NL2134

Thank you so much for your reply. Do you know how to contact a PVP?

If you don't already have one assigned to you from previous cruise, you can just call Carnival's main number to get one. They are just booking agents, and after you take a cruise you get assigned one so they can call you and try to convince you to cruise again. And as long as you don't book through a different method, you will stay assigned to the same person. I searched online and found a few names/phone numbers of recommended ones, which isn't easy to do because you aren't supposed to put their names & info on forums, and contacted one of them directly.

If you give me your e-mail address, I can send you the contact info for the PVP that I used. She was really awesome and even called me and all my guests after the cruise to see how it went.

You are so sweet! I hate using the term "pre-engaged", like I'm trying to horn in on someone else's spotlight, but it's the only thing that fits at this point.

 

I ended up on this board because I was hoping to find some tips on romantic things to do or special experiences not to miss on our upcoming cruise. I have only ever cruised as a single mom, and have never even paid attention to romantic stuff around me onboard... And this will be his first cruise ever! My son heads off to college next week, and Mom is finally getting to live like a grownup. :D And I just want this cruise to be as special as possible. I figured the folks planning their weddings and honeymoons onboard a cruise would know a thing or two about shipboard romantic stuff. ;)

 

I'm so excited to follow your wedding plans! And I would *love* the website with the rings, and anything else you'd like to share. Just shoot me an email at crazy4disney@gmail.com and I'll be happy to share the SW stuff I've found too. :)

 

　

-gina-

　

 

 

　

Having just come back from my wedding cruise (it was my 2nd cruise but his first cruise), if you are looking for romantic things to do, here are my suggestions:

1. Make reservations at the specialty restaurant. We had debated whether or not to pay for food when there was so much free food around, but we were so glad we did. It was nice to have a quiet dinner with just the 2 of us. And the food there was AMAZING. It was honestly the best filet minon I've ever had in my life, and I've eaten at some pretty high end places.

2. Other than that, we really didn't do too much that would be considered really romantic. We did spend some time on the adult only deck cuddled up in a chair together, especially early morning or late night. Mainly just watching the ocean, looking at stars (which were more difficult to see than I had expected due to the bright ships lighting), chatting, or just sitting there. We really just spent time together doing nothing during a lot of the cruise... it was wonderful.

3. You can usually call dining services before the cruise and request a 2 person table in dining room, if you'd rather eat alone instead of with strangers. I'm not sure they can guarantee it, but it never hurts to ask. Although, eating with others isn't really a bad thing either.

Oh, and Red84, those rings are AWESOME! I'm actually getting kind of jealous of your wedding. :p

Welcome! If you are thinking about cruise wedding, this forum is a wealth of knowledge and has some great people (past, current, & future brides/grooms) to help answer questions.

There are multiple options for booking everyone, and some of that decision may depend on how many people you plan to join you on the cruise. We had planned about 40-50 guests (ended up with 25: 12 sailed, 13 non-sail) for our embarkation wedding. We looked into group booking. You don't need to pay everything up front, but the deposits for all rooms usually do need to be paid at time of booking (amount can vary if they have sales). On Carnival, I believe you need to book min. 8 rooms for group. And you need to know for sure who is cruising and have everyone ready to book at same time. We ended up with only 6 cabins. And everyone had their own timeframe for when they wanted to book the trip. But, we had already decided to have everyone book on their own anyway because group bookings don't qualify for the price drop guarantees, which we were hoping would lower the costs. Plus, it just seemed so much easier to let everyone handle it themselves, rather than me having to be the travel agent. We did work with an awesome Carnival Personal Vacation Planner (PVP) and gave everyone her information so they could book cruise directly through her. That worked out great for us. She made sure all our bookings were linked, we were all seated together at dinner, and she let me know when people had booked. Then everyone was responsible for getting their own flight, which most people can handle. For hotels prior to cruise, all of our guests were looking for different type of hotel (some wanted cheap, some wanted luxury, some wanted B&B), so we ended up leaving that to each person also, rather than doing room block (we only had max. of 2 rooms at any hotel).

Having a travel agent or some sort of booking contact is a good idea, because they can be responsible for answering questions and not leave you playing trip planner for the whole group. We still had some people come to use for all their questions, but having a professional helped relieve some of the stress from us.

OP, I love everything you have posted here!! And as has already been said, your wedding is just that -- YOURS. Do what makes the two of you happy. And I *love* those rings!!!

 

I hesitated to post here -- I am only "pre-engaged"... the BF and I talk about it all the time, and it is inevitable, but we want to take our time. And I know he wants to surprise me. :) Maybe on our Valentine's Day cruise next February??

 

Anyways, we are both bonafide geeks, and HUGE Star Wars fans, and have already said we definitely want SW elements in our wedding wherever it happens. If he's not already a member of the 501st by then (those costumes are *expensive*!!), we're at least going to have some 501st Stormtroopers at our wedding.

 

If you're on Pinterest, I've been amassing all sorts of "SW wedding" stuff on a hidden board that I'd be happy to share with you!! (My different wedding boards are hidden because we don't want a million questions from our friends and family, lol) :rolleyes:

 

I'm going to follow this thread -- I can't wait to see what else you come up with! And may the Force be with you!! :D

 

 

-gina-

I agree that it's a good idea to keep wedding pinterest boards hidden, no matter the stage of wedding planning. I wanted some of my wedding to be a surprise to my guests. If you post everything on public boards, they will know every detail before they even get to the wedding, which isn't fair to them or you. I did have one public wedding board that had more generic wedding stuff (like cruise wedding links), but I created hidden boards for 'wedding look' (hair, makeup, dress), 'OOT bags/favors', 'cake & decoration', and a 'hidden wedding misc'. I invited my sister/MOH to access the look board, but nobody ever saw the other boards except me.

Hello! We are looking to book our wedding on the Carnival Dream. I have seen the price lists that you ladies have graciously posted.

 

Does anyone have a list of flower upgrades? Does Carnival do any upgrades on aisle runners, offer centerpieces or any type of chair covers? I don't want to lug anything extra onboard except my bouquet and attire. I'm sure by the time our date gets here I will be bringing more, but that's my dream plan as of right now.

 

Thank you in advance.

I got married in June on the Dream... I personally had an amazing wedding on that ship, so think it's a great choice. And the people I worked with before and at the wedding were all wonderful to work with and very helpful. And the day-of coordinator we had, Jill, was absolutely amazing and I could never say enough good things about her.

If you give me your e-mail address, I can forward you all of the NOLA flower upgrade info they gave me (it won't let me upload them due to file size). I can also send you ALL of the many forms & options they gave me, if you would like. And I also have photos of the venue sites I can send. Some of the packages, prices & info has changed since I booked, but it's still helpful to see what they offer and what options you have.

Or here is the address for The Wedding Experience website they gave me, where they show a lot of upgrade, favor, and extras options and pricing:

https://www.theweddingexperience.com/catalogue.php

Awww... thank you! :o I'm glad that I'm able to help some of the upcoming cruise brides, because I know that I received a lot of help on this board when I was planning. You now have me very anxious to see how your wedding turns out and see photos. I was already planning to stick around on the cruise wedding forum to help upcoming brides, but now with the Star Wars theme, you just gave me even more motivation to stick around.

I love the dress! And I also like it even more that you will see the awesome shoes. And having the black & red sash makes it all come together perfectly. I had blue snakeskin shoes and a blue beaded sash. When I got the shoes, a few people thought the shoes weren't wedding-y enough, but they really went well when the whole outfit came together. I had the blue sash, blue jewelry, and blue flowers, so the blue in the shoes was perfect to help bring that pop of color into the whole ensemble. Even the people that had tried to talk me out of them thought they were perfect, when it all came together. And the little pops of color, looked super amazing in my photos. So, after that experience, I really think your shoes are perfect, especially with that dress, even if you didn't do the themed wedding.

If you and your man agree with the theme wedding, that's all that matters. Others may be hesitant about it at first, but most people will be accepting because they will want you to have the wedding of your dreams. And if it makes you feel any better, we were a bit hesitant about what people would think of me walking down the aisle to Metallica, but the people that recognized the song absolutely loved it. Besides my dress, that was probably the most complimented thing at our wedding. So, people do tend to like the unusual and appreciate the risks. And really, who DOESN'T like Star Wars? I could see where our 70-year-old parents wouldn't like Metallica. But Star Wars? There's not much risk there. :D

I would probably recommend just doing a taxi. It really is the best way to get around NOLA. And being so close, it shouldn't cost much.

Your hotel is near the streetcar line, which does stop at cruise port, but the streetcars can get pretty crowded and I wouldn't want to ride it carrying luggage and all my wedding stuff. Although, that part of the line isn't as busy and it's only next stop down, so it may be an option. But, it also won't drop you right at the port door, like taxi would, so you still will have some walking with all your stuff. It may be a feasible option for non-sailing guests that aren't dragging luggage, though.

For my wedding, some our non-sailing guests took taxis. Several of our guests drove to NOLA, so they just drove themselves to the port. They have a small visitor & employee parking area next to the port that can be used for non-sailing guests. My parents drove their van, so we actually used that to make a couple trips to drop people off. I went with my sister to the port (her FI was non-sailing & had car). My husband & dad took the van to drop off my mom & brother at port, then went to pick up husbands parents & sister from their hotel. Then they parked at the port for the duration of the cruise. In hindsight, we probably should have just used taxis to get husbands family there, because making multiple trips and all the running around was hectic and the last group (including my husband) got there late right before we boarded.

OMG I remember these I had one in blue, used to beat up my big brother with it till my dad ran it over with his car :eek:. I just read on the Carnival website that any toy that looks like or can be used as a weapon cannot be brought on board...I think I will still ask my coordinator. If it turns out we cant have our Light saber Arch we will live but it would be soooo much fun. We are planning on shipping out of New Orleans hopefully its not so uptight there ;)

I love the idea! My husband wanted to keep our wedding relatively traditional, so that ruled out anything like that. We are big Star Wars fans also and debated using the theme for our song as we left the ceremony, but changed our mind last minute and went with Beautiful Day by U2. I actually had made CD's for both songs and we didn't make final decision until after we got to the port... I walked down the aisle to Metallica, and we didn't want to get too crazy with it.

And I LOVE the shoes. I am a believer that shoes are a great way to have fun and personalize the wedding. And since most people won't even see them , unless you have short dress, you can have a lot of fun and get a crazy with them.

I got married about 7 weeks ago in New Orleans. This is just my experience, but I don't remember security being bad there at all. We went through security really quickly and they didn't even open one bag. They did open our 12-pack of soda to make sure we weren't stashing beer cans in there, but that is the only thing they checked in our luggage.

So, definitely ask your wedding coordinator about the light sabers. But, if you want to risk it, get cheap ones that you wouldn't be too upset about if they confiscated them.

I am sitting on the Lido deck waiting to debark. I will get a review up in a couple days. 2. Quick things when things seem impossible (our wedding coordinator was a no show) it all works out beautifully and 2. Double your budget for the photos...I was so sure I could resist...but we spent double what we budgeted.

Congratulations! I'm glad that you were able to go with the flow and take problems in stride... that really is the biggest secret to having a happy wedding.

And I totally agree with the photos... we had originally budgeted $1000, then raised that to $2000 after seeing reviews on here about budgeting more. Then when we saw the photos, we ended up buying the whole package (books & all) for $4000. Although, some of that was because my parents had offered that morning to contribute $1500 toward photos. So, yeah, we probably could have stuck to the $2k budget and saved money (okay, a LOT of money), but it was nice being able to just take everything and not struggle over choosing. Honestly, I wish we had held back a little and gone somewhere in the middle. We have our large metal print on the wall, but the canvases are still rolled up under our bed. And we really don't have space, or really even desire, to have that many large wedding prints in our home. And I LOVE the photo books, but I made a shutterfly book that incorporates all of Carnival's photos, my photos, and guest photos for pre-wedding, ceremony, reception, and the cruise. And I use that to show everyone photos, since it is all inclusive of what I consider to be my wedding (getting nails done with the girls, hair & makeup, sightseeing pre-cruise, and the cruise itself), and not just the ceremony & reception. But, although I could live without some of the specialty materials (you can always get large prints & books made at home), I don't regret buying all of the photos & digital rights to them at all. There are some that, if we had cut back & selected photos, I know we would have passed up I'm glad we have. Like there is one of my SIL & her family, they aren't looking at camera, not a great photo but not horrible, but we definitely would have passed on buying it. But after looking through everything, it is the ONLY photo we have of any of them at the reception, so I'm really glad we have it. So, if you can fit it in budget to at least buy all the prints & rights, I'd certainly recommend it... it's hard to say no when you are so psyched while looking at the photos for the first time.

I agree with above post re laundry and chargers. Any holiday heading towards two weeks I do laundry. Those couple of hours out of it and back to normality are a good leveler.

 

Be careful with the USB splitters, with most items charging off micro usb or Apple plugs these day's. Not all chargers output enough power to charge tablets and I know I can't charge my camera from my higher output chargers, that needs a low power charger. Last thing you need is to get a few day's out and the camera runs out of juice.

 

Sent from my mobile with a little luck and a trailing wind.

Agreed! On one of the first trips I tried using a multi-usb adapter, it worked for my phone, but not my tablet. Luckily on that trip I had also brought all of the proper plugs for each device, so I had backup charging options. On my last cruise, I had brought a new one that had 3 electrical outlets and 2 USB ports. The USB would charge phone & tablet, but didn't find out until on the cruise that it didn't work for my battery backup pack, so we had to live without that for the week. I just bought a 5-way usb adapter that has 3 standard 1A ports and 2 special ports that are supposed to detect what amperage the device needs and output accordingly. It's only been a few days, but so far I haven't had any problems with it charging my devices. I'm going out of town next week so figured I'd try it out for a week at home before the trip to make sure it works fine for each device before trusting it.

Unlike, Carnival_Brides, they had us cut into the top tier of the cake... so maybe there isn't a standard? :confused: And I know they served the top tier first at our wedding, because we had the bottom tier with the piping on it at dinner each night. You may want to ask your about coordinator this one. I wonder if which tier to cut has anything to do with type of cake topper you use? Or just make sure you know which tier has the flavor you want and make sure you cut into that tier, since it seems you can cut either one. If it doesn't matter which tier you cut, I'd probably make the larger tier whatever flavor you think will be most popular, so there is more of it to go around... or make the larger tier your favorite, so you have more of that one to eat at dinner each night.

They will bring you the cake at dinner every night to finish off during the cruise, but you cannot take it off the ship or take it home. And I didn't do it, but I think you can have room service bring some to your room also.

We went with vanilla cake with Bavarian crème filling for both tiers... and it was amazing. From everything I've heard and all the reviews I've read, I don't think you can go wrong with any flavor or filling. I don't think I've seen a bad review yet about how the cakes taste.

After weeks of on-and-off reading, I have finally finished reading all the pages!

Now, my input. Take everything you read with a grain of salt, what works for someone might not work for you.

 

My last cruise was in 2010, RCI. My then BF, now DH, and I did not do any research or pack anything special, just what we would normally take for a 4 day vacation. Clothes, toiletries, meds, and that's it. Did not need anything else, and we were just fine without an over the door shoe organizer.

 

Our next cruise is NCL in December and we are super excited! Since this one is 7 days with 4 stops compared to 4 days 2 stops, we are doing a little bit more research on the ports and what we want to do, but I will probably pack the same way, not going out and buying anything else.

 

My biggest tip would be enjoy your vacation to your fullest, only you can make it the best ever. Also get off the beaten path, we stopped in Nassau and left the main street and found an awesome restaurant, cute little shops, and other places that were not packed with tourists.

 

DH says "bang a lot" :cool:

The only things I really bought special for my latest cruise were items that condensed space or reduced packing. Like, I bought a USB converter/splitter that allows you to plug in multiple USB devices into one outlet, so we could plug in both phones, tablets, etc. in one outlet... plus we didn't need to bring all of those plug adapters for each device. But, I agree there really isn't much need to buy a bunch of additional stuff.

And I tried to reduce my packing as much as possible. We did 7 day cruise with about 5 days trip before and 2 days after, so it was total of 2 week vacation. We each only brought 7 outfits. We did laundry at our hotel right before cruise, because they offered free washer & dryer, so that meant less laundry to do on the ship. Then we did laundry about 1/2 way through the cruise. We had come back onboard early at one of the port days, so I figured that was a good day to get it done, which it was. Spending time doing laundry was worth it to avoid bringing twice as much luggage. I brought Purex 3-in-1 laundry sheets, which have detergent & fabric softener in one sheet (looks like dryer sheet). They were super easy to use, did a good job, and were amazingly convenient for the trip. I had bought a box of 20 sheets and just brought a few in a quart size ziplock bag, so they took up almost no space. I will definitely be using these again on future trips. Oh, and we also learned to split the load up into 2 dryers and it will dry much quicker (I had all our laundry done in under an hour).

Did you have a member of your party put the ribbon on, or how did you decorate your cake to make it more personal?

One of the wedding coordinators put the decorations (ribbon & silk flowers) on our cake for us. I couldn't get my flower topper to come out how I wanted it, so I just brought a bunch of silk flower petals (matched my bouquet) and figured we'd work it out somehow. They took all my decorations prior to boarding and by the time we got to reception, the coordinators had set us the guest book table & put the ribbon & flowers on the cake. And they did a great job at it... especially considering I didn't give them much direction on it... I basically handed them stuff and said to make it pretty. Actually, I think I even had 3 different widths of that same ribbon in the box I gave them, so they had to choose the best ribbon size and figure out how to arrange the flowers.

When we boarded I had made sure to put all the reception stuff in a separate suitcase. So, before boarding, when the coordinator wanted the stuff for reception (favors, guest book, etc) & cake decoration, I was able to just hand her that whole bag, which made it really easy.

Carry on the carry on bags. On our first cruise, DW insisted on checking our carry ons. I wanted to bring them with us. Guess which bags got left at the port? And guess which bags had the medications? Princess was really good and got replacement meds for us at the next port. I will never let DW live it down. Tell that story on every cruise after that one.

 

 

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Yikes! I always make sure to carry on any meds & valuables (on plane, cruise, whatever). Even if it's just those few items in a small backpack or shoulder bag. But, if you can't live without it or would be devastated to lose it, don't ever trust it to checked bags, even if it may be less convenient to carry around all day.

A lot of people will carry on a change of clothes and everything, just in case. I don't usually go that far (I can live a couple days in same clothes if needed or buy at gift shop), but my medications, electronics, and jewelry are always in the carry on. Losing clothes would be inconvenient, but not as devastating as the essential items that can't be replaced at gift shop.

On my last trip, my carry on was one of those cheap draw-string backpacks. It was great for carry on of critical items. It was light, easy to carry around, could easily fit my essential items (it can fit more than you would think), and most of the time I forgot I even had it on. And during the trip, it was nice for ports & walking around town because it could fit the essential items (ID, money, sunscreen, map, book) and items are secure (nobody can easily pick pocket it and since it's over both arms it can't be snatched as easily as a purse - although the straps could pull out or break still), and it was useful for throwing souvenirs into after purchasing. But, it's my new favorite trip bag. Even on short trips where I'm only taking carry-on luggage, I'll still throw this in there for use around town.

I'm not sure about having Carnival handle just the reception (we did embarkation wedding), but I do know that anyone can book a private party through Carnival (min. 20 people), even if it's not for wedding. We had looked into hosting a separate cocktail party for our guests toward the end of the cruise, just to reconnect with everyone before going home. Here's the info I received from Carnival's Group Event Planner:

Good afternoon

Thank you for choosing Carnival Cruise Lines for your group's travel plans.

As requested, attached please find our Carnival Entertains menu. Kindly note there is no charge for children under 5 years of age. In order to schedule a party onboard, you must purchase one of our Party Packages for a minimum of one hour in length. All adults must purchase one of the Open Bar Parties, with all minors over the age of 5 purchasing a Non-Alcoholic Bar.

We do not charge for the venue, but there may be additional fees audio/visual equipment (depending on your needs), any technician services that are required for your event, and/or for the food and beverages purchased.

Before private event space can be reserved, you must have full deposits paid for a minimum of 20 guests. The following information is also required in order to schedule onboard event space:

· Type of group you have booked (i.e. Friends, Family, Organization, etc.)

· Brief description of the type of events you are hosting.

· How many guests are expected to attend each event?

· What day, time, and duration are you requesting for your events?

· What type of food and beverages are you requesting?

· Does your group wish to hire any of our onboard Entertainers (i.e. Band, DJ, Karaoke Host, Pianist, etc.)? If requesting a Band, DJ or Pianist, please specify the type of music you would like played at your event.

· Does your group need any audio/visual equipment for the event(s)? Please note: If the group needs to use our sound equipment, CD player, LCD projector with sound or is plugging into our sound system there is an additional fee of $50.00 per hour or any part thereof for the services of our technician to operate the sound equipment in the room.

· Who is the designated Group/Event Leader?

Once you have gathered all information required, please contact us at 1.800.438.6744, Ext. 70006, so we can begin planning your function.

Private event space is limited and will always be reserved/scheduled around our onboard entertainment and activities. Requests are not guaranteed and the information above will be evaluated by an Event Planner to determine if a private venue is warranted. The Event Planner will schedule your function for a day, time and location that best meets the criteria outlined in your request. A preliminary event chart will be provided once your event is scheduled. Please do not confirm the event(s) to your group as your schedule is subject to change until finalized. An Event Planner will contact you via email 5-6 weeks prior to sailing to finalize your onboard event(s) and collect payment, which will be due immediately.

Carnival Cruise Lines appreciates your business and looks forward to welcoming your group onboard. Carnival Cruise Lines has a strict “No Solicitation” policy. This policy prohibits any person or organization from any form of solicitation (including for non profit organizations) to our guests and/or crew, either before sailing, during or after the voyage. Guests are prohibited from inviting other non group sailing guests to participate in privately scheduled onboard events.

They also sent me a price list, showing all their party packages, but the file is too large to attach. If you send me your e-mail address, I can e-mail it to you if. you are interested. You can still get cake, food, drinks, DJ, and everything that they would provide with reception package. But, if they won't host just a wedding reception, this may be an option.

Does anyone know if it is even possible to have a wedding wish lantern ceremony on a cruise? I saw one done on four weddings on TLC and fell in love with it.

I think those look awesome too. I don't know for sure, but I highly doubt the ships would allow it. They are VERY anti-fire on the ships, and for good reason. You can't bring candles on board, so I doubt they would let you light a bunch of lanterns. Especially to send them off uncontrolled where wind could bring them back on the ship and cause fire. But, ask cruise line to be sure.

But, maybe you can go to beach with your guests before or after the cruise to do them? Of find an alternative, without fire, that could have the same symbolism.

Hi Everyone! I wanted to see if any of the past brides or even current brides with cakes that they know Carnival will create had any pictures they could share. Also, if you could include any up charges for the decoration of the cake that would be lovely! Getting married in April and I have to plan things out!

 

Thanks!

I had communicated with Carnival a few weeks ahead of time and they had agreed to do a criss-cross pattern my cake (similar to attached photo), for no additional cost.

But, when we got there, it was Carnival's standard cake decoration with the piped swirly pattern on it (photo attached). So, they failed on that. They still added the flowers and ribbon we had brought. It still looked beautiful and it definitely tasted great, so we didn't let it bother us. My husband and I both noticed it, but I don't think we even mentioned it to the coordinator because it really wasn't that big of a deal to us at the time and we weren't going to let it ruin our day.

Nicole I am considering the Dream for my wedding in May. Would you mind emailing me the info also? It would be greatly appreciated. bhelenep@hotmail.com

 

Thanks so much.

Brittany

Done.

My review of the wedding is posted at: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2065051 and includes a lot of photos. Let me know if you have any questions.

How long did you wait for your rsvp to come back after you sent out your invite? Did your bridal party come dressed or did they get dressed with you in bride and groom dressing cabins? When were your group and married couple pictures taken?

 

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I left about a month between sending out invites and RSVP due date. My family is horrible at RSVP's though, so I only received about 1/2 of them back and had to contact everyone else. Knowing that, I had my RSVP date about 3 weeks before I had to submit guest list to cruise ship.

All of our guests were ready before boarding. But, most of our wedding party did get dressed onboard with us. When deciding this, you may want to consider how big of a wedding party you have and what size cabin you have. If you have interior room, it can get really crowded. Figure that you will have yourself, bridesmaids, flower girl, mother, photographer... and whoever else you want to help you get ready... that's a lot of people in a tiny room. I had a suite and it was still hectic.

They took our group/family photos immediately after the ceremony, before we went to the reception. We didn't feel the need to do too many, and we only had 25 guests, so this only took about 5-10 minutes for us. They also took a few more group photos at the reception. For our couple/posed photos, we didn't have time to do it right after reception, so we met up with photographer after the muster drill to do those.

What time do the wedding actually start ? @1:00 or @1:30 pm ? Did you write on your invite the wedding started at that time or did you write @ 10:00am since the guests have to board with you.

I wrote "Boarding at 10:00 am" on the invites. I didn't write on there anywhere what time the actual wedding was, since that wasn't really critical to when they need to arrive. A few weeks prior to the wedding, I did mail out info to everyone and included a day-of timeline, which stated meet at port & check-in was at 10am, boarding at 11am, lunch at 11:30am, wedding at 1pm, reception at 1:30pm, and disembark for non-sailing at 3pm... that way they knew what to expect throughout the day. Everyone arrived at port between 9:45 and 10:30am.

Party favor, luggage tag!

 

 

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I love those! I had considered doing luggage takes to send to everyone with my pre-sailing mailing (about 3 weeks before trip I sent package with all boarding info, maps of port city, ship map, etc), so they'd have them for the trip. But, I ran out of time and energy for it.

Not sure if any of these things have been listed, but hopefully they can be helpful:

 

 

1) If you are not having an embarkation wedding your reception can be longer then 1-2 hours. We had a 3 hour reception.

2) If you call the carnival dining department, they will let you select your seating for your friends & family. They will also decorate the tables for you, as long as you provide the decorations.

3) You can bring a hand held steamer on the cruise (as long as it doesn't look like an iron).

4) You can have a signature drink for your reception, they have a list of drinks or you can even come up with your own.

5) On the Carnival Glory they had a make up artist in the salon who will do your make up as long as you bring the supplies.

6) BIGGEST SECRET, you can bring your own photographer on board. Simply sign the photography waiver and say you are having a friend or family member take your photos. We were never questioned & we brought a professional photographer on our cruise with us to capture our day (she & her husband cruised the full week on board with us). We were able to get pictures of the rehearsal, getting ready pics, ceremony on the beach in St. Thomas, reception and dining room dinner later that night. So worth it!

Even though you can bring your own photographer, I'd still suggest having their photographers take photos at ceremony & reception, since it's already included in the package cost and won't cost anything. You don't need to buy their photos, but they may take some that your photographer missed or vice versa. Or they may have a different style for posed photos that will still look good. If some of their photos turn out amazing and worth buying, you have that option and can probably spend a lot less money, or you could just look at them and decide that you are fine with just your photographers photos and not buy any.

My SIL is a semi-pro photographer so I had her also taking photos of ceremony & reception, then we did a beach photo shoot with her at one of the ports. It sounds like usually the ship photographers don't mind as long as your photographer isn't in their way. Our ship's photographer was great about it and didn't mind having my SIL there and even gave her some tips on taking better pictures or getting better angles. And often my SIL was standing right next to ships photographer taking the exact same photos. But, we are so glad that we had both of them. There is some overlap but, they each got photos that the other one didn't think about getting. Only SIL got pics of all the food, but only the ships photographer got pics of guest book & favor table. And it's nice having various angles for some of it, like we have photos of both me walking into the ceremony and of grooms first reaction of seeing me, because they were able to get both shots at same time. And we have one picture where my 6-year old niece tried photobombing it... ships photographer missed the timing on it, but SIL got it perfect. And for the posed photo shoots, they both had very different styles, so we have a great variety of wedding photos to choose from.

So, if bringing your own, you may want to at least consider keeping ship's photographer also and having both. At least you have more options to look at and decide which ones you like best.

Ships don't skip ports too often and risk can vary depending on time of year. Risk of missing ports is highest during hurricane or monsoon season, which is mid-late summer. Your risk of missing a port in April is pretty low.

Also, some ports are more likely to get skipped than others because they are more susceptible to weather. The riskier ports are ones that don't dock at the port, but use tenders, such as Belize. Cozumel docks right at port, so that's a good start. You may be able to search online to see how often it is skipped due to weather. Plus, I believe the Mexican ports are less affected by storms than the central Caribbean ones, since many of the storms will move north or south before reaching there.

So, I think your risk of missed port is fairly small. If that is your biggest concern, I think you are probably okay. Just check with planning agency to make sure you know what the risks are if port is skipped and what backup options you may have. And wedding insurance is always a good idea with a destination wedding, because there are a lot of unknowns.

Yeah, as usual I tried overthinking it and making it more complicated than it needed to be. Once I gave in and just decided to just use what I had and simplify everything, I was very pleased with the result.

So, I was looking and realized how much changed since my previous post, which was just 3-weeks before my wedding. So, now post-wedding, I thought I would provide an update.

I had bought some premade Real Touch blue orchid bouquets from afloral.com, with the intention of dismantling them and adding white gardenias and greenery. I kept procrastinating on my bouquets and when I finally got around to them, last minute, they didn't turn out how I had hoped. So, being frustrated and out of time, I decided to just go simple and use the pre-made orchid bouquets. I just added ribbon to the stems. For my bouquet, I did disassemble one bouquet to add to mine, so it was larger and added some greenery to it. And we didn't do any boutonnieres for guys or corsages for moms. We just didn't think they were necessary.

But, the pre-made $10 Real Touch bouquets actually looked great on the wedding day. My photographer commented on how nice they smelled and was shocked when I told her they were fake flowers, because she thought they were real. And one of my BM's went to their room to discover that the room steward had put their bouquet in water. So, you certainly don't need to worry about Real Touch flowers looking fake.

We also deconstructed one bouquet to use on the cake. My attempt at a cake topper with them failed, so the coordinator just assembled them on our cake for us and she did a great job.