Cruise Wedding Anyone???

Cristina - Cruise weddings can be fantastic! One thing to consider when you're deciding where to get married is that weather can impact your ability to get into a port on a given day. If you have your heart set on getting married while you're in Nassau, for example, you just have to know that Mother Nature may foil those plans and you'll have to be okay with a "plan B". For that reason, and the fact that some guests may plan to attend the wedding but not the cruise, many couples decide to get married in port before the ship sails. Either way, have a blast!

Welcome to WW and congrats on booking your cruise wedding! Personally I've never been to a cruise wedding but I'm sure it'll be great! Good luck and happy planning

Cristina- I am also planning a cruise wedding.

The decision to get married at a port or before leaving baltimore is really for you to deicde. We knew there were people that we wanted at te wedding that could not go on the cruise ( FH son (16 and in school), my best girl friend (just had her second child) so we opted for a wedding before setting sail so these guests and some of our family could be there. Surprisingly most of our family decided to go on the cruise as well.

while we havent had our wedding yet here are a few things i can tell you so far and I will be happy to answer any of your questions and give you more information .

- The cruise lines take care of almost everything. So it is less stressful. But make sure to stay on top of them and ask lots of questions.

- We are going throguh carnival but I think royal caribbean allows it as well- they let you take a tour of the ship and see the process of a wedding. I was lucky te day i went for mine there were 3 weddings cont

Going on that day, so i was able to see how the entire process worked. That put my mind at ease!

-Check our cruisecritic.com- there is a whole forum for wedding cruises and there is alot of information there.

Please let me know if you have any other questions!

Having worked for Regent Seven Seas Cruise line for quite some time, I played for lots of vow renewals on the ship but never for an actual wedding. It seems that it might be more practical to have the wedding while the ship is in port before you leave. That way, you would be able to have guests that will not be continuing on the cruise. However... it will be very important to check with your cruise line about regulations and procedures regarding non-passengers. Security is much more stringent that it once was and you'll want to be sure that your guests are permitted to board the ship!

Congratulations and best wishes.

P.S. I know that Reverend Annie Lawrence has officiated at many cruise wedding ceremonies. You might contact her with questions.

My sister did a cruise wedding and there were 80 people who traveled from all over! She didn't get married on the cuise itself she did it on an island but we had the best time. Basically a 4-5 day celebration!!! You're gonna have a blast.

Sounds wonderful! hope people will be able to make it!!!!

First of all Congrats!! I'm an excellent person for this topic. I'm getting married in two weeks on a cruise ship RCCL from Florida. I've been on 65 cruises and a lot of islands. I owned a travel agency for many years so know a ton of ins and outs. We didn't know how many people were actually going to go.... I booked it in feb and thought maybe 30-40 and we have 65 people confirmed. Im actually opening a wedding planner for cruise ship business. And I'm set up with all of the cruise lines to book as a travel agent. There are a lot of ways to save money and do it first class. For example, once the cruise line hears the word "wedding" the prices are different. For example, my DJ is $75 per hour on the ship and when you book a wedding its a few hundred per hour. I would love to help you and maybe work as you special cruise ship wedding planner if you like me. I can be reached at 386 299 7535 feel free to give me a call to ask any questions you may have. Good luck....its very exciting and I will let you know how my cruise ship wedding is in a few weeks! Best regards

Deanna

I wanted to do one of these so bad but FH wouldnt agree to it!!!

I've never been to one, but I would think it would be easier to get married in port in the US because of legal stuff. Or you could do a civil ceremony at the courthouse the day before and not have to worry about it.

I am leaving Monday for my cruise wedding. I am getting married in port while in Nassau. I am just hoping there wont be any damage in Nassau tomorrow when Hurricane Sandy goes through there. I too am going on a Royal Caribbean ship. I didn't book my wedding through the ship I went through a private wedding planner in the Bahamas. I did book through groups so we will all be able to sit together every evening for dinner. If you have any questions at all feel free to contact me. I will be available to help you out in any way when I get back. I have to finish packing since I am leaving Saturday to head to Florida. I can't seeing getting married on the ship when you will be visiting a beautiful tropical beach somewhere. Here is a picture of my location in Nassau.

Also if you don't book with groups and you are a crown and anchor member, all of your guest that come you can put them in as a referral and get $25 obc for each one! Just a thought!

Also, if you decide to get married on an island, make sure you check for residency requirements. Some places require you to be there for more than a day to get married there and I don't know that any Baltimore cruises spend more than a few hours at any given port (could be wrong here).

Baltimore has a beautiful skyline to use when considering doing a wedding at the port before the cruise sets sail.

Are you from the area?

I know if you do the Bahamas cruise that sails out of Baltimore you can find the itinerary that has you go to Coco Cay first before Nassau and that will meet the requirements for you to get married there. You do have to be in the Bahamas for a full 24 hours before you can apply for a marriage license but if you go to Coco Cay first that is part of the Bahamas so it will be fine to get married there and the documents are legal and good for the US.

Hey guys thanks so much for the replies! i live near baltimore( right outside of philly) and we sailed out of baltimore on our last cruise.

i think we have made up our minds on the whole situation!

we have hopes that our guest will want to sail with us, if thats the case, then why get married in baltimore when you are going to be on such wonderful islands! so we will go to the courthouse and legaly marry, then have a ceremony in puerto rico. not going to use royal as a wedding planner. im still having a hard time finding a wedding coordinator in PR though, bummer.

if no one ends up sailing with us, then yes, we will marry on board in baltimore and just have a blast on the cruise!

im not letting anything bother me anymore. its time to start planning the fun stuff!

Hi, I was the MOH for my best friends' wedding that was on a cruise ship. Carnival cruise line out of Galveston, TX. They got married on the boat right before it set sail. There was pros and cons. Cons: we had to get up really really early!!! it was really short and rushed, a total of 2 hours. The guests all had to come really early and wait a really long time. They even had to sit through the mini rehearsal right before the ceremony. Pros: the cruise did everything!!! and it was really nice! The best part for me was watching everyone leave and we actually stayed on the boat and went on the cruise with them. It was a unique experience. Whoever cares enough to come and share your day with you will come. But that's true for any wedding. YOU DO WHAT YOU WANT TO DO!! Oh just to inform you the photos are really expensive!!! What happened with my friend is that one of the ships photographers shot the wedding and the pics were just AMAZING!! but costly!!! like thousands!! just for the photos!

I decided to search "cruises" on the forums and landed on this one. not even looking at the poster i thought "man, this person had my exact same problems!" FUNNY....because i was the poster.

i am 9 months away from my wedding....its been...a long...time....

not sure if anyone will see this...im doing it for future brides.

so yes, we decided on a cruise wedding, getting married in the port. i had posted we were getting married in PR,that changed. on our first vacation we went to st thomas and st john, after doing some searching i said " wait...st thomas is a significant place to us, and its a port...lets do that!" and bam, done.

we decided to go with Perfect Weddings of St Thomas vs. Royal. after talked extensively to RC about the wedding packages, it was clear that any wedding planner i chose on the island was going to be better than what the cruise line offered. so far, Leslie has been amazing. we email all the time and she always responds within the day.

as far as guests,

GET ALL THEIR EMAILS...start a Facebook group, a wedding website...SO ANYTHING TO KEEP THEM UP TO DATE! its really so important.

RC has had a couple sales since we decided this is what we were doing.and really, the only time people have booked is when there is a sale. and i don't blame them!

i hope ive explained some stuff, and im always checking emails!

*********@*******.***

emails, i check.

weddingwire forums, i don't check. so if you need a question answered, or if you are getting married in st Thomas or using Leslie as a planner, im here!

I was married on Carnival Spirit and would not change anything! We had 60 guests at our wedding. Only 1/2 sailed on the cruise which was my only negative. Oh and the photographer! I have not one picture of my husband and daughter together. I am still in shock about that. Only photo we have is the group shot. I now tell brides I assist to make a list of photos. We were married before the ship sailed. We had a great venue so that made a difference.

My guests loved the wedding and it was different. They had lunch first we then had the wedding. I had a reception with open bar after for 1.5 hours. I also booked the specialty dinning for dinner.

The hardest part of a Cruise Wedding is getting everyone to book. I would suggest like Cristina said have a Facebook Group. Have a Cruise Night at your house or online. Have your travel agent set it up. Give out prizes for attending etc.. The rest of the wedding is smooth sailing! Getting guests to book is the only hard part.

CruiseBride Im planning to have a wedding on Carnival with about the same amount of people. Would you mind if I asked how much your wedding cost?