Disaster strikes over and over (long post)

[bwchippie]

Where do i start?

 

Ok after a long time together we finally decide the time is right to get married. Being from the U.K. with its unpredictable weather, both of us have always liked the idea of a beach wedding, so we start planning, announcing to friends and family our intentions.

We have been lucky enough to have travelled to the Maldives previously and would love to marry in Sri Lanka and honeymoon on the Maldives, however family and friends begin to express a wish to be with us on the big day, so costs for all interested parties become a factor.

After months of researching options we decide that for the various budgets the most affordable option is a cruise, so we decide on a cruise line (Princess) and for its itinery, the cruise ship (Caribbean Princess) and book a party of 12 paying our deposit (March 2008) with our wedding scheduled for St. Lucia through TWE. for mid jan 2009.

Disaster no 1 strikes....

2 weeks after booking we read on cruise critic that Caribbean Princess is going into dry dock during our cruise!!!!!

We ring our t.a. and Princess in the U.K. but no one knows anything about it. After further reading it appears it is true so numerous phone calls later we finally get confirmation from princess in the u.k. that yes indeed the ship is to be drydocked during our cruise dates (in fact our phone calls have allerted them to the situation and they get confirmation from the U.S. based on our conversation! "go figure" as you say)

Anyway after about a week of calls we finally get a solution and are rebooked for Feb 1st 2009, with our wedding venue changed to St. Thomas, (lucky we booked the wedding through Princess's own planners)

As time goes by we look into wedding options and read up about Princess and our ports of call on cruise critic.

Disaster no. 2.....

Although good news the Brides daugther falls pregnant and due to dates, can no longer travel (3 guests lost)

Disaster no. 3...

another party has to cancel for financial reasons. our guest list is down to 4.

Disaster no 4...

Our friends who are going to act as bridesmaid and best man are now looking doubtful.....

The wife of the couple had reservations at the time of booking due to a fear of open water and as the due date for the balance to be paid gets closer she is suffering from anxiety attacks and at the last minute despite numerous conversations and suggestions they pull out. Our guest list now consists of only the grooms mum and dad.

At this point we are thinking we wish we had just gone and got married without telling anyone and sticking to our original plan.......

Balance falls due and we pay in full.

Final nail in the coffin hits home......

U.S. and U.K. economics. The pound falls against the dollar, my business has run into trouble, (joinery) all of a sudden there is no work around, enquiries are drying up (climate and xmas both factors) we have three weeks to decide if we should travel in Feb. (when the building trade begins to pick up again) or not, before we lose more of our money paid for the holiday/wedding. Faced with the prospect of having little or no work in Dec. it seems crazy to proceed with our plans.

Reluctantly we contact our t.a. and cancel the cruise and the wedding.

Everyone booked has now lost their respective 10% deposits (U.K. booking policy) to a grand total of £2200.00 plus non refundable wedding costs of $495, in addition the refund of wedding costs will be less due to the lessor exchange rate!!!!

Regardless of all the problems we were adament that in an uncertain future, we would get married and hastily looked into alternatives.

Now the silver lining to our very dark cloud.......

We are now booked on Ocean Village with a similar itinary, (allbeit in a lower graded cabin and not so impressive ship) mum and dad are still with us and we travel on 16th December for 2 weeks (when we have no work and during the holidays) will celebrate xmas at sea and are about to book our wedding on Barbados on 23rd Dec. (home port) All paid for in full from the refund from Princess and saved a further £1400.00

So hopefully all will end well.

keep an eye on this post and we will let you know how things pan out.

[sas80]

I, personally, would have followed thru with my plans since I had already laid out money for it (I'm not "big" on losing money willfully) but you have to do what you feel works best for you.

 

This post reminds me that, for "your" wedding, you should always plan and do exactly what "you" want to do and let others decide if they are going to join you or not. You cant make your plans based on every one else's needs because, if everyone else falls out, then where are you left?

 

Happy marriage!

[bwchippie]

I, personally, would have followed thru with my plans since I had already laid out money for it (I'm not "big" on losing money willfully) but you have to do what you feel works best for you.

 

This post reminds me that, for "your" wedding, you should always plan and do exactly what "you" want to do and let others decide if they are going to join you or not. You cant make your plans based on every one else's needs because, if everyone else falls out, then where are you left?

 

Happy marriage!

 

I wholeheartedly agree with you on "doing what you want to do" the extra stress of trying to please everyone counted for nothing in the end.

however, following through with the plans would be totally unwise, as this could effect our immediate future financially, as i said in my original post we are acheiving the same end result, receiving a refund even after the loss of deposit and most importantly not taking 2-3 weeks out of what we hope will be a recovery period for our business..

[6rugrats]

Sounds as if you made the right decision for you. Life seems to be full of these painful lessons!

 

Maybe someone who is beginning to plan their wedding will read your story and realize they need to do what's right for them, and not try to please everyone else.

 

Best of luck to you.

[MalibuBarbie]

I am sorry that you encountered so many problems and maybe its just meant to be that you traveled and married on the different ship. I also had a great wedding/cruise planned and then family wishes started changing everything. Luckily, before I had committed to any deposits so we did not lose anything except alot of sleeplessness nights and alot of tears.

 

I was a member here and vented here on this forum and I was amazed by everyone's support. We too decided to go on with our wedding but we are going by ourselves now---which is sort of the way we want it. We decided to upgrade our cruise and stay in a mini suite or a suite (depending upon the economy when we book) and taking a longer cruise and having a wedding at sea aboard the Star Princess. I am SO much happier and we are having it the way we want it. If anyone can join us on the cruise, it will be nice but we will be just as happy if they can't. Your wedding should be everything that YOU want it to be.

 

I am glad that you have found something that suits you and it always helps when it is a little less expensive. I know the economy is playing havoc with alot of people's plans and I can't even imagine the stress that people planning large weddings must be facing. I am thankful that my fiance and I are not planning anything elaborate so we can splurge a little bit on ourselves.

 

Keep us posted!

Barbie