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A Royal Wedding - Harmony of the Seas January 21 2023 - Join the adventure!

helloxxannie
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graciekelli

graciekelli

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3 hours ago, helloxxannie said:

Thanks to everyone for following along our journey! Thought I'd take the time to introduce ourselves properly!

 

My name is Annie, my fiancé is Bryan. I'm from Toronto, Ontario while Bryan was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale! As mentioned, we met on the Allure and we navigated through a long distance relationship over the past few years. Lots of flights back and forth and cruises across the Carribean - we made it work and we can't wait to set sail on the next chapter of our lives on Saturday! 

 

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Very excited for you both.  I will be following.  I am very interested in your experience.  Congratulations!!

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mandyleighflies "Live from...." Rare

mandyleighflies

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Following!! We wanted a cruise wedding as well  but were a 2020 couple so that kind of decided for us to not have a cruise wedding. We are hoping to have a vow renewal on an RC cruise in the future (maybe 20 year anniversary). Have a wonderful time, y'all are an adorable couple and cannot wait to follow along!! 

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DaKahuna Great Review Rare

DaKahuna

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12 hours ago, mandyleighflies said:

Following!! We wanted a cruise wedding as well  but were a 2020 couple so that kind of decided for us to not have a cruise wedding. We are hoping to have a vow renewal on an RC cruise in the future (maybe 20 year anniversary). Have a wonderful time, y'all are an adorable couple and cannot wait to follow along!! 

 

 We were on Celebrity Edge for Valentines Day in 2020, just before the shutdown.  Captain Kate held a vow renewal ceremony and there were a lot of participants.  

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helloxxannie

helloxxannie

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1 minute ago, Happy Cruiser Girl said:

Congratulations! I've been waiting for an update, but I'm sure you two have been very busy.

It's definitely been a whirlwind a few days! The wedding turned out great, but getting there was quite the struggle with so much miscommunication and frustration.  All of our non-sailing guests were on the ship while I was still stuck in the terminal with my wedding dress the morning of, LOL!

 

I can't wait to fill everyone in on the details! 

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graciekelli

graciekelli

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16 hours ago, helloxxannie said:

WE DID IT! We got married! Can't wait to update you all on the good, the bad & the magical.

 

In the meantime, please enjoy our Wedding Sneak Peek Video!

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Oh my goodness!!  I had tears watching your sneak peak video.  It was so moving and beautiful...Congratulations.  I am looking forward to hearing and seeing it all.  I have a secret desire for my daughter to have a shipboard wedding.  I can't wait to show her this. Thank you for posting your experience.

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DragonOfTheSeas "Live from...." Rare

DragonOfTheSeas

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Loved the video.  Congrats!! 

 

Looking forward to finding out why you were stuck in the terminal.

 

On our October cruise there was a wedding.  The guests were gathering near the suite waiting area. It seemed a little chaotic to me.  They were very obvious since they were in wedding finery and most other guests were in cruise garb. 

 

Finally, someone came and said, "wedding guests follow me."  There was a fair amount of grumbling before that.  

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helloxxannie

helloxxannie

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We are BACK! Here's our full wedding video for anyone that would like to enjoy. Huge shoutout to Timeline Video Productions for masterfully capturing our day.  

 

Here's how our wedding day and experience went!

 

The Wedding: 

Embark on Romance Package with 100 guests, here's what we chose to do:

Premium Open Bar for 3 hours 
Tier 3 Hors D'oeurves (8 pieces per person)

Microphone Add On

Sound Tech for 1 hour
DJ for 2 Hours 
Platinum Photo Package 

Total Cost $20,353.06

 

Venue: Dazzles onboard the Harmony of the Seas 
 

Expectations Going Into The Day
We had finalized all of our choices and had confirmation from the wedding department only a few days before sailing.  The only thing that they could not help us with, was dinner with the full group on the wedding day, I was told to speak to the on-board coordinator about that part since we had two group numbers and scattered dining choices. 

 

All of our 70 non-sailing guests sent their IDs in for security clearance to board the ship, and all of our 30 sailing guests were all checked in and ready to go. The wedding department told us that we all MUST be in the terminal by 10am where there will be someone with wedding sign to gather us together to escort us on the ship.

 

We had our timeline and we made sure everyone knew they had to be on time 

 

Timeline of the Day: 
10am Everyone arrives at terminal 
11am Guests escorted into the venue, Bride & Groom escorted into two separate rooms to get ready

12pm: Ceremony Starts
12:30: Food + Reception Begins
2:30: Non-sailing guests escorted off 

 

How The Day Started 

Myself and my family (20 people) boarded a limo bus to transport us to the ship to arrive at 9:30am to give us plenty of time. We had our wedding dress, suit, décor, wedding favors, etc, I had everything in garment bags and storage bins to make it easier to transport along with our luggage for our trip. 

 

We got to the port and it was just absolute chaos! There were ships disembarking of course and the traffic was heavy, but we kept calm and we knew we would get there eventually. Once we got to terminal 18 - that's when it just got frustrating. The wedding department told us that there would be our wedding coordinators waiting for us with a wedding sign - 4 in total because of the size of the wedding. They were not there, so we asked the staff at the terminal where we should be going. We were sent to inside the terminal through one line, and then sent back outside the terminal because we weren't supposed to be there. We did this 3 times with directions from different staff, all while our non-sailing guests were also trying to figure out where they're supposed to go. Finally, our non-sailing guests figured out they were to go to the "visitor" section, while our sailing group was still confused. 

 

The RC staff members inside the terminal started to realize how overwhelmed and frustrated we were all getting carrying all of our things back and forth from one end to the other so she kept us all in one spot while she ran around trying to figure out what to do. The best part is, no one in the terminal even knew that there was going to be a wedding happening that day! Next thing you know, our non-sailing videographer that was inside the terminal and ship with all of our non-sailing guests while I was still sitting in the terminal not knowing where to go. I couldn't find my wedding coordinator and no one was trying to get a hold of me. I didn't get a call from a coordinator until 11am - 1.5 hours after I had arrived at the terminal. By this time, our non-sailing guests had been roaming around the ship for almost an hour. 

 

Getting on the Ship 

 

When our co-ordinator finally found us, myself, my groom and all of our sailing guests were escorted on. Bryan had to go to his room, and I had to go to mine, we had the room numbers already selected prior to sailing. Our wedding co-ordinators had NO IDEA which way our rooms were because they'd never been on the ship before. So, myself and my sisters had to run around the ship trying to find the room & of course, we ended up on the wrong side, we kept getting scolded by staff because they were turning down the rooms for the sailing. I totally understand though, but we needed to get ready! 

 

My room was ready, but Bryan's was not. He had to talk to the attendant into letting him in so that he can at least change in time for the wedding. I finally got to speak to the onboard wedding coordinator as I was rushing to mine to get changed in time for our noon ceremony. This was way too stressful for the morning of our wedding, but we pulled through! 

 

The Wedding

Once we finally got dressed, our wedding was amazing. We had our own officiant who is also an MC take care of making sure our wedding was how we wanted it. Our friends and family really rallied together to make it absolutely magical. I was pretty disappointed that the wedding coordinators that were given to us didn't facilitate everything. Although the 4 wedding coordinators had our schedule, we missed out on a lot of things like our group pictures, bouquet toss, cake cutting, etc and they sat in the back of our venue the whole time just watching us. Our wedding was self sufficient once we were allowed in the venue, our friends and family was the ones that made everything happen. The RC staff that handled food and drinks were AMAZING though!

 

All in all, everything that was within Royal Caribbean's realm like venue, food, drinks, & cake was phenomenal, but the actual wedding company that RC uses to facilitate was unacceptable. 

 

We ended up with a magical wedding though, as you can see in our full wedding video! 

 

The Photography Nightmare

This was probably the worst part of my week & I am SO GLAD I brought on board my own videographer to capture my day because if I only relied on their photography, I wouldn't even know how to handle it. 

 

We used the RC photographers for our wedding because it was a $1000 buyout to be able to use our own. We decided to use that towards a videographer instead and use their photographers on board. Originally, the package comes with 1 hour but does not include photos, at first, we decided to add 2 hours + add on ALL digital files - these two came up to about $2250. Our wedding coordinator up-sold us prior to the wedding to their "Platinum Package" which included a lot more - 2 photographers for 5 hours, all digital files, 75 prints, a video box, 1 hour private studio session and a lot more. 

 

When we did our photo viewing, I was so frustrated  because there was SO many photos that could have been amazing but the photographer didn't take the time to frame the shot right or fix our clothing. For example, we have an amazing sunset shoot but my husband's suit is flipped up completely and my hair is tangled in my crown. Obviously, we wouldn't have seen this because we're in the shot, but with two photographers, you'd figure they'd at least say something when they're looking at the shot. I felt like they were just bringing us everywhere to get quantity, not quality shots. Of the 1200 shots they took, it was hard to find 75 that we even liked. Even the photos with our guests were angled weird so we both have major double chins and look unproportioned. The Platinum package cost us around $3000. 

 

Here's where the story takes the most frustrating turn. When we were choosing our photos, the onboard photo department told us that were ONLY entitled to the 75 we chose, print and digital, not ALL like it said in our contract. I couldn't believe it. I even brought up the contract to show them, but she was adamant that I'm not supposed to receive it. She also mentioned that the "11x14 video presentation print box with 10 mounts + prints" listed in the contract is not available on the ship. I also did not receive my RAW format images that was listed either. I couldn't understand why I had to be fighting them on my honeymoon week. 

 

We also did our 1 hour private studio session which gave us 10 prints, we asked if we could buy one additional one that we wanted and they tried to charge us $250 PER DIGITAL FILE! I told them that was just a complete scam because the photo and file was already there, and $250 is just absurd. 

 

The WORST part was, upon disembarkation, I was supposed to pick up my photos at 7am. I met a gentleman there with my prints in hand and he told me that there was a problem with the printer so there's heads cut off of the photos and cropped wrong completely. I told him I had to leave because I had transportation booked but he said he need to reprint and shipping them to me was not an option. So, the only option I had was to wait. I waited for almost an hour when he gave me the files I ran off the ship to catch my way home....

 

Upon arriving at home, I realized the prints are horrible. They're blurry and cropped wrong, printed on low quality paper. I had better prints done at Walgreens a week ago. They're just so bad... 

 

We still had an amazing wedding and an amazing week with our family and friends because we made the best of it. But the experience leading up to it and how it ended was just ridiculous! 

 

I'll follow up with some tips to help make your day seamless and less stressful now that I've gone through it. I'd be happy to answer any questions anyone has!

 

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GetToLivin "Live from...." Rare

GetToLivin

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Girl, I would email the heck out of every single person you had contact with for your event, send these complaints, and try to get some money back. What you went through was totally unacceptable - you paid a premium, you deserve a premium experience.

 

BTW, ya'll are beautiful and I'm so glad your friends and family helped to make your day extra special!

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