Bostongirl21

Carnival Horizon Wedding review

Package: Carnival Classic Platinum Package – On board ship in Grand Cayman

Carnival Wedding Coordinator: Michelle Fleites

Michelle was absolutely wonderful to work with. She answered any and all questions we had. If she didn’t know an answer right away, she was able to get back to us within 24 hours. There was a little confusion a couple of times because when we originally booked my wedding, we booked with the old packages. When Carnival announced there were new packages in January, we decided to cancel the old one and rebook one of the new packages. A couple of times we called in they referred to the old package and we had to keep reminding them we had rebooked. Our “2 week” phone call was actually around 10 days and was not with Michelle, it was with someone else as she was out of the office. The coordinator on the phone stated our wedding was at 12 noon, which later we found out was island time, not ship time. (make sure to specifically ask if the time they provide is ship time if you are getting married at a different port)

The Wedding Experience:

We only dealt with the wedding experience when we needed help with our marriage license, since it came from Grand Cayman. They did take forever to respond to an email, so eventually I just started calling and speaking to someone when I needed an answer. The final detail phone call came 3 days prior to sailing.

The Wedding Host on Carnival Horizon: Julia

Our host, Julia, was phenomenal. She made sure to meet with us on our first sea day to go over all the final details and show us where the ceremony would take place. She came to dinner to make sure everything was going okay and kept making sure we knew that if we needed something that we could come find her and she would take care of it. She took our cake topper and our guest book and kept it safe until the reception. During the reception she was making sure that everyone was where they needed to be and made sure that we always had a drink in our hand and food at our table.

The Wedding Ceremony:

Our ceremony was in the Limelight Lounge (aka Punch Liners Comedy Club). We had 39 people (including my husband and I) sailing with us and this room was the perfect size for all of us. My suggestion is that you do a rehearsal prior to the wedding taking place if you can. We opted out of the rehearsal and the ceremony went smoothly, however after you say “I Do” and walk down the aisle with hubby/wifey, there’s no direction to where you are to go next. The Reverend they brought on the ship from Grand Cayman performed a wonderful ceremony. He came to us both before the ceremony (separately of course) and gave us a rundown of how the ceremony would go. It was absolutely beautiful. Once the ceremony was over and our guests were escorted to the reception venue, it was time for family pictures. I’ll get into the photography a little later.

The Wedding Reception:

Our reception was in the Liquid Night Club (aka Liquid Lounge – where all the theater shows are) the room was absolutely stunning! DJ Extreme made the introductions and once my husband and I were introduced we went right into the first dance. We opted to have everyone join us as soon as the song went underway. Next was the Father/Daughter dance, then the Mother/Son dance. We should have let the DJ know not to play the entire song since it took forever. Once the dances were over with, we went right into the cake cutting. Our top tier was Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese filling. Our bottom tier was Marble with Vanilla filling (I think they put cream cheese in this tier too but I could be wrong) We opted and paid for an extra 30 minutes (the package comes with an hour reception for 20 people) so we ended up with a 90 minute reception and it went by so fast! In the Liquid Lounge, the table for my husband and I to sit was directly in line with a spotlight. It made that spot very hot to sit in, let your host know and they’ll move the table out of the spot light for you. 

Dream Studio Photography:

Wilma was our photographer for our Wedding. She was a pleasant person, however her photography skills were severely lacking. On the morning of my wedding she came to the stateroom I was in to take some pictures of me pretending to get ready since I was already dressed and ready to go. We took lots of pictures in the stateroom but standing and sitting in the sun for pictures wasn’t something I had planned for. During the ceremony, she kept getting in the way of our guests trying to watch us get married. At one point she was a few inches away from my face. She was moving my vail and my hair instead of having my maid of honor do it. She was consistently in the of other guests photos that my mom had to finally ask her to back off so our guest could watch the ceremony. After the ceremony we got family photos taken, they don’t give you enough time between the ceremony and reception to really take photos so you either way, you cut into your reception time due to pictures. During the reception she was getting all sorts of photos, still in the way of some guests but it was the reception so it really didn’t matter. Once the reception was over, she took us around the ship to get some pictures of just the two of us. (make sure you bring some friends/family with you so you can have some photos right then and there) We took some pictures in the Havana Bar (pretty but not my favorite), then we went to the back of Deck 11 to get some pictures of us against the railing and against some of the windows of Cucina Del Cappitano, then she said we were finished. I really wanted a picture with Carnival’s Whale Tail (the funnel) and had mentioned it to her when we were getting ready that this was really the only picture I wanted outside, so we went upstairs to get that picture and we could tell she was a little irritated at that point. Once we finished with those pictures, she said we would get an appointment card to view the pictures on Friday around 11:30am and we agreed. Come Friday morning, my Husband, Aunt, Mom, Grandmother and myself all went down to the Dream studio to view my pictures. The first thing we watched was the video. The video was shaky and blurry and overall not a really good quality, this should have been our first clue that our pictures would turn out bad. Next we saw a storyline photo book. The photos in here were not horrible, however it really didn’t tell a story, they were just pictures pieced together. Next we come to our Wedding Photos. We were not impressed with any of the pictures. Out of all the pictures Wilma took, there were only 2 of my immediate family to pick from and neither one of them were of good quality. Someone was blinking, someone was talking, they were blurry and the lighting was pretty bad. My husband’s immediate family had multiples to choose from. Not a single photo that Wilma took, was of better quality of my dad’s camera. Our guests took better photos of our wedding than Wilma. Of the 200+ photos we looked through, we only purchased 7 of them. Wilma let it be known that only “certified” photographers can photograph weddings….. well Wilma, you are certainly not a “certified” photographer. We should have been able to look back at our wedding photos and smile, not all I can think of is how horrible the photographer was. This was supposed to be a memorable day, however Wilma ruined it with her pictures. Not a single picture of my husband’s face as I’m walking down the aisle. Not a single good picture of my immediate family, except when I’m kissing my husband and she had them all look at me (can’t really mess that photo up) How can you print out hundreds of pictures, and not crop or edit any of them (DJ in the background, cam lights on the celing)? If you are sailing on the Carnival Horizon, and your photographer is Wilma, I highly suggest either requesting someone else, or make sure you are asking that multiple pictures be taken. Make sure that they edit the photographs prior to showing you. The DJ was in the background of multiple pictures, there are two cups in the background of my favorite picture. We are not impressed with Wilma. I can only speak for my experience with Wilma on the Carnival Horizon, I’m sure the other photographer certified to do weddings did a much better job, but we are very disappointed with the quality of pictures. If you want any of the guests sailing with you, our guests were not allowed to view any of our pictures until 11pm Friday night… we got off the ship on Saturday morning. None of my guests had the ability to view or purchase any pictures they were in.

for the Ceremony/Reception I’d rate carnival a 9-10

the photography service I’d rate. 2/10