Gay wedding on a cruise

Hello,

My fiance and I are planning to elope and want to do a wedding/honeymoon cruise. Any suggestions as to how to get this done....What we're looking for is info on getting married in port (where same sex marriage is legal) or onboard during a sea day, what the process is and any other insights....Thanks in advance for any/all information

New York has some great ships and Baltimore has a Carnival and Royal ship. It is legal in both those so you should be able to do either of those. MD does have a 3 day waiting period for the license, though I hear you can apply for an out of state waiver.

If you do it on a sea day you might not be able to have it legal because I believe the lines are bound by their flag country's law but you could always get the legal stuff before (think court house or even just a nice pastor in a private ceremony) and then have the ceremony on the ship.

Will you be inviting a lot of guests? Will they(at least some) also be sailing with you? I've attended one onboard wedding (not gay). I was very short and sweet and "OK....now get off the boat". If you are having guests, I'd get married on land the day before, have an enjoyable knock-out reception and take the cruise as your honeymoon! I was not impressed AT ALL!!!!! with the on-board ceremony or what they tried to pass off as a "reception" for the guests.

We didn't have a wedding on board, but NCL invited us to a reception our anniversary. There was even a special cake. This was a Hawaiian cruise out of Honolulu. NCL gave us an engraved certificate.

There are a few same-sex couples on the Weddings board that have gotten married over the course of the past 18 months. I've attached a quick summary with link to review. I will say, that you probably won't be able to have a legal at-sea wedding. The vessels that currently offer this service are flagged in countries where same-sex marriages are not recognized.

My wife and I were supposed to have an embarkation wedding in Baltimore, but due to the referendum (we weren't sure which way it would go), we took the sea-day route and did all the legal paperwork ahead of time. We booked it as a vow renewal (all the benefits of an embarkation wedding at a third of the cost) and the savings allowed us to pay the cruisefare for our sailing guests.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1774666

Shatima and her wife got married in DC before their wedding cruise and had an embarkation wedding on the Carnival Breeze in Florida.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1916201&highlight=shatima

ThisFemmeKat and her wife got married before their cruise and also had an embarkation wedding on the Carnival Breeze in Florida.

frankc98376 and his husband got married on HAL out of Seattle. It was the first HAL wedding review I'd ever read and it was cool to see the differences between it and other lines.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1853118&highlight=hal

Beachmonkey and smokeesdad is getting married on the Breakaway at the end of the month. I'm really excited for their review because they got special permission from NCL for the Cake Boss to do their cake.

http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?t=1934686&highlight=beachmonkey

Hello,

 

My fiance and I are planning to elope and want to do a wedding/honeymoon cruise. Any suggestions as to how to get this done....What we're looking for is info on getting married in port (where same sex marriage is legal) or onboard during a sea day, what the process is and any other insights....Thanks in advance for any/all information

Hello,

Upon further research, I think we'll be planning a destination wedding on Saba Island, just off of St. Maarten (at least THIS Caribbean port allows same sex marriage) and am wondering about any couples' experiences/reviews/suggestions......Also, the Saba website was a bit confusing, at least for me, in terms of their marriage requirements, so if someone could dumb that down for me, it would be greatly appreciated as well.

Thanks in advance:D

Hello,

 

Upon further research, I think we'll be planning a destination wedding on Saba Island, just off of St. Maarten (at least THIS Caribbean port allows same sex marriage) and am wondering about any couples' experiences/reviews/suggestions......Also, the Saba website was a bit confusing, at least for me, in terms of their marriage requirements, so if someone could dumb that down for me, it would be greatly appreciated as well.

 

Thanks in advance:D

Congratulations!

I read the requirements and was surprised to see that you need 2 witnesses if married in the courthouse and 6 if married outside of the courthouse. You need to notify them/apply a month in advance and supply proper documentation. The list of documents needed (birth certificate etc) is a little confusing. Birth certificates that are less than a year old???

The marriage application process for New York is not that difficult, but getting our out of state officiate was an unexpected requirement. We had to get approval from our Bishop and the Bishop of New York, but then our priest from Idaho had to submit an application to register.

Keep us informed of your plans!

Just returned from our wedding on the Norwegian Breakaway. Royal Ocean Events, NCL Group Department, and the ship crew helped us have a wonderful wedding and reception.

Mona and I will be getting married on the Carnival Miracle out of Long Beach, CA in November. Our Carnival wedding planner (Lucy) and Licensing specialist (Denise) have been very helpful thus far. I receive calls from them every 3 or 4 weeks just to check-in and see if we have any questions.

No advise or help. However, congrats!!! All the best in years to come.