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My Carnival Freedom Wedding Review-The good and the not so bad.

My wedding was aboard the Carnival Freedom January 20th in Key West Florida. I had started planning our cruise wedding in January 2013. In fact we booked almost exactly and year away from our wedding. I spoke with Alanna our personal coordinator to help with blocking rooms and to make reservations for our guests. We were also assigned a Wedding coordinator for booking everything wedding related. Then if we wanted any group activities or group events we were given a group coordinator. Still with me? However, we ended up not using the group coordinator as we didn’t book any group events. I will say that he was very helpful in giving us ideas for things to do.

So the itinerary was for us to leave Fort Lauderdale on the cruise ship Sunday and get Married on Monday in Key West. We had 17 sailing guests and 10 non-sailing who would meet us in Key West. I booked the 2 hour reception in the disco lounge so that I could have the DJ. I did not book the ceremony with Carnival; instead I booked with Weddings to go Key West. I felt that the ceremony Carnival offered was too expensive and that WTGKW was able to offer me more extras and flexibility with a more affordable price. I later found out that they are one of Carnivals biggest competitors for weddings in Key West and was approached by Carnival to handle the weddings. However they declined because of pricing issues, basically the owner said Carnival wanted to charge too much and their cut would have been severely reduced. Anyways they ended up doing a fantastic job and I could not have been happier. You can see pictures at http://weddingstogo.phanfare.com under Roy and Nina 1/20.

Back to Carnival, so the first day my mission was to make a hair and make-up appointment, from reading all the reviews appointments book quick and I didn’t have any second options. So we arrived on the ship at about 11:30 our room was already ready so I was able to drop off my wedding dress and purse and then off I went to find the Spa. Also note we traveled from Long Island New York and I carried the wedding dress the entire time. It never left my sight and somehow it was a miracle it made it to the ship unwrinkled and ready to go. Never had to have it steamed or pressed before wedding after traveling with it. Okay back to topic. So I find the Spa and our ceremony is scheduled for 11 am. We are in port from 8am to 4 pm, with reception at 1pm to 3pm. We had to be off the boat by 10:15 so I figured an hour for hair and an hour for make up, I needed at the very earliest an appointment for 8am. Now I had read on some forums that the spa will open early for brides, in this case they did not, I even offered to pay extra. When I got to the spa I found out that the 8am appointment had already been booked, which I was shocked at because I was on the boat so early and they don’t pre-book. Come to find out this other person/bride was on a back to back cruise and that is how she was able to pre-book. The only time they could take me was at 9am and they would do both my hair and make up at the same time. I was a little panicked needless to say but I kept my cool and did not put my frustration out on the spa staff. So I booked my appointment and left. Later I tell my news to my soon to be Sister in Law who also wanted to get a hair appointment. When I told her they were booked she hurried to the spa to see what they could do for her. Afterwards I find out she was able to book a hair appointment at 8am! Which I was completely shocked at, so I went back to the spa and asked to speak with a manager and found out this. What happens on a cruise ship is that the days in port the staff is cut by half pretty much. So normally there would be two hairdressers but in port one has off and the other works on the ship. Well, when my sister in law went to the spa the second hair dresser who would normally be off happened to be there and did her a special favor by staying to do her hair at 8am. So that was how she was able to book her appointment. At this point I was freaking out, so what they were able to do was they called the previous appointment who was also a bride and asked if she could come in 15 min early, moving my appointment to 8:45, and asked that I come in at 8:30 in case she finished earlier and to start on my make up. I also want you to know that my sister in law never offered to switch appointments with me and also this was my only headache during the wedding process. As for the make up I am a big fan of MAC and so before the cruise I went to my local MAC store and got a make up trial done for the wedding, $200 later I had my wedding make up supply. The cruise ship does not supply the make-up so you have to bring your own. Also the make up I got I’m able to use everyday so it was not in the least a waste. It was stuff that I would have bought through out the year instead I bought all at once. The girl who did my make up was also a MAC fan from South Africa and she knew exactly what to do. She also loved doing wedding make up, so this was a huge plus for me.

So after everything was booked, the only thing left to do was get in contact with our on ship coordinator. She had left a nice letter in our room that she would find us to go over the details and left her number. We had 8:15 dining time, so by about 6 I had tried reaching her a few times but had not gotten a response. Finally at about 7 she called the room and apologized for not answering. She said she would meet us at dinner and afterwards we would go over the details. We met Jurga at dinner and she was very organized and reviewed all our details, it was at this time we also met our photographer. I requested to have the photographer come to the rooms before the ceremony to take some getting ready shots of myself and of the groom. Everything was arranged. I forgot to mention that the other part I was worried about was I had welcome bags for the cruise guests along with wedding programs with directions that I wanted to the guests to have before they got off the ship. Jurga took care of having them delivered to the rooms and as for the gift bags we decided to have them out at the reception to give to people then. She also arranged to take everyone off the ship to the meeting location for the transportation to the ceremony site as well as to meet us back at the ship to take everyone on board. Something I was completely not expecting. After our meeting I was very confident that everything would go well. Another note was I told Jurga about the hair appointment issues. Turns out I was the only Bride she had scheduled to get married in Key West. The other brides 4 in total I found out got married in Key West but did not schedule anything through the cruise. So just be aware there may be other brides on the boat that carnival is unaware of. Another reason to book things early.

For the wedding day I had breakfast delivered to the room. The breakfast they offer doesn’t include a lot but in the morning I was so excited I couldn’t eat much anyways so it was perfect. I woke up at 7:45 had breakfast delivered at 8am and then made my way to the spa at 8:30. They immediately started working on me and I was done by 9:30ish, with plenty of time to spare. In fact I ended up waiting in the room with my father for about 20 minutes till it was time to leave the ship. So the hair appointment timing issue ended up not being so bad after all. They also did a fantastic job. Jurga then called to say all the guests had made it off the ship and she would be up to escort me off as well. She took me off the ship and we walked to the meeting location for my transportation, there she waited with us to make sure we were met with and on our way. After the ceremony we arrived back at the cruise ship at about 12:15ish. We met up with our guests and had no issues getting back on the ship. Jurga met us and took the guests to the Disco lounge while Roy and I went to our room to freshen up and then meet up with our guests at the Disco lounge. Once back the DJ announced our entrance and we went into our first song. Followed by the Father/Daughter and Mother/Son Dance. We then cut the cake listened to our BM and MOH toasts and then the party began. We wanted to get everything done and out of the way so we could hang out and enjoy the party. Something I would def recommend you do as well. We were well taken care of by the wait staff and the food was delicious. I wish I had eaten more of it, but with all the excitement I was barely hungry. The two hours flew by, but in the end we had a great time with all our guests. We did a final group shot and then after we said our goodbyes we went with the photographer to take pictures around the ship. We took our initial shots inside and then went outside for shots on the deck. Somehow he was able to find a spot with no people and the pictures turned out amazing. We then requested to take some pictures during the sun set so we arranged a time and went out again this time with perfect lighting.

Now I know everyone complains about the prices for the photographs. But lets be real here. We paid for a two-hour reception, with an open bar, 5 hot and 5 cold apps, with a DJ and cake for 20 people for a $1000. Where else can you get something like that. If you had a traditional wedding, just a photographer can cost upward of $3000. Our Sister in Law paid over five thousand for their photography package and it was worth every penny. Do not skimp out on the photography and do not judge it by the pricing. Because it is still cheaper then what you would normally pay. That being said I knew from reading other reviews that some photographers can be a hit or miss on what they can and will offer you. Ours was amazing. We met two days later to view our pictures he started with the DVD slide show, which I thought would be corny but instead made us both cry. And remember the pictures he took did not include the ceremony because we used another company for that with their own photographer. Next he showed us the wedding album book he put together. Initially reading the reviews I didn’t think I would want that and from looking at the photograph packages we had already decided on the Premier Package. But after seeing the photos and the book we were stunned by how everything turned out. Our photographer also put together two special custom packages to choose from that included the book. The most we could pay included the Infinity package and the book came out to be $3400. We ended up with the other package he offered which included the book and the he Elite package at a discount, which came out to 2,043. From there we asked if we could take off the two canvas prints and instead get an extra copy of the DVD and if he could knock off any more on the price. So in total we paid $2,003. And in the CD he included all the pictures he took not just the ones we ordered prints of. So although it says it’s only supposed to include purchased images we received a CD with all the shots. All in all I felt that for the price and quality it was well worth it. On the last day of our cruise we had our pictures and book complete and were able to show all our cruise guests. You would never get something like that this quickly with a traditional photographer. I attached some copies of the images so you can get an idea for the reception and quality of work.

Things I would have done differently. I should have used the photographer more. All my friends and family were taking pictures of each other with their cell phones and cameras. There are more group shots on face book by them then from our photographer. Which I am not blaming him, he can only do so much and be at one place, but I should have directed him more when I saw things happening. Be specific with your photographer on the images you want. He is there to take pictures for you, don’t assume he can read your mind. I also should have eaten more. I read this all the time and it is so hard to follow but the food was so good and I barely ate any of it. Also I am so happy I asked the photographer to take the getting ready shots of the groom. They turned out so great I would really recommend doing this. Other then that everything turned out perfectly. Let me know if you have any questions and I will answer as best as I can.

We'll be getting married aboard the carnival Freedom next week :D. This forum has been such a help to me in the planning process for our cruise wedding. I can't wait to return the favor by writing a review. I'll try and answer any questions you have when we get back.

Congrats to everyone. We're booked on Carnival Freedom for January 20th 2014. Getting married in key west thru weddings to go key west and then having reception back on board. We've verbally told everyone Bout cruise and a few family members have booked. We'll be sending out save the dates in may and then final invites in October. We hope to have our final guest list by November. But yeah now that everything is booked it feels like now we hurry up and wait.

That is exactly what we're doing but for key west. While in port key west we're getting off the ship and having the ceremony with key west company and then getting back on board for carnival reception. Pricing is 700 for deluxe which is 1 1/2 reception and then 600 for 1 hour. We opted for the 2 hour reception for 800. The only thing was that the reception has to be over by 4pm or earlier is what they said. I assume this is bc the ppl working at the reception have to start working in other areas of the ship. So we opted for a 12 to 2 reception to make a lunch out of it. I have a price list they sent me along with dj information but I can't load from my email to the forum using my iPad. I'll try from my pc later for you. We're booking for carnival freedom January 2014.

Omg everything looks so cute. Thanks for sharing!