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Thanks everyone! We'll just stick where we are then.

 

 

-Paul

Which side should I be on if I want to be facing the city while in port? I've heard port side (which does make sense!) But I've also heard that it can change trip to trip.

 

 

Thanks!

Thank you so much for posting a review and pictures. Congratulations to you both!!!!

 

Do you by any chance know how many pictures are offered in the packages? I know you said you paid around 1600 ... how many 8x10s did you get for the 1600. I have searched for a list of the photo packages but have not found any and most people just say the negotiate ... gosh I hate negotiating. LOL

 

 

I got everything he had. I believe I have a print of every photo, so that would mean 60 or so 8x10's and 100+ 5x7's. You HAVE to negotiate. I I just told him I had a budget of $500-$800, and what I really wanted was just everything on digital. Here's the official price list, but as you can see I did much better than their packages.

 

 

 

 

Hope that helps!

 

 

-Paul

More photos from the second party!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We're very happy we did the second party as it was well worth the cost for the amount of fun everyone had! :)

 

 

-Paul

Due to the fact that the wedding party was only an hour, we wanted to celebrate with all of our friends and family that cruised with us! (About 35 or so.) Therefore, I got in contact with the events department to plan a second party! We had planned it for the sea day (last day of the cruise) but due to a tropical storm the schedule was reversed, making the last day Freeport. Luckily, the ship left at 3PM and our party was planned for 5-7 so nothing really changed. We're super happy we did this party as we all had a blast! We did a partial open bar (rum punch, tequila sunrise, and sex on the beach) plus beer and wine. Then we ordered a bunch (way too much!) food a la carte.

 

First, here was the beach in Freeport:

 

 

 

and the ride back in the cab with a bunch of family:

 

 

 

 

And here's some party shots! It was in the Romeo and Juliet lounge, which was gorgeous!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

More in next post!

I was hoping the party would go over the allotted time, but alas it ended promptly at 3PM. We said bye to our non-sailing guests, and after a quick stop at our cabin to drop some stuff of, we went straight back to the Mikado Lounge for the Muster Drills. After those, we once again went to our cabin just to unwind a bit. After a few minutes, Wahyu called us and requested we come back to take professional shots. The poses he put us in felt weird and unnatural, but clearly he knew what he was doing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We were very happy with how the photos came out, and luckily we were able to work out a deal for us to get them all that I could live with! We ended up paying $1600 for all the printed photos he had, as well as all the digital versions. In addition, we got an 8x8 wedding album, a 20x30 canvas print, and the 5 minute or so video he took (which was much nicer than expected!) I've seen people on the forums spend double that, so I was happy!

 

 

-Paul

Congratulations! You both look so happy. I get really excited when someone shares their experience and wedding. Helps me to envision our more since it is so far out. Most of the weddings I have seen are on Carnival. May you have many amazing years together!

 

 

Thank you!!

After the cake cutting, toasts, and first dance, it was time to party! We used our own music mix, which went pretty well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, we did the Hora, also known as Hava Nagila. It was a blast! I will say though, it was REALLY hard finding a version I liked. I actually ended up combining half of one and half of another! It started traditional, and ended with a techno version!

 

 

-Paul

As mentioned in my last update, our guests were already at the Jekyll and Hyde before we got there. We had made a sign board for about $25 (Hooray Michael's coupon and cheap printing at Staples!) which you can see in the first photo.

 

 

 

Then our parents and ourselves were introduced!

 

 

 

Due to only having an hour for the reception, it is VERY accelerated. People were already eating when we got in. I heard VERY good things about all the food, but I didn't have much of anything besides cake! So the first thing we did when we walked in was the cake cutting, toast, and first dance. For our first dance, we used

cover of Marry You by Bruno Mars.

 

 

 

 

 

More later! :)

 

-Paul

Glad your wedding went off OK. My wife is a wedding officiant and we know the cost of land-based weddings is outrageous.

 

So how was the cruise? The ship? The ports?

 

 

The cruise was fun! It was a bit hectic the night before because Carnival actually reversed the schedule due to a tropical system off the Bahamas. However, nothing much changed for us as we didn't have anything planned. The ship was...old. Lol. Definitely not Carnival's nicest ship by a large margin. The public areas were ok, but our cabin wasn't so great (just an ocean view.) Still, it was fine overall!

 

The ports were pretty nice! More on those later. :)

 

 

-Paul

Thanks for the kind words so far! After the readings and the ring ceremony, we sealed our vows with a kiss of course. :)

 

 

 

 

Right after that but before we got off stage, there was a short reading about the significance of the breaking of the glass, which is the only thing we added to the ceremony. I couldn't find a photo of that, I guess Wahyu missed it (but I'm sure someone got one!

 

 

After this, the coordinators ushered all of the guests aside from immediate family to the reception, while we stayed behind and took photos!

 

 

 

 

 

After maybe ten minutes of photos, it was time to head to the party! The ceremony started just about on time at 1:30, and the reception was to last from 2-3. Luckily even after the ceremony and photos, we made it to the party just about on time at 2! More on that later!

 

 

-Paul

Thanks for your thoughts so far everyone! After getting dressed, we had a bit of confusion because our photographer told us to wait for the coordinator in our cabin, whereas our coordinator told us to meet her at the venue. We went to the venue (the Mikado theater) and saw the assistant coodinator, but Michelle herself wasn't there. However a couple minutes later she showed up and we were ready to go! She quickly explained to us how it would go. The only wedding party we had was Zach and I's niece Lilli as flower girl, with my niece Brooke helping her.

 

Here they are, looking adorable!

 

 

 

Then my parents and I followed the girls, with Zach and his parents coming in last. Note: My dad has Parkinson's so I was super happy he was able to walk down with my mom and I!

 

 

 

 

We kept our ceremony short on purpose- we wanted to party! The whole thing lasted maybe 15 minutes, including two readings by my mom and Zach's sister. Wahyu was all over the place getting photos!

 

 

 

 

More coming tomorrow! :)

After checking out the venue, we decided we had a bit of time to visit with our guests on Lido before going back down to our cabin to get ready for the wedding. My mom was kind enough to pay the $9 or so each for our non-sailing guests to be able to have lunch on Lido...all 40 of them! Here's some of our family having lunch before the ceremony.

 

 

Around 12:30, we headed back down to our cabin and began getting dressed.

 

 

 

 

We were surprised a few minutes later by our Carnival Photographer, Wahyu. He was there to take shots of us getting ready.

 

 

 

 

A lot of the poses he had us do throughout the day felt super unnatural but actually looked really good in his photos! Next I'll get into the ceremony itself! :)

 

 

-Paul

Finally, it was the day of! We left for the port around 9:30. As you can see I got stuck in the back seat!

 

 

 

 

Once we arrived, we dropped our checked bags with the porter and carried in all of the stuff we would need for the wedding. For the most part, everyone but us was already dressed for the wedding.

 

 

 

 

When we got on board, the first thing we did was to check out the venue for the reception, the Jekyll and Hyde Dance Club. The venue was bigger than I expected, which was nice!

 

 

 

 

 

Our wedding weekend began after a half day at work on Wednesday the 25th. Zach's mom wasn't too happy that we didn't just take the whole day off, but we figured we had enough time to drive the 4.5 hours to get to Jacksonville from Sarasota before the rehearsal. We did, but in retrospect we probably should have listened to her!

 

His mom had set up the hotel and rehearsal dinner. We decided we wanted Chipoltle for dinner, so she got that (and way too much of it!) Later, we figured we needed some desert, and went with Sweet by Holly cupcakes, which are amazing. This was the first hiccup of the wedding. Turns out I mistakenly ordered the 10 dozen cupcakes for May 26th, not May 25th! Oops! Thankfully they were able to fill the order anyways.

 

Here's a few photos from the rehearsal, which was held in the hotel.

 

 

 

 

The rehearsal went great, and after a long night hanging out with friends and family we rarely see, we went to bed around midnight. The next moening would be an early start!

 

 

-Paul

Hey everyone! I just started a review of our Wedding Cruise over on the Wedding Cruise forum. I just started, but it should be a pretty picture heavy review! :)

 

Please check out the thread here!

 

Thanks!

 

 

-Paul

When we began planning our wedding about a year ago, we decided we didn't want a "normal" wedding. We also didn't want to spend a ton of money. Somehow we stumbled upon the idea of a cruise wedding, and I'm glad we did! It's MUCH cheaper than a land-based option, and it also has less options, which for us was a good thing. We didn't particularly care what color the flowers were or what the room in which we were married looked like. So for us, a cruise wedding was great! Even better though was the fact that once you're done with the wedding, your cruising guests get to party with you for the rest of the cruise! Next, I'll talk a bit about the lead-up to the wedding! But first, here's a bit of a preview!

 

 

 

-Paul

Hi everyone, Paul here. My husband Zach and I got back from our wedding cruise on the Carnival Elation on Memorial Day! You might have seen a bit about our particular cruise in the news...more on that later! I'll try not to drag out the review too much, but there will be plenty of pictures, so stay tuned! :D

 

 

-Paul

Great review, thanks! My boyfriend and I are probably going to tempt fate and do this same itinerary in September! He went on his first cruise with me last Summer (Western Caribbean on the Liberty as well) and loved it!

We're so excited for our second one! :)



-Paul

This was my then 84 year-old grandfather on a new-years cruise a few years back. He's so outgoing all the younger ladies would dance with him. This was one of my favorite pictures of the cruise.

 

 

 

And here's another one from New Years Eve. He had a whole group of women dancing around him! Lmao

 

 

 

 

 

-Paul