Carnival Steakhouse

[Antloe]

Any one on here actually rent it out? I know dancing is probably not allowed, but Is it possible for 1 or 2 first dance songs?

[goodtoglow]

Hi!

 

We rented out the Carnival Liberty Steakhouse, Harry's, November 1!

It was one of the best choices we made (other than bringing our photographer). Our ceremony was very relaxed & casual on the beach, but our reception was quite traditional being in the steakhouse, so it was the perfect blend of destination meets modern wedding.

We had to pay $30x108 seats. We had the full menu but did have to have our seating split up. We had family/friends of the family arrive at 7pm, and then friends at 745pm. We had to fight a bit to get this arrangement, as originally they wanted 3 seperate seatings (6pm; 715pm; 845pm) with a very limited menu. The Steakhouse Staff (Monika was our hostess and we communicated back and forth via email) went above and beyond. Everything was perfect. The Steakhouse is split into 2 sections (it is a U shape) which caused us some stress thinking about how our friends wouldn't be able to see the family, we felt it would break things up too much (with us at the head table on the dance floor) but in the end we stressed for no reason, as it really was fine.

We were allowed to stay in the Steakhouse as long as we wanted. They had a wire microphone for speeches and our MCs were great, inviting those who wanted a better view of things (because of the layout) to gather round the dance floor.

We brought CDs with our music for the evening, and they have a 5-disc changer so it automatically switched from disc to disc. Monika helped with pausing the music during MC announcments, speeches, etc, and she made sure to put on the CD with our dances when the time came.

The staff cleared away our table so there was plenty of room for dancing (we did the traditional dances in the steakhouse then did our partying at the deck party that was going on). The staff was a bit stressed early in the evening but they ended up calling up the staff that would have been serving us during our dinner seating - as they had no one to serve for the entire dinner that time, as our group was split into early and late seating but at the same tables - and that helped a lot.

After the wedding, the staff collected all of our decor for us and arranged to get it to my Mom!

 

I honestly wish there was a way I could send the staff more of a tip. We tipped them that night but considering the service we received and the quality of the food, I feel like it wasn't enough! We were so happy with how our reception turned out.

 

As soon as I get my disc of images from my photographer I will post a full review of the entire cruise here. For now though, you can see lots of Steakhouse Reception pics on my photographers blogs!

 

http://www.michaelwachniak.com/realloveis/2011/11/stephanie-colin-st-thomas-cruise-wedding/

 

http://www.bohnjello.com/2011/11/caribbean-cruise-lindquist-beach.html

 

If you have any more questions, feel free to ask! I'm not on here too often now that I don't have a cruise to plan :( but email is okay: goodtoglow@gmail.com

[goodtoglow]

Oh, I should also mention that for the alcohol for the night, we pre-purchased drink coupons through Bon Voyage (enough for 4 tickets per person) and we also pre-ordered 5 wine packages. It was a bit of a hassle to do all of the counting at the end of the night, but my mom & Monika ended up taking care of that, and in the end we used up all of the wine packages and had about 15 drink tickets left! I of course had to make custom drink tickets though, rather than use the ones Bon Voyage gives. In an elegant setting like the Steakhouse, I felt the custom drink tickets were more appropriate (and we put a $6 value on each ticket but I believe the Bon Voyage only covered $5.75. We wanted everyone to have more options than the standard $5.75 drinks as a lot of drinks we knew our guests would want cost $6. To be honest I don't think the Steakhouse charged us the difference)

[Antloe]

thanks for the great info.WOW i have a ton of more questions. Would it be possible to have an open bar in the steakhouse?

 

So the three different seating times didnt effect the reception at all and feel awkward?

 

You are allowed to decorate?

 

Wine package? 1 for each table?

 

MC? was that a family friend or someone from the crew?

[aprill121]

Goodtoglow,

I thought it would be more appropriate to post these questions on this thread, for the steakhouse info.

Renting out the steakhouse, did you pay for 108 seats because thats how many it seats, or was that because you had so many guests? How many people will the steakhouse hold in one seating? how did the wine package work? Do they have an option for an open bar package? did they allow you to decorate? (not major decorations, but small centerpieces, cake table decor, ect.) how much was your cake? can you decorate the cake yourself? Did you get to have your first dance? sorry i have so many questions, but thank you in advance for the answers!

By the way, congrats, and you looked stunning.

__________________

[Antloe]

Yes April good questions.. Would love more info.

[aprill121]

Antloe-

I think the steakhouse is a great option, I did not really like the idea of the 1 hour reception, doesn't seem like you get your moneys worth.

[aprill121]

Antloe- when and where are you getting married?

[Antloe]

Island wedding in St Thomas on 1/2/13 not through carnival

[aprill121]

Which wedding planner did you decide on? I am still trying to decide!

[Antloe]

Island Bliss

[FutureMrsC]

We didnt rent out the whole steakhouse (since we only had 23 guests) but we did have the "dinner" portion of the reception there after doing our cake, dancing, toast, and ect during our two hour reception. EVERYONE loved it!! We had an extreme "food-ie" in attendance and she was even blown away!

 

On Carnival Freedom there were two times we could book - 6:30pm and 9pm (i think). We were told you usually cant make reservation prior to departure but since we were such a large group and wedding it wasnt a problem. Just make sure if you pay prior to the dinner, you print the confirmation email and take it with you so they dont try to charge you again.

 

The coordinator for the steakhouse met with us prior to the wedding day to review table arrangements. We choose not to do a seating plan or decorations but she seemed very open to anything if changed our minds. Im sure centerpieces wouldn't be an issue.

 

Good Luck and Happy Planning!!

[Antloe]

But Carnival did your ceremony correct? or did you just book reception only/dinner?

[FutureMrsC]

We did everything through Carnival and the on-island co. they use for the ceremony. That way if they decided to skip the port they were responsible for arranging a back up :)

[aprill121]

Lets revive this thread.... I want answers!!!! lol.

[Antloe]

I just got off the phone with the wedding dept and they are offering me 2 hour reception in one of the venues and that the steakhouse is seperate and i hate to email them ***? I dont like the idea of emailing especially for a wedding with hopefully a decent size group. How can i arrange this?

[goodtoglow]

Goodtoglow,

I thought it would be more appropriate to post these questions on this thread, for the steakhouse info.

Renting out the steakhouse, did you pay for 108 seats because thats how many it seats, or was that because you had so many guests? How many people will the steakhouse hold in one seating? how did the wine package work? Do they have an option for an open bar package? did they allow you to decorate? (not major decorations, but small centerpieces, cake table decor, ect.) how much was your cake? can you decorate the cake yourself? Did you get to have your first dance? sorry i have so many questions, but thank you in advance for the answers!

By the way, congrats, and you looked stunning.

__________________

 

Thanks for being patient everyone while waiting for my answers! We are doing a reno while also trying to organize ourselves for a month long honeymoon in which we leave on feb 14, so things have been a bit busy around here!

 

First, we had 2 of our friends MC our reception, but I know that Monika (our hostess) surely would have done it herself.

 

We had to rent out the *entire* steakhouse regardless of how many people were actually going to be eating (in our case, 77 adults, 1 child, & 1 infant). We could have rented out the 50 or 58 seat side had we fit in there, but at the end of the day, we decided to rent out the entire thing even if we ended up with some last minute cancellations meaning we could fit on one side. It was worth the cost to have the privacy of the Steakhouse for the entire evening... as well as control of the microphone, music, dance floor, etc.

 

There was no open bar package. We pre-bought the tickets from Bon Voyage meaning we just saved a bit on the gratuity portion. We then made our own "pretty" tickets with our wedding logo and the value of the ticket and my mom went to the Steakhouse around 6pm (reception started at 7) and set everything up with Monika, including putting 4 drink tickets per seat at each table. We also brought our own seating chart & table numbers, but Monika did provide me with an Excel spreadsheet with their layout and seating arrangements. She emailed this to me about a year in advance so I had tons of time to work on it. We had family sit on one side of the Steakhouse & friends on the other.

 

We just estimated roughly 1/2 bottle of wine per person, and bought 5 in advance. We had the intention to just add on extra packages at the end of the night (so that we wouldn't be walking away with 2 packages to use up for the remainder of the trip if we bought them all in advance!) but Monika just used the drink tickets towards the bottles of wine and it all worked out wit us paying no extra money (phewph!).

 

We were able to decorate as much as we needed too, we didn't try to hang anything from the ceiling or the walls, but I made sure to choose my color schemes for the evening based on the Steakhouse decor so that nothing would clash, but only "enhance". We brought a guestbook, guestbook sign, some random love signs, a seating chart in a large frame, some decorative gems, our own cake topper, and table signs. Oh, and bridal party chair signs (side note, if anyone has the same color scheme as me, I have 6 bridesmaids, 1 maid of honor, 5 groomsman, 1 best man, 1 bride, and 1 groom chair sign I am going to sell!).

 

The cake was $150 BUT they won't allow brides who do not use Carnival wedding services to order. However, I emailed them and pointed out that I was bringing 79 people on board and should get the same service & treatment that any other bride should get, as well as that my Steakhouse reception & bar bill would be way more than many of the Carnival-wedding packages cost, and so they gave me the cake! I was able to pick my flavors - chocolate or vanilla cake, and chocolate, vanilla or strawberry filling (we went with vanilla cake with strawberry filling and it was DELICIOUS!). My mom put my cake topper on it but otherwise it was already decorated.

 

For our first dance, we made a seperate CD so when it came time, Monika had staff move the head table off the dance floor and she put the CD in. Our MCs made the announcement and we did our dance, my dance with my dad, a bridal party dance, and a special dance for my Grandparents who had just celebrated their anniversary. We also had a dance in which we took the mic and called up couples who were celebrating special occasions: a bridesmaid had gotten engaged the day before the cruise left; a few were celebrating wedding anniversarys; a delayed honeymoon; the couple we staged our bouquet toss & garter toss for (who got engaged 2 days after we got home! Yes he bought the rock on our wedding day in St Thomas!)....

 

Also, Monika was great in setting up the mic so that our "Kissing Menu" could work. People had to get up and sing a song, write a poem, tell a joke, do a performance, etc in order for us to kiss. It was very interactive and ended with our bridal party getting up there & singing/rapping us a full song!

 

We had made friends with the DJs on the ship so as our reception was ending, there was a deck party going on outside on the Lido deck. The DJ made an announcement and we all congo lined down the stairs from the Steakhouse to the Lido deck where we partied! This was around 11:30pm so our reception in the Steakhouse was quite long!

 

I'm still hoping to get a full review up, but as I said I am leaving in less than 2 weeks for SE Asia. I will do my best but if not, I will get it done after I return home March 12.

[goodtoglow]

thanks for the great info.WOW i have a ton of more questions. Would it be possible to have an open bar in the steakhouse?

 

So the three different seating times didnt effect the reception at all and feel awkward?

 

You are allowed to decorate?

 

Wine package? 1 for each table?

 

MC? was that a family friend or someone from the crew?

 

I thought I answered all of your questions but I see I missed one!

 

We were able to arrange having only 2 seatings. Family/friends of the family came at 7pm and sat on one side; Friends came at 7:30/7:45ish and sat on the other side. The seating chart was at the entrance so they knew where to go, and Monika was there to help out as well.

[Antloe]

Who did you have to call to rent the steakhouse? Were you a "group"?

[goodtoglow]

Who did you have to call to rent the steakhouse? Were you a "group"?

 

Yes, we booked the cruise as a group.

We did not use Carnival at all for the wedding.

Through my Travel Agent, I was able to email the Carnival Groups department directly, and they helped me arrange the rental and liase with Harry's Steakhouse. I got the email for the Steakhouse directly through another bride.

 

It was all done via email, no phone calls....

I didn't have to pay for the Steakhouse until 6 weeks before sailing which was nice.