married on the ship!!!

[crazymomhas2]

my baby sister is getting married!!:eek:

she is thinking of getting married on a ship and having the reception there... of course i am so hoping this can happen.. anything to get me back on there!! i'm still searching the site for info but if anyone has ever done this or been to a wedding on a ship please give me any and all info. thanks guys i really appreciate it!

[ktpc2005]

There is a wedding board on this site with a lot discussion of shipboard weddings

[Toyz711]

try here:

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/forumdisplay.php?f=31

[crazymomhas2]

thanks i'm going to try them right away

[micheleg]

Hi,

 

My husband and I were married on the NCL Jewel. You have to coordinate everything through "The Wedding Experience". These are the coordinators that NCL contracts with for weddings onboard. You can contact them at 800-392-3472 or email at ncl@theweddingexperience.com The link to the info on the NCL site is as follows: http://www.ncl.com/nclweb/cruiser/cmsPages.html;jsessionid=HTN6d6lyyH8kjKjL0m2fNQTWChCv4G3L!-397281923?pageId=WeddingsRomance

 

We had a beautiful wedding & reception onboard the Jewel before she sailed from Miami. There are strict rules and time limits, and if your baby sister wants full control of her wedding this option may not be appealing to her once she talks to the coordinators. But if she's willing to let go of some things, pay a little extra for some upgrades, it still beats the cost of a land based wedding by far!

 

Hope this info helps and if you have any other questions, please feel free to ask.

 

Michele :)

[crazymomhas2]

thank you so much for your help and information i am going to pass this all on to her... i'm not sure how she will like giving up some control though it's only been a week of planning and i'm ready to call bridezillas:eek:

[criuisingurl079]

IMO bring your own photographer!

[silkhair1]

I hope my sister does the same thing. I want to HAVE to go on a cruise. LOL

[newmexicoNita]

my baby sister is getting married!!:eek:

she is thinking of getting married on a ship and having the reception there... of course i am so hoping this can happen.. anything to get me back on there!! i'm still searching the site for info but if anyone has ever done this or been to a wedding on a ship please give me any and all info. thanks guys i really appreciate it!

Ou gramddaughter got married on Celebrity 2 years ago. The ceremony was held before sailing with a reception to follow. some of the guests got off, others sailed. What fun. last week on the Star there was a wedding and this past Sunday another one. If it a really good and relaxed way to have a great day, one thing, it can be pricey if you gon't watch every penny.

 

Nita

[Susie51]

Thanks for the web site.

[Cruisetini]

I was married on the Star almost 2 yrs ago and am "the queen of control" one might say! Everything turned out fine. You are restricted as to what you can bring aboard the ship and the number of people - must use people from the approved list of vendors - can't use your own people. We were able to choose things ahead of time music, vows, flowers - The Wedding Experience was very helpful and you have to get everything into them long before the cruise so it allows you to relax and enjoy your special time. Husband had a tux waiting in the room thru the cruise ship - it was waiting for us in the cabin and we were the first ones on. Flowers were perfect - we had a good photographer who took many photos around the ship. I did not do the video - no regrets. Overall a very special relaxed experience. I would not trade it for anything.

[Cosmopolitan]

I haven't attended a wedding on a ship:( but...

 

we have seen them set-up on the Dawn and the Jewel...just lovely:)

[hsc]

Our daughter got married on the Sky in 2005, what a nightmare. The wedding coordinators [we paid for 2] left before the wedding ceremony ended leaving us to finish the wedding ourselves [cake, warm champagne toast we had to hunt for, and reception that should have included an open bar]. Since the wedding coordinators left we had no way to prove that we paid for an open bar until we got home. How humiliating to have our guest turned away. Also so many special touches that should have been taken care of never happened, like turning off the speakers so not to interrupt the wedding vows [an announcement looking for a passenger came over the speakers looking for a passenger during the "I DO "[we have it on tape] and keep uninvited guest from crashing the wedding. I would never recommend NCL to do anyones wedding. I have the complaint letter I wrote to NCL, if you would like to see it I'd be happy to email it to you so you can address every detail off the wedding with the wedding experience. Not that I think it will help. We thought we had everything covered. A wedding cannot be replaced if anything should go wrong.

[Cruisetini]

Wow! I am so sorry to hear that things did not go as planned. We did not have guests so ours was a different experience I am sure but there was another couple that got married and they had 14 or so couples that were cruising with them and a bunch of people that came on board just for the wedding. We had the chapel and they had the large bar next to us in the front of the Star - both rooms had signs stating "private" ceremony and I don't remember any speaker noise. There is a lot happening as the bride and groom/group are let on the ship first so you have a short bit of time to get ready. While everyone else is boarding the ship you are getting married. We had 3 Wedding Experience people with us watching over things and someone checked in later as well.

[crazymomhas2]

thank you all for the help i'm passing everything on. i can't believe you had such a bad experience with ncl, thats a shame because you are right you can't re-do your wedding especially the "i do's".. i am passing on all the info and she can decide i'm still hoping for this especially since i will need a vacation when this is all over!!!:eek:

[Cruisetini]

I will say that the best thing was to not have to travel for your honeymoon! Good luck :)

[pathubia]

I was married on the Majesty 2 years ago. It is true that you dont have a lot of control. I wanted a sit down dinner, wound up with a hors dourves, saved us alot of $$$ but it wasnt exactly what I wanted. We did have a great wedding though. Our wedding coordinaters were great. The justice of the peace that The Wedding Experience was wonderful. So wonderful, that I looked her up and she officiated at my daughters wedding in August.

 

We had 12 sailing guests and about 20 non sailing guests.....We had the open bar. The ceremony was at 12:30 with a two hour reception. After the reception was over, we brought our guests to the top deck where they enjoyed the buffet and we charged their drinks on our room cards.....(it was scarey, we had a big bar bill before we left port).

 

Some of the guests didnt care for the food, so they went up to the top deck for cheesburgers or whatever and brought it back to the reception....

[Dawniepoo]

The best wedding I have ever been to was my own on the Sensation 7 years ago. It was a perfect solution for someone who can't make a decision to save her life! All I had to do was pick a color scheme and left the rest to them.

[newmexicoNita]

Our daughter got married on the Sky in 2005, what a nightmare. The wedding coordinators [we paid for 2] left before the wedding ceremony ended leaving us to finish the wedding ourselves [cake, warm champagne toast we had to hunt for, and reception that should have included an open bar]. Since the wedding coordinators left we had no way to prove that we paid for an open bar until we got home. How humiliating to have our guest turned away. Also so many special touches that should have been taken care of never happened, like turning off the speakers so not to interrupt the wedding vows [an announcement looking for a passenger came over the speakers looking for a passenger during the "I DO "[we have it on tape] and keep uninvited guest from crashing the wedding. I would never recommend NCL to do anyones wedding. I have the complaint letter I wrote to NCL, if you would like to see it I'd be happy to email it to you so you can address every detail off the wedding with the wedding experience. Not that I think it will help. We thought we had everything covered. A wedding cannot be replaced if anything should go wrong.

Sorry your experience was so horrible, what a lousy way to start a life together. I have seen your postings about your experiences before, I think on both this board and the wedding board. Thank goodness most of us have a very positive experience to report. It shows that, anything can go wrong and it sounds like everything went wrong with your daugthers wedding. I hope the last 2 years have gone better for her.

 

Nita

[micheleg]

Our wedding on the Jewel was lovely as well, although we were crunched for time. We had two dining rooms closed to the public for us and the staff from the Wedding Experience along with the hotel staff on the ship were wonderful.

 

All of our flowers were custom ordered by the Wedding Experience, our reception was a sit down lunch in Le Bistro and it was wonderful. The food was awesome and the champagne and wine were free flowing. Our cake was done by the pastry chef on board the Jewel, and although not exactly like the picture that we sent them, it was pretty darn close and it tasted amazing! We brought custom made chocolates that looked like the Jewel, along with other table favors. The ship printed menus and the tables looked awesome with our flowers.

 

The only downside to our wedding was the photographer. He was horrible, and unfortunately of all the pictures he too, only a few were good. But, we had 4 sailing guests with us and about 50 non-sailing guests (and some pretty high-brow if you know what I mean), and they all raved!

 

Would we do it again! You bet...so much so that although we're not getting married again, we are going on the Jewel again next week and doing the reverse Transatlantic that we did on our honeymooon!

 

You just need to stay on top of the coordinators and believe me, they will get it done!

 

Hope this helps,

Michele

[MrLee]

Would we do it again! You bet...so much so that although we're not getting married again, we are going on the Jewel again next week and doing the reverse Transatlantic that we did on our honeymooon!

 

 

 

Gee, I hope this doesn't mean you want to "reverse" the honeymoon!!! ;)

[Susie51]

I'm glad there are stories about good weddings on this thread also. I'm so sorry to hear about your terrible experience.

 

Did it seem strange to have other people you know on your honeymoon with you?

[hsc]

Our wedding on the Jewel was lovely as well, although we were crunched for time. We had two dining rooms closed to the public for us and the staff from the Wedding Experience along with the hotel staff on the ship were wonderful.

 

All of our flowers were custom ordered by the Wedding Experience, our reception was a sit down lunch in Le Bistro and it was wonderful. The food was awesome and the champagne and wine were free flowing. Our cake was done by the pastry chef on board the Jewel, and although not exactly like the picture that we sent them, it was pretty darn close and it tasted amazing! We brought custom made chocolates that looked like the Jewel, along with other table favors. The ship printed menus and the tables looked awesome with our flowers.

 

The only downside to our wedding was the photographer. He was horrible, and unfortunately of all the pictures he too, only a few were good. But, we had 4 sailing guests with us and about 50 non-sailing guests (and some pretty high-brow if you know what I mean), and they all raved!

 

Would we do it again! You bet...so much so that although we're not getting married again, we are going on the Jewel again next week and doing the reverse Transatlantic that we did on our honeymooon!

 

You just need to stay on top of the coordinators and believe me, they will get it done!

 

Hope this helps,

Michele

 

Our only saving grace was the photographer, he was wonderful he found the warm champagne for the toast that had no bubbles because it must of been poured before the ceremony even begun. He tried to be helpful but he kept telling us I'm just the photographer. He did provide NCL the full account of the wedding so NCL wouldn't think we made it up, even he was taken back that something like this could ever happen. I must let you know he did such a great job not only with the pictures but trying to help us also. The best part of the wedding was the photographer , everything from the pictures ,to the poses, and the scenery, he was great. We did stay on top of the coordinators and they didn't get it done! It was my daughters dream wedding I made sure that it would be perfect and it was a disaster.

[warburg]

Who officiates at the weddings on a ship? Does one need a license, and would this be a license from one of the states?

[newmexicoNita]

Who officiates at the weddings on a ship? Does one need a license, and would this be a license from one of the states?

License, yes; as for who officiates? This is up to the bride and groom In the case of the couple who got marreied last week and our granddaughters they arranged for their own clergy person.

 

Nita