Married on the Celebrity Reflection 02/15

[CCMS14]

This is a little late, but better late than never! We were married on the Celebrity Reflection on February 16 with 48 guests. I will give a quick glimpse of how everything went for us, and am happy to answer any questions.

 

Planning:

We started our experience working with Christine at The Wedding Experience, once we had signed all of our papers (just over 1 year in advance), I didn't normally have many questions, but when I did, I would fire them off in spurts, sometimes 3 in a week, followed by months of nothing. Christine was always great about answering my questions, or pointing me in the direction of a person who could.

 

In the summer, Christine left TWE, or possible just wasn't working on my file anymore, and I began working with Denise. Denise handled all of the licensing, and all other questions. We had a few hiccups with the licensing (we are Canadian) and didn't quite understand one of the seals that had to be on our documents, so after having them couriered to Miami, we found out they were incorrect. At the time I was in Florida getting ready go go on my December cruise to "check out" the Reflection. My fiancé requested the documents be couriered back to us (at our expense), unfortunately they were mistakenly sent by regular mail. This meant that we were going to be past our deadline to get the documents to Malta for the license! Unfortunately, the documents had to be under 90 days old when they were sent, and then had to be received by a certain point (I can't remember the exact date).

 

That crisis thankfully was averted when my fiancé drove about 6 hours out of his way to get these documents sealed and then re-couriered. Thankfully Denise was able to extend the date they were due by in order to accommodate this.

 

We ordered white rose bouquets from TWE, as well as corsages and boutonnieres, I will warn people - the corsages were not wrist corsages, so be prepared for that. The flowers were beautiful and lasted well into the second week of our cruise! We were very happy with them.

 

We had quoted a cake, and it was going to cost about $500 when it was all said and done, so we decided against the cake, and decided to just enjoy the dinner at the Tuscan Grill.

 

For our reception we decided to rent 48 spots in the Tuscan Grille. We made the reservation as early as we could, and had a few hiccups along the way. This reservation could not be made through TWE, so it was made via our travel agent. We had communications with one gentleman from the Group department, and he would always communicate with me…then suddenly, in about August when I requested a quote for buying out the restaurant, he could no longer talk to me, he could only talk to my TA. So my TA got the quote for buying out the restaurant ($10,000 -- no thanks). At final payment, we paid for the reservation, and got our confirmation - thought there would be no problems. Well, after that, I got an e-mail from Denise in February, mentioning that she remembered me saying we were doing the Tuscan Grille, and that the corporate office had no record of a group of 48?! Naturally, I went a bit crazy, I forwarded all of the e-mails I had to her, and my Mom (thank god) dealt with our travel agent (who is amazing) and finally the reservation was found - but let me tell you it left me nervous!

 

Guests:

The process with all of our guests was mostly easy and seamless. We made a point of explaining to our guests that we were thrilled that they were there, but this was their vacation and we didn't expect to take up the entire trip. We told our guests what excursions we were doing, and that if they wanted to join us, they were more than welcome. This logic worked out very well for us. Each night we had dinner with a few of our guests, we were in Aqua Class (and so were many of our guests), so we enjoyed dinners in Blu, and a couple of the nights we ate in Specialty Restaurants with our guests. During the day, we would hang out when we saw someone, and in the evening we generally had plans to meet up at the Molecular Bar, and then we we would head up to the sunset bar. This worked really well for us.

 

The Wedding:

As I mentioned, I had gone on a cruise in December to scope out the Reflection. On that cruise, I was lucky enough to meet Renata who is the wedding coordinator. She was amazing, she explained to me how everything would work, we discussed what she was able to do (dropping off our reminder invites to our guests), and she explained that it didn't always have the same cost that TWE gave us for things (although it involved the cost of and extra cruise, but it was so worth it!). Meeting Renata in December set my mind at ease about the entire thing. She explained they normally had 1-2 weddings per week and they always turned out beautifully.

 

As we boarded in February, we received an envelope on embarkation requesting that we contact Renata at our earliest convenience to discuss the details of our wedding. From the second we got int the terminal, everyone was so helpful. The check-in lady suggested I take my dress to Guest Relations to store, and that is the first thing I did. Immediately the dress and suit was stored in an office, that way I didn't have to lug it around until the cabins were ready. That evening, we met with Renata, she had our "reminder cards" delivered, and then wanted to confirm with me that she had the right dress! My dress brand was Allure, and she was concerned that it had gotten on the wrong ship! Renata explained how the morning would go, that she would come and get me when it was time to leave, and that the Captain would perform the ceremony, and then we would go for pictures, and if we needed anything, just to call her.

 

My maid of honour came to my room around 10 (wedding at 12:30), and did my hair, we had so much fun and I wouldn't trade those moments, and that experience for anything in the world. She did my hair, and we got ready, and then my other bridesmaids joined us while my fiance got ready with his wedding party. Unfortunately most of his male friends were unable to join him so his wedding party consisted of his sister, and one of his best female friends (we fought over who got her…). Although this isn't "traditional" it was perfect for us. We had 4 "flower girls" in the form of his cousins and sister, who all got ready with him as well.

 

When I finally made it to the Sky Observation Lounge (time for the wedding!), we had to wait outside of the lounge (which had a large Private Event sign out front of it). This is the part that I hated. I am not a huge lover of attention, I know, I probably should have gone to city hall by myself in a pair of sweats… Anyway, waiting outside we had a lot of people staring at us because clearly I was in a wedding dress. Most people were polite, wished me luck, told me that I looked nice and moved on, a few people kind of gawked and took pictures of me when I wasn't really focused on them (that was the part I found kind of weird). Then after about 10 minutes, it was time to go. My dad walked me down the aisle, and we chatted the entire way (I'm not one to stay quiet, and people staring at me freaks me out, so it was my way of staying calm). In terms of the photos, I love the photos of us walking because there are moments of genuine laughter.

 

Once I got up the aisle, I started to sweat, it was hot in there. That must be because of all the windows (but hey, I got my preferred location!). The Captain performed the ceremony with the pre-determined vows. It was everything we wanted it to be. We had a few moments of comic relief - the Captains cell phone rang, to which he turned it off and shrugged, "I'm the Captain!", and then my fiancé took the suggestion to repeat after me a little to seriously and mispronounced my name…which was also hilarious. Those are some of my favourite parts because they weren't perfect, but they were fun.

 

After the ceremony, we had a glass of champagne for some photos with the captain, and signed our documents. Then we spent about an hour taking photos, as you can imagine based on my distaste for attention before the wedding, walking around the ship in a wedding dress wasn't my cup of tea. Again, we had people taking photos of us, and were riding around the elevator to different locations. I felt awful that we essentially took up an entire elevator when people tried to get on. Our photos were great, I cannot remember the photographers name, but he was from South Africa and we were very happy with him. We ended up purchasing all of the photos on a disc to bring home.

 

Our reception at the Tuscan Grille was great. I have long loved that restaurant since my first trip on the Solstice. The only issue we had was that they had created a pre-set menu which they did not tell us about. I understand the need for the pre-set menu, however I believe this is something we should have been told, and that we should not have been paying full price for a limited menu. That being said, everyone enjoyed themselves, the service was great, the food was great and we had an amazing time.

 

Shortly after the meal, I had to get out of my dress (much to my mother's dismay), I couldn't stand the attention, it was starting to stress me out. So, one of my friends and I made our way to my room to help me get it off, and found our turndown service! There were rose pedals and towel animal swans and the LARGEST 2 tier cake I have ever seen being served for 2. This thing probably would have served 50, and had we known about its size, we would have brought it to dinner!

 

All in all, we had an amazing time, our wedding was exactly what we wanted, and we were surrounded by so much love and support. If anyone has specific questions, I am happy to try to answer them.

[kathynorth]

This is a little late, but better late than never! We were married on the Celebrity Reflection on February 16 with 48 guests. I will give a quick glimpse of how everything went for us, and am happy to answer any questions.

 

Planning:

We started our experience working with Christine at The Wedding Experience, once we had signed all of our papers (just over 1 year in advance), I didn't normally have many questions, but when I did, I would fire them off in spurts, sometimes 3 in a week, followed by months of nothing. Christine was always great about answering my questions, or pointing me in the direction of a person who could.

 

In the summer, Christine left TWE, or possible just wasn't working on my file anymore, and I began working with Denise. Denise handled all of the licensing, and all other questions. We had a few hiccups with the licensing (we are Canadian) and didn't quite understand one of the seals that had to be on our documents, so after having them couriered to Miami, we found out they were incorrect. At the time I was in Florida getting ready go go on my December cruise to "check out" the Reflection. My fiancé requested the documents be couriered back to us (at our expense), unfortunately they were mistakenly sent by regular mail. This meant that we were going to be past our deadline to get the documents to Malta for the license! Unfortunately, the documents had to be under 90 days old when they were sent, and then had to be received by a certain point (I can't remember the exact date).

 

That crisis thankfully was averted when my fiancé drove about 6 hours out of his way to get these documents sealed and then re-couriered. Thankfully Denise was able to extend the date they were due by in order to accommodate this.

 

We ordered white rose bouquets from TWE, as well as corsages and boutonnieres, I will warn people - the corsages were not wrist corsages, so be prepared for that. The flowers were beautiful and lasted well into the second week of our cruise! We were very happy with them.

 

We had quoted a cake, and it was going to cost about $500 when it was all said and done, so we decided against the cake, and decided to just enjoy the dinner at the Tuscan Grill.

 

For our reception we decided to rent 48 spots in the Tuscan Grille. We made the reservation as early as we could, and had a few hiccups along the way. This reservation could not be made through TWE, so it was made via our travel agent. We had communications with one gentleman from the Group department, and he would always communicate with me…then suddenly, in about August when I requested a quote for buying out the restaurant, he could no longer talk to me, he could only talk to my TA. So my TA got the quote for buying out the restaurant ($10,000 -- no thanks). At final payment, we paid for the reservation, and got our confirmation - thought there would be no problems. Well, after that, I got an e-mail from Denise in February, mentioning that she remembered me saying we were doing the Tuscan Grille, and that the corporate office had no record of a group of 48?! Naturally, I went a bit crazy, I forwarded all of the e-mails I had to her, and my Mom (thank god) dealt with our travel agent (who is amazing) and finally the reservation was found - but let me tell you it left me nervous!

 

Guests:

The process with all of our guests was mostly easy and seamless. We made a point of explaining to our guests that we were thrilled that they were there, but this was their vacation and we didn't expect to take up the entire trip. We told our guests what excursions we were doing, and that if they wanted to join us, they were more than welcome. This logic worked out very well for us. Each night we had dinner with a few of our guests, we were in Aqua Class (and so were many of our guests), so we enjoyed dinners in Blu, and a couple of the nights we ate in Specialty Restaurants with our guests. During the day, we would hang out when we saw someone, and in the evening we generally had plans to meet up at the Molecular Bar, and then we we would head up to the sunset bar. This worked really well for us.

 

The Wedding:

As I mentioned, I had gone on a cruise in December to scope out the Reflection. On that cruise, I was lucky enough to meet Renata who is the wedding coordinator. She was amazing, she explained to me how everything would work, we discussed what she was able to do (dropping off our reminder invites to our guests), and she explained that it didn't always have the same cost that TWE gave us for things (although it involved the cost of and extra cruise, but it was so worth it!). Meeting Renata in December set my mind at ease about the entire thing. She explained they normally had 1-2 weddings per week and they always turned out beautifully.

 

As we boarded in February, we received an envelope on embarkation requesting that we contact Renata at our earliest convenience to discuss the details of our wedding. From the second we got int the terminal, everyone was so helpful. The check-in lady suggested I take my dress to Guest Relations to store, and that is the first thing I did. Immediately the dress and suit was stored in an office, that way I didn't have to lug it around until the cabins were ready. That evening, we met with Renata, she had our "reminder cards" delivered, and then wanted to confirm with me that she had the right dress! My dress brand was Allure, and she was concerned that it had gotten on the wrong ship! Renata explained how the morning would go, that she would come and get me when it was time to leave, and that the Captain would perform the ceremony, and then we would go for pictures, and if we needed anything, just to call her.

 

My maid of honour came to my room around 10 (wedding at 12:30), and did my hair, we had so much fun and I wouldn't trade those moments, and that experience for anything in the world. She did my hair, and we got ready, and then my other bridesmaids joined us while my fiance got ready with his wedding party. Unfortunately most of his male friends were unable to join him so his wedding party consisted of his sister, and one of his best female friends (we fought over who got her…). Although this isn't "traditional" it was perfect for us. We had 4 "flower girls" in the form of his cousins and sister, who all got ready with him as well.

 

When I finally made it to the Sky Observation Lounge (time for the wedding!), we had to wait outside of the lounge (which had a large Private Event sign out front of it). This is the part that I hated. I am not a huge lover of attention, I know, I probably should have gone to city hall by myself in a pair of sweats… Anyway, waiting outside we had a lot of people staring at us because clearly I was in a wedding dress. Most people were polite, wished me luck, told me that I looked nice and moved on, a few people kind of gawked and took pictures of me when I wasn't really focused on them (that was the part I found kind of weird). Then after about 10 minutes, it was time to go. My dad walked me down the aisle, and we chatted the entire way (I'm not one to stay quiet, and people staring at me freaks me out, so it was my way of staying calm). In terms of the photos, I love the photos of us walking because there are moments of genuine laughter.

 

Once I got up the aisle, I started to sweat, it was hot in there. That must be because of all the windows (but hey, I got my preferred location!). The Captain performed the ceremony with the pre-determined vows. It was everything we wanted it to be. We had a few moments of comic relief - the Captains cell phone rang, to which he turned it off and shrugged, "I'm the Captain!", and then my fiancé took the suggestion to repeat after me a little to seriously and mispronounced my name…which was also hilarious. Those are some of my favourite parts because they weren't perfect, but they were fun.

 

After the ceremony, we had a glass of champagne for some photos with the captain, and signed our documents. Then we spent about an hour taking photos, as you can imagine based on my distaste for attention before the wedding, walking around the ship in a wedding dress wasn't my cup of tea. Again, we had people taking photos of us, and were riding around the elevator to different locations. I felt awful that we essentially took up an entire elevator when people tried to get on. Our photos were great, I cannot remember the photographers name, but he was from South Africa and we were very happy with him. We ended up purchasing all of the photos on a disc to bring home.

 

Our reception at the Tuscan Grille was great. I have long loved that restaurant since my first trip on the Solstice. The only issue we had was that they had created a pre-set menu which they did not tell us about. I understand the need for the pre-set menu, however I believe this is something we should have been told, and that we should not have been paying full price for a limited menu. That being said, everyone enjoyed themselves, the service was great, the food was great and we had an amazing time.

 

Shortly after the meal, I had to get out of my dress (much to my mother's dismay), I couldn't stand the attention, it was starting to stress me out. So, one of my friends and I made our way to my room to help me get it off, and found our turndown service! There were rose pedals and towel animal swans and the LARGEST 2 tier cake I have ever seen being served for 2. This thing probably would have served 50, and had we known about its size, we would have brought it to dinner!

 

All in all, we had an amazing time, our wedding was exactly what we wanted, and we were surrounded by so much love and support. If anyone has specific questions, I am happy to try to answer them.

 

Thank you for posting your review! I'm glad you had a wonderful time. My DD is thinking of a ship wedding, so your info is timely. Best wishes to you and your DH!

[mrstriceasnice]

Congratulations! Thanks for sharing

[Skymady]

CCMS14

Thank you so much for your review. It has instantly put my nerves at ease. Congratulation to you and your Husband ;)

I will be tying the knot @ Celebrity Constellation. I am so nervous, and overwhelmed since i have no idea what I really SHOULD do. Meaning, wedding at sea or on Day one. Have no idea where the ceremonies are held and where the reception takes place. Waiting on someone from TWE to contact me. Your wedding sounds like what i want. My choices and decisions need to be made asap. I really appreciate you taking the time to share your review. Best wishes yo you.

[CCMS14]

The one thing I will hazard that I forgot to mention in my review- we only got our location 4 days before the wedding. The at sea wedding was very relaxed for us, no worries with embarkation etc. whatever you decide I'm sure it will he great!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums