We're back! Carnival Paradise Embarkation wedding review- with pics!

Hey everyone!

We're back to reality and officially Mr. & Mrs.! I'm going to do a nice pic heavy review for you all starting tonight, and reveal all the juicy details of our crazy embarkation wedding! If anyone has any questions please let me know! :)

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Here's a pic of hubby and I to get you guys started. ;)

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Omg cuties!! :) I cannot wait!

CONGRATS!!

Gorgeous. Can't wait to read.and see all the details

Can't wait!

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Yeayyyyyy Tink, congrats to you both. Can't wait for your review. Your pic look so cute love it.

<3 Crystal

Ahhhhhh! Yay! Congratulations and welcome back! Can't wait for your review!

Aww- thank you all so much! I've been working on the review for a few hours. A lot of the pics are still uploading to shutterfly, but I'll go ahead and start with the boring stuff. :P

As most of you all know, we went all out planning our wedding. I love planning events and making people happy, and our cruise wedding was the golden opportunity. I spent countless hours scouring forums, pinterest, and every other avenue I could imagine planning. I'd really like to thank my fellow brides here on CC (Shatima and Cruisebrides come to mind) for all of their hard work posting and answering every question. :) I've decided to do a planning "blog", starting from the very beginning, in hopes that I will help other brides and grooms as much as they've helped me. :)

Our Story:

Bill and I started dating in November, 2011. Everything was going fabulous, but shortly after, in January, 2012 I was offered a job as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan. It was a big opportunity for me that I couldn't turn down. Much to Bill's dismay (and secretly mine), I deployed to Afghanistan in February to support Operation Enduring Freedom as an administrator for the postal contract.

This is me, in Ali Al Salim, Kuwait. I was waiting to board my flight to Afghanistan.

I'm having such a hard tine posting pics from my laptop! Bare with me everyone. Everything is written but the pics make it better. :)

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This is what happens now every time I try to post a pic from shutter fly- trying hard to fix it!:confused:

I had that problem when trying to post my oot bags!! So annoying!

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Okay- I think I got it!

About four months and many heart breaking calls home later, I decided to come home. Life over there is rougher than most can imagine, and after a few close calls I decided that it just wasn't worth it. It was very hard to leave my co-workers and military friends but sometimes you have to decide what's best for you. Coming home also meant losing my job, which I was terrified of, but Bill was waiting for me with open arms. We stayed with his roommate for a few weeks, and then got our own wonderful, happy home. I quickly found a job back in the legal field (the career I left to work for the government), and everything fell into place.

Bill was always right there waiting for me. <3 :)

Our Engagement:

For Valentines day, 2013, we decided that in lieu of gifts we would treat each other to a trip to Disneyworld (our favorite!). Bill was acting strange the whole week- the day before Valentines day he would barely speak to me! ☺ When we got to Disney on Friday night I suggested we head to Epcot so we could enjoy some adult beverages and the fireworks, but he was adamant that we go straight to the Magic Kingdom. On the way to the bus he asked me if I wanted to stop and grab a margarita, and he drank 3! Haha! Once we got to the Magic Kingdom and started heading towards the first ride, he pulled me down a “shortcut” and proposed at the wishing well right in front of Cinderella’s Castle. Bill is such a special guy – he has a way of making every moment amazing. Of course I said yes! We had a wonderful weekend and shortly after, the planning began!

My baby makes everything special.... :)

We had to do it. Haha. :)

The first thing we did after getting engaged was book an engagement picture shoot. I really wanted to make a save-the-date magnet with our pictures on it but didn't have any nice pics of us to use. We decided to go with Ashfall Mixed Media here in Florida and did our shoot in downtown St. Petersburg, FL, where we live. Here's a few shots:

http://im1.shutterfly.com/media/47a4da34b3127ccef58abd58c58900000030O00Abtm7Jy0asW4Pbz4M/cC/f%3D0/ls%3D00701549276720140416010550141.JPG/ps%3D50/r%3D0/rx%3D720/ry%3D480/

We had a 7 day cruise on the Glory booked for April and decided to book our wedding cruise onboard. We ended up losing the on board credit as Bill’s mom upgraded us from a Jr. to a Grand Suite, but it was worth the $50. ☺ After we got home I called the wedding department and secured our date aboard the Paradise- April 5, 2014. We chose the Paradise because we live locally and knew we would have a lot of non-sailing guests.

As soon as we had the final pics I hopped on Vistaprint with a Groupon and ordered our save the date magnets! We sent them out about 11 months prior to the wedding date. They directed people to our wedding website (Located here: http://www.weddingwire.com/weddings/2398198/wedding_new_website/preview), which contained lots of information for our guests.

:( I accidentally hit he back button and lost 30 minutes worth of work- I'll be back in the morning!

Congratulations! Can't wait to see more pics. I get married on Saturday! WOO HOO for being married!

Engagement Party:

To get everyone geared up for the cruise Bill and I decided to have a fun, Fiesta themed engagement party. I was telling our friends about our plans one day and they graciously offered to host it for us! We went straight to work planning everything from the menu to the decorations and favors. It was a total blast and everyone had a great time. ☺

Favors

I did all of the catering myself! :)

Me & the guys

Everyone was feeling festive (especially my sweetie) :)

My funny guy...lol

Our amazing cake!

I love my sweetie so much.

The group

Planning, planning, and more planning:

After the engagement party I got straight to work setting a budget and planning EVERYTHING! I’m a bit OCD when it comes to planning (if you couldn’t already tell ;)) First thing on the list was invitations. I scoured Etsy and every other source on the web I could think of for the perfect invites, but they were either (a) too expensive; or (b) not fun enough. I wanted to create something awesome, that screamed “Fun” and also was able to relay all of the information we needed to get to people for our cruise wedding.

Eventually, I stumbled across Vanessa and Dave…the Holy Grail of destination wedding invites! I could fire off an email fast enough to them to find out what I had to do to get my mitts on these little beauties. To my delight and surprise, they were willing to sell me a template for only $15!! Of course I would need to have them printed, and learn how to use adobe illustrator, but minor details HELLO! I don't think I slept that night because I was so taken with how beautiful these invites were. Little did I know this would be the first of many sleepless nights ahead.

I was at work when the template was delivered to my email, and I could barely contain myself on the long drive home from Tampa. I probably ran a few red lights (kidding), and possibly weedled myself a few times (KIDDING), but really, that’s how excited I was. :D I ripped out my contacts, threw on my rattiest pair of P.J’s, grabbed a glass of wine, and got ready for business. As Adobe Illustrator downloaded I geared myself up…after all, I am the boss of Excel, the Master of Power Point, the Dominatrix of Word! This was going to be cake. Within ten minutes the laptop was slammed shut and I was nearly in tears. Seriously.

Should you dare to venture this route of pain I like to call “Adobe Illustrator”, heed these words of wisdom…your life will suck for at least 30 days. It will. Ctrl + C = copy, right? Nope. Ctrl + P = paste, you say? Bwa ha ha. Adobe Illustrator laughs in the face of basic commands! I do believe I can honestly say we spent approximately 100 hours learning the program (and I am computer literate), then the next 50 hours actually creating the invite. Of course it doesn't help that both Bill and I are perfectionists (to an ever-so-slight degree). Additionally, the template was made for an all inclusive resort in Mexico. We had to re-create the wheel for a cruise wedding, from the language to the pictures, to everything else.

30 days and 10 hours of sleep later, we had made quite a bit of progress, but it wasn't quite “perfect” yet. We had a trip to Puerto Rico looming the following week (I say looming as if it were a bad thing- it was actually the greatest trip of our lives! Mi Abuello’s (my great grandfather’s) 100th birthday!), and we really had to have these in the mail before we left. The 8 month mark until the wedding was nearing, and having read everything I have read about destination weddings, any invite under a year out yields you zero guests. It was my own anxiety and self imposed deadlines causing the stress, I know, but I just wanted, needed, the satisfaction of getting stamps on these things and seeing the smiling, excited faces of friends once they were received.

I know what you’re thinking…Tinkerbell_82 is neurotic! She’s stressing too much! Well, my friends, feast your eyes on these little beauties – the fruits of our labor:

(Totally worth driving yourself crazy right?)

The aftermath of the invites:

Our invites did generate quite a bit of attention. Friends both near and far told us how excited they were to book the cruise. Our initial headcount yielded right around 80 of the 130 people we invited sailing…yay! There were lots of questions- who do I call (look at the website/invite), where does the cruise go (look at the website/invite), how much does it cost (LOOK AT THE WEBSITE/INVITE). ☺

In actuality, it was very nice to know that people received our invites and cared enough to ask questions. We were happy to answer them, and happy to hear that our friends and family were excited. We started a facebook group page (which I am not allowed to post here) that included everyone that was invited to the wedding. The page made it easy to keep up with everyone, sailing or not, and kept everyone in the loop on announcements, changes, and everything in between.

I spent the next couple of months researching and planning our OOT bags, favors, and all of the small details. I had tons of fun shopping online and running from dollar tree to dollar tree gathering little things each week. I ended up with a huge stack of boxes in my bedroom (which I am thrilled to be rid of, haha).

Here’s some of the crafts I made:

Cups with a waterproof sticker & flower girl baskets

Sand bottle favors

Wedding week survival kits

Lanyards / Room key holders

Immodium packets

After sun lotion (bottles from the Dollar Tree that we filled ourselves and stickers from Ebay)

Magnets we made from tile sheets and mod lodge

Postcards from Paradise

Putting everything together was quite a feat! This is just the Wedding Week Survival kits!

More things included in the survival kits

In between crafts and projects I started picking out our bridal party colors and outfits. We decided to go with teal & coral as our colors. Here's some pics:

Picking bridesmaids dresses with my bestie

Our flower girl dresses from Etsy ($40 each)

Matching groomsmen ties to the dresses

The guys suits

Alright guys- I'm pooped for tonight. Next up I'll fill you guys in on my dress- then it's on to the good stuff- the wedding & cruise! :)

Planning, planning, and more planning:

 

After the engagement party I got straight to work setting a budget and planning EVERYTHING! I’m a bit OCD when it comes to planning (if you couldn’t already tell ;)) First thing on the list was invitations. I scoured Etsy and every other source on the web I could think of for the perfect invites, but they were either (a) too expensive; or (b) not fun enough. I wanted to create something awesome, that screamed “Fun” and also was able to relay all of the information we needed to get to people for our cruise wedding.

 

Eventually, I stumbled across Vanessa and Dave…the Holy Grail of destination wedding invites! I could fire off an email fast enough to them to find out what I had to do to get my mitts on these little beauties. To my delight and surprise, they were willing to sell me a template for only $15!! Of course I would need to have them printed, and learn how to use adobe illustrator, but minor details HELLO! I don't think I slept that night because I was so taken with how beautiful these invites were. Little did I know this would be the first of many sleepless nights ahead.

 

I was at work when the template was delivered to my email, and I could barely contain myself on the long drive home from Tampa. I probably ran a few red lights (kidding), and possibly weedled myself a few times (KIDDING), but really, that’s how excited I was. :D I ripped out my contacts, threw on my rattiest pair of P.J’s, grabbed a glass of wine, and got ready for business. As Adobe Illustrator downloaded I geared myself up…after all, I am the boss of Excel, the Master of Power Point, the Dominatrix of Word! This was going to be cake. Within ten minutes the laptop was slammed shut and I was nearly in tears. Seriously.

 

Should you dare to venture this route of pain I like to call “Adobe Illustrator”, heed these words of wisdom…your life will suck for at least 30 days. It will. Ctrl + C = copy, right? Nope. Ctrl + P = paste, you say? Bwa ha ha. Adobe Illustrator laughs in the face of basic commands! I do believe I can honestly say we spent approximately 100 hours learning the program (and I am computer literate), then the next 50 hours actually creating the invite. Of course it doesn't help that both Bill and I are perfectionists (to an ever-so-slight degree). Additionally, the template was made for an all inclusive resort in Mexico. We had to re-create the wheel for a cruise wedding, from the language to the pictures, to everything else.

 

30 days and 10 hours of sleep later, we had made quite a bit of progress, but it wasn't quite “perfect” yet. We had a trip to Puerto Rico looming the following week (I say looming as if it were a bad thing- it was actually the greatest trip of our lives! Mi Abuello’s (my great grandfather’s) 100th birthday!), and we really had to have these in the mail before we left. The 8 month mark until the wedding was nearing, and having read everything I have read about destination weddings, any invite under a year out yields you zero guests. It was my own anxiety and self imposed deadlines causing the stress, I know, but I just wanted, needed, the satisfaction of getting stamps on these things and seeing the smiling, excited faces of friends once they were received.

 

I know what you’re thinking…Tinkerbell_82 is neurotic! She’s stressing too much! Well, my friends, feast your eyes on these little beauties – the fruits of our labor:

 

 

(Totally worth driving yourself crazy right?)

Because of you, I made these as well.. I am not happy with you for forcing me to use Adobe Illustrator... and I am also extremely computer literate.. AND I had yours to look at... So thank you, and no thank you! :) haha