Schmeelybug

I just emailed you everything I could find as far as pricing. Hope it helps!

Let me know if you have any more questions - and good luck!

Loved your wedding review and pictures.

 

My daughter just got engaged. I am trying to talk her into a cruise wedding. We have never planned a wedding before, my was over 42 years ago.

 

Can you tell me roughly what the cost/breakdown was for just your wedding? I see that Princess charges $3,000 for most of the items for the wedding.

 

Did you do favours for your wedding guests? if so, what were they?

Thank you - we had so much fun. It's hard to believe it was almost a year ago!

I didn't do favors, it just didn't seem necessary to have a little Tchotchke item. I did consider doing Out of Town bags for each of the guests cabins, but with 75 people attending, it just would have been too expensive.

As far as pricing, I think I still have the pricing lists that ROE provided to me. I also have my spreadsheet of all of the amounts I paid If you want to PM me your email address, I can send it to you :)

We did have a LOT of guests and we did have an exceptionally long wedding/reception and I opted to do a lot of extras, so it was probably a bit more pricey than the average onboard wedding. For instance, I wanted lots of extra flowers for the ceremony and to use as centerpieces at dinner, so that was an added expense. I wanted a premium bar and Hors d'oeuvre during cocktail hour, as well as bottles of wine at each of the tables for dinner plus an open bar tab there, plus a fully hosted bar at the reception, so that was another big expense. But it's really up to you how much or how little you want to do - they're great about working with you to make sure you're getting what you want :)

Another big expense was tipping. I was adamant that we tip everyone involved from the Captain, to the onboard planners, to the drink servers, to the photographers. I think in all, there were about 30 people that we tipped. These people all did such an amazing job and spent hours above and beyond their already crazy busy schedule to make sure everything was wonderful for both me and my guests.

Fabulous! Thank you for sharing, cruise weddings are just the best and I love reading about others experiences with different cruise lines and seeing the pictures! Congratulations to you!

Thank you :)

I really enjoyed your review and photos back in June - congrats to you too!

Everyone thinks I'm crazy, but I wish I had another wedding to plan and could do it all over again :)

Finally, we had a short, private reception in Skywalkers before they opened it up to the public. We didn’t do any decorations there. They just had the cake set up in the front. I didn’t give them any direction on what I wanted the cake to look like, because it just wasn’t that important to me. Though it was a little…umm….ruffly? and not what I would have chosen, I didn’t really care. We ended up doing three tiers, which was WAY too much since we had just finished dinner and dessert in the DR. We had almost 2 full layers leftover, which they offered to serve at dinner the following night. But I totally forgot about it , so hopefully the crew enjoyed it.

Best Man’s Speech

We did our first dance to “Fly me to the Moon” by Frank Sinatra

Some of the crowd watching the first dance

Cake Cutting to “That’s Amore” by Dean Martin to honor DH’s Italian heritage

My wedding cake topper that I made – The Ruby and the Golden with a tiny little veil and top hat

The day after the wedding, we hung a giant Just Married banner from our aft balcony. Sadly, I have no photos of that.

All in all, it was an absolutely amazing experience. Everybody had an absolute blast and kept saying “I never even thought about doing a wedding on a cruise, but now that I’ve been to one – I can’t imagine ever going to a “normal” wedding again!”

We had so much fun, everything was beautiful, and we got to spend four days with the people that we love most in the world.

What more could we ask for?

After the photoshoot, it was finally time for dinner.

We had originally wanted to do the dinner at the Crown Grill, because I LOVE the food there and we wanted the privacy it would have allowed and not having to disturb the rest of the dining room with a large, rambunctious party. But unfortunately, due to the size of our party, we would have had to do the Prix Fixe menu which was pretty bad. Mostly seafood (which I don’t eat), and really no decent steak option (which I found weird for a steak house). But the MDR ended up being great – full menu for people to choose from and the Maitre D’ held an entire section for the whole party. Since we were kind of off to the side and it was pretty late, hopefully we didn’t disturb other diners too much.

Unfortunately, I don’t have a lot of photos of the dinner and decorations there. I opted to not have the photographer there during that time since I figured we didn’t need two hours worth of photos of people eating, so all I have are a few shots that people took on their phones.

It was really pretty though with all of the floral centerpieces and the beautiful sparkly tablecloth on our table.

Close up of one of the smaller centerpieces

Our poor flower girl couldn’t make it through dinner. Passed out at the table, but still acting like an angel with her hands folded.

In the Atrium

On the Promenade Deck

Once we were done with the group photos, DH and I were whisked away and taken all around the ship by the photographer and videographer to do our photo shoot. By this time it was dark, so we didn’t get any shots with blue skies and blue water behind us, but as it turned out, I really liked the drama that was created by having the black behind us for the on deck shots - especially in the black and white versions.

At the very aft of the ship

After the rest of the wedding party had done the recessional, the photographer immediately took us right down to the Lotus pool amphitheater area to do groups shots of the wedding party. The pictures turned out beautiful, but it was like herding cats getting that many people set up.

The deck and stairs were a little wet from the pool, so my brother held my train for me as I went back upstairs.

The bridal party following us out. What I didn’t notice until days later going through the pictures is that somebody had turned around the framed photos on the table during the ceremony so that they could “watch”, which I thought was really sweet. (I’ve since found out it was my aunt)

Immediately after the ceremony, there were servers with platters of cocktails and passed hors d'oeuvres. One of the benefits of being the first ones out of the ceremony is being the first one to the drinks ;)

Commodore Romano did a few photos with us before heading back to drive the ship. Sadly, he wasn’t able to stay for cocktail hour. (You can also see some onlookers down in the Lotus pool lol)

The only problem with doing the cocktail hour in the Sanctuary is that there is no bar. So they had to have extra servers to take drink orders then run down to Tradewinds bar to get the drinks, then back up to serve them. So drink service was a little slow – but we were told this beforehand by ROE, so we knew going in.

The ceremony began with Commodore Romano reading a poem. We then exchanged vows and rings.

The infamous silk flowers again in the foreground lol

After we exchanged vows, we went and signed the log book with Commodore Romano and our grandmothers who acted as our official witnesses.

Commodore Romano was absolutely great! So genuinely happy for us, such a pro as the officiant. I was thrilled when I found out it was he who would be doing our wedding. Even though this was his fourth wedding of the day, he looked, spoke and acted as if we were the only ones.

We went back to the alter. After a few words, he pronounced us husband and wife, and announced that could now kiss. This is where we had the recessional music start – the middle crescendo part of “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” (I love you babyyyyyy….la da da da dee da….). To which we kissed and then made our way out, followed by the rest of the bridal party.

Literally walking off into the sunset

I didn't want to go the traditional route with music, so I walked in to “Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You” by Frankie Valli

Dad walking me in

Great shot that one of our guests took through the tree of dad walking me in

Good view of the flower aisle

Finally made it!

I couldn’t find exactly what I wanted for flower girls dresses, so in a moment of insanity two weeks before the wedding, I decided to make them myself. Aside from putting ridiculous undue pressure on myself, I LOVE the way they turned out.

Hise luring a reluctant flower girl down the aisle

I think the flower girls ended up throwing about 4 petals total lol The older one is bossing her sister around telling her how it’s done.

Everyone waiting for me to walk in

This is where DH first sees me

Music was VERY important to me. We hired the DJ to do the ceremony and cocktail hour as well as the reception at Skywalkers. We provided all of the music for the ceremony, cocktail hour, and reception stuff (father/daughter dance, mother/son dance, cake cutting, etc). There was a slight problem with the music at the ceremony– no fault of the DJ’s, my DH had things wrong on the Ipod . But it was quickly resolved so not the end of the world. I only wish that the DJ had been at the rehearsal and gone through the music then and it could have been avoided, but que sera.

DH waiting for the show to start. You can see the bush I’ve mentioned behind him. This is where the silk flowers were supposed to have been, but they put hot pink gerber daisies there instead. Weird, but they tried lol

My wedding party processional was “All You Need is Love” by the Beatles.

The poor ring bearer was having a bad day and was NOT having it as far as walking down the aisle by himself. His mom had to lend a helping hand.

Having already been on the ship and checked out the venue, I had a pretty good idea of how I wanted things laid out and how I wanted things decorated for the ceremony. I also knew that there’s a giant tree right in the middle of where the ceremony would take place, so had to plan for my aisle and chairs and set up to be at an angle. Actually, as it turned out, that tree was great for décor and helped to create some of my favorite photos from the ceremony. I took the deck plan of the Sanctuary from Princess.com and drew out the layout of how I wanted things set up, flowers placed, etc. and sent it to ROE for them to forward to the ship. I also made several print outs to bring onboard and give to the wedding coordinator and people doing the set up. They all seemed to appreciate it and it made things pretty easy for set up.

I really didn’t care for the standard flower arrangements that were offered in the brochure, so I sent ROE sample photos of the kinds of flower arrangements that I liked, and they made arrangements with the ship to order the varieties of flowers that I wanted and make our arrangements/centerpieces and bouquets onboard. The flowers were probably one of the biggest expenses we had (other than booze and photos). But talking to land brides, they were actually very reasonably priced and very worth it to really give the whole thing a wedding feel. Plus we had the flowers do double duty as both ceremony décor and then moved to the dining room as centerpieces. It was totally worth every penny. Though they weren’t exactly what I had asked for, they were still beautiful and just gave everything that added touch. That’s one thing you have to be prepared for when doing a wedding onboard – things may not be EXACTLY what you want – but they will be great, you just have to go with it. I did whatever I could to get as close as possible to showing/describing what I wanted, and just had to trust the crew to execute it – which they certainly did!

I ordered 16 medium arrangements to accommodate the 12-16 tables we’d have in the dining room and asked that they be lined up for the ceremony along the sides of the chairs in order to create an aisle. Any extras were to be placed in the base of the giant non-movable tree in the middle of the Sanctuary. I also had one very large, tall arrangement that I wanted on the bridal table in the dining room. I figured they wouldn’t have any super tall vases onboard, so I bought one at Homegoods and brought it with me so that they could give it to the onboard florist to create the arrangement. It was sooo beautiful.

Various angles of the ceremony/aisle set up

I had brought on a ton of silk flowers and asked that they be placed in the bush that was going to be behind us during the ceremony. I think something got lost in translation, because the florists ended up creating giant arrangements out of the silk flowers and just put a few live flowers in the bush. But as it turned out, the silk arrangements were gorgeous, and I was able to take them with me after the cruise and have them on display in the house now as a constant reminder of the wedding, so even though it wasn’t what I wanted, it ended up even better.

The silk arrangements are the big ones at the beginning of the aisle sitting on the end tables

I also had them set up a table to place framed photos of our close relatives who have passed away and placed the guest book there.

My accoutrements, including my “Something Blue” (hopefully any vapers here will appreciate)

My bridesmaids – I swear I got more compliments on their dresses than I did on mine lol! I went with cocktail dresses from Macy’s/Dillards rather than traditional bridesmaids dresses. They really were stunning and looked incredible on all seven of the girls.

Hise hard at work

Love this shot he took of me and my mom

Starting the trek all the way across the ship to get to the Sanctuary

Once the big day arrived, all of the women in my bridal party came to our suite to get ready and do photos. Our photographer, Hise from the Philippines, did an absolutely amazing job. The photos are gorgeous, so obviously we ended up getting the premium photo package haha. Totally worth it. I’m trying very hard not to post too many photos here – there are literally thousands – and just stick to the ones that show the set up of things onboard and will show things that will be useful to other brides. But I love the photos so much that I’m sure I’ll end up posting a ton of them that are useless anyway lol

8 women getting ready in one room with room to spare

The bouquets

Hello all, long time lurker, very rare poster.

These boards were so helpful during my wedding planning, that I wanted to give back a little to the community and share my experience. I had searched high and low for info on Sanctuary weddings, but without any luck. Not even one single photo. Hopefully this will help any future brides looking to have their wedding in this amazing spot. Please keep in mind that I’m a designer, NOT a writer, so forgive me if I ramble or jump around. Be warned – there are a TON of photos.

A little history about us: we were engaged on the Caribbean Princess in February of 2014. We immediately knew that we wanted to get married onboard a Princess ship, but I wasn’t too keen on the chapels onboard and really wanted to do the ceremony outdoors on the deck of the ship to really get the whole wedding at sea vibe. So we contacted ROE to see if we could have the ceremony in the Sanctuary after normal operating hours. Princess doesn’t offer the Sanctuary as one of their regular wedding venues – you have to ask your ROE planner to get special permission to do it. As far as I know, it’s granted on a case-by-case basis based on availability of the captain, potential weather, and availability of resources on the ship. Because the Sanctuary is open to passengers during the day, the wedding had to be in the evening – which as far as I’m concerned was an added benefit of doing it there. The idea of a lunchtime wedding just wasn’t what I wanted. ROE contacted Princess, who granted permission, and the wedding was scheduled for 5:30 pm on the sea day of a 4-day West Coast cruise to Mexico/Catalina out of Los Angeles from September 25, 2015-September 29, 2015 on the Ruby Princess.

We took a practice/recon cruise on the Ruby in February 2015 to check out the exact layout of the Sanctuary so that I could plan as much as possible how I wanted things set up and decorated (also, it was a good excuse to go on another cruise).

I absolutely did not want a nautical themed wedding – I wanted to instead focus on the glamour of old time cruising. I created my invitations and décor with this in mind – not a passport, anchor, or knot in sight lol. The only exception was my cake topper (I’ll get to that later).

We officially asked our wedding party to be a part of the wedding during our engagement party in August of 2014. We both have big families, so we ended up with 7 bridesmaids, 7 groomsmen, 2 flower girls, and 1 ring bearer (and a partridge in a pear tree).

Here are the boxes I created for the wedding party to “pop the question” to them. Amongst other things, I had a balloon with a rolled up scroll inside saying “Will you be my bridesmaid”? that they had to pop to retrieve.

We intended to send out the invitations a year in advance in order to give everyone PLENTY of time to make arrangements to cruise with us.

Unfortunately, the fact that I designed and hand-made the invitations (which took FOREVER) coupled with me being a procrastinating slacker meant that we didn’t end up sending out the invitations until April of 2015 – five months before the wedding.

Most of my family and friends are from the LA area, so we were hoping that some of them could manage a 4 day weekend cruise without the hassle of having to fly. We ended up with 75 sailing guests – WAY more than we imagined! So I guess we gave them enough time lol

Our ridiculous amount of luggage and crap for a four-day cruise – most of which was delicate or fragile so I insisted on carrying on the ship. No WAY was I handing over my dress to a porter lol

After months of planning and figuring out our options with ROE, the final details for the wedding were:

5:30 pm - Ceremony in the Sanctuary

6:00 pm – 7:30 pm - Cocktail Hour in the Sanctuary (while we did photos)

8:15 pm – 10pm - Dinner in the Michelangelo Dining Room

10 pm -11pm – Reception in Skywalkers

11pm – late – Continued the party in Skywalkers

I created itineraries for each room to let everyone know the times of the events and had my niece and nephew pass them out to each cabin on day one. I also included everyone’s names and cabin numbers on the back so that people could call eachother without having to pester me haha

As soon as we got onboard, there was a note from the Customer Services Manager, Alex who would be acting as our onboard wedding coordinator asking us to meet him at our earliest convenience to go over all of the details. Let me just say that Alex was AMAZING!! He took care of EVERYTHING throughout the entire cruise. He went over all of the details of what we had ordered, took all of the things that I had brought with me – cake topper, silk flowers, sequined table cloth for the bridal table, framed photos, guest book, etc. and distributed it to the proper crewmembers for set up on the big day. He brought in the photographer for us to talk to and go over particular shots that we wanted, and made arrangements for a rehearsal the night before the wedding. We also found out from him that there were to be four weddings on the same day as ours. Beginning at 11 am with a group of 100 and ending with our group of 75 at 5:30 – quite the busy day for him and his staff!