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Carnival Cruise Wedding May 2019 - home port or destination?


li.nds
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Hey everyone!

 

My fiance and I are recently engaged and have decided on a cruise wedding, hopefully in May of 2019! I'm looking for everyone's opinions on Carnival's wedding packages. I stood as MOH in my aunt's wedding April of 2016 in Grand Turk while sailing on the Carnival Breeze and it was absolutely breathtaking! and she has zero complaints! However, my main reason for posting here is my indecisiveness to have a destination wedding DURING the cruise, or to have our wedding in the home port before sailing! We are from Eastern Canada, therefore all of our guests will have a long way to travel for our wedding. I do not want everybody to feel obligated to spend so much on a week-long cruise and travel all that way, however I feel like if they are going to travel all the way to Miami just for the wedding, isn't it just as well to do the cruise too?

 

Our first choice is to be married in St. Thomas, off the ship, but what is everyone's opinions on this? Would we be better off getting married on embarkation day so that we and our guests can enjoy all of the stops? We would love the opportunity to explore St. Thomas, but I also long for a beach wedding with the ocean in the background, as opposed to inside!

 

Thanks in advance for the opinions and help! :)

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We are planning an embarkation day cruise on carnival pride dec 2019 because then everyone can come even if they can only get a weekend off. Most of our friends and family have said they are cruising with us but we know two wont, one is scared of sea. That way everyone important is at the wedding and the rest of the cruise is just fun with no stress. Both would be great but thats my reasoning 🙂

 

Tayoko

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We are getting married in port at Baltimore on the Pride for the reason to have family who can't afford to cruise with us, at least they can still attend our marriage. We will be staying the night before in Baltimore and that way we can go out and have a few drinks with our friend and family who won't be sailing with us. I figured when looking for my dress it'll be not as big or bulky so to speak so we can get dressed up again and get Wedding photos on one of the beaches. they won't be taken by the cruise line but at least we can have some photos of it!

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I was married on board, but also attended an embarkation day wedding. Both worked out great, so I think you'll be fine no matter which option you choose. That said, here's my two cents -- for the sailing day wedding, everyone who did not sail could drive to the port in about an hour. That was key, because the actual time onboard for the non-sailing guests was fairly short. And there was a lot of time spent waiting -- to board, clear security, etc. So if people are flying a long way, they might find the sailing day option a bit rushed. If you do an island wedding, folks can sail with you for the whole week. Or, they have the option of a shorter trip by flying directly to St. Thomas and meeting you on the island. Plus, you'll be able to be on the beach. So I'd vote for that option.

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  • 1 month later...

We are doing our wedding on the 4th day of our cruise. We will be in Port Canaveral on that day. So non sailing guests can come the day of. The embarkation day wedding was too rushed for us. Non of us live near the port we leave from so its no less convenient.

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Flying all the way to Miami for what would only be a few hour event is a lot. If they're open/excited about cruising, I would opt for St. Thomas. There are ways to adjust the wedding day so that you can both explore and get married. An earlier wedding with a lunch reception would work, then let guests do their thing while you take wedding photos around the island. Meet back for dinner and the party onboard :-). Alternatively, you can do the first look/photos on the island before hand (let the guests explore do their own thing), meet for an evening ceremony and then either eat on land or do a reception on board. How long are you in port for?

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  • 2 weeks later...

hey everyone!

congratulations!!! 😊

 

i just got married june 6,2017

onboard while in key west , the best decision i've made !!

Second day of the cruise , all my guests (40 people) traveled with us , embarkation day sounded too rushed , it was not going to work .. Everything was beautiful, we had a whole year of planning and exceeded my expectations!!

 

Maid of honor and best man did an excellent job , so be sure to pick the right people for the job , destination wedding could be a little more stressful than a traditional one

 

st thomas sounds lovely ...

Good luck !!🌞☀️

 

most importantly have fun planning don't let the stress overwhelm you!!!

 

My fiance and i are recently engaged and have decided on a cruise wedding, hopefully in may of 2019! I'm looking for everyone's opinions on carnival's wedding packages. I stood as moh in my aunt's wedding april of 2016 in grand turk while sailing on the carnival breeze and it was absolutely breathtaking! And she has zero complaints! However, my main reason for posting here is my indecisiveness to have a destination wedding during the cruise, or to have our wedding in the home port before sailing! We are from eastern canada, therefore all of our guests will have a long way to travel for our wedding. I do not want everybody to feel obligated to spend so much on a week-long cruise and travel all that way, however i feel like if they are going to travel all the way to miami just for the wedding, isn't it just as well to do the cruise too?

 

Our first choice is to be married in st. Thomas, off the ship, but what is everyone's opinions on this? Would we be better off getting married on embarkation day so that we and our guests can enjoy all of the stops? We would love the opportunity to explore st. Thomas, but i also long for a beach wedding with the ocean in the background, as opposed to inside!

 

Thanks in advance for the opinions and help! :)

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  • 3 weeks later...

We chose an embarkement day wedding on Carnival Liberty 05.21.2017 because some of my most important guests could not sail (just attend the day of) and this also made it affordable for everyone to come. 50 guests attended and we sailed off on our honeymoon right after the reception =) Biggest advice is DO NOT STRESS THE SMALL STUFF...the only issues we had was having to walk too far to get to VIP boarding and customs took an extra 45mins to clear the ship so a few guests saw me (not in my dress yet) but they hid me from my FI so he didnt see me until I walked down the aisle in my dress. I think my bridesmaids were more stressed than I was about it and they immediatly got a bottle of champagne to my stateroom while I got dressed LOL. I loved the experience and my guests faved about the food at the reception. Our pictures turned out better than expected. Enjoy your big day =)

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We chose an embarkement day wedding on Carnival Liberty 05.21.2017 because some of my most important guests could not sail (just attend the day of) and this also made it affordable for everyone to come. 50 guests attended and we sailed off on our honeymoon right after the reception =) Biggest advice is DO NOT STRESS THE SMALL STUFF...the only issues we had was having to walk too far to get to VIP boarding and customs took an extra 45mins to clear the ship so a few guests saw me (not in my dress yet) but they hid me from my FI so he didnt see me until I walked down the aisle in my dress. I think my bridesmaids were more stressed than I was about it and they immediatly got a bottle of champagne to my stateroom while I got dressed LOL. I loved the experience and my guests faved about the food at the reception. Our pictures turned out better than expected. Enjoy your big day =)

Do you have any pictures your be willing to share? That's my biggest concern is that I can't meet with a photographer in advance. I hope I get a good photog

 

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Hey everyone!

 

 

 

My fiance and I are recently engaged and have decided on a cruise wedding, hopefully in May of 2019! I'm looking for everyone's opinions on Carnival's wedding packages. I stood as MOH in my aunt's wedding April of 2016 in Grand Turk while sailing on the Carnival Breeze and it was absolutely breathtaking! and she has zero complaints! However, my main reason for posting here is my indecisiveness to have a destination wedding DURING the cruise, or to have our wedding in the home port before sailing! We are from Eastern Canada, therefore all of our guests will have a long way to travel for our wedding. I do not want everybody to feel obligated to spend so much on a week-long cruise and travel all that way, however I feel like if they are going to travel all the way to Miami just for the wedding, isn't it just as well to do the cruise too?

 

 

 

Our first choice is to be married in St. Thomas, off the ship, but what is everyone's opinions on this? Would we be better off getting married on embarkation day so that we and our guests can enjoy all of the stops? We would love the opportunity to explore St. Thomas, but I also long for a beach wedding with the ocean in the background, as opposed to inside!

 

 

 

Thanks in advance for the opinions and help! :)

 

 

 

First off congrats! I recently got engaged and my fiancé and I just finalized our plans on getting married in port (keywest) during a 4 day cruise from Miami in January 2019. I did a lot of research (before we were engaged since we decided a cruise wedding awhile ago) so I will explain my decision process in hopes that it will help in some way.

 

I chose port wedding because I didn't like the idea of debarkation wedding due to many things (we chose a cruise wedding to alleviate costs, I have a HUGE family so if we did destination the people that really wanted to attend would attend and would save us from having 200 people at the wedding hence save costs).. I also talked to the people who meant the most to me before hand to make sure they would be able to go on the cruise.

 

I like the idea of a beach wedding instead of an on the ship wedding which didn't have the feel or decor that I was looking for.

 

Carnival's pricing increased substantially from

When I first researched cruise wedding (it used to be very inexpensive now their pricing is almost as bad as having a land wedding). Having an in port wedding allowed me to use a 3rd party company that gave me wayyyyyy more for wayyyy less. (And the piece in mind given in case of for whatever reason the cruise doesn't go to keywest, I would get my money back)

 

I didn't like the idea of the wedding being rushed. Yes I am still being rushed with an in port wedding based on the timeline of arriving and departing but I felt as if i rather have that rush (after we were all already on board and settled in) instead of it being the day getting on the ship and dealing with customs etc.

 

After we decided having an in port wedding now we had to decide what port.. we wanted to do a 4 or 5 day cruise so it wasn't too expensive for our guests.. the Bahamas is a port that many 4/5 cruises travel to.. the Bahamas however has legal requirements that require you to be in Bahamian water for 24 hrs (we decided we didn't want to do that). I researched and found cruises going to key west. This would also allow guests to fly directly key west if they didn't to cruise and it also solved the legality issues surround other non US countries (since we are in the US). We picked January because A) its one of the most inexpensive months of the year to cruise and B) my siblings are both In college and I didn't want them missing school.. may and June are more expensive to cruise so we didn't want to pick those months either since my whole plan was to save as much money as possible for the guests.

 

I should mention that my fiancé and i are still planning on doing a honeymoon that is separate from the cruise. I don't think you mentioned if you were using the cruise as your honeymoon or not but if not you could consider going to St. Thomas for your honeymoon and doing an inexpensive cruise for your wedding. I understand you wanting to explore St. Thomas and therefore are considering an aboard the ship wedding to allow that. This is another reason

We chose key west since it wasn't a bucket list once in a lifetime destination that we would

Be upset on missing.

 

Please keep in mind we didn't get married yet so I can't comment on the actual experiences but the above are all explanation of my decision making. (Sorry it's so long I can get carried away [emoji3])

 

Congrats again!

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
First off congrats! I recently got engaged and my fiancé and I just finalized our plans on getting married in port (keywest) during a 4 day cruise from Miami in January 2019.

Key West doesn't have fabulous beaches. Which beach are you using? Smathers?

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  • 5 months later...

Hey I was looking at getting married in Key West and was wondering where you had found that was not crazy expensive anything I find is more than the carnival fees

 

First off congrats! I recently got engaged and my fiancé and I just finalized our plans on getting married in port (keywest) during a 4 day cruise from Miami in January 2019. I did a lot of research (before we were engaged since we decided a cruise wedding awhile ago) so I will explain my decision process in hopes that it will help in some way.

 

I chose port wedding because I didn't like the idea of debarkation wedding due to many things (we chose a cruise wedding to alleviate costs, I have a HUGE family so if we did destination the people that really wanted to attend would attend and would save us from having 200 people at the wedding hence save costs).. I also talked to the people who meant the most to me before hand to make sure they would be able to go on the cruise.

 

I like the idea of a beach wedding instead of an on the ship wedding which didn't have the feel or decor that I was looking for.

 

Carnival's pricing increased substantially from

When I first researched cruise wedding (it used to be very inexpensive now their pricing is almost as bad as having a land wedding). Having an in port wedding allowed me to use a 3rd party company that gave me wayyyyyy more for wayyyy less. (And the piece in mind given in case of for whatever reason the cruise doesn't go to keywest, I would get my money back)

 

I didn't like the idea of the wedding being rushed. Yes I am still being rushed with an in port wedding based on the timeline of arriving and departing but I felt as if i rather have that rush (after we were all already on board and settled in) instead of it being the day getting on the ship and dealing with customs etc.

 

After we decided having an in port wedding now we had to decide what port.. we wanted to do a 4 or 5 day cruise so it wasn't too expensive for our guests.. the Bahamas is a port that many 4/5 cruises travel to.. the Bahamas however has legal requirements that require you to be in Bahamian water for 24 hrs (we decided we didn't want to do that). I researched and found cruises going to key west. This would also allow guests to fly directly key west if they didn't to cruise and it also solved the legality issues surround other non US countries (since we are in the US). We picked January because A) its one of the most inexpensive months of the year to cruise and B) my siblings are both In college and I didn't want them missing school.. may and June are more expensive to cruise so we didn't want to pick those months either since my whole plan was to save as much money as possible for the guests.

 

I should mention that my fiancé and i are still planning on doing a honeymoon that is separate from the cruise. I don't think you mentioned if you were using the cruise as your honeymoon or not but if not you could consider going to St. Thomas for your honeymoon and doing an inexpensive cruise for your wedding. I understand you wanting to explore St. Thomas and therefore are considering an aboard the ship wedding to allow that. This is another reason

We chose key west since it wasn't a bucket list once in a lifetime destination that we would

Be upset on missing.

 

Please keep in mind we didn't get married yet so I can't comment on the actual experiences but the above are all explanation of my decision making. (Sorry it's so long I can get carried away [emoji3])

 

Congrats again!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

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  • 3 weeks later...
First off congrats! I recently got engaged and my fiancé and I just finalized our plans on getting married in port (keywest) during a 4 day cruise from Miami in January 2019. I did a lot of research (before we were engaged since we decided a cruise wedding awhile ago) so I will explain my decision process in hopes that it will help in some way.

 

I chose port wedding because I didn't like the idea of debarkation wedding due to many things (we chose a cruise wedding to alleviate costs, I have a HUGE family so if we did destination the people that really wanted to attend would attend and would save us from having 200 people at the wedding hence save costs).. I also talked to the people who meant the most to me before hand to make sure they would be able to go on the cruise.

 

I like the idea of a beach wedding instead of an on the ship wedding which didn't have the feel or decor that I was looking for.

 

Carnival's pricing increased substantially from

When I first researched cruise wedding (it used to be very inexpensive now their pricing is almost as bad as having a land wedding). Having an in port wedding allowed me to use a 3rd party company that gave me wayyyyyy more for wayyyy less. (And the piece in mind given in case of for whatever reason the cruise doesn't go to keywest, I would get my money back)

 

I didn't like the idea of the wedding being rushed. Yes I am still being rushed with an in port wedding based on the timeline of arriving and departing but I felt as if i rather have that rush (after we were all already on board and settled in) instead of it being the day getting on the ship and dealing with customs etc.

 

After we decided having an in port wedding now we had to decide what port.. we wanted to do a 4 or 5 day cruise so it wasn't too expensive for our guests.. the Bahamas is a port that many 4/5 cruises travel to.. the Bahamas however has legal requirements that require you to be in Bahamian water for 24 hrs (we decided we didn't want to do that). I researched and found cruises going to key west. This would also allow guests to fly directly key west if they didn't to cruise and it also solved the legality issues surround other non US countries (since we are in the US). We picked January because A) its one of the most inexpensive months of the year to cruise and B) my siblings are both In college and I didn't want them missing school.. may and June are more expensive to cruise so we didn't want to pick those months either since my whole plan was to save as much money as possible for the guests.

 

I should mention that my fiancé and i are still planning on doing a honeymoon that is separate from the cruise. I don't think you mentioned if you were using the cruise as your honeymoon or not but if not you could consider going to St. Thomas for your honeymoon and doing an inexpensive cruise for your wedding. I understand you wanting to explore St. Thomas and therefore are considering an aboard the ship wedding to allow that. This is another reason

We chose key west since it wasn't a bucket list once in a lifetime destination that we would

Be upset on missing.

 

Please keep in mind we didn't get married yet so I can't comment on the actual experiences but the above are all explanation of my decision making. (Sorry it's so long I can get carried away [emoji3])

 

Congrats again!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Congrats Ms. Christina Marie! I just sent a friend request to you as i am not so savvy with this site and wanted to send you a message about your key west wedding... hoping to chat with you about it a bit!! :)

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  • 4 months later...
First off congrats! I recently got engaged and my fiancé and I just finalized our plans on getting married in port (keywest) during a 4 day cruise from Miami in January 2019. I did a lot of research (before we were engaged since we decided a cruise wedding awhile ago) so I will explain my decision process in hopes that it will help in some way.

 

I chose port wedding because I didn't like the idea of debarkation wedding due to many things (we chose a cruise wedding to alleviate costs, I have a HUGE family so if we did destination the people that really wanted to attend would attend and would save us from having 200 people at the wedding hence save costs).. I also talked to the people who meant the most to me before hand to make sure they would be able to go on the cruise.

 

I like the idea of a beach wedding instead of an on the ship wedding which didn't have the feel or decor that I was looking for.

 

Carnival's pricing increased substantially from

When I first researched cruise wedding (it used to be very inexpensive now their pricing is almost as bad as having a land wedding). Having an in port wedding allowed me to use a 3rd party company that gave me wayyyyyy more for wayyyy less. (And the piece in mind given in case of for whatever reason the cruise doesn't go to keywest, I would get my money back)

 

I didn't like the idea of the wedding being rushed. Yes I am still being rushed with an in port wedding based on the timeline of arriving and departing but I felt as if i rather have that rush (after we were all already on board and settled in) instead of it being the day getting on the ship and dealing with customs etc.

 

After we decided having an in port wedding now we had to decide what port.. we wanted to do a 4 or 5 day cruise so it wasn't too expensive for our guests.. the Bahamas is a port that many 4/5 cruises travel to.. the Bahamas however has legal requirements that require you to be in Bahamian water for 24 hrs (we decided we didn't want to do that). I researched and found cruises going to key west. This would also allow guests to fly directly key west if they didn't to cruise and it also solved the legality issues surround other non US countries (since we are in the US). We picked January because A) its one of the most inexpensive months of the year to cruise and B) my siblings are both In college and I didn't want them missing school.. may and June are more expensive to cruise so we didn't want to pick those months either since my whole plan was to save as much money as possible for the guests.

 

I should mention that my fiancé and i are still planning on doing a honeymoon that is separate from the cruise. I don't think you mentioned if you were using the cruise as your honeymoon or not but if not you could consider going to St. Thomas for your honeymoon and doing an inexpensive cruise for your wedding. I understand you wanting to explore St. Thomas and therefore are considering an aboard the ship wedding to allow that. This is another reason

We chose key west since it wasn't a bucket list once in a lifetime destination that we would

Be upset on missing.

 

Please keep in mind we didn't get married yet so I can't comment on the actual experiences but the above are all explanation of my decision making. (Sorry it's so long I can get carried away [emoji3])

 

Congrats again!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

 

Hello!!! We are doing an in port wedding as well. Are you guys planning a reception? I'm trying to decide what to do reception wise and I'm struggling.

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