Bringing everything on board

In a matter of 18 days I will be boarding the Sunshine to get married. Now that all favors, decor, flowers, and other things are packed in boxes I'm freaking out how to get it all on board. And did anyone have a BIG heavy dress like I do?! Holy moly its heavy lol. Any tips/ideas/suggestions how to get the stuff on board easily? I'm sure I'll end up enlisting some help from my brothers and what not but me and the groom are trying to avoid seeing each other so we are showing up at different times.

Thanks!!

We had two large ballgowns to contend with, plus all of the other crap.

If your budget is flexible, I'd recommend getting a foldable garment rack on wheels. We got ours from Bed, Bath, and Beyond (the Commercial Grade one), but I think they retail for between $40-$60. It was the MVP item for the whole wedding. It allowed us to roll everything on and off the ship and it provided a space for our gowns to hang before the wedding so they didn't wrinkle.

I can vouch that it will fit through a standard port x-ray if folded and also store under the bed. If you don't want to carry your wedding gown off the ship, I'd recommend bringing an extra box to fold it into and packing tape to label it with the luggage tags. It's what we did--we picked ours up with our luggage. :-)

In a matter of 18 days I will be boarding the Sunshine to get married. Now that all favors, decor, flowers, and other things are packed in boxes I'm freaking out how to get it all on board. And did anyone have a BIG heavy dress like I do?! Holy moly its heavy lol. Any tips/ideas/suggestions how to get the stuff on board easily? I'm sure I'll end up enlisting some help from my brothers and what not but me and the groom are trying to avoid seeing each other so we are showing up at different times.

Thanks!!

Delegate!! My dress wasn't heavy, thankfully, so I did carry that myself. I had people assigned to passing out the flowers in the lobby of the hotel before we boarded the shuttles, another friend carried my bouquet on. My cousin who did hair/makeup carried my bag with our makeup/hair items. I had several other people assigned to carry the bags with the reception items (cake flowers, topper, guest book, guest book stand, cameras). Once we arrived at the port and got them through security the coordinators took all of that stuff so none of us had to worry about carrying it any further. Just remember to make sure everything you pack can fit through the scanners to be carried on.

We brought a ton onboard and it was no problem. We labeled the boxes/ bags with the location they needed to go to (our suite/ parents' cabin for groom's things/ ceremony location/ reception location) and placed instructions inside each container. I had no idea who ended up bringing what onboard but everyone chipped in- especially non-sailing guests. Everything got where it needed to go and the coordinators actually opened up the boxes and bags in the ceremony and reception areas and arranged favors, cake toppers, etc. so my husband didn't have to do anything to set up.

Congratulations on your big day!

I know in Long Beach the wedding guests, both sailing and non sailing gather together and wait to be boarded, so I had my dress only, my daughter, the bulldog, who along with my stepdaughter were the matrons of honor (both adults, I'm an older bride) had everything with them and the guests, and everybody just picked up a box and carried on board. I had everything well labeled one for my daughter's room, where the men got ready, the ones for our room where the girls got ready, one for the wedding lounge and ones for the reception lounge. I placed detailed notes in the ones for the wedding and reception. I have no idea who got it all together out there since our wedding coordinator was a no show and the officient (we brought our own anyway) was stopped by security because his ID had been revoked (he showed up 5 minutes before the wedding and played the part of the coordinator)...but I think the previously mentioned bulldog, and the sweet stepdaughter got everything done with the bulldog bossing everybody around the stepdaughter soothing any hurt feelings....oh and the Carnival wedding host was amazing! I guess that was TMI, but my point is....don't worry....it will all work out and everything will get done.