A Grand Princess Wedding Review

[Nauti-Lady]

I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to do this review. Because it’s so long in coming, I’m going to give you more to read than you ever wanted !! I first want to thank all those here who helped us and patiently answered our questions when we first started planning this. We couldn’t have done it without you! I hope my review will help those just entering the planning stages. Since I got so long winded, I am posting this in parts. I’ll finish up this weekend with pictures.

 

PART 1 – The Planning

 

Our daughter was married aboard the Grand Princess on 4/21/07. My daughter left the majority of the planning & over-seeing to me. This was mainly because of her job. She made her selections and my job was to make it all happen and keep her stress free! An impossible task, but I must have done an ok job because she tried to hire me out as a wedding planner this week! Our expectations were met, some were exceeded and only a few minor problems came up as we went along.

 

One of the best things we did was to find a travel agent who specialized in wedding groups. This was a tremendous help. They helped answer so many questions we had and they handled all the guest questions, bookings, changes, etc. They also set up a wedding website with information about the cruise. This was great as it answered most all the guests’ questions in one place. From the very beginning when we sent out the initial announcement/invitations we were able to direct people to the website for information and pricing. The travel agent also had a few perks and discounts to offer for the group which was nice.

 

We chose Princess Cruise Lines because they were the only line that would do an at sea wedding and she absolutely did not want the risks of a hectic embarkation day wedding. The whole reason for choosing a cruise wedding was for the relaxed atmosphere. Also I have sailed with Princess before and I was confident they would do a beautiful job.

 

Our first step was dealing with TWE in the early planning stages. I have no idea why the cruise lines choose to use a go-between company. They really just confused things. The bride & groom were given a 3:30 ceremony time. This meant that we would have to have a reception prior to dinner to fill the time. It seemed odd to have cake before dinner, but we went with it. I asked TWE if we could have just a cake & cocktail reception as we didn’t need food right before dinner. They said yes and quoted a price of $15pp for premium open bar. We discussed having a DJ and dinner at Sabatini’s. I asked if we could have a longer reception than 1 hour and for some reason TWE kept saying we only needed an hour. Anyway, this was all 8 months prior to the wedding and we thought the basics were set. 6 weeks before the wedding TWE calls and tells my daughter they don’t have a reception booked! Only the ceremony and dinner were on their books. However, the space was still available so no problems, only now they tell her that she can not have a reception without food – that they will not do only an open bar. They also told her that they never would have told me that. I called them and was also told no reception without food. I told them the money was not the issue – only that I didn’t want everyone full before a huge dinner at Sabatini’s. I told them I was willing to pay for the food if necessary but I didn’t want it served. TWE said they couldn’t do that! Also, we decided that we really wanted to extend the reception time to 1-1/2 or 2 hours. Again, TWE was discouraging this and kept telling us 1 hour was enough! I was telling this to our TA and she suggested that we contact the groups department with Princess instead of using TWE. Somewhere along the line I thought everything had to go through TWE and that is not true. Only the ceremony needs to go through them. Our TA had the groups department send me a selection sheet. Assuming the after ceremony photos would take half an hour, we booked the reception in Skywalker’s through the Groups department as a “cocktail party” from 4:15 till 5:45, as we had reserved Sabatini’s for 6:00. We booked an hour and a half of premium open bar @ $15pp per hour, which was pro-rated to 22.50pp for the hour and a half, with DJ @ $80 per hour – also pro rated. I added 2 cheese trays for those that maybe did not want cake. These were great!

 

Next problem with TWE was the cake. All my daughter cared about was a 3 layer cake with pink rose petals. We sent them pictures of 3 cakes and said anything like them would be fine – just a cake for 30 people. We thought that would be easy – WRONG! They said that was too confusing. That we had to select one cake. So we sent in a picture. The price was $405. That seemed too high so we sent in a picture of another, less detailed cake. That came back as $495. I called and said that for a cake to feed 30 people this was absurd. That equates to $16.50 a slice!! They told me that the cake was double layered and had hard to make sugar rose petals. It had real rose petals which I offered to get fake or frozen or whatever was needed. So I asked for the same cake with single layers and no rose petals. A simple 3 layer white cake. Now it was $295. Still seemed ridiculous for a cake for 30, but I agreed. When the contract came from TWE, the price for the cake was $395. I called and was told that there was an administrative error and we never should have been the $295 price. I was furious, but we were down to the 30 day deadline and I was just over it dealing with these people, so I just paid the higher amount. TWE did however order the needed rose petals through the floral department and also extra petals to sprinkle on the center of the tables at Sabatinis at a reasonable cost. We went with the bridal bouquet that came with the wedding package and ordered an extra bouquet for the maid of honor as well as extras boutonnières.

 

We put together gift bags for all the guests. These were a lot of fun to plan. We felt that people were spending a lot of time and money to come along with us and we wanted them to be extra nice. We made them a combination of some useful, fun and keepsake items.

 

We sent the initial announcements out in August and did several mailings to those who booked as we thought of information to pass on. We also included some little gifts with a couple of our letters.

 

We ended up with a group of 30 sailing that included the bridesmaid who we imported from Germany and some relatives of the groom who are their 90’s!! It was funny as some of the people we thought would come didn’t, and others we thought wouldn’t did. We also had some that planned early and cancelled and several that booked late. Our ship was completely sold out about 6 weeks before sailing and we had one couple who waited too late to book and couldn’t get a cabin! That was sad.

 

The best advice I can give to anyone planning a cruise wedding is 1. Find an attentive travel agent to handle all the travel details so you are not involved in that. All you have to do is refer people to your agent. 2. Have a parent or friend who is involved in all the planning to do all the onboard follow-up to make sure everything is happening as you requested, so you can relax and enjoy your day. 3. Be loose with your expectations. The flowers, cake and details may not be exactly as you pictured them, but no one else will ever know that! 4. Remember in your planning that once you are onboard the ship, the staff will be there and they will go out of their way to help make your day just as you want it. 5. Relax and remember this is also a wonderful vacation!!

 

Stay tuned for Part 2 tomorrow………the details………….

[finn1913]

Great review - Looking forward to part 2 and the pictures!

 

We just booked our 'cocktail party' reception through the groups department as well - TWE gave me the same story.

 

Also doing the cake thorugh them (groups dept). I'm not too fussed about the cake, and found out I could get a sheet cake with the hard fondant icing for 20 people - for $40. We are putting a ribbon around it and have a floral cake topper. Done!

 

A question... Is Skywalkers too big for our reception for 20 people? Would the Wheelhouse be better?

 

Thanks again for the review!

 

Cheers!

[ShedQueen77]

Ack! I'm so sorry you got the typical TWE treatment! I can't wait for part 2....hopefully all is well that ends well!!!! :)

[mandabear]

I am really enjoying this review. Thanks for the great tips, especially about booking the cocktail reception directly through Princess. I am definitely doing that (because we are also having a 3pm wedding and dinner at Sabatini's!). Looking forward to part 2 (and pictures!). Congrats on planning a wonderful wedding!

[Crown08]

We put together gift bags for all the guests. These were a lot of fun to plan. We felt that people were spending a lot of time and money to come along with us and we wanted them to be extra nice. We made them a combination of some useful, fun and keepsake items.

 

We sent the initial announcements out in August and did several mailings to those who booked as we thought of information to pass on. We also included some little gifts with a couple of our letters.

Oh! I can't wait for the rest. What did you put in the gift bags and what gifts did you send out with your letters?

[finn1913]

I am really enjoying this review. Thanks for the great tips, especially about booking the cocktail reception directly through Princess. I am definitely doing that (because we are also having a 3pm wedding and dinner at Sabatini's!). Looking forward to part 2 (and pictures!). Congrats on planning a wonderful wedding!

 

 

Manda- let me know which ship you're on and I can give you the direct number to the group co-ordinator.

 

cheers!

[mandabear]

Hey Ann,

I'm on the Caribbean Princess. Thanks! A direct number would be great! Especially after the TWE run around!

[finn1913]

Hey Ann,

I'm on the Caribbean Princess. Thanks! A direct number would be great! Especially after the TWE run around!

 

Hi Manda,

 

Am I allowed to post contact info here? Can you email me at agasnick@yahoo.com and I will get back to you ASAP?

 

Cheers,

Ann

[Nauti-Lady]

finn1913,

I was also concerned about Skywalker's being too large but they sectioned an area off for our group so it seemed fine. There was another reception going on on the other side when we arrived and I got concerned, but that one was just finishing up and it didn't interfere with our reception at all. I guess maybe either they didn't have a DJ or ours had taken over by the time we got up there. I really don't know but it all worked out fine. I'm sure Wheelhouse would be nice too. We had drinks in there several evenings. Skywalkers just has the outstanding view going for it.

 

Crown08,

I have a list of what went into our gift bags in my second post. Also, when we got word that a guest booked, a letter went out from the bride and groom letting the guests know how excited they were and included was a cruise ship shaped luggage tag to "help them get ready". These were a bit different from the ones we had on the gift bags. About 60 days before the cruise we sent out a letter with some info and included a pad of 4X6 lined post it notes that we had imprinted and said they were to help with their packing and "to-do" lists.

 

 

Our travel agent just had the group coordinator send us forms with all the possible selections. We just filled it out and they sent back a confirmation page with all the details which we approved before they sent us a bill. We never actually talked to the group coordinator before hand. Once onboard a wedding coordinator was assigned who confirmed and combined what we had booked thorugh TWE and the Groups department and most everything went pretty smoothly.

[jd019]

When did you get the call from TWE? I have heard all sorts of different time frames on when they make that call. How far in advance of your cruise did they make final arrangements?

Thanks