Jump to content

Wedding Planning Journal (and questions)


Recommended Posts

I think I'm going to start journaling my experience on here since I'm OBSESSED and struggle to find answers daily. So maybe in the future something I learned can help someone else. I will be getting married February 17, 2018 in Nassau. We are taking Royal Caribbean Majesty of the Seas for a 3 night cruise out of Port Canaveral (it was the most cost efficient ship at the time and we like the idea of getting married the 2nd day so we can just relax with everyone the last day. Plus it was cheaper then leaving from Miami)

Finding a TA- My process began with struggling to find a Travel Agent. Most were offering the same deals and prices. I was sad that I didn't see any who offered a discount on prices with my group being so large. (I invited all my family and a lot of friends thinking most couldn't make it because the cost and date. Ends up, a lot of people are really excited to be doing their first Destination Wedding Cruise. Right now, my rsvp is at 65! So I'm planning for 90-100. But who really knows how many will come until the payment it made)

I finally found a TA that specializes in Cruise Weddings. They offered a "free cocktail party" for over 16rooms booked so I figured I could use that as my reception! Sadly, I later found out the cruise had to be for 7 days or longer.:evilsmile: But I had had so many good correspondences with them, and the agent was so knowledgeable and answered questions so quickly, I decided to go with them anyways. She's been great.

 

Wedding Coordinator- I want to get married on the beach as opposed to on the ship. My TA had a recommended coordinator in Nassau who's website I had found before. I asked for prices and changing around some things in the package since I will be getting legally married in the states (I live abroad and it's WAY too much hassle for me to get it in Bahamas and try to make it valid overseas. Better to just do in the US and go to the embassy over seas to get notarized) and both sides of our families are full of ministers, so we won't need an efficient. The coordinator gave me a decent price list. I just needed to hammer out the reception details to know if I wanted it on land or on the ship. After making my wedding website, and getting so many RSVP, I decided to email her back asking for additional costs to change from 50 to 100 guests. She emailed me back a few days later saying she was NO LONGER AVAILABLE!!:eek: (I am still a little upset, but I hadn't put any money down yet (mainly because she hadn't asked me to) and I'm trying to understand she works with one of the location venues and they need her that day). So back to the drawing board. Now I'm frantically searching for another wedding coordinator. I know it's a while away, but a few places have already responded saying they are fully booked because it's Valentines Day Weekend. (oops, I forgot). So I'm nervous that if I ever find a planner, I won't have a good choice in location.

 

Reception- So I am torn. I was originally thinking to have an hour cocktail reception in which we would cut the cake, do 1st dances and speeches. With so many people the cost of this is going up fast as RCI costs $18/pp for their call reception. I'd have to pay for the DJ and lighting tech separately though. But my actual 2 biggest concerns are 1. they say the bar will be closed and there may only be 2 servers who have to go to another bar to get the drinks! Doesn't this mean everyone is only going to get like 1 drink which defeats having an open bar! and 2. Since I'm not looking to do the wedding through RCI, they won't do a cake for us (even if we pay). Only a sheet cake and my fiancé is insistent on having a nice and good tasting cake (we cruise a lot and know a lot of times cake on cruises are just sub par).

 

Starting Questions for anyone reading:

1. Do you recommend anyone for a large party island wedding in Nassau?

2. Do you know of a company I can try to hire to get my guests from the ship to the wedding? Or do you know a better way besides buses? (So far 1 agency quoted $250/extra bus and it only holds 25 people. So I'm looking at $500+ just for buses!:mad: )

3. Does anyone have experience with using Royal Romance? How much extra is it for doing the wedding on land, and do they provide buses? Also, how much time would they give me on ship if the wedding is on land. So if I pay for a cocktail hour, will I have extra time in a certain room for the reception?

4. Has anyone had their sheet cake? How was it. Would you have preferred to do cake on land? Or has anyone done the cake on land and recommend a good bakery?

 

~That's it for now. I'll keep you updated when I have more, and I hope someone can help with the answers. I'm going back to browse more of the 195 pages of this board to look for more answers.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I found a wedding coordinator! After so many places saying they were already booked, or WAY our of my price range, I am happy to have found Annabahamaswedding. Pictures on her website are beautiful, good reviews, and she has been so prompt in answering and providing details. I found 2 of her packages that blended to9gether would make what I needed except they were for 25 or 30 people. One package offered a round trip couch for 27, beach setup with chairs, arbor, musician, coordinator on site, light snacks and drinks. The other package included full sit down lunch or dinner, wedding cake, more transportation, and DJ. So I thought about just doing the full reception on land, then going back for the dinner at 8:30. So she adjusted the package to take away the dinner and add longer DJ time and a location where we could dance and stuff. I saw the pictures and fell in LOVE. But then I saw the price and almost cried. Lol. Because SO many people are coming, the cost for appetizers, drinks and cake alone exceeded the price of the full sit down dinner in the original package. Not to mention we still had to pay for more buses! So....no land reception it is!

I asked her to give me another quote without the reception. Just snacks and drinks. But she had also said the wedding could be at 5 then. I felt that would be WAY too rushed to try to do everything and get back to the ship by 8:30 for dinner. Plus I want to change into my 2nd dress :p. The other thing is, I prefer the wedding to be right away, then the guests can leave after to explore the island a little bit before coming back for the cocktail reception and dinner. This is mainly because I don't trust people to be back in time for the weddings, and they charge you for making them wait additional time. And I'm paying for transportation, per chair, and per slice of cake. I don't want you to miss it. Lol. So I asked if we could do it at 1. (Majesty arrives at 12pm and leaves at almost 12am). She explained the earliest it could be was 2 because the ship has to clear customs then they have to get to the buses then drive to Paradise Island. But she came up with the idea to make part of the itinerary for everyone to meet to have lunch. Then they won't even need the snacks. We could just do cake and drinks. What a PERFECT IDEA. So scratch the price of snacks off. While she was getting me this new estimate, my fiancé came up with a brilliant idea to have cupcakes instead of cake. (He is VERY insistant on having a very good looking and good tasting cake. As opposed to me thinking, they have plenty of dessert options after dinner on the ship, why not just get a small cake for the cutting ceremony? So to please him, I messaged some places after adding the cost of the cake, delivery, and setup and cleanup of plates and utensils, we were looking at about $13/pp for a slice of cake!?! What the.....is the cake sprinkled with gold!?!) So anyways, I messaged the Cakebox in Nassau about doing cupcakes. (The FH found great reviews and pictures for them) They agreed it was a MUCH better was to go since we would be having this on the beach, and quoted us a GREAT price for cupcakes and a small 6inch cake for us to cut.

Well, Anna got back to me with a deal where instead of the snacks, they could get the extra needed transportation for us! So after she put all that together, it fit my budget! Not I can have my decorated wedding, and after cake and punch on the beach. Then we will send the guests back to the ship to explore the island, and my wedding party, my FH and myself can continue taking pictures! Then when we're done, we can go back to the ship and take more pictures! Then in a perfect world, we'd have a private1 hour cocktail reception ($18/pp) at 7 in a lounge. Here we would introduce the wedding party, do 1st dances, and use the open bar for champaign to do the toasts, and do the bouquet (silk flowers) and garter toss. (plus in-between do some group line dances...yes I'm one of those people lol) After that people could continue to mingle then make their way to dinner. After dinner go to where ever there is live music on the ship and party the night away.

OK.....I'm finally done. That's what it's looking like now.

If anyone is reading this and has questions, let me know. If you have suggestions, or experienced advice, that's EVEN BETTER!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm back...... I keep finding little add ons that I need which are making things more and more expensive :( So I originally had 6 in my wedding party. I've been struggling because I want to ask 1 of my best friends but I already have so many! I finally decided I'm going to feel terrible if she's there but not in the wedding so I'll add her. Then my FH tells me I kept forgetting he's asked from the get go for one of his girl cousins to be in it! So not my party is up to 8! The thing is, the limo only carries 8. So where would I and my friend who is doing my getting ready photography sit!?! So I ask how much it would be to get a bigger limo...the price goes from $200 rt to $400 rt. So add $200 for 2 more people!! :O That's a bit excessive. So I start shopping around for limos independently. Happily, after much searching, I found a company who will do $125 each way and their limo fits up to 10 people. So not its $250. I can chalk up the extra $50. Then I ask how much extra for 1 hour of photography. (Right now our package is for 1 hour. I just realized, umm...1 hour will JUST cover the ceremony and our group photos (I recently went to a wedding where they got al group photos done in 15 minutes. it was so efficient. I am for SURE doing that. Just ask if you want to know how)) So....what about the cake cutting (I can have people take phone pics of each other eating and enjoying the capcakes) and more importantly, this means there's no time for pics of just the 2 of us and the wedding party on the beach! :( So I'm going to HAVE to get more photography time. The coordinator said it would be $300 more for 1 hour. I started searching average cost of photography. Apparently, this pricing isn't bad. That doesn't actually make me feel better though. It's still more expensive. I understand there is a lot of work that goes into photography, but there's a lot of money that goes into a wedding too:eek:. Ok I'm done winning. But I still have to consider, I'm going to need a photographer for on the ship to take pics all around and at the reception. They are $150/hour but don't include any photos. I'm thinking we will need 2 hours. 1 for around the ship pics, and 1 for the reception. If anyone has ideas on how to save on photography, let me know.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have any friends who are into photography? When we did our vow renewal, I had two "almost professional" photographer friends who provided us with beautiful photos.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Do you have any friends who are into photography? When we did our vow renewal, I had two "almost professional" photographer friends who provided us with beautiful photos.

 

I actually came on to update about just that. Thanks for the suggestion!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

So for photography......

We decided there are so many in our group who have professional cameras, and phones that we can just use their pictures of the ceremony and reception, and even around ship. Since even if we had a professional, most the shots would be candid pics from these events. My FH also knows how to edit pics. It's only the pics on the beach we really need the professional photographer for, and 1 hour is included in my wedding package anyways.

 

Have I mentioned my wedding website is done? I put all the info together using theknot.com and I love it. So far, 60 people have rsvp on there and I KNOW some important ones who just aren't tech savvy are going. Including my MANY ministers.

 

Life has been pretty chill lately....I still obsess daily over what to put in my OOT bags, and living in China, I have really good priced options. Last week, my FH who is really fancy lol, actually really loved the passport invitations. Having them printed in China will but the cost down to less than $2/invite if we get it in a bulk of 120. But I haven't taken my engagement pics yet (I wanted to finish my current diet, and need to get my hair done since it's in braids right now ;p ), so I'll need to do that 1st. So now I'm just trying to figure out exactly what to write in them, and the format. Everyone has already seen my wedding website so they know the info, so this is more for formality then anything. so 2 new questions:

1. Does anyone have passport invites they can share with me to get an idea of what to write and formatting?

2. Did you give invites to people you invited but already said they can't go? (Invites are expensive lol )

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

So after speaking with my Sister in law (who somehow managed to get her land wedding done for only $6000) I found out her coordinator use to live in Bahamas. Darn....I already paid the deposit for my coordinator. But none the less....I asked her if she had any ideas for how to do a land reception for a better price. I do like that for about $2500 I can have a 1 hour open bar with a DJ on the ship then everyone walk to dinner together. But if I can save some money.......So she is looking into that. I did stipulate

1. it needs to be walking distance to the ship. The transportation for my 100 guests is 1 of my biggest costs. I don't want to pay for buses to have to come back to pick up from the reception to take us back to the ship.

2. If it's not on the ship and not open bar...its gotta be a little cheaper. I told her $2000, but I'm starting to think even that is too much. IDK...

 

Still main issues with the ship is not knowing where it will take place or getting approval on my time. I need it to be somewhere that has a big enough space for dancing (still looking for answers on if Viking Crown lounge has space for this) and it HAS to be at 7 to work with my timing (trying to allow guests a little free time in Nassau, and be able to go to dinner right after the reception).

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 weeks later...

Ok, 1 month later and still trying to figure out the reception. Who would have thunk it, but it almost seems like having the reception on board is the most cost efficient option! I came to this conclusion after trying to contact the resort that the wedding will be held behind. It has been like talking to Royal Romance with them.....they take forever to reply. Then when she does, she says "I'll answer you back in a few minutes".....then NOTHING. She did finally send a price list of some things. At first it looked better priced, as their open bar was almost half the cost of RCL. But then you have to pay for the venue, which is included if you do open bar on ship. DJ's are over twice as expensive on land. On ship you also have to pay for a lighting tech though, so I guess it almost equals out. But then there is a separate bill for gratuities, which are built into the open bar on ship (even though we will tip extra), you have to pay VAT tax...whatever that is) then you have to pay a percentage of the total cost for the coordinator fee. But most of all, you have to pay a separate fee for the champagne, which could be included in the open bar on ship. In the end, it comes to almost $10/pp for 1 glass of champagne then. So overall, ship is probably better priced (I'd be able to tell you if their coordinator ever got back to me). My wedding coordinator showed us pictures of an absolutely beautiful spot, but it'd be $44/pp. That would get them 2 drinks and 2 our'dourves. How do you tell people they can only have 2 ourdourves? That's weird. But if you don't tell them then everyone wont get one? Sounds odd. I'm fine with doing the reception on ship, but now my fiancée and mother are adimate about doing the reception right after the wedding so people don't get tired or out of the wedding mood. I understand that though, I just can't seem to convince myself it's worth almost $1000 extra to NOT get everything I want drink wise, just so I can have it on shore.

On a happier note, I have been going crazy with my OOT bags :) In china you can get everything done for so cheap. I've gotten pricing on putting logos on so much stuff and they've been great. Not it's just fitting it all on suitcases to fly home with I have to worry about. Lol.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What would be the time difference between doing the reception on board vs on land? When's the wedding?

 

 

We did dinner in the Main Dinning Room (worked out great, and was included in the cost of everyones cruise fairs) and then did a 2 hour open bar + the wedding cake in one of the lounges, which had a band playing. We were roped off in a private section with access to the dance floor and had dedicated servers. There was a gap between the wedding and when dinner started, which we used to take pictures and let people freshen up, nap, whatever. Dinner was lot of fun and celebratory, by the time dinner was over everyone was ready to dance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What would be the time difference between doing the reception on board vs on land? When's the wedding?

 

 

We did dinner in the Main Dinning Room (worked out great, and was included in the cost of everyones cruise fairs) and then did a 2 hour open bar + the wedding cake in one of the lounges, which had a band playing. We were roped off in a private section with access to the dance floor and had dedicated servers. There was a gap between the wedding and when dinner started, which we used to take pictures and let people freshen up, nap, whatever. Dinner was lot of fun and celebratory, by the time dinner was over everyone was ready to dance.

 

Thanks for replying!!.....

We're looking at the wedding being at 2pm (we dock at 12, ship clearance, then 30min ride to the wedding beach location). If the wedding was 45 min, then 15min receiving line/group pics, I'm guessing the land reception would be 3-4. (just cocktails, and traditional wedding stuff like bouquet/garter toss, 1st dances, cake ect.) Then we could let everyone go back to ship to explore the island while we take wedding pics. If we did it on ship, we would need the time for pics and travel, so it couldn't start until 5:30 at the earliest. Which is why originally I was looking at doing it before dinner (our Main Dinning room reservation is at 8:30 that night), so about 7. But like I said fiancé and mom think people may get tired. But the thought has always been to do dancing after dinner too.

Did you feel people were still in the wedding mood after the long gap? I want people to have time to explore, it's really important to me since the next day is the private island with less to see. Also, how did you manage a cake? I asked our TA who works specifically with cruise weddings, and she said they wouldn't do a wedding cake unless I was booking with the wedding department. I could only do sheet cake at the cocktail party. And maybe a small celebratory cake.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

What will your guests be wearing? If their clothes are comfortable enough, I think that letting them explore the island/make their way back would be fine. If they're already in black tie, they will probably want to go back to the boat and change, and then may not want to change back into formal clothes for dinner. I actually took a nap between our ceremony and dinner (we were up extra early for bridal portraits). I think our guests liked having a bit of a break.

 

The ceremony itself isn't really a "party" feel (we had a catholic ceremony), so I don't think any mood was "lost" by having a bit of a break between the ceremony and dinner/reception. Everyone looked forward to having fun a the reception, and so walked in ready enjoy the party. I think they would have felt the same way if it were right after the ceremony or a few hours later, so long as they were free to do their own thing in the few hours. Its not like they'll be standing around just waiting for the fun to start. I really think you'd be fine either way, it's really just how you want the timing of the day to go.

 

As for the cake, I think I responded to you on another thread about how the ship makes the same specialty cakes regardless of who books them :-). Your TA may be saying the cake isn't possible because it's already part of your package with RR? If you booked it directly through the groups department, I would expect that you would also be billed separately for the cake, and I doubt RR would adjust your package price accordingly. I know I mentioned I was on Princess, but I've heard of people booking cakes/doing similar receptions via the group booking department on Royal as well. Worth checking out anyway!

 

Do you have Facebook? Most of my reception photos are on my page. If you email me at sailsandveils@gmail.com, I can give you my info so you can find me :-)

Edited by SailsandVeils
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 months later...

It's been a while. And there has been DDRRRAAAAMMMMAAA! So I had paid deposits for 30 rooms to secure the rate. I always had in mind that if I got close to all my rooms being full, I would get more rooms. I also knew that I had to make some payments depending on number of guests by September, so I told everyone the deposit due date was the end of July. So I started tracking how many rooms I had starting in March. Come June, I still only had about 8 rooms taken. I went home to where all my family lives and gave them formal invites at the end of June (they had the STD, and website with all the info since February) Well. of course, my family being my family, all booked at the end of July. I went to look into booking more rooms, they all DOUBLED in price. Let me tell you, paying OVER $600/pp for a weekend cruise to Bahamas is the most REDICULOUS thing I ever hear. I've gone on week long cruises for way less then that. The thing is, TONS of people on the grooms side hadn't booked yet. Not even his parents!! So I started messaging them like crazy explaining if they didn't book within my rooms, they'd have to pay double. They FINALLY booked but none of the rest of his people (including his Grandmother, brother/bestman, and groomsmen) so I told my fiancée they'd all have to pay full price. Then the drama started.

He said it was ridiculous for people to pay that much or even ask them to pay that much to go to a 3 day wedding. (Though I agreed, the thing is, if they had booked on time, they would have gotten it for the regular rate, and I would have been able to book more rooms. But they didn't) I told him, I would understand if the groomsmen and other family wanted to just fly to the island and go to the wedding and just miss the reception back on board. He got upset and said well if none of his friends and family would be on the ship why should he!! (Why do men (no offense to those of you who aren't like this) have to be so DIFFICULT). When I tell you I literally spent 2 days NOT SLEEPING trying to figure out how we could get around this while he slept effortlessly........ I screamed, I cried, I stressed....everything. He was convinced it was just the TA way to make more money. And our TA was honestly not really interested in helping us find better rates. I kept checking the website, and the prices of JUST that 1 cruise have started t over $1200 for an inside room even to this date!

Thank GOD....I got the brilliant idea to put the cruise search on a sit that compares agents prices just to see if ANYONE was offering something lower.....and low and behold, there were like 2. While all the other companies were quoting $1300-1600 if INSIDE cabins, they had booked rooms in a group booking before the prices went up. So I quickly grabbed 1 of the companies last 11 rooms. I know 3 of the rooms have been taken by mutual friends, but still don't think his family or groomsmen have booked >: ( . I've tried to tell myself, if for some reason they still don't book, don't stress. The wedding will go on as planned, even if it's just my family only and we have to do a whole nother land wedding for his friends and family lol (That HE of course would have to plan and pay for). Anyways....115 RSVP, 40 rooms/85 guests paid for at this point.

My advice.....if your wedding is onshore and prices of your cruise have went up drastically.....you can use another TA who my still have better prices.

Until next time.....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Did you mean to post this on here? I'm thinking maybe it was a mistake. If not ,I have no problem giving some ideas and thoughts, but want to make sure this wasn't a mistake lol ;)

yes, it was a mistake, i'm sorry..

thank you.. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...

Like there weren't enough problems, they are putting our ship into dry dock. So they canceled the whole cruise. Think is, I paid the island wedding coordinator the non refundable fee the week before they told me about the dry dock. So the next option was to move everyone to another ship. That's ok right.....WRONG!! The whole itinerary has changed! We will no longer be in Nassau all day on Saturday. We will be there for a 1/2 day on Sunday. Everything has been made with the Saturday date. Also, no I won't have time to relax after the wedding. Also, most my people will not be able to enjoy the beach, cuz lets face it...we are black and are not getting our hair wet BEFORE a wedding and wedding pics.

Next lets talk about timing. EVERYTHING has to change. Because there were already other groups booked on the other ship, they only had a 2pm reception time available. Right smack in the middle of the day :( So now I have to do a morning wedding and there will be no time to actually explore Nassau. The whole fun of the wedding planning experience has been lost. Now I'm just pissed and aggravated. And our TA is the worse. I can't wait for the wedding to be over with already

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 3 weeks later...

OMGSH! I'm so sorry to hear that you are having so many issues with your wedding. I'm sure everything will work out in the end. Stay strong girl and try not to become too stressed ( Even though I don't know how you can lol) keep us updated! I'm planning my wedding on RCL for May 2019. I know it seems so early, but I want to prepare for any issues especially with my guest. I want them to have more than enough time to put down their deposits.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

OMGSH! I'm so sorry to hear that you are having so many issues with your wedding. I'm sure everything will work out in the end. Stay strong girl and try not to become too stressed ( Even though I don't know how you can lol) keep us updated! I'm planning my wedding on RCL for May 2019. I know it seems so early, but I want to prepare for any issues especially with my guest. I want them to have more than enough time to put down their deposits.

 

Thank you. I appreciate it. I agree it's not too early to start. I started planning more then a year in advance and told my guests a year before. I still have people now (only 3 months out) still trying to book. So yes...give as much time as possible to everyone.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm so sorry about the dry dock -- what horrific stress to have to start over and have little to nothing fall easily into place.

 

My husband and I are doing a 25th anniversary vow renewal, and our 5 day cruise over night's in Cabo. But I decided (in spite of really wanting the beachy vibe and scenic photos) to have the renewal onboard while sailing. I just didn't want to risk something coming up (like your drydock) that would upend all the planning. Not to mention the $$ loss of non-refundable deposits. We have a smaller group (16 booked) but it's still a lot of work to try to arrange a fun event around all the cost and timing elements. I'm kind of thinking I may do a "dress up" photo shoot in Cabo just for us, with a friend who takes great photos.

 

Hope you are able to get everything back on track -- and do try to enjoy it. The reality is, something/s always goes wrong, and the best way to cope is to let it go and enjoy your day regardless. Of course-- a complete overhaul of the entire event can't just be let go, but once you get back on track, you can have a beautiful and wonderful celebration

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had another thought to share -- one of the things I'm planning, since good photos are so important to me, is a photo set up in our cabin. I did book the Owner's Suite for this trip, because the rate was great on this particular sailing, so we have extra space to do this (and entertain our guests in cabin/balcony).

 

Anyhow, I got magnetic hooks and some strong but thin cording to put on the ceiling (ceiling and walls are metal) and will be hanging some sheer curtains from Ikea $5 per pair (photo back drop) and also ordered some Chinese paper lanterns with little battery operated lights and silk wisteria flowers to hang. So in our cabin, we will have this small curtained grotto with twinkle lights, lanterns and flowers. All light weight, collapsible and not fragile. It is my way of having a lovely space, that I have essentially complete control over when it comes to cost, and timing. And we can enjoy it for the bulk of the cruise.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I had another thought to share -- one of the things I'm planning, since good photos are so important to me, is a photo set up in our cabin. I did book the Owner's Suite for this trip, because the rate was great on this particular sailing, so we have extra space to do this (and entertain our guests in cabin/balcony).

 

Anyhow, I got magnetic hooks and some strong but thin cording to put on the ceiling (ceiling and walls are metal) and will be hanging some sheer curtains from Ikea $5 per pair (photo back drop) and also ordered some Chinese paper lanterns with little battery operated lights and silk wisteria flowers to hang. So in our cabin, we will have this small curtained grotto with twinkle lights, lanterns and flowers. All light weight, collapsible and not fragile. It is my way of having a lovely space, that I have essentially complete control over when it comes to cost, and timing. And we can enjoy it for the bulk of the cruise.

 

Thank you for the empathetic words. Also, that grotto space sounds awesome! Since the wedding is on the last day now (:() I feel like we are going to get tons of pics with everyone before hand so I won't be as stressed about pics before hand. Yet, still, we have the professional photographer on the island taking pics after the ceremony.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So with the ship change, came an itinerary change, venue change, and reception time change. I had to work around the itinerary and reception changes as those 2 I had no control over. So in the end it looks like:

Morning Wedding (one of my worst nightmares)

2pm reception (which means nobody will be able to explore the island)

8:30pm dinner (massive time between reception and dinner that can't be changed)

 

So itinerary will look like

Wedding:

Ceremony

Group Pics

Cake and Bahamian Punch on the Beach

Guests go back/Bridal Party Stays for Professional Pics

 

Reception-

Open bar/ hot & Cold Odourves

Traditional wedding stuff I want (1st dances, line dances, bouquet toss ect)

 

Dinner-

Main Dining

 

Extras-

OOT bags- we have the bags. 1/2 are back packs, 1/2 Beach bags. they all have our wedding log on them. inside there are reusable water bottles and cozies with out logo, customized lanyards, decks of cards and uno cards, tissue, sanitizer, paper, pens, customized door magnets

 

Activities- (since the wedding is at the end now, well take the time to do bachelorette/bachelor type things)

Welcome meet and greet- RCCI offers meeting rooms free of charge for groups. so the 1st day we will do a meet and greet and pass out OOT bags. After we will do a quick wedding rehearsal

pub crawl- moh is organizing with drinking games. we even have our logo on one of drinking game cups

wedding scavenger hunt- guy vs girls (the girls will have team bride glasses to wear for the game)

 

Décor-

The wedding coordinator will do most of the beach set up, but we are making a wooden sign and basket that says "shoes optional" so people can go barefoot.

The wedding programs are Chinese fans with the program tied on. They will be opened on each seat

We are bringing our won hour glass unity sand container

The reception will have a big welcome to our reception sign with out picture

Dinner table center pieces:

The dinner theme is traveling while the ceremony theme is bird of paradise. So in the absolute center are lightbulb vases with silk birds of paradise. the vases are anchored with beach sand and mini shells. Then there is 1 souvenieer from one of the countries we've visited. Around that in a circle are pictures of us in those places or post cards from those places. (sounds more complicated then it actually I lol)

 

Everyone's paid for, now we just have to pray nothing else unexpected happens.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Please sign in to comment

You will be able to leave a comment after signing in



Sign In Now
 Share

  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...