · December 2013

@Julyet06 - do you have a pic of a sand ceremony for your cover photo on fb? I don't want to send a request to the wrong person!

Julyet06 · December 2013

YES! @luckystarz

princessleia22 · December 2013

I wouldn't mind joining also. I will send you a FB message. With so little information about cruise weddings, its nice to have some people to talk to that have been through it. Thanks!

Ausome13 · December 2013

@julyet06 I am not having any luck finding you. Can you try to add me? autumnbuus@hotmail.com

luckystarz · December 2013

Ok, you have a message in your 'others' folder.

Julyet06 · December 2013

@ausome13 looks like I am having trouble finding you as well! What's your name on fb?

[Deleted User] · December 2013

I've heard that some cruise lines have very limited choices for their on-board ceremonies.

Another resource (if our girls on the fb group don't know) might be cruisecritic.com

The forums have a board specifically for weddings and you might find a few more experiences that are exactly what you are looking at ship/itinerary wise

Ausome13 · December 2013

@julyet06 Autumn Buus

Ship Board Wedding

Re: Ship Board Wedding

Choose Another Board

Search Boards