Recap of Carnival Ecstasy Wedding 9/28/07

[babylvrrn]

I know this is very late, but I have received a couple of requests for a review and thought I should just post here for all to read. I am not much of a journalist.....so I won't give you the WHOLE rundown--just the day of the wedding.

I remember promising a review several weeks ago and realize that I still have not done it. As it turns out, my hubby and I managed to make a "honeymoon surprise" not even 3 months into the marriage.....so I am currently walking around 6 months pregnant! Of course, life has been a bit disorganized and thus, many things have slipped my mind. Anyway, to answer your questions--our wedding on the Ecstasy was very nice. I will warn you though--if you have your heart set on ANY specific thing that you don't want altered under any circumstances, this may not be the option for you. This is only because things can change at the last minute, and you don't want to feel cheated or misinformed, you know?

When my wedding party boarded, we were greeted very warmly by the wedding staff. They kept everyone on schedule and made sure we all (there were 36 of us) stayed together. Once on the ship, they took my husband and I to our cabin while everyone else was shown the room for the ceremony and told to be there 30 min before the big show. Guests were allowed to go eat, have a drink, look around the ship, etc.. Because I brought along my seamstress/makeup artist, I was able to get ready in a separate cabin. It was kind of the luck of the draw though, as they explained that the only cabin that was GUARANTEED to be ready before the ceremony was the bride and groom's. The flowers provided are nice, but we only used the boutineers and I had my own silk flowers and bouquet professionally done for me and the bridesmaids.The ceremony was in the Starlight Lounge, which is normally the nightclub where the comedy shows were held. Although it looks NOTHING like a church, I thought they did a very good job of making a proper path for my father to walk me down and they had simple decorations in white that looked very nice next to the wedding party. Our minister was very professional and performed a beautiful ceremony.

The reception was held in the nightclub just down the hall from the Starlight Lounge. (I forget the name) I have to admit that I was very impressed by the buffet. There was a large selection of hot and cold finger foods, and the food was promptly replenished as soon as it was empty. There was a BEAUTIFUL ice carving and hand-carved fruit bowls, lots of color....I just cannot say enough about the spread. I know that you will be pleased. I have to disagree with other posters who complain about the service, as the waiters were "Johnny on the spot" with cocktails for guests as well. The cake was kind of dry and the topper very very cheesy, but luckily I brought my own cake topper and I recommend that you do the same if that type of thing peeves you. We opted to rent the DJ, which turned out to be a really good thing.....because I was later informed that they WILL NOT allow you to just pop in a CD to play for your guests during the reception. Could you imagine a reception with no music? The horror!! The DJ was very accommodating, playing all of the music we requested. He also played music from a special CD that I made and gave out as favors to the guests. Very nice! My guests told me that this was the most unique wedding they had ever experienced and were so glad that they chose to participate. You won't be disappointed.

The non-sailing guests (surprisingly, only 4!) had to leave after about an hour and 15 min, but they allowed my reception to continue for a full 2 hours!! My only disappointment was that we were all hearded into a separate room off of the nightclub after the reception for photographs. Obviously, we had indulged in cocktails and dancing......so my opinion is that we were not looking our best. However, the pictures did come out very nice. Beware though--the prices of the pictures were pretty outrageous when presented to us. In fact, he never came even close to our price range for the whole set--even though I had read that they could be negotiated with. We ended up picking out our favorite photos and foregoing the CD--and still spent in excess of $500!! Go figure....

Unfortunately, I don't have any digital photos to paste from the ceremony. My husband and I aren't really as sentimental about this as I gather we are supposed to be? We were simply pleased that we were happy with the ceremony and reception, and that our guests sailed with us and had a FANTASTIC time!! I have attached a few photos that I managed to scan. I hope you can view them!

[ShedQueen77]

Congratulations times two! The wedding and the baby that is..not a jinx for twins! lol :) How exciting!

 

I'm so glad you had such a fantastic wedding. I love reading all the recaps and can't wait to be able to post mine!

 

OMG...I LOVE your hairstyle!! I've been searching and searching for a part up/part down style and haven't found anything I liked. Yours is a perfect mix and exactly what I was trying to find pictures of. It's up, but not up-up if that makes sense! :)

[sas80]

Beautiful picutres! thanks for the review!

 

You two are going to have a gorgeous kiddo!

 

Congratulations!

[space07]

You looked beautiful and congrats on the baby!

[nimbex1970]

I agree that you both are beautiful together, can't wait to see the baby pics.

 

congrats and thanks for the info at this busy time