My pre-wedding mailers for sailing guests! Pic heavy!!

Oh my gosh everybody we are 40 days away! I wanted to mail a package to all of the guests who are sailing with us that has a brochure about the trip, luggage tags, and rum runners. This is what I came up with!

The box isn't sealed yet but I made it look like a little suitcase. The address will go on the tag. :)

Luggage tag front

Luggage tag back

Brochure

More brochure

We also might add a cd with tropical music depending on whether or not we have time. The brochure and tags were made on vistaprint and I got a great deal on the rum runners on eBay.

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I also made a funny note about the rum runners- it's not printed yet but here it is:

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How cool is that! Everything looks great. I especially like your brochures and suitcase. I do not have a creative bone in my body, so I'm always amazed to see someone create such wonderful DIYs :)

How cool is that! Everything looks great. I especially like your brochures and suitcase. I do not have a creative bone in my body, so I'm always amazed to see someone create such wonderful DIYs :)

Thanks! I love making stuff - I had so many ideas starting this process I really had to work to get them all in. :)

That is adorable! I love the idea and that you want your guests to have such a special experience.

We just had a dinner party at our home for our traveiling (not sailing) and sailing guests from Idaho. We provided some more time details, reviewed who is arriving and when (we are scheduling their airport limo to drive them to the hotel and then airport after the cruise), we had lots of questions and shared ideas, and our guests had a chance to get to know each other better.

It is going to be a lot of fun...but the term herding cats comes to mind!

OMG, those look AMAZING!!!

OMG, those look AMAZING!!!

Thank you! We are finishing them up to send now. We're going to also include our welcome dinner invite which is beyond adorable as well. :)

That is adorable! I love the idea and that you want your guests to have such a special experience.

 

We just had a dinner party at our home for our traveiling (not sailing) and sailing guests from Idaho. We provided some more time details, reviewed who is arriving and when (we are scheduling their airport limo to drive them to the hotel and then airport after the cruise), we had lots of questions and shared ideas, and our guests had a chance to get to know each other better.

 

It is going to be a lot of fun...but the term herding cats comes to mind!

Haha herding cats is right!! Right now I have my hands full chasing down info for non-sailors. People do NOT want to give up their info! Also, a bunch of people in our group changed their dining times without me knowing, which is fine but Carnival is telling me that a group dinner on our wedding night may not be possible now. :( I'm going to need a serious vacation from this vacation!!

Those are amazing!! Awesome job!!

I hear you on needing a vacation from this vacation!! Lol!! The actual wedding planning has been a breeze compared to the cruise stuff! Between price drops, travel questions, dining time changes and people booking through online travel agents instead of our PVP, I'm ready for this to be over! Haha! Not sure how I'm going to fill my time when this is all over. Lol!

Thank you! We are finishing them up to send now. We're going to also include our welcome dinner invite which is beyond adorable as well. :)

I thought I was ambitious by doing boarding pass save the dates and passport invitations (I've attached a few photos). My STD's were a big hit and I plan to finish up my passport invites this weekend and get them sent out next week.

I was already planning on doing a mailing about a month before the trip with last minute detailed info (boarding info, pre-wedding schedule & events, etc.), but haven't really thought about a design for those yet. I was originally thinking just a simple mailing. Although, if I'm being so creative with the invites, I may need to do something more for the final mailing. It would probably be weird to go all out on the other mailings and then go so simple on the last one... almost like I gave up or burnt out. And at that point the guest list will be a lot smaller too, which will help (my full guest list only required 28 invites anyway, but about 1/2 actually plan to go). I may need to borrow your concept, or something similar. Because those do look amazingly awesome.

Haha herding cats is right!! Right now I have my hands full chasing down info for non-sailors. People do NOT want to give up their info! Also, a bunch of people in our group changed their dining times without me knowing, which is fine but Carnival is telling me that a group dinner on our wedding night may not be possible now. :( I'm going to need a serious vacation from this vacation!!

I am dreading getting the info from non-sailing guests. With my STD, I did a "preliminary RSVP", just to get some idea of who may come, knowing that I wouldn't get all of them back and some people wouldn't know for sure that far in advance. I only go about 1/2 back. And most of the ones I received back were from the people that I already knew were coming (parents & siblings). So, I know that getting the info will be a nightmare. Plus, I know of a few people that are still unsure about going or not. So, I'm trying to make it VERY clear in my invites/final rsvp that this is critical. We've also tried to have a little fun with it, rather than just demanding their personal info, and keep telling people that we are important enough that we need to have homeland security as wedding bouncers and they are pretty strict with the guest list, to better protect us. We also try to clarify that its no more invasive than going through security at the airport, which they will all do to get there anyway. So, I'm hoping that will make it less daunting. But, I know I will have several to track down.

And for group dining, we told everyone to book through our PVP and do the late dining. I know of at least one person who booked on their own, and even though I gave them our booking number to link to for dining, failed to do so. So, I know I need to clarify that at some point to get then included in our group. Otherwise I think everyone is set up for the same dinner and set up in the group, but I also know some people have complained about dinner that late, especially people with younger kids. Although it made sense with getting back to ship at 6pm on port days, so you have time to shower and clean up. And we've just told them that there are enough other meal options that the kids could eat earlier or get an early snack. But, they just changed our itinerary, so we get back on ship by 5pm at 2 of the 3 ports, so we may end up trying to change to early dinner now. Although, 1/2 our guests are from west coast, so 6pm dinner would be 3pm back home, which is early. The rest of the guests are east coast, so 8pm is late. So I know they would love to split between the 2 times, but they understand how important to us it is to have everyone together, so hopefully they don't ruin that.

If you haven't already, you may want to opt for the Anytime Dining, although that is much harder to get the whole group sitting together and usually means longer waiting to get seated. If you do that, call dining department ahead of time to see if they can arrange a group seating or go to maître de as soon as you get onboard (or assign someone else to do it) to try and set it up. Although, even that requires getting everyone on the same page and signed up for anytime dining.

Those are amazing!! Awesome job!!

 

I hear you on needing a vacation from this vacation!! Lol!! The actual wedding planning has been a breeze compared to the cruise stuff! Between price drops, travel questions, dining time changes and people booking through online travel agents instead of our PVP, I'm ready for this to be over! Haha! Not sure how I'm going to fill my time when this is all over. Lol!

Hey girl- I just realized you are also on the Destination Wedding forums- good to see you here too. :)

I totally feel your pain. I can't wait to be relaxing on the Lido with a DOD! :)

I thought I was ambitious by doing boarding pass save the dates and passport invitations (I've attached a few photos). My STD's were a big hit and I plan to finish up my passport invites this weekend and get them sent out next week.

 

I was already planning on doing a mailing about a month before the trip with last minute detailed info (boarding info, pre-wedding schedule & events, etc.), but haven't really thought about a design for those yet. I was originally thinking just a simple mailing. Although, if I'm being so creative with the invites, I may need to do something more for the final mailing. It would probably be weird to go all out on the other mailings and then go so simple on the last one... almost like I gave up or burnt out. And at that point the guest list will be a lot smaller too, which will help (my full guest list only required 28 invites anyway, but about 1/2 actually plan to go). I may need to borrow your concept, or something similar. Because those do look amazingly awesome.

Your invites look great!! Yes, we wanted to do something similarly creative to our passport invites. My only advice is to start as early as you can. I started buying supplies for these about 6 months out, so now all I had to do was put everything together. I am waiting for my etsy seller to send the welcome dinner invite so I can get that printed, then these will go out this week. I can't believe we are down to 32 days! :eek:

I am dreading getting the info from non-sailing guests. With my STD, I did a "preliminary RSVP", just to get some idea of who may come, knowing that I wouldn't get all of them back and some people wouldn't know for sure that far in advance. I only go about 1/2 back. And most of the ones I received back were from the people that I already knew were coming (parents & siblings). So, I know that getting the info will be a nightmare. Plus, I know of a few people that are still unsure about going or not. So, I'm trying to make it VERY clear in my invites/final rsvp that this is critical. We've also tried to have a little fun with it, rather than just demanding their personal info, and keep telling people that we are important enough that we need to have homeland security as wedding bouncers and they are pretty strict with the guest list, to better protect us. We also try to clarify that its no more invasive than going through security at the airport, which they will all do to get there anyway. So, I'm hoping that will make it less daunting. But, I know I will have several to track down.

 

And for group dining, we told everyone to book through our PVP and do the late dining. I know of at least one person who booked on their own, and even though I gave them our booking number to link to for dining, failed to do so. So, I know I need to clarify that at some point to get then included in our group. Otherwise I think everyone is set up for the same dinner and set up in the group, but I also know some people have complained about dinner that late, especially people with younger kids. Although it made sense with getting back to ship at 6pm on port days, so you have time to shower and clean up. And we've just told them that there are enough other meal options that the kids could eat earlier or get an early snack. But, they just changed our itinerary, so we get back on ship by 5pm at 2 of the 3 ports, so we may end up trying to change to early dinner now. Although, 1/2 our guests are from west coast, so 6pm dinner would be 3pm back home, which is early. The rest of the guests are east coast, so 8pm is late. So I know they would love to split between the 2 times, but they understand how important to us it is to have everyone together, so hopefully they don't ruin that.

 

If you haven't already, you may want to opt for the Anytime Dining, although that is much harder to get the whole group sitting together and usually means longer waiting to get seated. If you do that, call dining department ahead of time to see if they can arrange a group seating or go to maître de as soon as you get onboard (or assign someone else to do it) to try and set it up. Although, even that requires getting everyone on the same page and signed up for anytime dining.

Oh my gosh we have over 60 non-sailing guests. Some of them I had to text 3 times to get a response! Haha. Not to mention we were missing SO many RSVP's on our deadline date. :/

I think we have a few too many to be on anytime dining, unfortunately. A party of 36 would be a bit difficult to seat every night. The only date I care about everyone eating together is the actual wedding night, but that does not look like its going to happen. A bunch of people moved their dining times all over the place, and both the maitre d and carnival group dining have been non-responsive. :( Oh well. It may be a blessing in disguise - I will probably need a break by the time dinner rolls around. haha.

Help. My bf told me about you and all you have done. She said you have links to what you have done and how too's. My daughter is getting married on a very tight budget on a cruise and we need to diy. Can you help me navigat this sight to you links?