SRS1259

We are booked for mid August and we are in an inside cabin. We don't feel the added cost is justified for a couple days at sea. We will use the savings to cover our excursions.

Your father sounds amazing......best of luck.

Hi everyone!

 

I have been pretty much just reading the boards for a while now and have found a lot of useful information! Thank you to all the past and present brides who have posted their experiences! I decided that I should share my experience while planning my RCCL wedding to hopefully help someone else like you have all helped me!

 

My Fiancé and I have been together 6 years and got engaged July 2, 2013. We knew forever that we wanted to have a cruise wedding since we are avid cruisers. I myself have been on 20+ throughout the years on almost every line. We also knew we needed the cruise to leave from the northeast since that is where the majority of our family and friends live (we live in CA but are both from the east coast). We did our research and in order to get the most people there we decided that the summer was the best time. We also wanted to get as many people on the ship with us so we chose the Explorer of the Seas on July 12, 2014 because it was only 5 days and much less expensive (although still pretty steep for 5 days) for our guests to cruise with us than the 7 day cruises.

 

We sent out an email immediately to our friends and family and let them know we were engaged and what our plan was. Many people booked before the Save the Dates even went out (we sent save the dates 6 months in advance). We invited around 100 people and have 75 people coming total…34 cruising with us and 41 non sailing.

 

From the beginning of this process my dad has taken care of all the planning and communicating with RCCL (we did have to sign a release in order for him to be able to be the contact person). This was amazing for me because I didn’t want to or have to stress about anything unless he came to me with questions. I read about many of you having communication issues with a couple different cruise lines and my dad is a take charge, no nonsense type of person and so far we haven’t had any real issues communicating/getting in touch with RCCL.

 

The one other thing we did do was hand over the group booking to a travel agent that my dad uses. He started out doing it himself through the RCCL group department but it really became too much with peoples requests, cabin changes, etc. and he decided that was one less thing he needed to deal with. Also, the group department isn’t the best and I had people telling me they had to hold for 20 minutes at a time. I highly recommend using a good travel agent if possible as that will be one less thing for you to worry about.

 

We chose the Paradise Shipboard package with the lunch buffet and bar service and added a second hour of bar service in order to make the reception 2 hours. We paid for a welcome beverage for our guests ($2.50 each) for when they arrive on board. We have the DJ for 2 hours and pre-paid for all the photos of the wedding since it was about $500 less to do that beforehand. We also paid for 1 extra hour of photography so that we won’t have to take too much time away from our non-sailing guests due to picture taking. We did upgrade my bouquet to include the turquoise flowers that I wanted for $100 and purchased a couple bridesmaid bouquets, boutonnieres and corsages for anyone walking down the aisle. The boutonnieres were $10 a piece, corsages were $25 and bridesmaid bouquets were $30. We also got all 3 size cakes to stack on top of each other.

 

We heard from our wedding coordinator Desirae about 60+ days out which I was a bit surprised about! I thought that was early and wasn’t expecting to hear anything until around 30 days out. Luckily, because I read the boards I knew that I needed to get the non-sailing guests information and had already started that process before Desirae even contacted us. She sent us our ceremony and reception options and non-sailing list that needed to be filled out. We had some questions for her throughout the process of filling out our paperwork and she was amazing! She always responds either the same day or next day. My dad is totally thrilled with how great she is and we are too! I didn’t personally talk to her over the phone until 30 days out when we went over all of our paperwork and she truly is amazing at her job. She constantly puts us at ease and we really trust her judgment…an example of this was when I told her I wanted to have the wedding in the Viking Crown. She explained that if I wanted it there, it was fine but that Port Liberty is a shipping port and although the windows in Viking crown are beautiful, the background is not. She also said that they can’t really set up a true aisle there. I trust that she knows what she’s talking about and have decided on Maharajas lounge instead! We really cannot say enough about how amazing Desirae has been especially since we were very worried going into this based on many of the reviews I have read.

 

I do have to make one final point about cruise weddings…I have been very easy going about everything throughout this whole process. I can be a very controlling person but since I knew what I was in for with all of the unexpected variables I decided that I was going to try my best not to let anything bother me. This process and wedding choice is not for everyone so if you feel you can just kind of let it all go and see what happens it should all turn out ok. I guess we’ll see how the big day goes…! :)

 

The Wedding is now 10 days away and I will be sure to update when I return. We will be on our wedding cruise to Bermuda with our family and friends and then we are taking our honeymoon cruise to New England through the rest of the month.

 

I will post pictures of everything when I get back since I already sent everything for the wedding to family on the East Coast! We shipped the dress yesterday (even though everyone thought it was a bad idea) because I didn't want to have to deal with it on the plane, especially with all of our other luggage. We sent it overnight via UPS and it got there fine!

 

Please let me know if you have any questions!

 

-Melissa