RCI Wedding Advice/Experience

[livinginyellow]

My fiance and I are huge cruise fans - we even got engaged on our Indy cruise last February! Because of this, we are considering doing a wedding onboard RCI. From what I've heard, their wedding department is a mess. I'm not quite sure we want to go through the wedding department and, instead, are considering booking through a travel agent and then doing an independent wedding onshore somewhere.

 

We'll probably be going out of their NJ or Baltimore.

 

I'd love to hear any wedding experience you have with RCI! Either through the wedding department itself OR, more importantly, if you've done something independently. Any and all advice is welcome!

[Clarea]

Some info on doing the wedding with Royal, with some of our own experiences:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2282249

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2435906

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2424188

[KG1924]

Congrats!!! We did get married while sailing on the Oasis back in 2010, but we did everything independently on St. Thomas. Worked well because it's a US territory so we were able to be legally married. Definitely dig through the wedding boards on here-they were very helpful!!!

My 2 main pieces of advice....get a wedding planner if doing independently-they have everything done for you so you can be very relaxed bride that day! Also, be prepared to go with the flow. To me this was a huge benefit-I'm awful at making decisions so the fact that I was given just a few options was very helpful in that regard. Of course, you can probably get just about anything you could dream of....my budget didn't allow for that so the simple but beautiful options were great. For example, we had a steal drum band play typical wedding music while we walked down the aisle on Lime Tree Beach....to hear Canon in D on a steal drum is pretty awesome :) But again, anything can go wrong as well-we were delayed docking in St. Thomas because there was a strike or at least a threat of a strike for the tender boats that bring the ship into port (I can't remember the name of those off hand) Nobody in our party told us that we weren't docked, they just kept giving me champagne :p It all worked out but we went into it knowing that if for some reason we couldn't get married as planned we would just have a fake ceremony somewhere and then do the legal marriage when we got home.

Good luck and have fun! As a side note, we chose to go independently because at the time the packages on Royal were very costly for what you got (I have no idea what the prices are now) I would've been willing to pay if they would marry us while at sea, but I believe you can only do it while in port on Royal. Again, may have changed things in over 6 years.

[KG1924]

Some info on doing the wedding with Royal, with some of our own experiences:

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2282249

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2435906

 

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=2424188

 

Hi Bob-not that it means much now as I have no intention of getting married a second time :p but your daughter was able to get married at sea? I think I just gave some incorrect advice to the post above-I could've sworn that when we got married Princess was the only line that the captain could marry a couple at sea. Then again, I can't remember what I had for dinner last night so my memory is most likely incorrect. I just hate passing along incorrect or even dated info

[Clarea]

Hi Bob-not that it means much now as I have no intention of getting married a second time :p but your daughter was able to get married at sea? I think I just gave some incorrect advice to the post above-I could've sworn that when we got married Princess was the only line that the captain could marry a couple at sea. Then again, I can't remember what I had for dinner last night so my memory is most likely incorrect. I just hate passing along incorrect or even dated info

Yes, our daughter got married at sea, by the Captain. It's just been a few years that Royal's Captains and Staff Captains have been legally able to perform weddings at sea. The wedding is under the laws of the ship's registry, which is the Bahamas in the case of Royal, so our daughter has a wedding license from the Bahamas.

[meredithlaine]

Recently married on the Anthem this past Feb. We eloped so it was a little different then the big ol wedding, but the wedding department on our end was great (other than our on board wedding planner getting noro and us not getting our wedding documents till the last day and the stress of that). Usually as far as I've heard its the second in command that performs the ceremonies unless the Capt is available for at sea days. Our marriage license is Bahamian and we had to move up our wedding date (one day) due to the positioning of the boat and the ability for them to marry us in international waters (something to keep in mind when sailing out from NJ and Baltimore). The worst experience I had was honestly the spa, I hated every minute of it, and wished that I had just done it myself. Other than that I wouldn't have changed anything for the world! Oh and the picture packages are CRAZY EXPENSIVE. For us we ended up doing a "trash the dress" shoot in Puerto Rico and had a blast departing the ship in our wedding attire and walking around San Juan.

[KG1924]

Yes, our daughter got married at sea, by the Captain. It's just been a few years that Royal's Captains and Staff Captains have been legally able to perform weddings at sea. The wedding is under the laws of the ship's registry, which is the Bahamas in the case of Royal, so our daughter has a wedding license from the Bahamas.

 

Good to know, thanks! I guess we were just a little early on that then-I would've LOVED to have been married while at sea.

 

And I apologize to the OP-please disregard my comment about that :)

[DawnC28]

Just a few quick caveats;

 

I've been on several cruises where the ship missed a port due to weather, mechanical issues, etc., so if you are planning a wedding at a cruise stop, my recommendation would be to make it a destination wedding instead, that way you are already there and no worries about whether the ship can make it on the day/time you have set. Otherwise, money lost and tears...

 

If you want to get married at sea, make sure you know the rules. We are Canadian, and we are attending a gay wedding on a cruise in February. The couple is having the wedding & reception on the cruise, but will already have had the "legal" ceremony performed in Canada before starting the cruise. (Legal in Canada, easier, etc.).

 

Just my 2 cents.

[livinginyellow]

Congrats!!! We did get married while sailing on the Oasis back in 2010, but we did everything independently on St. Thomas. Worked well because it's a US territory so we were able to be legally married. Definitely dig through the wedding boards on here-they were very helpful!!!

My 2 main pieces of advice....get a wedding planner if doing independently-they have everything done for you so you can be very relaxed bride that day! Also, be prepared to go with the flow. To me this was a huge benefit-I'm awful at making decisions so the fact that I was given just a few options was very helpful in that regard. Of course, you can probably get just about anything you could dream of....my budget didn't allow for that so the simple but beautiful options were great. For example, we had a steal drum band play typical wedding music while we walked down the aisle on Lime Tree Beach....to hear Canon in D on a steal drum is pretty awesome :) But again, anything can go wrong as well-we were delayed docking in St. Thomas because there was a strike or at least a threat of a strike for the tender boats that bring the ship into port (I can't remember the name of those off hand) Nobody in our party told us that we weren't docked, they just kept giving me champagne :p It all worked out but we went into it knowing that if for some reason we couldn't get married as planned we would just have a fake ceremony somewhere and then do the legal marriage when we got home.

Good luck and have fun! As a side note, we chose to go independently because at the time the packages on Royal were very costly for what you got (I have no idea what the prices are now) I would've been willing to pay if they would marry us while at sea, but I believe you can only do it while in port on Royal. Again, may have changed things in over 6 years.

 

Can I ask you a silly question? How did you lay out your cruise with an independent ceremony? Did you do a "formal/traditional" reception afterwards at your ceremony location? or on ship? that's my biggest fear - I wanna do a ceremony independently and then potentially rent a dining room out for a few hours to do an "independent" reception.

[livinginyellow]

Recently married on the Anthem this past Feb. We eloped so it was a little different then the big ol wedding, but the wedding department on our end was great (other than our on board wedding planner getting noro and us not getting our wedding documents till the last day and the stress of that). Usually as far as I've heard its the second in command that performs the ceremonies unless the Capt is available for at sea days. Our marriage license is Bahamian and we had to move up our wedding date (one day) due to the positioning of the boat and the ability for them to marry us in international waters (something to keep in mind when sailing out from NJ and Baltimore). The worst experience I had was honestly the spa, I hated every minute of it, and wished that I had just done it myself. Other than that I wouldn't have changed anything for the world! Oh and the picture packages are CRAZY EXPENSIVE. For us we ended up doing a "trash the dress" shoot in Puerto Rico and had a blast departing the ship in our wedding attire and walking around San Juan.

 

Anthem is the ship we are looking at! How quickly did you get the department to get back to you? That's my biggest concern - I put an inquiry in three months ago and haven't heard anything. Maybe I should call them?

[MonaCK]

I got married on the celebrity summit in May of this year!

royal weddings can be a bit of a headache to work with - but if you stay on top of them they are responsive.

We got married in port in Bayonne so that we could have friends and families join us for the wedding, and then we sailed to Bermuda with 52 other people. It was a TON of fun.

We would do it again in a heartbeat.

 

Feel free to PM or email if you are looking for any additional info. Happy to help if I can!

[cb at sea]

That's what I'd do...get married BEFORE the cruise, then have the "party" on the ship. Make sure you book under your maiden name...as your new "married" name will not match your ID's!