slord12

I know this has been asked before but I couldn't find any recent threads. Any recent brides have advice on tipping for the wedding (who and how much)?Thanks!

I had multiple envelopes labeled with cash inside - photographer, videographer (which wound up being the same person as the photographer so he got both), officiant, coordinators, officiant, bar/wait staff, DJ. Inside the envelopes for DJ, officiant, photographer, and videographer I put $20 each since I knew that envelope would go to that single person. For the coordinators I put $80 inside (I wasn't sure how many coordinators I'd have - I wound up with 3 - 1 onboard coordinator and 2 from TWE). In the envelope for the bar/wait staff I put $200 - I knew there would be multiple people. I also had envelopes with $10 each in the them and after the ceremony I went around and tipped the bar/wait/chefs that were in the room an additional $10 each because they did such an amazing job.

Thanks for taking the time to write such a detailed review! I really enjoyed reading your review. :) Could you send me the files also?

 

mken.wedding.2015@gmail.com

 

 

Thank you!

Thank you for reading! I enjoyed re-living the day through this review. I will send you the files - 2 emails! Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!

Has anyone who has done let us serve you with carnival brought your own table centerpiece for the meal? I'm wondering if it necessary or if there's even enough to room on the tables. Also, after the final guest count is in are they able to let you know the number of tables and seats at each to expect?

If anyone has done this package and is willing to share what they did, I would really appreciate it.

Thanks!

I can't help about the table centerpiece but I imagine they do something. I did the time to celebrate BIG package and they had neutral floral decor on the food table. The dining department can confirm table sizes for you. On the ship I was married on (Sensation) the tables are bolted to the floor (I do believe this goes for all ships) so when we worked on our dinner seat charts they let me know about each table.

I love your idea to have 2 different RSVP invites. I was worried about how to go about that since we can only have a maximum of 50 non sailing guests. That definitely solves my problem.

That's kind of what I did - we had instructions on our save the dates to either visit the website to RSVP or to call us (for the older generation ;)). Once you got the RSVP screen you chose yes or no. Obviously if you chose "no" that's it. If you chose "yes" then the following 3 options appeared -

1. Welcome dinner, wedding, and cruise

2. Welcome dinner and wedding ONLY

3. Special arrangement

The special arrangement was for people who may not be able to make the welcome dinner and things like that. It was easy to keep organized this way!

Mine came from Etsy - it's a custom watercolor painting. There's a picture of it in my wedding review.

Hey ladies, just wanted a quick poll to see what was your timeline between sending out your Save the Dates and the deadline you gave your guests to RSVP for the cruise/book their cruise?

Our save the dates were sent in late September/early October of 2014 with an RSVP deadline of April 1, 2015 (we really didn't need the RSVP by then but for sanity/no stress we chose that date).

I guess you are correct. Having 2 CDs is minor. I just didn't want a long quiet pause while they switch CDs. Not sure where to break the CD up. I guest I can put the moments on 1 cd (entrance, first dance, cake cutting, toast, bouquet toss) and the dancing music on another.

 

Its just one of those minor things that can really irk you at this stage in the game. Like really? it took my fiance and i 6 months to finalize the CD, pick the songs and organize it so the music flowed and I go to burn the CD and I get the dreaded " one or more track will not fit" error message. UGH.

Haha I completely understand - I think your idea for the CD with the dances/events is perfect. Congratulations on your wedding, you will have a fantastic time!

So I finally finalized my reception cd and went to burn the songs to cd but they wont fit! I do not want to delete any songs and I stayed with the 1 hour and 30 min limit. Kinda bummed waiting to hear what the resolution will be. I would hate to have to put my music on 2 cds.

It's not a problem to have multiple CD's. We used the DJ and had him play music (we just picked what genre's/mood we wanted). Our first dance (a surprise to me), father daughter, and mother son dances were all on separate CD's though.

Thanks for this great review. We were supposed to get married on the Sensation next March but she is moving to Miami in February so we are now on the Victory. Still loved to see all the details and pictures. Thanks a bunch!!

Thank you for reading! Congratulations, you will love your Carnival wedding!

Loved your review! Could you send me the files also?

 

 

 

ctilton87@gmail.com

 

 

 

Thank you!

Thank you for reading! I will send you the files!

Thank you so much for sharing your wedding with everyone! I have sent all of my wedding party a link to your reveiw! It was not only detailed, and well written, but such a joy to see how happy you both are! I love all of your decorations and special touches! It got me that much more excited about my wedding. We're getting married 9-5-15 on paradise. I can't wait !!!!

Thank you for reading! Hope you find the review helps you get ready for your big day. If you'd like any of the documents I have just send me you email and I'll forward them to you.

Thank you for posting the link to your wedding video. I've probably viewed just about every public cruise wedding video and slideshow that's been posted in the last year. I loved yours and loved the music. It gave me a good idea of what I should expect at my wedding reception on August 29.

 

 

 

Thanks!

 

Br00klynn

Thanks for reading! We didn't have a lot that we wanted to customize (we were going for stress free) but the music was important to us! It fit us and our setting for the wedding perfectly!

I would love any of the documents you have to share. brittanymack@gmail.com

 

Great review by the way and beautiful wedding! You guys look like you really had a great time.

Thank you! We really did have a great time. Will send you the documents now!

May I have a copy of the menus too? My email address is kkent73080@aol.com

Sure, will go ahead and send all the documents I have!

I forgot to add my email to receive a copy of the Carnival Wedding Hors D'oeuvres menus. Please forward it to toviathomas29@gmail.com. Thx

Sent the documents and the menus!

We had a very informative wedding website. We imported our guest list and were able to track RSVP's and information that way - so easy! Once you RSVP'd yes you had 3 options

1. Welcome Dinner, Wedding, and Cruise

2. Welcome Dinner and Wedding only

3. Special arrangement (we had a few who had to miss the welcome dinner, etc.)

Here is our website link - I reactivated all of the pages - the RSVP instruction page is the only one I removed the information from after the deadline passed.

www.theknot.com/wedding/callan-and-jonathan

Excellent! I agree... people don't get nearly as lost and can cross the ship on most of the levels..not to mention 1000 fewer people. I think our party will be pretty easy to find all weekend. Our numbers are the same! I'm aiming for 75-90, with roughly 50 sailing.

It was soooo easy to find people if we were looking for them! We would look down the atrium and easily find somebody we knew either at the bar or walking on one of the other levels. We all hung out at the back of the ship near the slides most of the time when we were outside. So much fun, I wanna do it again!!

Having my wedding party fully dressed that early is also a concern of mine. We are getting married July 2016. I didn't want everyone to see my girls in their dresses immediately. That concerns me. Also, I was anticipating having my make up done once we board, but I am not so certain now. By the way, you pictures were great. If you don't mind me asking, how expensive as it to have your flowers custom made. They were gorgeous! Also, please send me the Carnival menus as well to toviathomas29@gmail.com. I am sure I posted this someone, but I new to this site and trying to maneuver my way around it!

 

It is soooo ironic.....Dublin, GA is my hometown! Thx

Honestly, I wouldn't worry about anybody seeing the girls in dresses. That morning will fly by so fast I'm not sure that's something to stress and worry about. Not sure what your plans are but we hosted a dinner and breakfast the night before and morning of the wedding. All of the girls had hair/makeup done first then the guys and girls were to be dressed and ready to go in the lobby. We all took shuttles to the ship so I wasn't worried about my makeup getting sweaty since I literally got on the shuttle then got right off and walked in at the port. You may be OK with them not having dresses on since that doesn't really take long. I wouldn't count on having makeup done on the ship either. Even though we were able to board early we had just enough time for touch-ups before the photographer was calling to come take pictures (and I really wanted those pictures beforehand). My flowers were not expensive at all! We got my bouquet, Jon's boutonniere, 12 other boutonnieres, and 7 wrist corsages for less than $500.

I will send you all of the files I have and the menu's! Too funny, I've lived here my whole life!

I should have included my email adddress in my last posting...could you please send to me also? It is greatly appreciated!

 

ellanorasedai@yahoo.com

Of course, will send them now!

The video is beautiful, and so were your song selections! Seeing your pictures really helped because it seems like our ships are in the same class (mine is the Inspiration). How many guests did you have?

Thank you! We both really love music so we wanted to pick songs that were very "us". Our ships are both Fantasy class ships. Lots of people think they are too old/too small, but I really love that class and will miss them one day when the mega ships take over! We wound up with 95 guests, 68 sailing and 27 non-sailing.

Absolutely loved your review, and want to thank you again for sending the documents. I might have missed this, but where did you get the flowers? I love them!

Thank you for reading! Glad I was able to help. I ordered the flowers from Blue Lily Bridal on Etsy. I would highly recommend - great communication and a fabulous price for everything we wanted!

I know some of you may think I'm incredibly cheap and/or quite ghetto for asking this question:

 

But,

 

Can your non sailing guests take the wedding cake with them? I don't want it to go to waste, and I know my FI and I won't eat it ever again during the cruise. What about all of the other crudites?

 

I know you can't take food off when you arrive back in the states, but what about before you have even left?

If you had non-sailing guests, were they able to eat at the buffet before the wedding?

Is there a certain meeting place for wedding guests set ahead of time or do they have the freedom to explore the ship?

After the reception, can they enjoy the ship and amenties before disembarking one hour prior to sailing?

How do they keep track of non sailing guests?

Thanks

No one is allowed to leave the ship with food. Our cake (only a portion of the bottom of our 4 tier cake was left) was offered to us each night at dinner with ice cream. Also, at dinner on the first night (our wedding day) they brought it out with candles and flowers and sang "happy honeymoon" to us. Your non-sailing guests can eat at the buffet but not sure why they would want to. The reception food is AMAZING and it would be such a waste to fill up on lido deck food before. Carnival will try to sell you the buffet for your non-sailing guests but all they have to do is remove their guest badges (and the coordinators will probably tell them this). While you're waiting to board the coordinators go around and tell everyone where to be and at what time and give out deck plans of the ship. Until that time they are free to explore. Not exactly sure what you mean about after the reception being able to explore - the reception will last until it is time to go and they will be escorted off. When the non-sailing guests check in they are given guest badges and have to turn in photo ID or birth certificates if under age 16. Trust me, no one is sneaking on that ship. They verify the numbers that every single person on, gets off when it's time to go.

I think I got everyone who had recently requested copies. Again, these are the menus that were sent to me directly from the Carnival wedding department and were valid for my June 11, 2015 wedding. You are able to choose 5 cold and 6 hot - also if you'd like fruit and veggie displays they DO NOT count towards your 5 cold items, so really if you count those you get 7 cold items!

It would be helpful if I included my email... bimtheduck@gmail.com

I will send the most recent menu's that actually came from Carnival - they were slightly different than the one's I was originally sent from a person on these boards!

I would love a copy also please! kimberlywayland@yahoo.com

May I get a copy of the 4 menus please? Paige.patin@gmail.com

Thanks!

I will send the most recent menu's that actually came from Carnival - they were slightly different than the one's I was originally sent from a person on these boards!