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Carnival Inspiration Wedding March 2018


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Hi Brides,

 

I wanted to give you an overview of my experience getting married on the Carnival Inspiration. These helped me quite a bit when I was planning my wedding so hopefully I can help some others. I'm going to start from the very beginning (grab a snack clear.png?emoji-wink-1685clear.png?emoji-wink-1685clear.png?emoji-wink-1685)

 

We got engaged February of 2017 - we live in Utah so looking at venues near us, we quickly decided that the predominately religious venues around us just did not fit our style. We love to travel and we love cruising the most. We chose Carnival because we like the fun atmosphere that we feel Carnival has.

Being from Utah, we obviously are not extremely close to any of the ports - and as we were not paying for everyone we decided on a short duration out of the closest port I.E. Long Beach on a 4 day trip to Catalina Island and Ensenada. It's not the best stops in the way of beauty or activities but its pocket friendly.

We decided on doing the wedding the first day you board so that not everyone had to cruise if they did not want to (though everyone that was invited ended up cruising)

 

The people working in the Carnival Wedding Experience call center were not helpful. The ENTIRE time. It was highly frustrating! I would call about a certain question and it seemed like everyone had different information, one person would tell me something and on another phone call i'd learn the previous information I had was wrong. I'll just say, if you are a bride that is not okay with not knowing what is going on/how things are going to unfold up until a few weeks before, don't get married on a Carnival Cruise.

 

That being said, we are pretty relaxed about most things and while it was annoying, I would choose this any day over having to make any more decisions. I hate decisions and the decisions I DID have to make were my nightmare.. It definitely fit US - I would just strongly recommend you look at yourselves and what is important to you. For us our priorities were

1. That everyone we invited was EXCITED to come to our wedding. We didn't want anyone to feel like "grumble grumble, I HAVE to go to this wedding..."

2. Least amount of planning possible

3. We actually got to enjoy the wedding instead of being stressed & overwhelmed the whole time

4. That it felt like US

--- Just be honest with yourself here. Are you going to want to have a hand in EVERY. SINGLE. DETAIL? Find another venue. Are you going to want to know every detail of every step? Find another venue.

 

Okay - moving on. About a year in advance we sent out out "Save the Dates" which I will attach pictures of. I created the informational page and the "invite" we ordered on Zazzle.

 

We then picked out wedding party and I sent out boxes for the bridal party. My husband refused to send anything out to the groomsmen - apparently he felt it was too girly. I didn't push the topic as I knew his brothers wouldn't care either way.

 

Our travel agent sent me updates as the months passed about who had booked and a running total of the number or guests and cabins. Though our family is close and most of them would tell us when they booked, It was also nice to get the list from the travel agent.

 

I won't go over all the typical wedding choices - colors, dresses, suits, decoration etc as thats not strict to cruise weddings. But over the month, those choices were obviously made *grumble grumble*

 

A few weeks before the wedding, we finalized all the decisions. Our food, our drinks, our officiant, the location of the ceremony/reception, the times etc. (I bought silk flowers from a seller on Etsy instead of purchasing the real flowers from Carnival.)

 

Trying to get everything I needed to California was fun, luckily we had some family driving that helped take things.

I put everything that would be needed at the reception as far as decor and whatnot into a big tote. A friend took my dress (also, don't try to bring a steamer on the boat, they wont let you - we made that mistake)

 

Once we got to the port, we were met by Eric (the officiant who would have done the ceremony had a family member not done it but he was there in case anything were to happen.) He was also a godsend as they took me and the groom into a separate building to sing some paperwork for the marriage license and some of the people in my group were not sure where to go and Eric was so helpful in corralling our herd. Erica, our coordinator was a little late but we met up with her after going through all the check in. She took us to a separate room and again went through what would happen and when, the ceremony music, who was walking down the aisle etc. We had chosen to bring our own music for the ceremony and I simply made a Spotify Playlist on my phone entitled "Wedding Ceremony" and had the songs in order of when they were to be played.

It was very easy - but Erica did take my phone for the whole day so I was not able to take any pictures or anything (wasn't a big deal to me)

 

One the boat was cleared, our group was first on the boat and we were escorted on. I had given the tote for the reception to one of the bridesmaids and I went with Erica and my Man of Honor to my cabin to drop the dress off. We still had like an hour and a half till the ceremony (I got to the port with my hair and makeup done) so all I had to do was change. We actually ended up going to the Rock and Roll lounge where they were setting up for the reception and explained to Erica what everything was and where I wanted them to go etc. I dont think this is normal as both Eric/Erica were like "WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?" "YOU"RE SUPPOSE TO BE IN YOUR ROOM?!" Apparently, I was an easy bride. clear.png?emoji-tearsjoy-1678clear.png?emoji-tearsjoy-1678clear.png?emoji-tearsjoy-1678

 

I then walked back to my room and changed into my dress... The only two people with me were both in the wedding party, so about 15 minutes before the start of the ceremony they had to be down in the Candlelight lounge for the "run through" - so once in my dress they left. So I pretty much stood awkwardly in my room, staring at myself, with no phone until the photographer arrived. She seemed confused I was alone without some parents or something - so a tip would be to maybe bring someone to your cabin who wont have to leave early.

 

We took some pictures in the cabin and then she escorted me to the lounge. It literally all went so fast, we walked to the lounge and then all of a sudden we were walking down the aisle. I was shaking.

 

The ceremony was preformed by my husbands grandpa and he did a great job! (In case you're curious, our wedding party walked down the aisle to Is This Love by Bob Marley, I walked with my brother to "Somewhere Over the Rainbow by "Shirtless Violinist" and then our recessional song was Conga by Gloria Estefan, cause lets get the party started, right?)

 

After the ceremony we were able to take some pictures and then the guests were escorted to the reception. We did the first dance, then cutting the cake and a champagne toast. We had requested certain songs to be played at the reception and the DJ did a great job with all the music. We had sone Tier 2 for both the food and drinks and it was great. I did not eat anything but everyone said the food was AMAZING! I did have quite a few drinks and they were pretty songs and delish! They were not stingy with the drinks and kept the coming! The groom and I even asked for a shot of vodka and they brought us one!

 

It was so much fun! We danced and sang and everyone had a great time. When it was over, we were taken by the photographer to do a few more pictures, which wasn't too long back 45 minutes. And then we ended on the deck with friends family and the sail away party. Everyone congratulated us all day long and by the end of the day we were exhausted. It was absolutely amazing though - I'm so glad we chose to get married the way we did.

 

I've attached the information we sent out with our save the dates, as well as our timeline that we sent out about 1.5 weeks before to give everyone an idea of where and when they were suppose to be. It's not letting me add the pictures because they are too big. You can see my pictures of Facebook if you search "Taylor Shaudean Masina"

 

If you have any other questions let me know,

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