Wedding in Bermuda with Royal Caribbean

[pmoorefi]

My review on planning my wedding in Bermuda with royal romance, Royal Caribbean Wedding Department, and Island Tour Centre.

All prices are listed at the end

 

Picking Cruise Wedding to Bermuda

Back in August of 2013 I decided I wanted to do a cruise wedding. I really liked the idea as having my wedding as a vacation for all my guest, but I wanted my guests to be entertained the whole time. With a cruise they would have tons of the things to do during vacation that wasn’t only family/friend wedding things. I also wanted to get married on a beach with crystal clear water. That’s when I looked into Bermuda, it had everything I wanted for my destination: Cruises that one went to that location and stayed at that location for multiple days, the capital of Bermuda happened to be what my new last name would be, cruise prices were on the cheaper side, cruises ported out of a city near my family and me where we wouldn’t have to fly to the cruise port then stay in a hotel the night before (saving money and time for all), GDP for Bermuda is one of the highest in the world, the weather is nice year around (not too hot or too cold, 90-50F year around). That when I started thinking about a date, September of the next year was going to our 7year anniversary and there would be less kids on the cruise because school would be in and the weather is perfect then 80-70F, so we picked September 2014.

I read online the Royal Caribbean will do everything for your wedding and had what looked like really cheap wedding packages. I read their brochure for the wedding and some of the fine print and missing information had me a little worried, but I went ahead and called the royal romance department (after booking my cruise, they won’t help you at all without your cruise booked first). I wanted to get an idea for the pricing and missing information on their brochure before I booked the wedding with them (I could always cruise with them and have my wedding done by a local wedding planner in Bermuda w/o royal romance). I stared looking local wedding planners in Bermuda, they were pricey, they wanted $5,000 just for planning it and came with nothing. Royal romance prices were around $5000 and included a lot of different thinks, the wedding, the person that married you, basic flowers, and cake.

 

Royal Romance Wedding with Royal Caribbean

So I picked royal romance and they sent me their agreement to fill out and send back to them. When I read it, I noticed things like: “We will provide a final confirmation of the details of your wedding program approximately 30 days prior to your event day”, (why not 90 days before, 30 sounded last minute and I’m not a last minute kind of person. “No third party vendors allowed”, (I couldn’t shop around for prices on things not included in the base price). I also read that you couldn’t pick any options until 90-75 days before your event, (very last minute, usually everything is done before 90 days out not just starting.) Before I signed their agreement and paid (so they would hold my wedding day, they only allow so many on a cruise or day) (I had to pay the $5000 up front right after signing) I wanted some idea of cost for extra things like (chairs (not chairs are included), different flowers, bamboo arch, rose pedals down the aisle, transportation for my guest (not included, like my guest have a car to get their when they came on a cruise ship), extra hour of pictures and all on CD, and water for guest. The lady was speaking to wouldn’t help me with this she just kept calling asking me to pay, so I got a hold of the manger and told her I was unhappy and I have some questions I needed answered before I was paying them anything. She said she would answer the questions, some she did others she didn’t saying I would have to wait until 90 days before to get quotes. (90 days is when you can’t get my money back if it’s too much or they won’t do it)

 

Planning the Wedding before 90 days

As time went by I planned what I could for my wedding without knowing prices, very hard to decided w/o prices. I had a couple of questions come up that I wanted to ask Royal romance and it had nothing to do w/ quotes, just what’s allowed. I wanted to bring my own tablecloth for sand ceremony table. I emailed the lady I spoke w/ before and she won’t reply so I e-mailed her manger again, she informed she was fired and that she would be able to help me with any questions I had. So I told her I wanted to know the table size of the tables they use for the sand ceremony at the beach. She told me no tables were allowed on the beach. So I sent her a picture of a table like for sand ceremony on the beach and re-asked the question what was the table size they used for this. She said sorry and yes that we could have a table for that, but still didn’t give me table size, or even say she couldn’t give me a size. At this point I gave up w/ asking them questions, they were wasting my time and giving me just plain stupid. It would take a week just to get a reply e-mail and calling them they never answered or returned messages. I wanted to get my money back and use someone else. My parents didn’t want to give up on royal romance and they were paying so I let it go. I gave up the idea I had for bringing my own things for the wedding (I wanted to bring my own things so the color would be what I wanted and all match).

I picked a location (Warwick long bay beach) and time (2pm) and sent out my invites so my guest would be able to book their cruise before the cruise sold out (and it did sell out). I had some guest they kept telling them were coming but didn’t book the cruise, they said they were going to fly there. I didn’t say they could fly there and what happened if it rained, I would have to have my wedding on the cruise ship and they wouldn’t be able to attend after flying all the way there (the price for the cheapest flight was the same as the price for the cheap cruise room (including food and board) made no sense but whatever). So now my plan to have reception on the cruise ship after the wedding was out the window because I would leave out guest not cruising that wouldn’t be able to board the ship. Off the cruise ship meaning not with royal romance, this would be okay because it wasn’t part of the wedding they wouldn’t know. I researched a couple different places in Bermuda for reception, all over priced because I wasn’t stay there or having my wedding with them.

 

Planning reception on a private boat with Island Tour Centre

I wanted a view of the ocean for the reception so I thought what about a private yacht, sounded pricey right? Not compared to other locations prices I got. So I quotes for food, cake, and bar service from them. The food quote was right away. The bar quote took 3 months to get, crazy long time. I wanted what they called special bar items (not available if I just got their open bar), so I was going to have to pay per bottle rather than per person and per hour. Turned out cheaper when I got the prices to just order the bottles I wanted then open bar, perfect, we weren’t big drinks. Food, cake and bar cost weren’t due until after J, but the boat cost was due in full when booking. Not a big deal because they had given my quotes for everything before they asked me to pay (really liked that). I just didn’t like how long it took for the quotes, but other than that I was very happy. They were going to dock right the boat right next to our cruise ship making it very easy on my guest, they also got me a rain location on land at no extra cost and transportation to it very cheap, that I only had to pay for if it rained. They also said I could board the boat early to decorate which made me very happy. Not worried about the reception at all other than if it rains because I really want an ocean view.

 

Planning the Wedding after 90 days

A couple of days before 90 days before my wedding I got an e-mail to fill out selection sheet. I filled it out and sent it back that day with everything I wanted including the location, time (2pm), and pictures of the extra items I wanted quotes for. Within minutes I got a reply saying there was no way I could do my wedding at 2pm, they said that it’s way too hot in Bermuda in September to be outside at 2pm. I replied I’m okay with the heat and the average high is in the low 80 in September for Bermuda. They replied again right away with no that earliest I would be able to have my wedding was 6pm due to the heat and they said they had brides pass out from the heat before. So I told them then I’m cancelling with royal romance that crazy (my boat reception was already scheduled from 3pm-7pm). And called to cancelled I talked with the lady I talked with on the emails and she said she could change my wedding day (still not having it until 6pm), I told that’s not happening. So she said I could do 10am on the same day as already planned, I was okay with that, but not happy. 10am is 2 hours before noon and 2pm is 2 hours after noon, on pass weather history the temperature and humidity averaged same at 10am and 2pm for that day in Bermuda for the past 10 years, I did my research, so there was no reason I couldn’t do 2pm for heat for a reason. But after thinking about the time 10am would give me and my guest time between the wedding and receptions to not rush (me take pictures, my guest got to the beach). I was happy with and liked the new time actually better, but still didn’t like that it was early in the day and then my pictures would now be from 10am-noon instead of 2pm-4pm (so much for being out of the heat, they actually moved me into the heat w/ the new time when you add pictures) but whatever I took the 10am.

They started working on the quotes for me. It took about 3 weeks after the 90days before for the quotes. They gave me them over the phone, really wanted in in writing. The prices were different then the quotes I got before the 90 days, before I paid my deposit and was locked in at 120 days. The transportation was $500 off, chairs were off too, arch was correct, photos were priced differently, and the flowers that she wouldn’t give me a price for before were crazy overpriced. All Prices at bottom. So now I was stuck w/ paying 3 times the price for flowers and double the price of transportation (these were the only ones I was pissed off about) and I could just use another vendor because I would lose the $5000 I had to pay which included nothing really.

 

I’m still 60 days out from my wedding and I’m still waiting on some information like if they will do pink fabric for arch I want and redo on transportation quote because I don’t want my guest staying for the extra pictures. I will fill you in on how everything turned out when I get back from wedding cruise.

 

Prices

 

4 Post Archway (pic) $1425

2 Post Archway $675

Chairs $9/each ($6/each was the quote before 90 days)

Chair sashes $23/each

Water for guest $4/each

36 hot pink rose bouquet (pic) $675

24 hot pink rose bouquet $540

18 hot pink rose bouquet $405

Matching hot pink boutonniere (pic) $38

Rose petals for the aisle (suggested 30 roses, pic) $15/rose

Transportation to beach and back $55/person ($412.50 for a bus for 24 was the quote before 90 days)

Extra hour of photos and all images on CD $900

Boat $450 per hour for 25 people (2 hours min)

All the food for reception including cake $2142

Bar items $268

 

 

Food ordered

o CANAPES allowing for 10 pieces per person

Quesadilla Wraps with BBQ Chicken Breast & Smoked Mozzarella X2

Scallops Wrapped in Bacon

Mini Franks in a Blanket

Meatballs in BBQ Sauce X2

Shrimps with Cocktail Sauce

Mozzarella sticks X2

o CHEESE PLATTER

Selection of Gourmet Cheeses (includes spicy cheeses) with Grapes, Plain Crackers & Walnuts

 

o FRUIT PLATTER

Selection of Freshly Sliced Seasonal Fruit

 

o Pizza Calzone w/pepperoni per dozen x 2

 

o Mini Beef Burgers per dozen x 2

 

o Beef Tenderloin Skewer with Vegetables x 2

 

o Chicken Skewer w/ vegetables x 2

 

o 2 tier Wedding cake bottom 10" and top 8' w/ sugar flowers vanilla cake, and white chocolate filling

 

o Staff Estimate x 1

 

 

Bar

· 2 bottles of crown Royal

 

· 1 bottle of Cruzan Coconut Rum

 

· 1 bottle of Cruzan Vanilla Rum

 

· 1 bottle of Ciroc Vodka

 

· 1 case of Miller Light

 

· 1 6-pack of Angry Orchard

 

· 3 cans of Coconut Cream

 

 

I will let me know how to turns out after the wedding. Just wanted to get my review out there soon then later b/c I had trouble findings reviews on people who used Royal Caribbean for their wedding.

[palmtree99]

I am anxious to hear your reply. I am planning a Royal Caribbean wedding to Bermuda next July. I decided to go with Bermuda Bride instead of through the cruise line, but it is $1500 and includes nothing. Not really sure why it is so high. Good luck at your wedding, getting close!! :)

 

 

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[tmm4vaca]

Hi. We are getting married may 2015, so doing all the research too. My client used Bermuda Bride and was very pleased. But for me that upfront fee is a bit much. I don't need much, I Have a client that does beautiful flowers, so I'll have them made in silk here and take them. My cousin is a photographer and is coming with us. This is my 2nd marriage and his first, I don't need all the extras. I do like the boat idea, and I feel that is a good price. Can't wait for the review. Good luck and congratulations.

[pmoorefi]

I just wanted to give an update.

 

I wanted to start with something positive as most of this review is negative. I’m done with all my planning. Just counting down the days until the cruise/wedding. I’m thinking it will all turn out just fine and all my worrying was for nothing.

 

I’m now around 30 days out from my wedding. I finally did hear about if they would do the pink fabric like I asked. The answer was yes, but if I wanted pink and white like the picture I sent them last year it would be extra $300, but if I just did the pink there would be no extra charge on top of $675 for the arch. I decide to just go with the pink and no white because $300 is crazy for 3 yards of fabric. I understand some things should cost extra but they are ripping me off on all these prices.

 

They wouldn’t change the price on the bus even if we wanted the bus for 2 less hours, after they told me that the price was based on per person and for how long. Another rip off and lie.

 

Let me explain how I finally got this answer of they had pink fabric, as it was a long process for such a simple question. Last year before I booked with them I sent them a picture of the arch I wanted with the fabric (pink and white) and asked a price. They gave me a price and said nothing about may not be able to have pink or pink and white cost extra then the price they gave me. Then 90 days until my wedding they asked me to select my options, ones again I sent a picture (the same picture), they gave me price of $675 but weren’t sure about the pink and would ask. I kept checked in to see how long it would take to get an answer, my wedding specialist said a week, then 2 weeks later I asked again, she said by next week, 2 more weeks passed, then she said she would have to me tomorrow, then a couple of days passed then she said tomorrow again, then a week passed and I asked again, no reply. So that’s when I called her, she never answers the phone or returned phone messages on her line so I called the main line left messages with them they said she was busy and couldn’t talk and I couldn’t wait on hold for her. I asked for her manger they told me all the managers are busy. I was pissed so I asked for an email of a manager they told me to just to e-mail the main e-mail for Royal Caribbean wedding department and write attention manager in the subject and they would see it and reply. 2 days later no reply and I still couldn’t speak to anyone when I called the main line or my wedding specialist. So I emailed my wedding specialist telling that I need to have her have her manger call me, no call or reply e-mail. Finally my dad started calling he was finally able to speak to manger after calling the main royal Caribbean number and being transferred. I told the manger what happened and she said that it takes a while to reach people on the island to get the answers and its wasn’t my wedding specialist fault. (it was her fault she stopped replying and kept lied to me on when she would get me the info). I was not happy, she said she would get me the information by tomorrow so I told her I would like a picture of the pink they would be using to make sure it was the right color, she said no problem. The next day I got my answer but no picture. I asked again for the picture and got the picture the next day.

 

My dad also called to pay because they said payment was due 30 days before the wedding they told him couldn’t pay because everything wasn’t finalized. The contact that we signed says if we don’t pay on time we have to pay a $250 late fee. When we told them this wasn’t fair, they told us over the phone that they wouldn’t make us pay the late fee. Still waiting to see if they try to charge us the fee whenever they are done finalizing it, as I’m done now. Have no other questions, at least ones that I trust them to answer fully. So why can’t we pay by the deadline?

 

We have now received the final wedding report, after we sign that and they approve it... we can pay. that's fine with me, just last min. as for now i'm happy, just didnt like the planning process delay, we will see how it goes on my wedding day.

[palmtree99]

I'm still all over the place with my planning. I actually spontaneously booked a "test cruise" to Bermuda to scope everything out, I just got off the ship today. Bermuda is beautiful, and the trip reassured me that I want my wedding there. I went to Warwick Bay, it was a beautiful spot. I do have to agree with the person that recommended you have your wedding at 6pm. Bermuda is HOT! It is a different kind of hot too. The temp there was in the 80s on Monday, and it felt like 100. You literally feel like you are in an oven. Super hot.

 

My main frustration right now is picking the ship. Only a few ships go to Bermuda, and I didn't like the one I just took. I'm thinking of switching to the Norwegian Breakaway. I'm touring it in September so hopefully I like that one.

 

Thanks for the update, keep them coming! :)

 

 

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[palmtree99]

Oh, and one suggestion...ask them to make sure the beach has been cleaned. When we were there the beaches were covered in seaweed/ sea grass. It was everywhere, and sort of took away from how picturesque those beaches are. Make sure someone cleans it for you!

 

 

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[pmoorefi]

Yeah they were probably right about time, just wish I would have know in the beginning so I could plan around it. Good idea about cleaning the beach, totally forgot, I will have to make sure they do. I'm going on the grandeur of the sea, never been on the boat but I loved that it was out of Baltimore, very short drive. What ships have you been on and why didn't you like them? I have never been on a cruise, so that part will be totally new to me. I have heard a lot good things about royal Caribbean for cruise part not wedding so picked them.

[palmtree99]

I actually just got off the grandeur yesterday. I have been on 5 carnival cruises and loved everyone of them. I booked my wedding cruise for July 2015 on the grandeur out of Baltimore. I'm from Ohio so it was really convenient, only a 6hr drive. I took a cruise last week on it just to test it out before the wedding cruise.

 

The grandeur wasn't horrible, there were lots of people I met last week onboard that love that ship. I just knew within 20 mins though that it wasn't the ship I wanted my wedding cruise on. The ship is small, and very old. I was built in 1996, so it seemed more run down compared to any other ship I was on.

 

No one in my family or my fiancés family have cruised before, and we really want to blow them away, or "wow" them with a fancy ship with all the bells and whistles. We are thinking of switching to the Norwegien Breakaway, it was built in 2013 and has more features.

 

This may be the only time I get my family on a cruise, and I just want to impress them with a "mega ship". Let me know if you have any questions about Bermuda or the grandeur, I can try my best to answer them!

 

 

 

 

 

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[a20angel03]

I seem to have some of the same issues for my wedding planning through Royal Caribbean for our wedding in October 2015. Question - how are you getting your guests to the ceremony location? Right I was told transportation might cost around $3000 which is more than the reception.

[pmoorefi]

Everything turned out just fine. I was a very happy bride on my wedding day. I admit I was really anxious about it. I have a couple points I want to touch on.

 

I had told my guest one time to meet for the bus to go to the beach for my wedding before speaking with the planner on board, but I thought this was okay since my wedding Cordinator by email had given me this time. Then when I meant with the planner on board she said everyone should before going to the bus earlier. So I called the rooms of all my guest and left message where to meet and to be there -5min early. Everyone was on time (early) but on board planner, she was on time just not early like she told us to be, lol. Then we got off the boat and went to the bus, bus was late only like 5 mins. The separate taxi for us that was decorated very nicely for our wedding someone tried to steal, it was clear the taxi was for us as I stand there in my wedding dress. The taxi driver shut them down and help us in, lol. Very nice taxi driver, be played music to get us in the mood and you shake the nerves. He let me stay in the taxi in the AC until I ready to walk down the beach. The weather was perfect sunny but very very hot, they were so right about it being very hot. The officiant pissed me off a little I had write down exactly what I wanted him to say, and he did his own thing completely, ***, I was okay with what he ended up saying. My flowers were beautiful, and worth the money. I thought it was weird how we stopped in the middle of the wedding to sign the marriage license then went back to the regular wedding, lol, I guess that's just how I they do it and Bermuda. The cake was good and pretty. Our first seemed great even know I haven't seen the pictures yet. He was easy to work with and had some great idea, but was a big with fixing my dress, lol. I did get some awesome pictures for my guest I in lauded them here. Right after we got done with the pictures the wedding Cordinator at the beach told us to drink as much water as we could or we would be sick that night because of being out in the heat for the pictures so long. I chugged two waters right away, lol and was fine, husband not so much but that may have been because of the alcohol at the reception.

 

The reception was very nice. We ordered way too much food but that's okay. The boat ride was fantastic we got to jump into the ocean and swim around noodles for a hour or so. The cake at the reception, was pretty but not what I thought it was going to be, it was vanilla rum cake I ordered vanilla cake, lol. A lot of people had too much to drink on reception boat and missed dinner back on the cruiseship including my husband, lol.

 

The cruise part was great for my guest and me. We all got to do tons stuff together. I am admit I did have some complainers and freak out from my guest, they were so rude. Showing up 30 mins later for dinner then leaving right after they got there to change clothes. Then they called me a liar a couple of times, like what time we were all getting off the boat lucky guest services on the boat were so nice and gave me proof that I wasn't lying and they shut up without saying sorry. You are always going to have those guests/family members that give you a hard time. Everyone else hAd the best time and thank me for planning a cruise wedding so they can see how much fun it was to go on a cruise.

 

My favors were the biggest hit on the boat. Lanyards people were trying to buy them off my guest LOL, sunglasses everybody wore every single day, t-shirts everybody love wearing them, dramamine didn't go so well because it was the drowsy type, and the luggage tags everybody used.

 

Note to other cruise beach brides, they let me carry-on my cake knife server set but confiscated it when I came back on board in Bermuda carry it on. They ended up letting me take the sand that I had because it's all over my bag and towel. They let me take the top-tier of my wedding cake back on the ship even know they said it wasn't allowed at first. I even got to take my flowers back on board. But I didn't even tried to take my flowers or wedding cake off the ship we got back to the US, because the paper we signed cearly said was not allowed

 

I'm very happy with why all romance and while Caribbean for planning the best wedding ever. I do recommend them. But note that you can't plan anything or find out any prices when doing a beach wedding until 90 days beforehand and prices in Bermuda are extremely more expensive than any other location because it's an island everything is imported and they have high taxes on imports in Bermuda

[pmoorefi]

More pictures

[pmoorefi]

More pictures, it's only letting post them one at a time because they are so large I guess, not that large really

[mrstriceasnice]

More pictures

 

Beautiful bride,lovely wedding.

[palmtree99]

More pictures

 

 

Nice!! I LOVE Bermuda, can't wait to get married there! Which beach were you married on? Looked beautiful!

 

 

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[dancinman66]

Liking the pics

Keep em coming

 

 

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