Beach wedding w/Royal Romance...HELP!!!

[Denise2000]

I am scheduled to get married May 4,2011 in Nassau,Bahamas on the beach with Royal Romance. They are unable to provide me with where I will be getting married until 2 weeks prior to leaving for the cruise which is not allowing me enough time to locate a vendor for the reception. Is it appropriate to have chairs,music on the beach? Where can I hold the reception after the wedding? What type of experience have you had with them?

[acireta]

Seems like its pretty normal for weddings done through the cruise lines can't provide any details until 2 weeks prior, I'm still coming to terms with this :-) can you maybe plan the reception also through Royal Romance? That's what I'll be doing with Carnival, shoreside ceremony and shipboard reception.

[Denise2000]

Thanks for your response? I may have to do this as well but thought it would look kind of tacky(no offense)but I guess that's our only option. What are you doing for your music(shoreside)? Are you having chairs? What are you doing for the setup/layout of the ceremony? I hope I'm not asking too many questions, I'm just clueless.

[acireta]

haha, not too many questions at all. forums like this are made for questions to be asked and answered!! we had a bit of a breakthrough last night and will probably be going with an on-island coordinator.

 

from what i've read (and this is just from my obsessive researching over the past few weeks), the cruise line can help you plan a shoreside ceremony, including music, chairs, flowers, etc. it might be slightly more expensive than going with an on-island coordinator. but you won't find out anything until 2 weeks before you sail.

 

there is a ton of great information on this board. read every thread you can and just make notes or bookmark them to come back to them when you need the info. hope this helps!

[Denise2000]

LOL...what made you decide on-island coordinator as oppose to Royal Romance?

[acireta]

:p I was going to go with Carnival and TWE. We're still going with Carnival, but with one of the on-island WCs to do the ceremony.

 

I think I just realized that I am way too OCD and needy to have no answers until two weeks prior. I also want to be a little picky about location of the ceremony and the WC will be able to give more options that TWE. This way, we'll have the ceremony and lunch we want on the island, and then we can still do a dinner in one of the specialty restuarants, even if its not called a "wedding" reception. I think that's the path we're leaning towards.

[Denise2000]

I feel the same way but at the same time what if the ship does not dock because of bad weather??? This is becoming more complicated then what I had hoped for.

 

Thanks for your advice and good luck with your planning. Keep me posted :)

[acireta]

St. Thomas isn't a tender port for the carnival liberty, so there's less of a chance they won't be able to dock.

 

there's a lot more risk involved with this whole idea than in an at-home-wedding, its the nature of the beast. we should all send each other good thoughts that all of our days will go smoothly!! and don't book during hurricane season!! :-)

[Berley78]

;)I am getting married on St. Thomas on 12/3/10. I decided to go with Island Wedding Services. So far everything has been great, including the price. If for some reason we don't go into St. Thomas, we get refunded our money, including the open air taxi that we have for the entire day. It came to thousands of dollars less than what the cruise line wanted to do, and we got our choice of beach locations.

Is it a possibility that something could go wrong and we don't make it into St. Thomas, yes. However, if that can be predicted before our cruise departure, we will marry in the courthouse at home, and do our own unofficial ceremony either on the ship or at another one of the islands.

[acireta]

If for some reason we don't go into St. Thomas, we get refunded our money, including the open air taxi that we have for the entire day.

 

it would be refunded by your coordinator? pretty sweet insurance deal!

[Berley78]

I am using Summy Liston Tours for the transportation. If the ship doesn't dock in port they refund all money. As for the wedding coordinator, they take a $100 deposit and the rest you pay to the minister that day. This includes the flowers, photographer site fee and minister. I was told that if for any reason the ship was unable to make it in, that there wouldn't be any other charges. Sounded like minimal risk with a great payoff. She has done everything she said she would, and so far it has been a painless process. At this point, it is just a wait and see if everything turns out as expected on her side. However she had some fabulous reviews by many people in the states.

[tellinlikeitis]

My experience with these clowns was awful and that's exactly what they are..... unprofessional, rude clowns. A joke.They do not return calls and emails and they treated me like I was part of a cattle call. They're fine until they charge your card............and then you don't exist for them until a few days before your wedding. It's much better to go with an on site coordinator.