Our wonderful wedding on Carnival Pride

Greetings fellow cruise brides and grooms! It seems like just yesterday that we booked our wedding cruise and started planning; the time went so fast, and now it's all behind us!

Here's our review of the wedding:

Our wedding was on Sunday, September 28, 2014, on Carnival Pride at the Port of Baltimore. We live in Virginia, and we drove to Baltimore Friday night so we could get an early start with our running around on Saturday. We stayed at the BWI Hampton Inn, which had a Stay, Cruise & Park package. The rate included an overnight stay, breakfast, shuttle to and from the ship, and parking for the week. NOTE: If you stay here and have a lot of guests, be sure to have other transportation available, as there are only 2 shuttles, and with traffic, it takes awhile to get to and from the ship. Fortunately, we had rented a large van, as both shuttles we gone when we were ready to leave!

On Saturday, my step-daughter and I had our nails done at a place called Dream Nails near the hotel. They did a great job and were reasonably priced. Our guests were flying and driving in from all over the country (the hotel also had a free airport shuttle). That evening, after the van and tuxes were picked up, we had an impromptu pizza and beer party in the hotel lobby, and my husband's niece made a beautiful cake for us. The hotel people were great about this, and even provided ice for us! This was a great way for us to mingle with our families and guests, and for everyone to meet one another. Since the time passes so quickly on the wedding day, I highly recommend doing something like this to make it a "whole weekend" thing and extend your time with your non-sailing guests. We got the pizzas from Mama Mia's, and they were divine!

The big day started early with ladies arriving to do the hair and makeup of my bridesmaids, mom, and me. We used Silver Immersion, and they did a fabulous job on everyone. We left the hotel about 10:20, and with both shuttles being gone, we had to cram the van and other vehicles full of guests. We were in the van, and although we made it to the port on time, one of the cars missed the exit and arrived just before we boarded. Checkin and boarding was very easy, except that one of our guests was told she was not on the list and could not enter the terminal :( I had a copy of the list, as did our officiant, Linda, and she took care of the problem immediately. Linda and the coordinator were right there to guide everyone through, including our late arrivals, so it was a smooth process.

There were 2 medium-sized weddings that day, with both ceremonies in Butterflies. When we boarded, most of the guests (sailing and non-sailing). We had our wedding party members carry their attire, so we all headed to the staterooms that were ready for us. This went OK, except my non-sailing stepson stayed until the very end of the reception, and he was not allowed back to the stateroom to get his clothes. Since we were the second wedding, we had plenty of time, so there was no problem having everyone (bride and 3 bridesmaids in 1, groom, best man, 2 groomsmen, and ring bearer in the other) change in the staterooms.

The photographer came up about 10 minutes before the wedding was scheduled to start, and he took a few shots in the stateroom. Then, we were off through the ship and down the glass elevators to Butterflies. I felt like a celebrity, as random cruisers were snapping pictures and saying "ooooooo, look at the bride!" Then we lined up, the music started, and down the aisle we all went. My handsome groom was waiting for me at the end of the aisle in his uniform! It was beautiful!

Our ceremony was short, sweet, and lovely. Linda read an opening poem, and we said the basic vows and exchanged rings. We did our sand ceremony with DH's children to symbolize the blending of our families, then it was a closing reading, we were pronounced man and wife, kissed, and headed back up the aisle :D After that we went back in and took pictures with family and the bridal party, and then we headed to the reception!!

Our reception was in the Starry Night Lounge, which was a perfect room for it. My bridesmaids quickly bustled my dress for me and then they went inside. We then walked in as the hostess announced us, and we then did our first dance (All of Me by John Legend). After dancing and hamming it up for the camera for a couple minutes, we had everyone join us on the dance floor. My step-son made the CD of the reception music for us, and it played for the whole hour. After the first dance, we cut the cake. The only thing that wasn't absolutely perfect was that our custom-made cake topper was too heavy for the cake, but it looked adorable in front of it. We got the topper from http://www.magicmud.com. It is adorable, and we love it! The cake itself was lovely and looked just like the model photo I sent in. Each tier was absolutely delicious!

An hour wasn't enough for the reception. It was so perfect that everyone wanted more. The hors d'ouevres display was beautiful; everything I tasted was delicious, and we received so many compliments about the food. Same with the drinks. They even served shots! The cocktail I had was fabulous! After the reception all of our non-sailing guests had to sadly leave, and the photographer took hubby and me around the ship for more pictures. We did the on-deck shots during the muster drill. :p

Regarding the pictures, I went aboard with a certain budget, and I planned to just get prints and put together an album myself. That plan quickly went out the window. Our photographer, Dennis from Belarus, did an amazing job, and all of the pictures were beautiful! He made us look like royalty! We fell in love with the albums he put together - there is no way I could ever put those together! We went back and forth on price, and even though we spent way more than I budgeted on pictures, we ended up with 2 big albums, a smaller album for my mom, a bunch of prints, 3 canvases, all the pics on CD, slide show set to music, and rights to everything. The quality is amazing, and everyone who sees them is impressed.

Overall, we couldn't be happier with our decision to have our wedding and reception on the Carnival Pride. Everything was absolutely perfect! :)

I've been trying to attach some pics, but I keep getting an error message :( I'll keep trying.

I can't wait to see pictures and congratulations!

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Congrats! I'm glad everything was what you wished for and exceeded you expectations!

So glad you had a good time and everything went well. I'm glad they've opened Starry Nights for weddings--we wanted our reception there, but it was an active smoking lounge at the time.

You might try loading your pictures on a third party site like Flickr or Photobucket and direct copying the URLs. It's what I do so I have a little control of my pictures.

There are so many pics that I will try a third party site. I wanted to put a few on here, but I'm still getting an error message :(

The cruise was so wonderful that we booked an anniversary cruise on the Pride next year! :D

Hopefully this will work...

http://s46.photobucket.com/user/wmlaw2k1/slideshow/

Sounds lovely!

hopefully this will work...

 

http://s46.photobucket.com/user/wmlaw2k1/slideshow/

beautiful!

I forgot to add that we were selected as the newlywed couple for the "Love and Marriage Show." We received a bottle of champagne, ship-on-a-stick, and ship-on-a-string for our efforts :D

Congratulations! So happy to hear you had a wonderful day, and the pictures were perfect.

 

The cruise was so wonderful that we booked an anniversary cruise on the Pride next year! :D

We are doing the same thing! Booked our honeymoon cruise for our 1 year anniversary cruise and the ships are going to be switched so we are back on our wedding ship but honeymoon itinerary!

So glad you like the pride! its one of my favorites!

Your pictures are beautiful! Love the Pride! Can't wait for it come back to Baltimore!

Congrats! Lovely pics! Our guests weren't ready to go after the reception either.

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So glad everything went off with out a hitch for you. Ours was fantastic as well everything went absolutely perfect from our pre-wedding dinner at the hotel ( like you we did this to have some more time with family.) The ceremony went just as planned only slight hiccup was that during the sand ceremony they had his sand vessel in front of me and mine in front of him. we switched in quick and everyone laughed.

So FYI this was the only bad thing to happen but kind of a big deal. It seems that they sent our wedding license back to the courthouse regular mail not certified and of course....... LOST IN THE MAIL.... no one knows were it is. so we need to get it reissued, we resign then send to officiate who signs it with the date of 9-28 then they resend to courthouse. Of couse can't change my name or anything till this all gets done.:mad:

Hopefully this will work...

 

http://s46.photobucket.com/user/wmlaw2k1/slideshow/

Thank you for your photos. It really looks beautiful and I love checking out how the cruise line takes photos so I can figure out what shots are "must haves."

I'm more so worried about the decorations, and how they will get all set up, but seeing other people's photos of how their day came together sort of puts me at ease.

So glad everything went off with out a hitch for you. Ours was fantastic as well everything went absolutely perfect from our pre-wedding dinner at the hotel ( like you we did this to have some more time with family.) The ceremony went just as planned only slight hiccup was that during the sand ceremony they had his sand vessel in front of me and mine in front of him. we switched in quick and everyone laughed.

So FYI this was the only bad thing to happen but kind of a big deal. It seems that they sent our wedding license back to the courthouse regular mail not certified and of course....... LOST IN THE MAIL.... no one knows were it is. so we need to get it reissued, we resign then send to officiate who signs it with the date of 9-28 then they resend to courthouse. Of couse can't change my name or anything till this all gets done.:mad:

Sarah:

I'm glad your wedding was wonderful too :)

OMG on the license thing :eek: I ordered ours last week and haven't received it yet :( I'll freak if that happens to us too :eek:

Best of luck with everything!

Thank you for your photos. It really looks beautiful and I love checking out how the cruise line takes photos so I can figure out what shots are "must haves."

 

I'm more so worried about the decorations, and how they will get all set up, but seeing other people's photos of how their day came together sort of puts me at ease.

It's really amazing how it all comes together. I planned to come down from the stateroom to check out the set-up, but that never happened. I did include instructions about how I wanted every table set up in the reception (we had a favor table, a memorial table, and a table with our guest signature frame, surrounded by pictures of us). The coordinators followed the directions to the letter, and they couldn't have done a better job with the set up :)

Our colors were navy and gold/yellow, and it was amazing how the colors of Butterflies and Starry Nights matched/coordinated with our wedding colors. :D

Thank you all for the congratulations. It was a wonderful wedding and experience, and it's been really hard readjusting to the "real world" after coming back. Both of us just want to jump back on a ship and leave work behind :cool:

I'll still be a lurker/contributor on this board, and I'd be happy to answer anyone's questions about cruise weddings, those on Carnival and the Pride in particular.

First of all, congrats on your wedding!! :)

We are so glad you put the time and gave this review of your wedding. We are actually getting married on the Pride on July 5th and we can't wait!

We are a couple that has been together for 12 years (almost 13 by the time we get married) and been engaged for almost 10 years (Christmas Eve). We both didn't want a big wedding and seems like the timing was never right. Then we came across the idea when my fiancee's family wanted to do another cruise (we went on the Breeze in 2012...this was our first cruise...and definitely not the last!!). They wanted to go on the Pride since it is close to us and it was getting the Funship 2.0 upgrades. So we both threw around the idea and we asked them about the idea about a cruise wedding. They were all on board with the idea (sorry for the pun..:p).

We are just doing the ceremony with the hour reception. Just simple, but memorable. From what we have been reading, it seems like everybody has had a wonderful experience with the weddings on Carnival. We just have to figure out the cake flavors, music, and the horderves. I think we are also going to be doing the sand ceremony.

Thanks again for the wonderful review and pictures!

First of all, congrats on your wedding!! :)

 

We are so glad you put the time and gave this review of your wedding. We are actually getting married on the Pride on July 5th and we can't wait!

 

We are a couple that has been together for 12 years (almost 13 by the time we get married) and been engaged for almost 10 years (Christmas Eve). We both didn't want a big wedding and seems like the timing was never right. Then we came across the idea when my fiancee's family wanted to do another cruise (we went on the Breeze in 2012...this was our first cruise...and definitely not the last!!). They wanted to go on the Pride since it is close to us and it was getting the Funship 2.0 upgrades. So we both threw around the idea and we asked them about the idea about a cruise wedding. They were all on board with the idea (sorry for the pun..:p).

 

We are just doing the ceremony with the hour reception. Just simple, but memorable. From what we have been reading, it seems like everybody has had a wonderful experience with the weddings on Carnival. We just have to figure out the cake flavors, music, and the horderves. I think we are also going to be doing the sand ceremony.

 

Thanks again for the wonderful review and pictures!

You are very welcome! We were together for awhile as well (4 years for us) and it was the second wedding for both of us (although the first time each of us did the whole wedding "thing") so the cruise wedding was a great choice for us.

Congrats on your upcoming wedding on the Pride! She is a beautiful ship, and I'm sure you will love her as much as we did. I hope you'll have Linda as your officiant/lead coordinator as well. You may want to request her. She is great and really knows her stuff!

We liked Butterflies, but the Chapel on Pride is a perfect setting for a small, intimate ceremony. You can find pics doing a search on this forum from my tour and CarnivalBrides' wedding. I think it seats a maximum of 35 guests. We had just over 40, and we were willing to sign a waiver to squeeze everyone in, but it was under construction when we sailed :( I hope it is still in use as a chapel after the drydock. Buttlerflies was a good second choice. Starry Nights and Ivory Piano bar are nice reception venues, but avoid Beauties (disco) at all costs unless you enjoy headless, limbless torsos for décor :eek: Hopefully that will be fixed.

Our cake flavors were red velvet with cream cheese filling (bottom) marble with chocolate filling (middle) and chocolate and vanilla layers with strawberry filling (top). We paid extra for a third layer, and we had enough for everyone at our table (12) to have a large piece of the bottom tier for dessert one night. The cake was wonderful, and we received so many compliments! You can't go wrong no matter what flavor you pick

Note that the top layer of a three tier cake is pretty small and light, and it wouldn't hold the weight of our custom topper. It didn't ruin our wedding or upset us or anything, and the topper looked adorable in front of the cake. It's just worthy of noting if you want a custom topper. Also, you can request a custom design - I provided a pic, and they did a great job replicating it.

Here were our Hor d'Oeuvres. We sent a list with our requests, which they honored.

Cold Items:

1. Roast Beef and Brie Cheese Canape

2. Titi Shrimp Salad on Scallop Cracker

3. Spanish Caviar with Lemon Wedge

4. Assorted Sushi

5. Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Canape

Hot Items:

1. Batter Fried Shrimp

2. Stuffed Mushrooms

3. Chicken Nuggets with Honey Mustard Sauce

4. Lamb Empanadas with Cilantro Salsa

5. Spanakopita

6. Spring Rolls

My guests are still raving about the reception food, and I had some picky people. I tried one of each item at the end of the reception. My favorites were the batter fried shrimp, lamb empanadas, sushi, and shrimp salad on cracker. DH liked the batter fried shrimp, lamb empanadas, smoked salmon and spring rolls. The caviar had mixed reviews...most people tried it just to see what it tasted like. Everyone who had the sushi loved it.

I've gone on long enough :eek: Consider this an extension to my review, and please let me know if you have any questions :)