MrsFreeman21408

Hello Brides!!

I know it has been ages since I've been on this forum but I figured I'd pop in and see how you brides to be were doing. I remember how I felt when I was planning my wedding aboard Carnival Imagination, everything I did for my wedding I read about it on this forum. So I know any information is helpful. I inserted my original review and a link to my YouTube video of my cruise. Ask any questions and I will try my hardest to answer them. Enjoy!

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1930868

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing!

Thanks!

Thanks for the review and pics! You look beautiful. Hampton Inn sounds great. Did they give you a deal for encouraging your guests to stay there?

 

Sent from my HTC6435LVW using Forums mobile app

Thanks! They upgraded my double room to a 2 room suite and gave us a bottle of wine and a bottle of champagne.

Once you book the wedding package & ask about a tour, can you choose where ceremony & reception will be? We're looking at possible June 13 2015 cruise from port of Tampa in Florida..so not sure of ship..

You can request the room location you want and they will let you know if you got it or not 2 weeks prior to the wedding

Hi

 

Hope you are doing ok. Congrats again. How did you handle the tipping of the persons that worked at the wedding? I am new to this whole tipping thing. Thanks a lot.

I had the same question. Two weeks before the wedding, Carnival Wedding Experience called me and I asked them. They told me, everything I had to pay for has been paid and no more money was required.

Thanks so much!!!!! I was worried about the time too but I figure if they want more time, then invest on a vacation on the cruise with us! Lol I had some bouquets made for my bridesmaids and wasn't sure if I should make mine or use the one included. Thanks for your input. I'll be looking for that email! :-)

 

Sent from my SGH-M919 using Tapatalk

Sent! Sorry for the delay!

YAY! right before i go i get to read a review! LOVE IT! was great! Love the small details i also didnt know i should write down every single thing i want i have two friends who know i figured they will tell them maybe i should write it down tho......YOU LOOKED GREAT! loved the pictures!!! Wonderful review! Thank yoU!

You want to know what's funny? I've been reading reviews for over a year so during my wedding day I was thinking in the back of my mind what I would say on my CC wedding review LOL! Thank You!

OMG!!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS and thanks so much for that review. Your pictures were beautiful! I'm having my wedding on Carnival Sensation in Feb 2014 leaving from Port Canaveral. Your review just got me even more excited!

Is your bouquet the bouquet that came with the package?

Did you have the hour or 1.5 hr reception and how was it?

I am working on making my passport wedding programs and I would love to get information on how you created yours!

My email is brian.n.courtneyhayes@gmail.com

Thanks!!!!

Thanks I'm still excited from my wedding, I think my FaceBook friends are so annoyed with me. LOL!! Yes the bouquet I was holding came with my package and they asked me 2 weeks before what color I wanted and I told them hot pink.

Yes, I had the 1.5 reception and it was plenty of time! When I first found out that's all the time we were getting, I was a little worried, but it was more than enough time. Sure I'll send you an email of my passport documents and a few more goodies.

Congrats!!! Your pics are beautiful!!!! Thank you for sharing your review. Question what kind of cake did you go with? Also I have read some horror stories about purchasing photos from the photographer, how was your experience with them?

Thank you! We had a 2 tiered cake, my husband chose the top tier flavor, red velvet with cream cheese filling and I chose the bottom tier flavor, butter cream. The red velvet tier was awful! lol

I brought my own photographer with me but Carnival's photographer came with my package so, they were there also. When I finally seen Carnival photographer's photo prints, I was so glad I brought my own photographer because Carnival photographer's pictures came out darker than I like.

Thanks for sharing your day with us! Love the colors and that cake stand. And you have such an adorable family!

 

Congratulations!

 

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Thank you!!

Thank you for sharing you beautiful day! Glad it was perfect and you were a very beautiful bride :)

Thank you!!

Monday October 7th…….WEDDING DAY!!

The morning was very hectic because I had to pack up everything in the hotel, separate my wedding stuff from my cruise stuff, shower, do my own hair, and get makeup done all before 9am. During this whole process, the one thing I regret not doing is hiring someone to do my hair & makeup. I counted on my cousin from another state to do that but I did not like how she did my hair or makeup. She didn’t like it either, so I took matters into my own hands and grabbed the curling iron and makeup. Everything turned out good but that was very stressful.

Once we arrived at the port, we were greeted by two people from the wedding department. I cannot remember their names but they were super nice & helpful. They explained to my husband and I and our guest the order of events. They would send me, my mom, and two of my bridesmaids to one of our guests suites to get dressed and my husband and our two sons to our room to get dressed and our guest to the top deck to eat and explore the ship. They gave everyone a map of the ship and the time everyone had to be at the wedding location. I then gave both wedding planners copies of how I wanted the processional along with my selected music and two copies of how I wanted my decorations laid out. I also gave copies to three of my family members just to make sure the planners got it right.

After I was finished getting dressed, my photographer came in and took a few pictures, then the ships photographer came and took similar pictures. In the end, I’m glad I bought my own photographer because the ship’s photographer pictures came out much darker.

For the ceremony, I wanted pink & blue rose pedals on each side of the white aisle and wedding programs placed on every other chair. For the reception, I wanted my custom wedding guestbook placed on a table with my personalized pink napkins, matches, with a sprinkle of rose pedals. For my cake, I bought a personalized cruise ship cake topper and light stand from Esty.com for $50. It had our names, the date, and the name of our ship Carnival Imagination. I wanted pink ribbon wrapped around each layer of cake ($3 at Michaels). I wanted a double strand of rhinestones ($2 on Amazon) wrapped around each layer of cake (over the pink ribbon). Under the cake I bought a round Styrofoam stand wrapped in rhinestone ribbon.

I bought two boxes of rose pedals (one pink, one blue) from Hobby Lobby for $5 each (originally $10). Hobby Lobby has a 50% off wedding products sales every other week. I bought 24 fan wedding programs from Amazon for $10. I was a little sketchy about the product after reading the reviews but they were easy to do and turned out perfect! Those two boxes of rose pedals were more than enough pedals for the ceremony, reception and flower girl basket.

The Ceremony (Shangri La Lounge)…

My mom was escorted by my brother and my husband’s parents have passed away, so his sisters were escorted by our oldest son. Once my husband and his best man walked down the aisle, the water works begun. My husband began to cry, and this shocked me because, he is not the emotional type. The last time I seen him cry was at his dads’ funeral. Once he started to cry everybody in the room was crying, so by the time I walked in the room, there wasn’t a dry eye left. Now I’m a cry baby on a daily basis so when I saw my husband crying, I had to turn away because I knew I would start crying and I mean the ugly cry too lol.

The bridal party walked down to the John Legend song, “So High”. It’s a really nice song, if you have not heard it before, YouTube it. That also goes for the song I walked out to, Jennifer Hudson’s “Giving Myself”. After we kissed and turned around to our guest the song we chose for them to play was Beyonce’s “At Last”. We chose this song because, we’ve been married for 5 years, but we finally had our wedding!

Our “officiant”, was my uncle who has been married for over 30 years. I wrote our whole vow renewal ceremony, if you would like a copy emailed to you let me know.

The Reception (Illusions Nightclub)…

Our wedding party and we walked into the reception room to Chris Brown’s song, “Forever”. I wanted to incorporate that song into our wedding somehow because I’ve seen a cute YouTube video using this song as a wedding entrance. We did our first dance to Brandy’s remake to “Everything I Do”. After that we went right over to the cake to cut it and for all the toast. Then it was time to eat, drink, and dance! Close to the end of the reception, I was pulled on the dance floor for “Pin money on the bride”. This was not planned at all; it was an idea of one of my cousin’s. I’m glad we did because, we hadn’t received any wedding gifts and we didn’t have much spending money. By the time the song was over, we racked up over $300! My wedding was perfect, I wish I could rewind time and do it all over again.

Well that concludes my review…………..ask all the questions you like!!

Hello Everyone!!

I just got back from my amazing wedding cruise aboard Carnival Imagination. I hope I don’t forget anything, if I do, feel free to ask away!

Our Arrival to Miami…

We flew to Miami from Atlanta on Delta with a group of 8 people (4 kids and 4 adults) two days before the ceremony, everyone had 2 carry-ons and I checked 2 bags. That’s a total of 18 bags. I must say I did over pack for the cruise. My husband, my 2 boys and I did not wear half the outfits we packed. Anyway back to our flight. We booked our flights on Hotwire and paid $197 each. I think we could’ve gotten a cheaper rate if we purchased our tickets earlier in the year. We purchased our tickets 1 week before. When I walked on the plane, the Delta stewardess offered to hang up my dress in the closet. I was glad too because I refuse to let my dress to be checked. I was willing to be uncomfortable and hold my dress the entire flight. LOL! I do regret carrying all those bags through the airport with 4 children who has never flown on an airplane before. It was EXHAUSTING!! (On the way back home we put all our bags in several cars of our guest who drove.)

Our Hotel…

Our guest, my husband & I stayed at the Hampton Inn Miami Airport. I cannot praise and recommend this hotel enough! The rooms were $134 plus tax per night. A lot of our guest complained about the price until they heard about all the amenities. Just to name a few; free airport shuttle, free parking for guest who drive during their stay AND during the cruise, computer room with ability to a printer(our guest were able to print boarding passes), 24 hour access to the pool and hot tub, free breakfast and free Wi-Fi. Bonus: they upgraded my husband and I room to a big 2 room suite fully loaded with refrigerator, stove, dish washer and gave us a bottle of Chardonnay & a bottle of champagne upon arrival (FOR FREE). They also allowed us to use the breakfast area for our welcome dinner meet & greet.

Meet & Greet/Party Bus…

The day before the wedding our guest began to arrive to the hotel. About 9 months ago we purchase a Publix gift card and every pay day we would add money to it. We ended up saving $300 onto the gift card. On the day of the welcome meet and greet, we went to the Publix grocery store and ordered about 7 party platters. We ordered pinwheel sandwiches, variety chicken wings platter, salad, cake platter, fruit platter, etc. After buying all the platters, we still had money leftover on the gift card. Once everyone ate, talked, laughed & took pictures, it was 5:30…..time for the PARTY BUS!!

We used a company called Miami Limo Coach. We were going to go with a company called Millennium Limo but at the last minute, we decided not to because every time we called to confirm, they changed the price. When I read another bride’s review (Shatima), she used Miami Limo Coach and I remember speaking with that company earlier during my research, so we decided to go with them. I’m so glad we did! We booked 2 days before arriving in Miami. All we did was send the contract with our credit card number to reserve the bus. My husband didn’t feel safe sending his card information, so we used one of his pre-paid cards that had a balance of $10.

Once the driver Victor arrived we paid him $675 in cash. We charged each guest $20 and we paid the difference, which was about $85. We originally only booked the bus for 3 hours but he gave us the bus for 4 hours plus an extra 20 minutes to give us time to go to the liquor store to buy a couple of bottles of champagne and 1800 (to take shots). Before we left, we gave each person a “Welcome Aboard Bag” to thank everyone for coming to our wedding. The bags didn’t include as much as I wanted but the guest were pleasantly surprised! We also passed out our passport wedding invitations, which were very last minute but came out really nice!!

The passport invitations included; the wedding & reception information, Carnival Imagination ship information, the map of our ships course, information about each port stop, each sailing guest’s room number and our acknowledgements.

The driver took us all over Miami. We got off only twice, on the strip with all the shops & at the beach. The party bus was a great way to start off our wedding cruise. People were really impressed. The music, drinks, people, dancing, equals a good time!!

I'm bringing my own photographer also. We told them he was a "family friend". My wedding is a week away so I'll tell you how it goes

The photographer that shot our engagement party loved us so much that he offered to sail with us and do our pics for the entire cruise for a very reasonable price! I booked his cabin, but now I'm not sure what to do about the ship's photographer. Has anyone had success in telling Carnival that you do not want their photographer? I don't want to raise any red flags because I know I am not supposed to bring my own on board, but there's no chance we are paying the outrageous prices they charge.

Thanks......I'm gonna just bring my candy on board and pray for the best lol

I'll be waiting on your pics of your candy station the image above didn't work.

The funniest part about the song from Wedding SInger was that everyone actually thought it was the ships captain on the PA system!

 

My bridesmaid did have insurance but I have no idea if she will get her money back. I'm guessing she will have to plead illness or something.

 

We chose the $750 package so we could get the CD with images. I was as happy as one can be with a Carnival photographer. He really tried & did a good job with what he had to work with... though I honestly would have preferred to have backgrounds other than the gold curtain etc... but that was the venue. Do I think he was worth $750? Probably not, but we didn't have an option & I'm generally happy with the pics themselves.

 

Yes, I made my own bouquet - as well as my bridesmaids purse bouquets, the boutonnieres & corsages, the pomanders in the ceremony, my shoes - lol we DIYed almost everything.

 

Our first dance was Kenny Chesney Me & You. He had made a photo/video to it for me a few years ago so it was really special to us.

 

I made & brought the ribbon/rhinestone banding & cake topper (we made that too with the airplane, he's a private pilot & flew out to meet me on our first date). I think the chef put everything on the cake. I ordered rhinestone banding from etsy & used e6000 to attach it to the 2" ribbon. Warning - the layers were bigger than they told me they would be, leave extra ribbon.

 

We had pomanders, an ipad guest book with a sign, rose petals, a full candy buffet with sign, paper airplanes. Everything for the ceremony & reception decor fit into 3 bins which we carried onboard.

 

I have the outline I'd be happy to share. It's actually our entire ceremony text. Send me an email cassandra _ cole @ hotmail dot com

 

 

 

Strange... I double checked it & you shouldn't have to log in... let me try posting the link again:

 

https://drive.google.com/folderview?id=0B1UQ2zVyuPRhOWMyQl82Q3VrNGc&usp=sharing

Okay I have more questions lol

Candy buffet?? Please say you have a picture of this?? I asked could I have a candy buffet and I was told no. :( What kind of candy did you have and how much candy did you have?

I noticed you had a 3 tier cake. Did you buy the extra tier or did you have over 50 guest?

I'm making my own bouquets also, how did you get the rhinestones inside the flowers?

Congrats on Your wedding! You looked beautiful! I love the colors you chose and the songs you chose for your ceremony. I considered dancing to that "A Thousand Years" song, it's so beautiful! I cried when I heard the "Grow Old With You" song, that is from my favorite movie, Wedding Singer. It was a cute touch! Okay on to my questions.....

That's awful about your bridesmaid who left her passport. Was she able to get her money back for the cruise?

What photography package did you choose? Were you happy with the photographer?

Did you make your own bouquet?

What song did you dance your first dance to?

Who added the ribbon & rhinestones to your cake? I plan on doing the exact same thing to my wedding cake. Where did you get your ribbon & rhinestones from?

Did you bring any other added decorations on board?

You said you gave your guideline, do you still have that? I'm curious to know how to put mine together. That's all I have lol Thanks for your review!! Congrats again!!

Love your brochure and bags!! Do you still have the design for your brochures?

I have 6 bridesmaids and 6 groomsmen also...I thought I was the only bride in this forum with a big bridal party..Oh we need to chat honey lol

Thats amazing!! I cant beleive you made those!! you are so creative! I just ordered mine got a good deal so i cant complain! got everyones for the whole wedding party for 300!! i Think that is awesome! considering i have 6 bridesmaide and 6 groomsmen LOL

Hey my wedding ring twin! LOL I must say I loved your review! It was so detailed and I'm so happy for you! You were a very beautiful bride! I loved your bridesmaid dresses where did you pick them from? Also did you provide the accessories for your cake? Did you make your bouquet? I love your reception room, kind of makes me wish I picked Breeze lol Great Review!

Hello All! I’ll try to make this as concise as possible! ;)

Our wedding was on Sunday May 5, 2013 at the Port of Miami! I got to Miami Friday and had my bachelorette party that night and then got my nails done and recovered (lol) on Saturday with my girls. My husband drove down to Miami on Saturday and checked into our hotel (we stayed in separate rooms Saturday night). I checked in later that day with my bridesmaids. We stayed at the Hyatt Place Miami Airport west, which was only about a 20 minute drive to the port. They offered free parking during your stay (free parking during your cruise as well if you book that package…which saves a lot of money vs. parking your car at the port for $20/day during your cruise), free breakfast each morning (French toast, toast, bagels, fresh fruit, egg sandwiches, assortment of teas, coffee, juices, cereal, oatmeal…great deal!) and free wi-fi.

Getting ready

So Sunday morning, I woke up at 7am and my makeup artist arrived at the hotel at 7:45 to do my makeup. I used Aimee Ortega (chicmakeupbyaimee.com) and she is AWESOME! So sweet, caring and did an excellent job of creating the look I wanted and checking to make sure it was just right. I highly recommend her! While she did my makeup, my bridesmaids were doing their own hair and makeup. When we were all done, we had breakfast (MOH keeping in contact w/groom to make sure we wouldn’t run into one another lol) and gathered our luggage to leave and head to the port. One of my bridesmaids was not sailing so she drove us all to the port. We ended up getting there later than we wanted, right at 10:30am…but fortunately it wasn’t a big deal at all. All our guests had already arrived and checked in (I told everyone to be there at 10am) J. With more communication between my MOH and the groom and with the help of the wedding coordinator, there was no problem keeping my husband and I separate in the terminal. The coordinator was waiting to greet us right as we got through security so everything flowed smoothly from there. My husband and some guests waited in the VIP lounge downstairs and I was taken to another waiting area upstairs with the other half of our guests. During this time the coordinator went over the ceremony and reception details with me before we boarded. She also let all the guests know where to be at what time. So as soon as we boarded she whisked me and my bridesmaids off to my cabin and the groom went to one of his groomsmen’s cabin to get ready.

Once finally in our cabin (if you booked the Ocean Suite like we did…you’re going to LOVE it!!) we had a comfortable hour to get ready. All of your hair and makeup was already done so all we had to do was slip into our dresses. During this time the videographer called and came to do the pre-wedding interview with me and then he also visited my husband. Also, the photographer called to see when we would be ready and came at that time to take some pictures of us before the ceremony. Once that was all done, we headed down to meet the coordinator at the ceremony location. My bridesmaids had been in weddings before and it’s the same basic procedure so they didn’t go for the mini rehearsal which worked out perfectly fine because all the groomsmen and the groom went for that.

Ceremony

Our ceremony was held in the Limelight Lounge (loved it) so myself and the bridesmaids met the coordinator and the officiant outside of the lounge and the groomsmen and my brother (he walked me down the aisle) met us there. The officiant briefly reminded them of the flow of order and then the coordinator cued us all when to walk in. The ceremony was perfect! The officiant followed through with the poem and blessing we wanted to be included in the ceremony along with the vows and such. Then she added her own sweet personal quote at the end which was beautiful. We chose “Signed, sealed, delivered, I’m yours” to be played as we exited the ceremony (we brought it on our own CD) and they played it perfectly on time and it was the perfect touch to end the ceremony and how we felt!

After that we went back in and took pictures with family and the bridal party and then it was off to the reception!!

Reception

Right before going in, my bridesmaids quickly bustled my dress for me and then they went inside. We then walked in as the DJ announced us and went straight into our first dance (The Point of it All by Anthony Hamilton) which we also brought with us on our own CD for them to play because they did not have that song. After dancing for about 1 min and a half we had everyone join us on the dance floor and then kicked off the partying! The food display was beautiful and I only a had few bites of a couple things but everyone loved the food. Drinks were flowing and I stuck to clear beverages in fear of messing up my dress lol They played the music we requested which was a mix of top 40, lots of reggae (both sides of our family and lots of friends are of island decent) and group dance songs (the wobble, electric slide, cha cha side..etc). Everyone was having a blast!! I’m SO happy we booked the DJ because it was hands down the best reception location and it looked so nice. Closer to the end we did the cake cutting, the MOH and best man did their speeches and then we danced and socialized some more before doing the bouquet and garter toss which was also fun! As a last song, the DJ played “We are Family” to fit the joyous and loving vibe in the air, it was perfect. After the reception all of our non-sailing guests had to sadly leave (50 guests, 12 sailing with us). Then we started taking pictures of just us with the photographer.

Pictures & Video

Let me just say that we are IN LOVE with our pictures! They came out beautiful and our photographer did an amazing job! Everyone who has seen them so far seems to love them as well. I can’t speak for other ships but for the Breeze, expect to want ALL of your pictures and for them to turn out as a beautiful way to reminisce and look back on your day. We got the photo book that the photographer created which was wayyy better than we expected it to be because we previously planned to skip purchasing it…but when we saw it, we HAD to have it. The quality was impeccable. Then we also got some prints and all of our photos on a USB.

 

 

So, overall we had an AMAZING time on our wedding day with each other and our friends and family!! It was truly the best day of our lives thus far and couldn't be any happier with our decision to do a cruise wedding and to do it on the Carnival Breeze. If you have any questions I'd be happy to help as these boards were a huge help to me during the planning process. I'll try to keep checking back in ;)

Now I'm gonna work on attaching some pics for you all to see!

I had to request it from my wedding coordinator and they gave me 2 options to choose from. The straws I got from http://www.etsy.com/shop/angieheartsjared

and the cake ribbon my mom actually made she purchased the two different ribbons and rhinestones from a craft store then used fabric glue to put them all together.

That is so creative. Did you let your coordinator know ahead of time that you were bringing cake ribbon and the straws for the drinks?