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Touring the ship before the big day!


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Hey brides! Thanks to a suggestion on this board I asked if I could take a tour of the ship and see wedding locations, which was very easy to plan since I live less than an hour from the home port. We get to tour on 11/4 and our wedding planner made sure it was a day our package was booked.

 

I'm making a list of things I want to pay attention to, and since you can only tour once for free (you can tour a second time for a fee, but not a third time) I wanted to ask if anyone has taken a tour before their wedding day? Was there anything you got home or continued planning and thought "oh I wish I would have paid attention to that detail..."?

 

I'd love to draw from your experience!

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I just did a tour last Sunday on carnival breeze. We loved it. I didn't really have any questions lined up. I just absorbed the whole experience. Make sure you take plenty of pictures & videos of the spaces they show you so if you forget you have something to refer to. Our tour guide really couldn't answer questions relating to weddings on board. So if you have questions relating specific to the wedding call customer service afterwards to get those answered. He barely knew anything about the ship[emoji848]. Idk if he was new or what. He was also acting like he didn't want to let us go venture out on our own. I'm looking at him like duh I know what time to get off. [emoji849]. But my kids enjoyed it as well as me fiancé. My kids keep raving about it even though it was only 2 hrs lol. They can't wait to go back on.

 

 

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I just did a tour last Sunday on carnival breeze. We loved it. I didn't really have any questions lined up. I just absorbed the whole experience. Make sure you take plenty of pictures & videos of the spaces they show you so if you forget you have something to refer to. Our tour guide really couldn't answer questions relating to weddings on board. So if you have questions relating specific to the wedding call customer service afterwards to get those answered. He barely knew anything about the ship[emoji848]. Idk if he was new or what. He was also acting like he didn't want to let us go venture out on our own. I'm looking at him like duh I know what time to get off. [emoji849]. But my kids enjoyed it as well as me fiancé. My kids keep raving about it even though it was only 2 hrs lol. They can't wait to go back on.

 

 

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Yeah, they warned us that the guide wouldn't know much about the wedding process so to save questions for our planner after. I plan on bringing the journal I've been using to write things down.

 

Was there anything in particular you found helpful during the tour?

 

When are you guys getting married? Congratulations by the way. I was on the Breeze 2 years ago and loved her. She's a much nicer ship than the Inspiration, but we wanted to minimize travel for our family so it would be easy for everyone to join us.

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Yeah, they warned us that the guide wouldn't know much about the wedding process so to save questions for our planner after. I plan on bringing the journal I've been using to write things down.

 

Was there anything in particular you found helpful during the tour?

 

When are you guys getting married? Congratulations by the way. I was on the Breeze 2 years ago and loved her. She's a much nicer ship than the Inspiration, but we wanted to minimize travel for our family so it would be easy for everyone to join us.

 

 

It was nice to actually get a visual. Pictures are way different than seeing it in person. We're next year. Congrats to you as well. How far along are you in the process?

 

 

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It was nice to actually get a visual. Pictures are way different than seeing it in person. We're next year. Congrats to you as well. How far along are you in the process?

 

 

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We are getting married September 2017. So just starting out pretty much! We've signed the contract and reserved the DJ. But that is pretty much all that we have done through Carnival.

 

Outside of Carnival's planning we have sent out Save the Dates to our guest list so they can start planning travel their vacation with us and are beginning to ask our bridal party to be a part of our big day. We've picked color/theme and invitations, and have started picking what we want to do for wedding favors.

 

I have decided not to go with Carnival's florist. I can't see spending a bunch of money on bouquets that will have to be left behind on board a few days after the wedding so I'm opting for silk/paper/sola wood bouquets and have started working with someone who will make the bouquets.

 

I feel like I'm doing things backwards quite a bit, but I want to get things done in advance so that when everything is crazy a few months before the wedding I don't get overwhelmed. I can't imagine trying to make sure I've got all the guest information I need (booking/room numbers, ID information for guests not sailing, etc.) while trying to pick flowers/favors and enjoy any of it.

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  • 3 weeks later...
We are getting married September 2017. So just starting out pretty much! We've signed the contract and reserved the DJ. But that is pretty much all that we have done through Carnival.

 

Outside of Carnival's planning we have sent out Save the Dates to our guest list so they can start planning travel their vacation with us and are beginning to ask our bridal party to be a part of our big day. We've picked color/theme and invitations, and have started picking what we want to do for wedding favors.

 

I have decided not to go with Carnival's florist. I can't see spending a bunch of money on bouquets that will have to be left behind on board a few days after the wedding so I'm opting for silk/paper/sola wood bouquets and have started working with someone who will make the bouquets.

 

I feel like I'm doing things backwards quite a bit, but I want to get things done in advance so that when everything is crazy a few months before the wedding I don't get overwhelmed. I can't imagine trying to make sure I've got all the guest information I need (booking/room numbers, ID information for guests not sailing, etc.) while trying to pick flowers/favors and enjoy any of it.

Do you mind if I ask about your budget for flowers? We are going to be on the same ship and I'm trying to decide if I should buy silk flowers or skip them all together.

 

How much are silk flowers saving you? I found that silk are also quite expensive.

 

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Do you mind if I ask about your budget for flowers? We are going to be on the same ship and I'm trying to decide if I should buy silk flowers or skip them all together.

 

How much are silk flowers saving you? I found that silk are also quite expensive.

 

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I'm not sure what the floral upgrades through the ship cost, so I'm not sure if I'm even saving anything by going with silk. The big thing for me was that I didn't want to pay for flowers and have everyone have to leave them on board. It's such a short cruise they would probably still be alive and pretty but they'd get tossed in the trash because they aren't allowed off the ship [emoji22]

 

If you go on etsy you can find some really expensive silk arrangements, but you can also find some really affordable ones. I have $400 budgeted and am working with a seller. I think I'm going to be right at my budget and will have a total of 5 bouquets, 7 boutonnieres, and 2 mothers corsages.

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I'm not sure what the floral upgrades through the ship cost, so I'm not sure if I'm even saving anything by going with silk. The big thing for me was that I didn't want to pay for flowers and have everyone have to leave them on board. It's such a short cruise they would probably still be alive and pretty but they'd get tossed in the trash because they aren't allowed off the ship [emoji22]

 

If you go on etsy you can find some really expensive silk arrangements, but you can also find some really affordable ones. I have $400 budgeted and am working with a seller. I think I'm going to be right at my budget and will have a total of 5 bouquets, 7 boutonnieres, and 2 mothers corsages.

Silk looks just as pretty as real flowers, imo. I think I'll go flower shopping this weekend and play around with designs to see if I can pull off making corsages and boutonnieres myself.

 

I agree that paying so much for flowers and leaving them behind just feels wrong. However, I guess if I toss the bouquet I wouldn't leave with the flowers regardless.

 

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Silk looks just as pretty as real flowers, imo. I think I'll go flower shopping this weekend and play around with designs to see if I can pull off making corsages and boutonnieres myself.

 

I agree that paying so much for flowers and leaving them behind just feels wrong. However, I guess if I toss the bouquet I wouldn't leave with the flowers regardless.

 

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Yes, I don't think I'm going to toss a bouquet, but if I do I will be tossing the one that comes standard. Otherwise I will just put it in some water in our room and consider a congratulatory bouquet from Carnival 😍

 

Are you having bridesmaids/groomsmen? I wanted to either not have any or just 1 MOH and 1 BM. My fiance wanted 6. He has 2 brothers so we settled on 4 [emoji15]

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My groom wanted 6 too but we settled on having 4 attendants on each side. He is having 3 friends and our son, I will have two friends, my sister and our daughter. And we asked both of our brothers to sign as witnesses too.

 

Our mom's will have a reserved seat in front for the ceremony and corsages.

 

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I'm not sure what the floral upgrades through the ship cost, so I'm not sure if I'm even saving anything by going with silk. The big thing for me was that I didn't want to pay for flowers and have everyone have to leave them on board. It's such a short cruise they would probably still be alive and pretty but they'd get tossed in the trash because they aren't allowed off the ship [emoji22]

 

If you go on etsy you can find some really expensive silk arrangements, but you can also find some really affordable ones. I have $400 budgeted and am working with a seller. I think I'm going to be right at my budget and will have a total of 5 bouquets, 7 boutonnieres, and 2 mothers corsages.

 

 

 

I'm not sure who told you that you had to leave your flowers behind. I have mine from two years ago. My bouquet was the flowers we got through Carnival, my daughter teaches floral arranging so she made the rest out of silk. We were told we could not bring fresh flowers onboard but nobody even mentioned taking them off the ship. I even carried mine in my hand through customs because I didn't want them smooshed in the luggage.

 

 

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I'm not sure who told you that you had to leave your flowers behind. I have mine from two years ago. My bouquet was the flowers we got through Carnival, my daughter teaches floral arranging so she made the rest out of silk. We were told we could not bring fresh flowers onboard but nobody even mentioned taking them off the ship. I even carried mine in my hand through customs because I didn't want them smooshed in the luggage.

 

 

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Something may have changed in the last 2 years, or maybe the customs agent just didn't care (I've been let through without paying duty when bringing a case of wine home) but we were told by the wedding department. Also when you buy flowers from the fun shop to be in the room it notes they can't be taken off the ship in a US port. Cut flowers and plants are even in Carnival FAQ's for items that can't be brought back on board https://help.carnival.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3633

 

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