NL2134

Holy Sh#@!... yeah, that's a big nasty bomb to drop when you are planning to marry someone. But, I agree, that it's better to find out now than later. And it sounds like you are probably better off without him. There is a difference between polygamy and being a cheating scumbag. True/successful polygamy requires a lot of honesty and openness... not just a guy sneaking around and sleeping with a bunch of women. If the women don't know what's going on, he's just a cheating bastard.

My heart breaks for you right now. If there is anything we can do to help, don't hesitate to ask.

:( I've so enjoyed reading your updates. Best of luck to you, too.

I just carried mine in a garment bag. On the way there, I was able to hang it in the front closet on both flights. I had considered setting appointment for steaming when I got to destination, but decided to just bring a travel steamer with me instead. It traveled very well and had minimal wrinkles, so the steamer worked great.

On the way back, my direct flight didn't have a closet. So, I had to roll it up and put it in overhead storage bin. Of course I wasn't as concerned about wrinkles on the way home, so that was fine, but it actually didn't wrinkle much anyway.

Yes, many planes will have closets, but it depends on airline and plane size. Southwest, Funjet, Allegiant and other discount lines typically don't have closets. There will usually be a closet if there is first class seats on the plane, but not always. And with the larger airlines, it depends on the plane type (which may depend on distance you travel... longer distance = larger plane). Smaller planes often won't have them. So, assuming you are on a plane that could have closets (larger airlines, larger plane), there is a good chance you can hang it, but no guarantees. So, it's best to be prepared for alternatives. My seamstress pinned my train up in a way that was supposed to help prevent wrinkling. You can also put tissue paper between the layers of the dress. That will help prevent wrinkling, especially if you need to roll it to put in overhead bins.

Never even though of Dave the date till this thread

A great idea indeed

How do you cope with only 50 percent response

Do rest play ball later on ?

 

 

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Luckily, most of the ones that didn't RSVP were people that we had already talked to in person and knew if they were attending. Or people that we knew really wouldn't be able to afford the trip, so we could safely assume they were not attending. And that was just the preliminary RSVP to give us some idea.

We received slightly better response with our final RSVP's, probably about 75% back. For the final RSVP's, we didn't even bother contacting people that didn't send them back if we knew they weren't coming. But, for people that we knew planned on coming, or those that were still unknown, we ended up contacting them to remind them to send their responses, mainly because our final RSVP also included the request for info required by cruise line (full name, birthdate, drivers license or passport number). That's made the RSVP much more critical than just a yes or no. There were a few people that we just ended up getting the info over the phone.

Darn, the wedding coordinator said 50 non-sailing is the absolute max. They can sometimes accomodate 1 or 2 last minute RSVPs but not always. Now back to my oringinal dilemma.... anyone ever heard of sending save-the-date cards with a pre-RSVP, just something asking people to let you know if they definitely CAN'T come so you can ivnite more?

I don't think it's necessarily totally etiquette approved, but I did send preliminary RSVP's with my STD's. I did boarding pass style STD's and included a RSVP postcard with options of yes, no, or I don't know yet. I made sure to explain the situation, that due to the wedding format, there are limited number of non-sailing guests allowed, so it is helpful for me to have an early idea of number of guests. I only received about 50% of them back, but I didn't push on it or call any non-response people afterward either. I figured with it not being the real RSVP, and being a year in advance, I didn't want to be rude and hound people about it. But, it did help narrow it down a lit. Really, by the time I sent out STD's, I already had an idea of who was planning to come. Either us or our parents had already talked to several extended family members about it directly, and they had already said they couldn't make it or they weren't sure yet. But, my port was also 1,000 miles away from most people, so they couldn't just decide last minute and I knew many of them didn't have time or money to make the trip. If it's only a few hours drive, it's not as big a deal for people to attend, therefore harder to get a read on who plans to go. We invited a total of 75 people, hoping for around 40, and knowing already (because they told us) that most couldn't attend. We ended up with 25 guests and only 12 of them sailed. But, like I said, the distance would have required significant travel & time off for all our guests.

STD's aren't an invite, but you should invite anyone you send them to. And you don't need to send them to everyone you plan to invite. I think you definitely need to try to cut back the list and definitely prioritize the list. I would advise against inviting more people than you can take, because it would be kind of rude to have someone RSVP yes, and then tell them they can't come because you are over limit. And some people won't know until closer to the date, because of work schedule or whatever. I would call your top VIP guests (parents, siblings, wedding party, etc) to determine if they plan to cruise or not. You should know what they plan. Then send STD's to top 50 on guest list. Give them a week or two, then call, text or e-mail them to get an idea of whether they plan to come or not. My sister did a private event page of Facebook as her STD and had it so people could respond on there if they were coming. If people say yes, you could call them to clarify if they plan to sail or just attend wedding. But, there are a lot of informal ways to contact people to get an idea of whether they plan to come.

Congratulations!

You've definitely come to a good spot for info. The info out there is somewhat limited on cruise weddings, but this forum is the best help ever. If you have any questions, there are awesome people here, or just peruse the past posts. There is a wealth of information in the old posts.

My best advice is to relax and enjoy the ride. Cruise weddings are a different animal and not for everyone. The one thing some people have trouble with is the lack of information. There are a lot of details you don't know until right before the cruise, so if you want to control every detail, cruise wedding will drive you crazy. But, if you can trust the system and let the ship/coordinators handle the little details, it's an awesome way to go. I dreaded having to plan every last detail, which is why we opted for a cruise wedding. And I trusted that they do this all the time and know what they are doing, and I gave myself permission to not stress over it. And my wedding was amazing. We couldn't imagine it being any more perfect than what we had. Hopefully your wedding turns out just as awesome.

Do what you want. And I think the invites should help portray the feel of the wedding, so I love the theme invites. People will generally use the invites to get an idea about the formality of atmosphere of the wedding. It's kind of a preview of what to expect. If it's a really formal invite, they will expect a really formal wedding, and dress appropriately. If invite is less formal, that means the wedding & attire are expected to be less formal.

My invites were certainly not typical wedding invites. And definitely not formal. I did boarding passes for Save the Dates and passports invites. I wanted something where I could relay all the info (travel/cruise/etc.) to everyone. They all loved them.

Also, just because you do theme invites, doesn't mean they can't still be formal or wedding-y or somewhat formal. I like the top black & white ones. They do still have a somewhat elegant feel to them. Or you could tone down the theme and do something a bit more subtle with just using the fonts and layout. Like with that top example, I'd probably skip "The Empire Gets Hitched" stuff. But, you could easily do the main invite part of it and still have it look elegant & formal. The theme is still there, and obvious to anyone that knows Star Wars at all, but subtle. Then I'd maybe make stickers with the symbols and use them to seal the envelopes or something.

And I love the save the dates you posted. You can totally go informal and more fun with save the dates... I'd definitely go all out Star Wars on those. Especially if you were to go more subtle with the theme in the invites.

But, if you want fully Star Wars themed invites, I say go for it. It's your wedding. And like I said, the invites are the preview into the wedding, so they should match the wedding atmosphere/decor.

I LOVE the idea of the Polaroid picture. I didn't want an ordinary book BC its so boring and I'll probably never look at it again. Also, its a small wedding and I'm expecting a put 20 guests is very close family. did you set up the Polaroid BC I just looked into it and its usually like 10 pictures to a roll..so did you designate someone to change the roll? Did you have someone take pics or let the guests take their own pics?

We had the Fuji Instax Mini camera. We actually just left it sitting on the table and let people figure it out. The film is in a little box and you just pop one box out, open the new package, and put a new box in and close the door. It's pretty simple and there are directions (in picture format) on the wrappers. I figured that we would just make sure to stop by the table when we saw several people there and could answer questions if needed. But, everyone figured it out very easily. My sister used the camera for her wedding (2 months after mine) and people figured it out there without any help also. The hardest part was probably getting adjusted to having to look through a viewing hole to take a picture again. After having screens to look at for aiming, the old school viewing hole is actually difficult to adjust to.

I think our book turned out awesome.

One biggest advice is to make sure you buy more than enough film. We had 25 people, but I had enough film for about 150 pictures, figuring people may want to redo the picture or keep some for themselves. Some people only took one picture per couple, some took one per person, and a few people (mainly my siblings) had fun with it and we have 5-6 pictures of them. My sister was trying to stay cheap and only had enough film for 1 picture per family... she ran out of film partway threw. There was another wedding at her venue that had rented a photo booth so some people hijacked the neighbors rented booth to add pics to my sisters book... I don't think the other bride was thrilled.

Also, keep in mind that it's not really cheap. The camera is about $100 (new) and film is about $0.75 per picture. With 20 guests, that's not too much film, but for my sisters 150 guests, it adds up.

Oh, and I put photo corners in my book in advance, so people could just take the picture and slide it into the corner things. The camera I got has 2 buttons to take pictures, one on top and one on side, so you can do it turned either way. Well, people took photos with various orientation... some vertical, some horizontal. My pre-set corner things were only one orientation. So, we have some pages where the polaroids are in there sideways. So, I'd avoid doing anything preset for adhering them to the book. Maybe use tape (my sister had them tape into a scrapbook with a variety of washi tape in her wedding colors) or have some other adhesive method that they can do themselves.

Well she has it and I am under strict orders not to lose weight or it will have to be taken in. Such a shame... why yes I will take fries with that shake, thank you lol

Yeah, I had that same problem... it's horrible! But, it was nice knowing that my dress fit perfectly (well, I had to have it shortened, but that's easy) and I didn't need to stress over pre-wedding dieting.

We had 25 guests, so it was fairly small. We made a Shutterfly book with our engagement & dating photos, leaving every other page blank. Then, we bought a polaroid camera and had each person take a photo of themselves and put it in the book with advice for a long and happy marriage.

Most of our guests have had long marriages. We had 4 couples that are 40+ years married. The only unmarried couple was my sister, who got married last month. Other than that, the shortest marriage among our guests was 10 years. So, we wanted to take advantage of that and get their marriage advice.

But, we now have a great photo album with our closest family & friends, filled with some great advice. And it made a great way to display & keep all our pre-wedding photos also. We created a matching Shutterfly book with our wedding/trip/cruise photos and display them together as a set.

I vote for number two. Seems a bit more wedding like to me. :) Also when you take it down it will give that reckless temptress effect. ;)

Yep, that is exactly what I was thinking. I go with #2 for same reasons.

Hey All!

Has anyone been married on the Victory? My wedding is taking place on this ship on 9/22 in Ocho Rios! I'm super excited. We have about 15 guest sailing with us. The only thing I've done thus far for us as a group is get shirts made that say "Mother of the Bride" etc. Any advice? I don't know what to expect..however this forum has been really helpful..so thank you all for posting. I am really nervous about everything. I just want it to turn out to be gorgeous as all the ones I've seen so far. How about part favors? Do or dont? An isle runner? I am a lil late being that we are about 8 days away from boarding and 10 days away from th e actual wedding but I'm sure I can express ship items if necessary.

 

How about th e newlywed game? Has anyone played upon their ship? How do you sign up? Did they allow u to play even if u weren't married just yet?

 

Anything at this point will be helpful.

 

Thanks :)

Yeah, like ImaginationCruiseBride, I also did tote bags with all sorts of goodies. We had a Welcome Party the night before the wedding, so handed them out there to avoid carrying them on ship. We had 2 that didn't go to the party, so we gave them during boarding. I got a little crazy with my bags because I slowly bought stuff for them over a year.

The bags included a small "Oh S$@% Kits" with bandaid, safety pin, Aleve, tums, small roll of duct tape; a "Hangover Kit" with aspirin and electrolyte hangover drink mix (we had a couple people use these the night before the wedding after drinking and the electrolyte mix was useful when one of the guests got sick); Post-it notes & pen (useful to leave notes on peoples doors); a magnetic clip (was super useful to hang Fun Times or other info on the wall), a outlet adapter (turns 1 plug into 3) that had a built in night light (last minute purchase because they were cheap - Target $1 area... a few people that had interior rooms loved the night light and most people liked the extra outlets to charge multiple phones/tablets), Snacks (like ICB, I went with many nautical theme snacks: Chips Ahoy, Lifesavers Candy, Goldfish Crackers), ginger candy (helps with nausea & sea sickness), lanyards for S&S card (EVERYONE used and loved these... people even offered to buy them from us), and Bubba travel mug (some people used them, some didn't). I tried to get decent priced items that people would actually use. I did pretty good because I think every item was used by someone during the trip.

Doing all of that, or any favors at all, is purely optional. And being so close to your wedding, I wouldn't stress over it or get too crazy. If you do anything, think the lanyards are probably your best option for something easy & simple (and inexpensive), because everyone finds them really useful on the cruise. But, I'm not a big fan of wasting money on favors that people will leave behind or just throw away. Most weddings I've been to gave favors that I either left there or threw away.

Otherwise, there is definitely something to be said for limiting the amount of stuff you have to carry and travel with. I travelled to the port city by myself, but luckily my MIL was willing to bring some of my stuff with her, and I shipped all the welcome bags to my hotel in advance (2 large boxes, totaling about 75 lbs. and costs $60 to 5-day ground ship). But, I still had to drag around two suitcases, tote bag, and dress & suit... it was a pain. You won't really notice most of the little things, like aisle runners or small décor, when you are there in the moment anyway, so I would skip those things if it's not really important to you. We didn't bring any extra decorations, besides ribbon & flowers for the cake, and it was all perfectly fine.

I'm not sure about the newlywed game. Our family was trying to tell us to do it, and we planned to at least go and watch, but we forgot about it and missed it. One of the other couples that got married on our ship participated though.

Ok thats what I was wondering. I had seen on someone else's post about the champagne and strawberries and wasn't sure if that was standard in the wedding package or not.

Yeah, if you look at the Carnival Weddings brochure stating what is included in the packages, all of them say "A bottle of sparkling wine and chocolate-dipped strawberries for the bride & groom's stateroom after the celebration". So that is a standard part of the Carnival wedding package.

I agree that you shouldn't completely cancel out Carnival as an option.

I got married a few month ago on the Carnival Dream. Originally, when we had decided on a cruise wedding, we said we would do any cruise line except Carnival, due to the rumors. When it came down to it though, it was the most financially feasible for our other guests. We either did a short cruise on a "better" cruise line or could do a better itinerary on Carnival. We had fallen in love with the idea of doing a Western Caribbean cruise. And the longer cruises also had their newest, most upgraded (and less likely to break down) ships. So we hesitantly decided that we would do the 7-day W.C. cruise on Carnival Dream. We had embarkation wedding in New Orleans, then had 12 other people sail with us on the 7-day cruise. Every single person (3 kids, 7 people in their 30's, 4 people in their 60's) had a great time. It was first cruise for half of them and they all love cruising now... a few already booked their next cruise. There were plenty of activities for people that wanted night life, casino, or relaxation. My husband and I found plenty of opportunities to enjoy our honeymoon on the ship. We spent a lot of quiet time on the Serenity (adult only) deck. We also got the spa access so we spent some time there. We got dressed up and had dinner at the steakhouse one night (best filet minon I've ever had), the pasta restaurant another... so we had a few private, semi-romantic meals.

Here's my experience/advice/tips for you:

1. We loved the Western Caribbean itinerary (Cozumel, Belize, Roatan)

2. Go on the newer ships have more upgrades or find one that has already had the 2.0 upgrades. In previous post you mentioned Valor, which I believe is scheduled to get upgrades in near future.

3. I've found that the longer cruises don't have as much of the stereotypical partying. Time of year also matters a lot. Most of the partying college kids are going to go for a few days and during school breaks. If you go in November, they are all in school, so less chance of it being too crazy. We went in late June and it still wasn't as much drunk partying as I would have thought.

Like others, we had our guests book individually through our PVP so they could at least be linked for dining. Our PVP put in a dining reservation up front for 50 people You can also call the dining number and set the reservation yourself and link everyone through them directly.

We found that everyone got better pricing booking individually than they would have through group booking. And most of the perks aren't that impressive. Even if we got discount off our room, I didn't think it justified making all our guests pay more to get it. Plus, the group booking didn't qualify for the same price guarantees. We managed to book early enough that everyone could book under early saver pricing, which offered much better rates and price guarantee than what group booking did. Probably the biggest factor in our decision was the price guarantee. I had been watching rates for same cruise a year before ours and right before the cruise, the rates dropped nearly to half what we were paying for our cruise. So, we were hopeful that our rates would go cheaper and wanted the price guarantee to take advantage of it.

Even our PVP said the group plan wasn't good if you book that far in advance. And letting everyone book individually just made things so much easier. I had enough on my plate with planning a wedding and I really didn't want to have to play travel agent and coordinate group bookings for everyone's trip too.

So, definitely look into all the factors before you decide to go with a group booking. It's not always the best option and can create some restrictions, which may not be desirable.

I think it took about 2 weeks for the coordinator to contact me... and I was married on the Dream in New Orleans also.

Like others said, the only form you need to worry about right now is the contract. After that, the entertainment/DJ form is a priority, since it's first come first serve, but I'm not sure if that pertains to you with the let us serve you package. Other than that, you don't need to send in anything until 4 weeks before the wedding... and it's best to wait in case you change you mind on something. But, it is definitely nice to see all the options up front, even just for curiosity sake.

When I booked, my first communication was an e-mail from weddings@carnival.com with the contract and, like, 16 attachments with info on NOLA boarding info, NOLA marriage license info, port directions, videographer, entertainment/DJ, Lido lunch form, Guest list form, cake choices, ceremony outline, formal wear rental, and hors d'oeuvres menu. This was sent by my wedding coordinator and had her contact info at the bottom of the e-mail. She also called me about a week later to make sure I had everything and see if I had any questions. About a week or two later, I received e-mail from The Wedding Experience with info on flower upgrades and more forms about boarding instructions.

But, the Carnival person was my main contact for wedding planning. I don't think I actually communicated with TWE at all, except via e-mail. The Carnival wedding coordinators are also the sales agents, and are assigned to particular ship. So, the e-mail you received probably is from your coordinator. Unless they changed in the last couple month, Gabby is the coordinator/agent for Dream. She was pretty good to work with from my experience. This is the person you will work with up until your wedding day. You may not receive anything from TWE until after you return the wedding contract to Carnival. But, don't hesitate to contact the wedding sales agent/coordinator if you have any questions before they contact you.

As far as ceremony outline & info, I received that in the initial e-mail with my contract. I was lucky that they sent me everything right at the start, but it sounds like not everyone gets that lucky. But TWE is actually in charge of everything related to the ceremony (ceremony, decorations, flowers), so they may be the ones to send you the ceremony outline. But, if you haven't received it, just ask the coordinator if they can send it to you.

I think we basically did $50 each for officiant and main wedding coordinator... the main people that got us married. Then $20 each for servers (I think there were 3), bartenders (2-3), DJ, and wedding host (was kind of like a secondary coordinator). We hadn't intended on tipping each waiter & bartender individually, but they did such a great job that my husband wanted to make sure they each got a good tip.

Carnival left chocolate strawberries & champagne in our room first night. Oh, and the first day/night our towel animals were a pair of swans in a heart shape with red rose petals in it. Other than that, you are on your own for decorations.

Wow this thread was so informative! I'm going on my first cruise (alaska, carnival legend) in September 2015 (yes still a year away!) and I'm going with other first-time cruisers so we need all the advice we can get! I'm a major planner and have complied a great list from this entire thread, but I have a few questions if anyone knows the answers:

 

1. On top of the prepaid tips, how much is expected by the stewards?

 

2. For the nightly shows, do you need to book these ahead of time or do you just show up?

 

3. Because we've never cruises I don't know about seasickness. I see recommendations to take bonine. ..should you take this the night before boarding or an hour before? When really should you take preventative medicine for it?

 

Thanks so much to everyone who contributed to this thread! I'm so excited to join this cruising club :)

1. The pre-paid tips (or standard tips they include in your bill) are used for wait staff, cleaning, room stewards... everyone. Any tips above that are completely optional. On my first cruise, we didn't do any additional tips. On my last cruise, we started the week by tipping our room steward. Then he was so awesome that we tipped him again at the end of the cruise. I think he got about $40-50 total. We also provided additional tips to our main dining waiters at the end of the cruise because they were really great too.

2. Nightly shows do not need to be booked in advance, you just show up. But, the lines can get very long before show time, so show up early. I'd say about 20 minutes early. On my last cruise, we missed a few shows we wanted to see because they filled up before we got there.

3. I'm not sure I'd recommend preventative seasickness meds, unless you know that you tend to get motion sick. Most of the medications can make you drowsy or have other side effects, so you don't really want to do it unless you actually need to. I'd rather enjoy my trip and not be on medication that makes me want to sleep all day. Dramamine or Bonine are effective options and I've heard different people recommend each one. But, definitely bring something in case you need it. Most of these ships are large enough and stable enough that most people don't get sick, unless there is inclement weather that causes unusually severe movement. Myself and anyone I've cruised with has only ever needed to take something if there was a storm. But, if there is a storm, they can quickly run out of it at customer service or in the medical bay on the ship, so bring your own. Another treatment option, without the drowsiness and side effects, is ginger. They make ginger candy or gum, which aren't bad and can calm nausea. We brought some along on our last cruise, but never needed them. They also work on land if you get nauseas and I've heard they are highly recommended for morning sickness, or even nausea caused by flu.

This is advice I've heard for typical brides also, but bring something to snack on. My husband is the type to get really cranky when he's hungry, so we planned ahead on this one. We did pack some snacks in our carry-ons just in case. But we had decided that we wanted to join our guests quickly for lunch in the buffet prior to getting dressed, because we knew we would need to eat during the long day, but there's not much time for it. We boarded on time (about 11am), dropped our stuff in our cabin, had about 15 minutes to eat, then we were still rushed on getting dressed. But, at the reception we were so busy talking to people and enjoying our reception that I don't think either of us ever touched the reception food. I did eat some fruit, but that was it. But, if we hadn't eaten at the buffet, it would have been a very long day until dinner. And there's no guarantee that you will have time to go to the buffet before ceremony, so plan to have some type of snack to munch on while getting ready so you aren't having to chow down a full meal at the reception and can spend more time mingling with your guests. And if you don't eat enough or plan for snacks, 8pm dinner is a long way off with a lot of energy consuming craziness filling the day.

And I certainly agree with taking ALL of your paperwork. I had put together a book with all of my contracts and travel info for the trip. I used an art portfolio that had plastic sheet protector things in it, but a binder or anything like that would work. But, I had all my flight info in it, travel insurance, hotel info w/confirmation numbers, cruise booking info, all wedding contracts & documents, our vows, marriage license instructions & application, birth certificates (needed for marriage license), passports, excursion booking info, flight & ship boarding passes... basically any important info we could need. But, then that book never left me or was locked up, since it had all our critical info and documents. I was terrified of losing it. My hotel didn't have a safe, so it stayed in our suitcase with luggage locks at all times. And it was in the safe on the ship... although ship safe isn't too secure either. Ours got stuck closed and maintenance guy was able to open it with just a screwdriver in under 15 seconds. :eek:

I also made a "cheat sheet" that had our flight confirmation numbers & itineraries, ship confirmation & itinerary, hotel info & confirmation numbers, travel insurance policy number, and phone numbers for all of the above. I also had phone numbers for my banks & credit card companies. It was very useful to have a quick reference for all that info.

And I took photos with my phone of all important contracts/forms, passports, drivers licenses, birth certificates, credit cards (front & back), medical insurance cards, my cheat sheets, etc. and saved them in my phone. That way if things got lost, or we got stuck in a port or something (without our passports or whatever), we had that info right there on that phone if needed.

Another tip that actually came in handy in the port city pre-cruise. My hotel had their guest info book in the hotel room (typical for every hotel I've stayed at) with useful info. One of those pages had phone numbers for local taxi companies. I decided to take a photo of that page, just in case I needed it. I used a taxi to get to my hair/makeup trial on other side of town and when I needed to call to have taxi come pick me up, it was useful to already have the numbers in my phone. I could have searched online or whatever to find the numbers, but this worked great.

A more wedding related one, be prepared for sales tactics with the photos. At the time I was aware they were doing it, but still let myself get sucked in. First, they set our appointment to look at photos for 10pm. So, you're tired and may not want to sit there for hours selecting which photos to buy. Then of course they start high on prices and negotiate. You can be prepared with the price list they provide before hand, but that's not all the packages they offer, so they will try to upsell you or customize a package. She offered us the full package with all photos, all extras, the books, etc. It was more than we wanted to spend, so we started looking through to select which photos we wanted, then she says she has other things scheduled that night and was willing to drop the price for the full package, so we didn't need to spend the time selecting photos. I recognized the sales tactic at the time, but also was tired and wanted to just get it over with (which was her plan). We talked her down on price and bought everything.

Looking back, I'm glad we bought all the images & got digitals of everything, but wish we had skipped some of the extras. The 2 canvases are still sitting under our bed, and will likely remain there, maybe forever. Partially because we don't need that many large prints, and partially because we rushed to select images and they aren't my favorites. I do like the large 24"x36" metal print, which is hanging in our living room. I like the metal print a lot more than canvas. I love the quality of the books, and they really are laid out great, but I wish they were more all-inclusive of our trip. Especially since we did a beach photo shoot later in the cruise, so I wish the book could have included those in it. We really don't use the books since they only show part of our wedding experience. I think doing the additional beach photo shoot messed it up for us. I think if we hadn't done that, we probably would have been completely satisfied with the books showing our wedding. But, some of our favorite posed wedding photos are on the beach, so the books just seem incomplete now. If it could show all our photos, I think I would say it might worth the high cost. But, since we wanted something that had the wedding and both posed photo shoots, we ended up spending $50 to make a Shutterfly book and just show that off to everyone now, and our amazing $1500 books are sitting in a closet. But, in the Shutterfly book, we also were able to include pre-wedding photos of wandering around port city, hair/makeup photos, ship boarding, cruise photos, excursions, and everything that we feel encompasses our "wedding", because to us that includes the whole trip, not just those few hours. You can't include all that in the ships book because their photographer isn't there for all of it. So, if you want an all-inclusive book, skip theirs, buy the digital photos, and make your own book at home.

For hair/makeup artists, I think I just google searched wedding stylists in my port city (New Orleans) and looked at the local New Orleans forums on The Knot. Both searches had one particular name come up as recommended, so that's who I went with. I checked out their website, liked that they did more natural looking makeup, and liked their price... and they did an amazing job for my wedding. I still looked like me and had so many compliments on my makeup and my husband now thinks I need to wear full makeup more often. I think I booked my hair/makeup about 6 months before my wedding. I don't think you NEED to do it that early, but I have heard that the better artists can book up so it's better to do it early.

That last few months, when everything is really done and there's no wedding planning needed, can be frustrating. I felt like I should be doing something. So, I put my focus on doing welcome bags. And I put together a mailing that I sent out about 3-4 weeks before wedding that had boarding info, schedule of events, things to do in port city, maps of ship & port city, etc. For sailing guests I included info for the various cruise ports. I also ordered free visitors guides to be sent to each guest from the local visitors center. So, instead of wedding planning, I put my effort into making things easier for my guests.

And I researched and booked some group excursions in the cruise ports, for those that wanted to participate (12 of us swam with dolphins in Cozumel, 8 did cave tubing in Belize).

I also put too much effort and thought into my accessories, because I had time and nothing else to do. And a lot of thought into our wedding songs.

Unfortunately, my husband made it pretty clear that he wanted my dress to be white. He actually stated that he wanted real white, but he didn't even notice the difference with my ivory dress. But, I did bring in a pop of color with a blue sash that went long in the back. Although, I know he would have been happy regardless of what I was wearing.

And my sister-in-law wore a dress similar to the attached photo for her wedding 12 years ago. Still white, but with a lot of red in it.

I actually love the idea of a colored dress. Some people may think it odd, but there really isn't any reason it has to be white. And the white dress is actually a fairly new tradition, only starting in the early to mid-1900's. Prior to that brides just wore whatever best dress they had in their closet. And for most of history, blue was the symbolic color of purity, not white, so there goes that reasoning also. The big white wedding dress is actually a recent "tradition" created by the wedding industry to get women to spend more money, as are most of the typical wedding "traditions" today. If you look into it, many of the things we think are tradition for weddings were actually started around 1950-1960's by the wedding industry. So, if people question a colored dress choice, there is a lot of historical basis to justify your decision, not that you should need to explain your choice to anyone.

That is a great idea! The scavenger hunt idea also probably helped get some special photos that were quite creative and unique!

The scavenger hunt had them going to all the critical areas of the ship (buffet, main show room, main dining, adult only area, spa, casino, laundry, etc.), so they knew early in the cruise where to find everything. We had them take photos of name plate on each floor, photo of masquerade mask (in main show room), how much is laundry, find a nautical themed slot machine, bring back a drink umbrella. Also things like, photos of someone wearing life vest (so they know where to find them), where are the lifeboats, photos of sign for your muster station, etc. We also had them meet critical people, like "what it your room stewards name & where are they from?", "who is you waiter in main dining room?", "names of people in cabin across hall from you". Then some fun ones, like a person wearing tropical shirt, someone wearing socks with sandals, someone with New Orleans clothing (port ship left from), photo of dolphins (who often follow ships), or photo of sunrise or sunset.

We had them do it in teams of two people and had gift cards for top 2 teams (4 gift cards total). There were some really fun photos that came from it. I mean, it doesn't get much better than a 4-year old in a large life jacket. Or my brother & sister-in-law with tropical umbrella drinks. They probably wouldn't have photographed it otherwise, but it's a great photo & memory. And some people got really creative to achieve the tasks. Everyone who participated had a lot of fun with it, and those that didn't do it ended up wishing they had. And I was able to find plenty of info online to write scavenger hunt tasks specific to our ship.

Good point by NL2134. Sorry it did not work for you as it did for me. I have not had photos back from ALL the guests but enough it worked out. I fully expected to have to ask directly after and did so by coffee invites one person at a time. A bulk email is too easy to ignore -- my face less so. I would think you are still within the window this 'cherry picking' technique will work. I hope so.

 

I did not have a plan B as you did for photos but also knew I could 'pressure' two sisters as needed.

 

Best of luck with this.

 

Later,

M

Luckily the one person I did get photos from took about 250 photos, so between that and the ship photographer we got all the important shots. But, knowing there are other, unseen photos out there just makes me curious to see how they look.

And I actually USPS mailed the request to everyone, rather than bulk e-mail, figuring that would be more effective than anything digital. I printed 5x7's of photos and sent each person every decent photo I have with them in it. So, each person got 5-10 photos of them from the wedding. Some were pro shots, some were candid shots. And I had a message in there, wrapped around the photos, basically saying "I shared mine, now please share yours" (written more politely and eloquently than that though) and listed multiple options for uploading it.

I agree that the trick is getting the photos before they leave the ship. The one person I did get photos from, I did download them before end of the cruise. From what I saw, it looks like the people that had cameras out most were our non-sailing guests, so that would have been harder to get before they left. We would have had to do it during reception and none of them brought phone cords to the wedding. And unfortunately, most of those people live in different part of country than me, so arranging a get together with them to get the photos isn't an option.

My brother did take a lot of video, and plans to give it to us, but they want to edit it and clean it up first. Which is understandable, but I wouldn't mind seeing the uncut version also. I kind of want to see how the ceremony looked from the outside. And we had told our dance teacher that we would show him video of our first dance (which we messed up on a lot, but played it off so nobody noticed). But, I guess it just gives us something more to look forward to.

@cruisinthrough, I like your idea of making a game out of it. We had made a photo scavenger hunt for first day at sea and I gave cruise ship gift cards as prizes. Then they were able to use the cards toward their account, drinks, photos, or whatever. A few people chose not to participate and were kind of upset that they didn't when they realized there was money on the line.

The one problem with that plan is that you actually need your guests to send you their photos. We got married 2 months ago. I know most of our guests had camera (phones, ipads, etc) out at our ceremony (we have photographer photos to prove this). A month ago, we even sent all guests all the photos we had of them from the wedding with note to please send us all your photos and videos from the wedding, either by uploading to Shutterfly, Facebook, our FTP storage, or e-mailing them to us. We did have my brother taking photos also (we had arranged ahead of time for him to take certain photos, so he was kind of like our secondary photographer), and my sister-in-law did a beach photo shoot for us at one of the cruise ports, and we received their photos before end of cruise. But, I haven't received anything from anyone else. And I know a few of them video taped the whole ceremony, which I would love to see since we didn't hire a videographer.

So, if you plan to depend on guest photos, it may be a good idea to plan ahead with one or two people to make sure they get some of the must have photos you really want. I really wanted photo of groom as I walked in, so I had permanent record of the look on his face, so I had asked my brother to make sure he got this shot, which is good because the ship photographer focused on me, not groom. And sister-in-law got a lot of good photos at the reception of cake, food, guest book table. So, it's good to have one person that plans to get some of these shots for you.