HELP!! Wedding onboard or Island?

[readytowed]

My fiance and I have decided to get married on a cruise. We will have about 50 friends and family sail with us. I really have no idea where to start. I have always wanted to get married on the beach, but I just wonder if it is easier on board? And when do you actually get married? in any port or what? Someone please help!!!! Thank you

[JerseyGem]

Congratulations and welcome to Cruise Critic! You have lots of questions; the brides here can help with many, but you'll also have to contact your cruiseline's wedding department for answers specific to that line. Which line, by the way?

 

As for where to marry, your options are onboard on embarkation day (in which case you can have non-sailing guests at the wedding), at a port onboard, at a port off the ship (beach or local venue), or onboard while sailing only if you sail Celebrity, Azmara or Princess. Some ships have small chapels (too small for your group), or you will be assigned one of the public venues for the nuptials & reception.

 

Not all countries are accomodating for foreigners to marry there without residency restrictions (so don't set your heart on one port until you check it out). Also, most of us here don't recommend that you consider marrying at a tender port (for example, the Cayman Islands or Belize). It's just too "iffy" as to whether the ship can tender or not.

 

Are you both veteran cruisers? If not, you may also want to consider just flying to an island (check the residency requirements). There are many websites with info about destination weddings. Although we obviously prefer a cruise wedding (LOL_ since we're on Cruise Critic!).

 

Good luck with the planning! Keep asking questions!

[CruiserJess]

My fiance and I have decided to get married on a cruise. We will have about 50 friends and family sail with us. I really have no idea where to start. I have always wanted to get married on the beach, but I just wonder if it is easier on board? And when do you actually get married? in any port or what? Someone please help!!!! Thank you

 

I feel your pain lol. My fiancé and I are doing both! We looked into actually getting married on the ship, which you can get married at pretty much any port (except Cozumel) and alot of brides choose to do embarkation day because they all non sailing guests to come to your wedding.

My fiancé and I decided we wanted to be outside on the beach so we will be getting married in Key West, FL but cruising there with our 40-50 guests. So far the process has been so simple and exciting! I feel like we are getting the best of both worlds. We are even now looking into hosting a small cocktail hour on the ship later in the day after the wedding.

In my opinion it is completely up to what the 2 of you would prefer. I loved the onboard packages but just truly love the beach and being outside which is why we chose what we did.

 

 

Hope that helps a bit...

[caviargal]

My husband and I were married in Key West 4 years ago while on a Celebrity cruise. I planned everything myself and was able to have a wonderful wedding and brunch reception at much less than the price for a very basic ceremony. We had about 15 guests.

 

Every line is different but there are wedding planners in most ports of call these days as this is big business. I personally am hands on and like to get the most value for my money so I would do it myself.

 

We were married in the gardens at Audubon House and had an outdoor brunch downtown. We walked to everything from the dock.

[dcdiva]

I faced the same dilemma. We specifically decided against an embarkation day wedding because we wanted to keep the guest list in check. (Huge families on both sides.) We knew fewer people would be able to sail with us, so we planned a port wedding. Our original plan was to be married on the beach in Key West. But our list of sailing guests continued to grow and the logistics of transporting 60 people -- including our elderly parents and some very small children -- became both overwhelming and expensive. In the end, we decided to have the ceremony and reception onboard the ship while we were in port at Key West. It ended up working really well for our group. And we used the money we saved on ground transportation to pay for an extra hour of open bar!! :D

 

If our group was smaller, or we didn't have the older folks and young babies, we might have stuck with the onshore ceremony. You have lots of options, so it's just a question of deciding what's best for you and your family.

[Lipz]

For us a beach wedding would have been our 'dream' wedding. However, we probably would have only had 2 guest....our children. Money is really tight for everyone we know right now and even though our guest had 11 months notice we still didn't want to make anyone feel bad about not being able to cruise for the wedding. With that said we decided to do the onboard wedding day of departure in that way sailing and non sailing guest could attend.

Although I wish we could have the beach wedding our dreams, I have no regrets about doing the cruise ship wedding. We have invited 50 people and only 7 have booked to sail with more than half saying they will come but can not sail. Had we did the beach wedding, it would have been a few people but our bestfriends would not have been able to come. They just had a baby, and they have two graduations this year..middle school & high school, and the oldest goes off to college. Money is just to tight for a family of five to cruise right now with all that going on. We couldn't see getting married without them attending, so ship board wedding here we come.

 

Second to that would be the fear of the ship not making it to the wedding destination for whatever reason, and bad weather since we are cruising in August which is hurricane season.

Do what's best for you and yours!..and congratulations. :)

[aprill121]

I am a fan of island weddings personally. Check out keywestweddingstogo.com they have cheap packages, that include just about everything and they will perform it wherever you want, plus you get a wedding planner, makes things nice and easy.

[readytowed]

I feel your pain lol. My fiancé and I are doing both! We looked into actually getting married on the ship, which you can get married at pretty much any port (except Cozumel) and alot of brides choose to do embarkation day because they all non sailing guests to come to your wedding.

My fiancé and I decided we wanted to be outside on the beach so we will be getting married in Key West, FL but cruising there with our 40-50 guests. So far the process has been so simple and exciting! I feel like we are getting the best of both worlds. We are even now looking into hosting a small cocktail hour on the ship later in the day after the wedding.

In my opinion it is completely up to what the 2 of you would prefer. I loved the onboard packages but just truly love the beach and being outside which is why we chose what we did.

 

 

Hope that helps a bit...

 

Thank!!! Helps so much. I am not planning to have none sailing guest at the wedding. What cruise like did you decide on and are you doing a cruise wedding or another vender?

[readytowed]

Thank you all so much. I still have a lot to look it to but this site makes everything much easier :D

[CruiserJess]

Thank!!! Helps so much. I am not planning to have none sailing guest at the wedding. What cruise like did you decide on and are you doing a cruise wedding or another vender?

 

We are cruising on the Carnival Destiny out of Miami. I went with Weddings to go Key West as someone else mentioned. They have been so helpful and are so affordable! Their packages include everything which makes it easy planning a wedding from so far away.

 

The best part about Key West is its a US port so it is not difficult to get a marriage license ( Mexico and Bahamas are complicated) and it is a port where the ship can dock so theres much less of a chance of it being skipped due to weather.

[readytowed]

We are cruising on the Carnival Destiny out of Miami. I went with Weddings to go Key West as someone else mentioned. They have been so helpful and are so affordable! Their packages include everything which makes it easy planning a wedding from so far away.

 

The best part about Key West is its a US port so it is not difficult to get a marriage license ( Mexico and Bahamas are complicated) and it is a port where the ship can dock so theres much less of a chance of it being skipped due to weather.

 

I am kind of leaning towards a Key West wedding for the same reason. Now I need to decided cruise wedding or outside vender. I have look a little at both. Thank you again!!

[CarnivalDreamWedding]

Hi There!

 

I have just come back from a onshore wedding in Nassau... you can find the whole review and pics in this same thread, just down a bit. Its titled Carnival Dream Wedding 12-19-10 Nassau, Orange Hill Beach. Also, my wedding pics are attached. That might give you a good idea of what an island site is like.

 

The things i loved about the island site are many, but a few things that stand out are that: 1) you are the only wedding for the day, and this is not true for embarkation day- there are up to 3 brides at this time. 2) we did not feel rushed at all.... we felt like we had an entire wedding day that flowed late into the wee hours of the next morning (from reading other reviews it seems like the embarkation day can sometimes feel a bit rushed (but i could be wrong, that is just what i picked up from reading) 3) having everyone with us- we took 46 people- for the entire cruise was AMAZING... we wouldnt do it any other way! and there are a zillion other amazing things, but that is all i can come up with off the top of my head :)

 

Also, you can have non-sailing guests at the island sites if you choose to have a back on board reception. It is less common ,but it is certainly possible.

 

I'm sure either way you choose to go, it will be beautiful! Good luck!!!

[Cattie]

I am kind of leaning towards a Key West wedding for the same reason. Now I need to decided cruise wedding or outside vender. I have look a little at both. Thank you again!!

 

 

I personally used an outside vendor in Bermuda. There are a lot of good stories about TWE/RR/Whatever the cruiseline calls them, it's all the same company. I've also read just as many if not more horror stories.

 

I felt like I got more personal service using an outside vendor. I didn't feel like a bride in a cattle shoot. Plus the cruise companies use an independent vendor shore side anyway, so it's just cutting out the middle man.

 

The only problem using an outside vendor is if you have to miss the port for any reason then they would set you up somewhere else, or on board. If you decide to use a outside vendor make sure if there are any problems you would be reimbursed your money or a portion.

 

I also think I had a little more control using an outside vendor. It's really up to how you want to do it. You're going to hear the raves from both ways and the horror stories. It's which you feel more comfortable with. You have to figure out what you want and which is going to be able to offer it to you, and if you are any type of control freak like I am, you may want to use an outside vendor.

[readytowed]

Hi There!

 

I have just come back from a onshore wedding in Nassau... you can find the whole review and pics in this same thread, just down a bit. Its titled Carnival Dream Wedding 12-19-10 Nassau, Orange Hill Beach. Also, my wedding pics are attached. That might give you a good idea of what an island site is like.

 

The things i loved about the island site are many, but a few things that stand out are that: 1) you are the only wedding for the day, and this is not true for embarkation day- there are up to 3 brides at this time. 2) we did not feel rushed at all.... we felt like we had an entire wedding day that flowed late into the wee hours of the next morning (from reading other reviews it seems like the embarkation day can sometimes feel a bit rushed (but i could be wrong, that is just what i picked up from reading) 3) having everyone with us- we took 46 people- for the entire cruise was AMAZING... we wouldnt do it any other way! and there are a zillion other amazing things, but that is all i can come up with off the top of my head :)

 

Also, you can have non-sailing guests at the island sites if you choose to have a back on board reception. It is less common ,but it is certainly possible.

 

I'm sure either way you choose to go, it will be beautiful! Good luck!!!

 

Your review was wonderful it really makes me thing everything will be ok :) Your pictures are absolutly amazing!!! What port did you leave from? Thank you again!!!

[CarnivalDreamWedding]

Readytowed, Glad it helped :) We left out of port canaveral. Let me know if you have any other questions, i'm happy to help!

[futuremrs.pittman]

My fiance and I originally planned on getting married on the beach in Key West, which I think would have been beautiful, but then we opted for an onboard wedding in Key West. This way it was a WHOLE LOT cheaper for us, and we still got to book a 2 hour reception, all for less than half of what it would have been to do our 2 hour reception and the ceremony on the beach. Everyone is different and it really just depends on what is important to you. For us, the scenery wasn't important. I wanted to splurge on my dress and we both wanted to be able to have lots of friends with us for 5 days partying and cruising :). Good luck and congratulations!!

[futuremrs.pittman]

CruiserJess...when are you getting married? I'm on the Destiny too. March 18, 2011 :)