My Carnival Dream April 13, 2013 Wedding - Review

My husband and I have been together for 6 years and both come from gigantic families. We decided quickly on having a cruise wedding after looking at traditional venues and squabbling over the guest list. We booked our wedding in early 2012 (January I think) and decided to do the deluxe wedding package. Instead of traditional save the dates/wedding invites we invited people by email. We figured this would be easier and we could get a quicker idea of who wanted to come. The TA agency we went with was not exactly fun to deal with. We ended up on the phone correcting mistakes more often than not. Names and birthdates were wrong. We were not really happy with the travel agency.

Despite all of those issues, we ended up with 33 sailing guests and 6 non sailing guests. Since we were the only wedding on the ship for embarkation day, we got to pick where our ceremony would be. Since we had been on the ship before, we knew what the locations looked like. We picked the burgundy longue for the ceremony and the disco for the reception. All of our sailing guests were in our hotel so we gave them their favors/OOT bags there. For the OOT bags, we ordered nautical themed bags. We included a customized photo frame, wedding program, a listing of the group’s cabin numbers, and a lanyard for the sail and sign card. The lanyard was possibly the biggest hit in the bags. The non sailing guests got gifts and I honestly can’t remember who passed them out.

We stayed in the Four Points Sheraton in Cocoa Beach. Shannon in group sales was great. We had two different rates since half of the guests were there on Thursday night and she arranged everything. The location was convenient to last minute shopping for essentials and some really good restaurants. My husband has is bachelor party on Thursday night so the rest of us went to Florida Seafood and Grill. I can say nothing but good things about that place. Even though they didn’t do reservations, they took ours for 15 since we were such a big party. The waitress was phenomenal and dealt with some challenges with food allergies and gave us all separate checks.

On Friday, a group of us went to Kennedy Space Center and enjoyed the day touring around. For dinner, my husband’s parents arranged hor d'oeuvres and drinks at Milliken’s Reef in Cocoa Beach for all of the guests. We were able to have the back deck to ourselves and we all ended up staying for dinner. The food was great and the view during sunset was awesome.

Saturday morning came way too quickly. I had arranged to have hair and makeup for the wedding party (me, 2 bridesmaids, 1 MOH, and 2 moms) done by Tiffany at Professional Elegance. We had some ideas but really let her run with what she does best. She started at 5 AM and worked like crazy until we got on the shuttle around 10 AM. The hair and makeup looked amazing!

We took a shuttle from the hotel to the cruise ship. Since there were so many guests, we had some confusion about boarding. The wedding party went on the last shuttle, and we were pretty much lost until we were greeted by the coordinator. We got on the boat with the wedding coordinator and then some more confusion arose. The tuxes were delivered to my room instead of the Best man’s room. According to my husband, Carnival completely screwed up the tuxes. Most did not fit the guys, so there was a massive swap of tux jackets to get some resemblance of fit. The best man also got the wrong shirt. The tuxes were poorly hemmed. All and all it wasn’t a great experience for them at all.

Once I went through the ceremony with the coordinator, we had about 40 minutes before I had to be dress and the bridesmaids had to be in the “rehearsal”. Despite having the veil on, all of us decided to get some food at ledo deck with some of the guests. Once back in the room, I met with the photographer and started getting dressed. Out photographer was Bojana Putnik. She was absolutely wonderful. She took a couple of “getting ready shots” and then moved to the men’s room. We had gotten floral upgrades and I used my included roses for the bouquet toss. When I saw the flowers I was very happy with them. I did two birds of paradise with two orchids for the bridesmaid flowers and those turned out awesome. For mine I upgraded to the tropical bouquet and was really pleased. The groomsmen and dads had orchid boutonnieres and the moms, grandmoms, and aunts had orchid pin corsages. The ceremony itself was over before I knew it. The music was exactly what I selected, the officiant was awesome. After the ceremony before the reception, we got together to take pictures of the wedding party and guests. My only regret was not getting a picture of all of the guests together. We got different groups but were going to wait until the disco to take a picture of the group and then everyone forgot.

After the wedding, we went to the disco for our reception. Our DJ was Jeff the Fun Dude. He was great to work with and shook things up when nobody was on the dance floor. My only complaint was that he didn’t invite the guests into the first dance until the very end (like 30 seconds left) so we were awkwardly dancing for awhile. It was on the sheet but honestly not a big deal. He also got onto the dance floor with us since not a single person remembered how to do the electric slide. .

Since we had about 5 people with food allergies, Natasha, our onboard coordinator, took us all around and told us what we could eat and what we couldn’t. For those allergic to gluten, she had a separate plate for them. The food apparently was amazing, but I didn’t even get a chance to have more than a bite. The bar service was directly from the bar and apparently the drinks were good too. I was too busy having a blast.

After the ceremony, we went with Bojana around the ship to take pictures. We were shot on time before the muster drill so we were only able to get onto the deck and the piano bar. The pictures turned out amazing! She showed us two photo books and the pictures during the cruise and we were absolutely floored by some of them. She ended up giving us a package deal for the photobooks, metal print (enlargement), prints, and a CD with all of the pictures.

In summary we had a wonderful time. Our guests all had fun and honestly there was very little stress to the wedding. Other than the tuxes (which we were not happy about, though I had no idea until after the wedding), we couldn’t have had a better wedding. Let me know if any future brides have any questions. I’ll try to get at least some pictures up later.

OMG I am so excited to see this!!! pics please.. I need pics!!! lol

im subscribing now!

Since apparently I can't edit my original post.

Some pictures are in the link below. These were a portion of those taken by Bojana

Pictures

Congrats! Wait until shatima sees ths! Lol

Congratulations!! Sounds like a fabulous time :) wishing you many, many happy years :)

Sent from my BlackBerry 9300 using Tapatalk

You pictures look lovely, she did a great job!

In what room was your ceremony? I like that room better than the other ones I had seen before. I love that red chandelier.

I'll have 45 guests total, I wonder if I could request the same room. It looks fabulous on the pictures.

Well, thank you so much for posting a review!

I wish you and your hubby a world of happiness and many blessings!

You pictures look lovely, she did a great job!

 

In what room was your ceremony? I like that room better than the other ones I had seen before. I love that red chandelier.

 

I'll have 45 guests total, I wonder if I could request the same room. It looks fabulous on the pictures.

 

Well, thank you so much for posting a review!

I wish you and your hubby a world of happiness and many blessings!

We were in the burgundy lounge. It was an absolutely awesome venue. We had 41 guests and had the ceremony and reception initially in other venues. We were the only wedding and got to switch. It was the best move ever.

Beautiful congratulations!!!!

Congrats on getting married!! Wishing you and your new husband all the best! Thanks so much for sharing your day with us. You looked beautiful! If you don't mind me asking, about how much did you spend with the photo package you got?

We were in the burgundy lounge. It was an absolutely awesome venue. We had 41 guests and had the ceremony and reception initially in other venues. We were the only wedding and got to switch. It was the best move ever.

I'm sorry to bother you with one last question: Did you get the airbrush make up or the normal make up? I'm going back and forth because I want to look pretty but don't want to look too heavily done. You make up is so beautiful and light. I will probably let Tiffany do her thing but I wanted to make sure I look like myself.

I'm sorry to bother you with one last question: Did you get the airbrush make up or the normal make up? I'm going back and forth because I want to look pretty but don't want to look too heavily done. You make up is so beautiful and light. I will probably let Tiffany do her thing but I wanted to make sure I look like myself.

It's not a bother. I ended up with the regular MAC makeup (at least I think I did). I really just let her do her thing. We actually did that with both the hair and makeup and were all really happy with the results. I can't remember if the quote was for the airbrush or not to be honest.

I would advise you to be calm when you look at yourself in the mirror. I don't usually wear foundation of any sort so I nearly had a heart attack at the amount of makeup I had on. The flash from the camera really does make the makeup look a lot more natural. I also requested "a little more than natural" when she asked me about what I wanted. The bridesmaids mostly requested a more natural look.

Congrats on getting married!! Wishing you and your new husband all the best! Thanks so much for sharing your day with us. You looked beautiful! If you don't mind me asking, about how much did you spend with the photo package you got?

The intial price was $4000 but we negotigated from there. It included

2 - photobooks, 1 of the ceremony and 1 of the pictures from around the ship

1- metal print to be sent to us at home

1- dvd of all of the prints incl digital rights

&

all of the prints.

Total I think we probably spent close to what we would have on land

Since apparently I can't edit my original post.

 

Some pictures are in the link below. These were a portion of those taken by Bojana

 

Pictures

I finally got time to click the link and check your beautiful pictures, very nice!!

The intial price was $4000 but we negotigated from there. It included

2 - photobooks, 1 of the ceremony and 1 of the pictures from around the ship

1- metal print to be sent to us at home

1- dvd of all of the prints incl digital rights

&

all of the prints.

 

Total I think we probably spent close to what we would have on land

Thanks for sharing!!

OMGooooosh Congrats.. I have been out of it for a min. But Im now about to go read and look.. Thanks SOOOO much for giving us a Review :D

I can't view the pictures. :( What's the password?

LOLOLOL I soo love yall

Congrats! Wait until shatima sees ths! Lol

I just tried Wedding.. It worked

I can't view the pictures. :( What's the password?

Duh. LOL! I'm slow. Thanks girl!

LoL, Gurl U are more then welcome..... And cut it out.. I guessed LMBO LMBO

Duh. LOL! I'm slow. Thanks girl!

Since apparently I can't edit my original post.

 

Some pictures are in the link below. These were a portion of those taken by Bojana

 

Pictures

Beautiful!!! Those pictures are amazing. Congratulations!! Thank you for sharing your beautiful day.

Hello,

I guess I am just nervous, so many questions!!!!!!!!!!! We are not formal people. It has been over 30 years since we have been married to our ex spouses. Weddings have become a whole affair.......once a upon time , you got married at a family house. We choose Carnival Dream because we love to cruise. Our guest are wearing casual attire in patriotic theme, myself if I coulda got away with jeans........... However, my groom wants a dress. How out of place would we look? Bridesmaids are in red tops and jeans as groomsmen are in navy shirts with jeans. We do not believe in spending money for one time use. I have made flowers and donated them to VA nursing home. Was told the wedding party could not take flowers off boat if real.

Any hints for this ......

Patriotic Hippie

[uOTE=uvakat;38113489]My husband and I have been together for 6 years and both come from gigantic families. We decided quickly on having a cruise wedding after looking at traditional venues and squabbling over the guest list. We booked our wedding in early 2012 (January I think) and decided to do the deluxe wedding package. Instead of traditional save the dates/wedding invites we invited people by email. We figured this would be easier and we could get a quicker idea of who wanted to come. The TA agency we went with was not exactly fun to deal with. We ended up on the phone correcting mistakes more often than not. Names and birthdates were wrong. We were not really happy with the travel agency.

Despite all of those issues, we ended up with 33 sailing guests and 6 non sailing guests. Since we were the only wedding on the ship for embarkation day, we got to pick where our ceremony would be. Since we had been on the ship before, we knew what the locations looked like. We picked the burgundy longue for the ceremony and the disco for the reception. All of our sailing guests were in our hotel so we gave them their favors/OOT bags there. For the OOT bags, we ordered nautical themed bags. We included a customized photo frame, wedding program, a listing of the group’s cabin numbers, and a lanyard for the sail and sign card. The lanyard was possibly the biggest hit in the bags. The non sailing guests got gifts and I honestly can’t remember who passed them out.

We stayed in the Four Points Sheraton in Cocoa Beach. Shannon in group sales was great. We had two different rates since half of the guests were there on Thursday night and she arranged everything. The location was convenient to last minute shopping for essentials and some really good restaurants. My husband has is bachelor party on Thursday night so the rest of us went to Florida Seafood and Grill. I can say nothing but good things about that place. Even though they didn’t do reservations, they took ours for 15 since we were such a big party. The waitress was phenomenal and dealt with some challenges with food allergies and gave us all separate checks.

On Friday, a group of us went to Kennedy Space Center and enjoyed the day touring around. For dinner, my husband’s parents arranged hor d'oeuvres and drinks at Milliken’s Reef in Cocoa Beach for all of the guests. We were able to have the back deck to ourselves and we all ended up staying for dinner. The food was great and the view during sunset was awesome.

Saturday morning came way too quickly. I had arranged to have hair and makeup for the wedding party (me, 2 bridesmaids, 1 MOH, and 2 moms) done by Tiffany at Professional Elegance. We had some ideas but really let her run with what she does best. She started at 5 AM and worked like crazy until we got on the shuttle around 10 AM. The hair and makeup looked amazing!

We took a shuttle from the hotel to the cruise ship. Since there were so many guests, we had some confusion about boarding. The wedding party went on the last shuttle, and we were pretty much lost until we were greeted by the coordinator. We got on the boat with the wedding coordinator and then some more confusion arose. The tuxes were delivered to my room instead of the Best man’s room. According to my husband, Carnival completely screwed up the tuxes. Most did not fit the guys, so there was a massive swap of tux jackets to get some resemblance of fit. The best man also got the wrong shirt. The tuxes were poorly hemmed. All and all it wasn’t a great experience for them at all.

Once I went through the ceremony with the coordinator, we had about 40 minutes before I had to be dress and the bridesmaids had to be in the “rehearsal”. Despite having the veil on, all of us decided to get some food at ledo deck with some of the guests. Once back in the room, I met with the photographer and started getting dressed. Out photographer was Bojana Putnik. She was absolutely wonderful. She took a couple of “getting ready shots” and then moved to the men’s room. We had gotten floral upgrades and I used my included roses for the bouquet toss. When I saw the flowers I was very happy with them. I did two birds of paradise with two orchids for the bridesmaid flowers and those turned out awesome. For mine I upgraded to the tropical bouquet and was really pleased. The groomsmen and dads had orchid boutonnieres and the moms, grandmoms, and aunts had orchid pin corsages. The ceremony itself was over before I knew it. The music was exactly what I selected, the officiant was awesome. After the ceremony before the reception, we got together to take pictures of the wedding party and guests. My only regret was not getting a picture of all of the guests together. We got different groups but were going to wait until the disco to take a picture of the group and then everyone forgot.

After the wedding, we went to the disco for our reception. Our DJ was Jeff the Fun Dude. He was great to work with and shook things up when nobody was on the dance floor. My only complaint was that he didn’t invite the guests into the first dance until the very end (like 30 seconds left) so we were awkwardly dancing for awhile. It was on the sheet but honestly not a big deal. He also got onto the dance floor with us since not a single person remembered how to do the electric slide. .

Since we had about 5 people with food allergies, Natasha, our onboard coordinator, took us all around and told us what we could eat and what we couldn’t. For those allergic to gluten, she had a separate plate for them. The food apparently was amazing, but I didn’t even get a chance to have more than a bite. The bar service was directly from the bar and apparently the drinks were good too. I was too busy having a blast.

After the ceremony, we went with Bojana around the ship to take pictures. We were shot on time before the muster drill so we were only able to get onto the deck and the piano bar. The pictures turned out amazing! She showed us two photo books and the pictures during the cruise and we were absolutely floored by some of them. She ended up giving us a package deal for the photobooks, metal print (enlargement), prints, and a CD with all of the pictures.

In summary we had a wonderful time. Our guests all had fun and honestly there was very little stress to the wedding. Other than the tuxes (which we were not happy about, though I had no idea until after the wedding), we couldn’t have had a better wedding. Let me know if any future brides have any questions. I’ll try to get at least some pictures up later.