St Thomas, Emerald Beach wedding Review and Pictures.

[rara0508]

Hey all,

 

Wow! What an amazing trip. We cruised out of San Juan on May 6 on the Granduer of the seas. The wedding was on Emerald beach, St Thomas on the second day of the cruise and we had 38 sailing guests, and 2 met us on the island.

I had made my hair appt as soon as we boarded the ship. Yhey told me 7:30 am was the only time they could fit me in, which was fine since we were being picked up at 9:00am. We docked late and had to clear customs. I was not at my salon appt until 8am.. a little stressed...I hate being rushed!

We booked Fantasia weddings on our own, my TA gave me options, but I fell in love with Emerald beach when I saw it, and Fantasia is the exclusive on that beach. You all know the frustrations we had with finalizing the plans and contacting Debra, this really was not much different, but I am a go with the flow person and I don't dwell much on negativity...nothing on that day was going to ruin a second of it!

That said, we were told to be out front of the ship by 9am sharp to meet "judy"- We waited 10 mins and no Judy. I asked one of the Taxi guys if I could use their cell phone and he kindly let me. I got Debra on the phone, and she said"yes, judy will be there at 9am... I said it's 9:15!" She told me she would call and check, minuites later a gentleman arrived looking for us, and said Judy was on another pick up. We went to the courthouse, very easy process. it all took maybe 20 mins, tops. We left and went to the resort.

we checked into our "day room" and the front desk said I needed to call Debra. They dialed the phone for me, she wanted to ask how many people I had and if they did indeed want cake and champaign...something we had gone over the week before. I took it in stride, but thought that 45 mins before the ceremony is not the time to be asking these questions. I got dressed and the rest of my party arrived. Debra brought my flowers up to my room, which were absolutely beautiful. They smelled lovely, and were perfect. She took me and my bridesmaids downstairs and we went over the ceremony specifics one last time. I had asked one of my guests to take control of the CD I made for our music, and all of that went without a hitch. The ceremony was awesome, everything I had imagined. The photographer had told us what to do for the best pictures...how to hold the rings, how long to hold the kiss, where to look, and to be aware of our facial expressions... it was all very helpful.

 

After the ceremony it was a little disorganized(maybe partly due to the large group)We went over for some pictures by the water, and then we had to go to the cake. we were still waiting for enough champagne glasses to arrive, and they did not have the bottle of non alcoholic I ordered so we had to wait. Even though it was a morning ceremony it was hot and the cake was a bit melty, so that was the reason for the rush.

We did the toast, ate the cake ( a yummy pina colada cake) and then it was down the beach for more pictures, our guests headed over to the open bar. (meanwhile another ceremony was begining).

We did our first dance over in the bar area so we were out of the way of the other weddings. they farmed 4 of them thru there all in about the 3 hours we were around. We still had a cd player so we could play our cd we brought, and this was nice. Debra's assistant brought over our paperwork and the boxed up cake top and topper for us to take back to the ship- yes they let us bring it on board and my bouquet. Debra came to ask if all was ok and said to enjoy the facilities as long as we like, and she disappeared. I didn't get to tip her either. The photographer disappeared without a word, so we didn't even get to tip him.

Overall we were very pleased with everything, it wasn't perfect, but we enjoyed every second and our guests had a wonderful time. ( this was our priority)

I think my advice to all of you planning a wedding thru debra, is to stay on to p of her, document everything, and bring a written list of how you want the ceremony to go, photographs you want taken and above all, take the time to enjoy your day, don't let the bumps get you down, and keep an open mind to it all. It went by so fast, I am so happy that I was given this advice. I took in every second, and I think it shows.

 

Back on board we had a cocktail party an hour before dinner, again I made a CD and the DJ played it and did a wedding party intro. I stayed in my dress till it was bed time. we went to lots of photo stations on the ship too for more fun pics. We made it into the "love and Marriage" game on board that night and had a blast. The most romantic thing was that my new husband had given rose petals and little led candles to the cabin steward to decorate our cabin with for when we returned later that night. It truly was a wedding of my dreams. We will always remember our trip and everyone on it.

 

You can see my pics here.

www.fantasiaweddings.com/stephenTara.htm

 

Enjoy!!!:)

[Bride2b2006]

Tara-

 

Your pictures are amazing! I can't wait until our time is here! I still need to do some upgrades, but I am not going to do that until after we move. We are moving in 2 weeks and making changes and making sure they are done right is the last thing I want to be worring about right now.

[sarah1981]

Hey all,

 

Wow! What an amazing trip. We cruised out of San Juan on May 6 on the Granduer of the seas. The wedding was on Emerald beach, St Thomas on the second day of the cruise and we had 38 sailing guests, and 2 met us on the island.

I had made my hair appt as soon as we boarded the ship. Yhey told me 7:30 am was the only time they could fit me in, which was fine since we were being picked up at 9:00am. We docked late and had to clear customs. I was not at my salon appt until 8am.. a little stressed...I hate being rushed!

We booked Fantasia weddings on our own, my TA gave me options, but I fell in love with Emerald beach when I saw it, and Fantasia is the exclusive on that beach. You all know the frustrations we had with finalizing the plans and contacting Debra, this really was not much different, but I am a go with the flow person and I don't dwell much on negativity...nothing on that day was going to ruin a second of it!

That said, we were told to be out front of the ship by 9am sharp to meet "judy"- We waited 10 mins and no Judy. I asked one of the Taxi guys if I could use their cell phone and he kindly let me. I got Debra on the phone, and she said"yes, judy will be there at 9am... I said it's 9:15!" She told me she would call and check, minuites later a gentleman arrived looking for us, and said Judy was on another pick up. We went to the courthouse, very easy process. it all took maybe 20 mins, tops. We left and went to the resort.

we checked into our "day room" and the front desk said I needed to call Debra. They dialed the phone for me, she wanted to ask how many people I had and if they did indeed want cake and champaign...something we had gone over the week before. I took it in stride, but thought that 45 mins before the ceremony is not the time to be asking these questions. I got dressed and the rest of my party arrived. Debra brought my flowers up to my room, which were absolutely beautiful. They smelled lovely, and were perfect. She took me and my bridesmaids downstairs and we went over the ceremony specifics one last time. I had asked one of my guests to take control of the CD I made for our music, and all of that went without a hitch. The ceremony was awesome, everything I had imagined. The photographer had told us what to do for the best pictures...how to hold the rings, how long to hold the kiss, where to look, and to be aware of our facial expressions... it was all very helpful.

 

After the ceremony it was a little disorganized(maybe partly due to the large group)We went over for some pictures by the water, and then we had to go to the cake. we were still waiting for enough champagne glasses to arrive, and they did not have the bottle of non alcoholic I ordered so we had to wait. Even though it was a morning ceremony it was hot and the cake was a bit melty, so that was the reason for the rush.

We did the toast, ate the cake ( a yummy pina colada cake) and then it was down the beach for more pictures, our guests headed over to the open bar. (meanwhile another ceremony was begining).

We did our first dance over in the bar area so we were out of the way of the other weddings. they farmed 4 of them thru there all in about the 3 hours we were around. We still had a cd player so we could play our cd we brought, and this was nice. Debra's assistant brought over our paperwork and the boxed up cake top and topper for us to take back to the ship- yes they let us bring it on board and my bouquet. Debra came to ask if all was ok and said to enjoy the facilities as long as we like, and she disappeared. I didn't get to tip her either. The photographer disappeared without a word, so we didn't even get to tip him.

Overall we were very pleased with everything, it wasn't perfect, but we enjoyed every second and our guests had a wonderful time. ( this was our priority)

I think my advice to all of you planning a wedding thru debra, is to stay on to p of her, document everything, and bring a written list of how you want the ceremony to go, photographs you want taken and above all, take the time to enjoy your day, don't let the bumps get you down, and keep an open mind to it all. It went by so fast, I am so happy that I was given this advice. I took in every second, and I think it shows.

 

Back on board we had a cocktail party an hour before dinner, again I made a CD and the DJ played it and did a wedding party intro. I stayed in my dress till it was bed time. we went to lots of photo stations on the ship too for more fun pics. We made it into the "love and Marriage" game on board that night and had a blast. The most romantic thing was that my new husband had given rose petals and little led candles to the cabin steward to decorate our cabin with for when we returned later that night. It truly was a wedding of my dreams. We will always remember our trip and everyone on it.

 

You can see my pics here.

www.fantasiaweddings.com/stephenTara.htm

 

Enjoy!!!:)

 

 

Hey, your pics look great!! Thanks for directing me to cruisingweddings.com, Brook has been great :-) We have booked our cruise and chose the wedding package and reception type we want. We just added our champagne toast, dolphin ice sculpture, and DJ. It's so exciting but seems forever away. We sent our Save The Dates a few weeks ago (beach themed magnet) and everyone loved them. I have 296 days to go! Thanks again and CONGRATULATIONS!