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Carnival Victory Wedding March 24, 2016


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About Us

 

We are Kelly and Bill and we met in July 2013. After quickly falling in love and moving in together, we were engaged in December 2014. Bill has an amazing son who is 8 years old and we were so happy he agreed to be our best man.

 

The planning

 

We spoke about a cruise wedding just a few days after being engaged and made our decision that it was the way we wanted it to go after a few weeks. We chose a date over a year out when we knew kids would be on spring break. From the beginning, we had the approach that we will be getting married and would love for everyone to join us. If you can't make it, we will see you when we get home. We chose to cruise on the Carnival Sensation on Thursday, March 24, 2016. Returning on Sunday, March 27, 2016 after a day in Nassau and a day at sea.

 

We booked our Grand Suite with extended balcony in January and paid for the wedding deposit all at once. At the time, we were not sure about our guest list but we had family members wanting to book so we went ahead and secured our date and the "Time to Celebrate Big package". Within a day, we had 2 family member cabins booked!

 

We skipped the "Save the Date" printing expense and just created a Facebook event and chatted about the wedding with others. It's a good thing too! Our ship was being moved to Miami and being replaced in Port Canaveral by the Victory. I was actually ok with this but Carnival could have handled it better. First of all, the Victory did not have the suite category that we booked. It had a lower category that would have been $200 less had we had that category on the Sensation. I actually had to argue this with two different people to get our rate adjusted. Finally someone in Carnival Customer Service listened to reason and reduced our rate. Secondly, both other cabins received an apology bottle of wine. Not us, though. But who are we? Just the people bringing 10's of thousands of dollars to your company. I decided to just roll with it, though and as luck would have it, we had a cruise booked for September on the Victory so it would be fun to check it out prior to the wedding.

 

The summer went on and I chose my dress, the color scheme and the theme of water for the wedding. Our colors are aqua and navy to showcase the water during the day and night. Originally we weren't going to do any "upgrades". But then I really wanted koozies...so I bought them. Then I really wanted to make a scavenger hunt...so I printed it out. Then I had to do the obligatory welcome aboard personalized Fun Times, so I printed those. Ribbon wands? Absolutely! Message in a bottle candy favors? Sure, why not? Message in a bottle sign, #Makipartyof3 photo sign, both in frames with starfish accents and gorgeous bottle and then card box? Let's just say that I got a little carried away.

 

Finally March arrived and my mom, aunt and I went on a site inspection 3 weeks before the wedding. I was really hoping for the Adriatic lounge. It was lovely and the less of Farcus design, the better. Unfortunately, we ended up in the main show lounge. It was huge, not what I wanted and needs updating. Again, one of the sacrifices that had to be made for a cruise wedding.

 

Wedding weekend begins!

 

Our wedding was on a Thursday and I was getting over the flu. Thankfully I had a week before the wedding to get last minute things done. The day before the wedding we packed up our things and made our way to the Hampton Inn Cocoa Beach. We chose the Hampton for it's location, fair price, complimentary use of the breakfast area for our welcome dinner and free breakfast in the morning. There was also a shuttle but I believe everyone made their way on their own. We had a wonderful BBQ dinner catered by 4Rivers in Orlando brought out to the beach. We had a lot of northern guests that needed to try the amazing 4Rivers and they did not disappoint! We hosted the dinner for 30 guests and then walked out to the beach to see the almost full moon. Beautiful but not really easily photographed. Our last night of being single ended with a goodnight kiss and my husband heading next door to have a few drinks with his friends.

 

I woke at 4 the next morning and our hair and makeup appointments started at 5. My MOH, Mom, SIL and niece all got our hair, makeup and eyelashes done. We hired From Lashes to Flashes out of Jacksonville and Sarah and Rachel did a lovely job. We finished around 9:45 and packed up to head to the port at 10. We arrived at 10:15 and I was unloaded along with all that stuff I just had to carry on. Unfortunately, our helpers did not get our texts and I stood in the breezeway with all these boxes and carry ons...by myself...while Bill parked the car. Eventually someone saw me and a luggage rack appeared. We loaded it up and then went through security. I requested that my dress be wanded but they insisted it go through the machine. At 10:40 we arrived upstairs to all 75 of our guests wanting to chat and hug and it was the most overwhelming moment of my life. Thankfully the coordinator pulled me away so that we could go over the ceremony. After that, we were boarding and a porter appeared from nowhere to help with all those boxes. He wheeled all my stuff to the ship, another wheeled my Grandma and another wheeled my aunt. All to be unloaded 10 feet inside the ship. Again, my coordinator whisked me away to my room and reminded me that there were plenty of people to help and that is not my concern right now.

 

Our suite was ready and had flower petals on the bed and I was able to dress quickly. My groom our best man and ring bearer all dresses next door in our second suite. Everyone went downstairs to the ceremony show lounge and I waited for the photographer. That was a weird 15 minutes! I couldn't sit well in my dress so I just sort of stood there. I tried to face time my husband's mother who couldn't make the trip for health reasons but it didn't work. So, there I stood until we took some pictures. Then it was time to boogie!

 

I waited for about 5 minutes outside the show lounge while some drunk strangers cheered me on. I was able to compose myself and then it was time! I made my way down the aisle, up the step to the stage and we were married by our dear friend in front of 75 loved ones. This was perfect.

 

I realized after the ceremony that I left my list of photo wishes in the room so we just sort of winged it. I really wasn't a fan of taking the photos in front of all of our guests. They should have been allowed to make their way to the reception during this time which was about 20 minutes. We did get some fun group shots, though.

 

The reception was in the Arctic lounge and we had the DJ. We danced, we chatted and it was over super fast! I didn't even get to look at the food. We brought our own recording of our first dance and it worked fine at home but did not work on the sound system properly. It kept skipping like a broken record. Pity. In my opinion, if the DJ has the song already in the catalog, they should just play it from their system. Again, I just let it go. Nothing you can do about it. The photographer took some shots and in hindsight, I would have requested a reverse receiving line. Taking a picture with the guests as they exited. As the reception ended, the 35 sailing guests went to settle themselves and we took a few pics around the ship. We were escorted to the MDR for muster drill and then we took some pictures in the studio and around the ship. After our photo shoot, I was starving! We got some pizza and went to the room to change. We met the sailing guests at the pool and continued the party until it began raining just after sail away.

 

Our cake was brought out at dinner the first night and we asked that they not bring it out for the additional nights. We enjoyed it but thought we wouldn't force the cake on our guests all weekend. The layers were marble, red velvet, lemon and carrot. We had 3 tables in the MDR next to each other and it was a lot of fun to meet up at dinner each night with everyone.

 

The following day in Nassau, we went to Balmoral and swam with the dolphins. all of the families with kids did this excursion with us. The day at sea was a lot of fun, I am told. I was sick. Really sick. Turns out, I had pneumonia. I learned that after going to the emergency clinic when we got home. Thankfully they were open on Easter and that we live just 45 minutes from the port!

 

All in all, at the end of the day, I am married to the love of my life. a lot of things could have been better and a lot could have gone worse. For example, I believe that Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus is not appropriate music for pre-ceremony. Too bad they didn't use the carefully chosen music that was provided. But, all in all, the guests had fun, we got some amazing pictures (we got the big package), and we are living happily ever after with our next cruise just 2 weeks away!

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I am happy to answer any questions! I am so thankful for this site and all of the ideas and information it provided to me during the planning process. Fortunately, we remembered to have fun and we are now happily married and enjoying life!!

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I read the first part of your review like "this sounds just like my story so far!" My future husband has a son whos going to be the best man, we also got the Big package with the DJ, and we got a grand suite and family already booked! :) Congrats on your awesome wedding... so happy it seems your day went well :D Ive been on the Victory twice and love that ship

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Thank you so much, Cruise friends. We had our reception in the nightclub and there was ample seating. There were tables, the bar and a gallery type area. The food was from the Time to Celebrate Big menu and we had some substitutions from the other menu's as well (there are a total of 3). Unfortunately, I never saw the food until I saw the photos. It all went by at the speed of light. I ended up in the pizza line after muster drill...in my gown...thank heavens the line wasn't too long!

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First let me say everything was beautiful, and congratulations.

 

My daughter is getting married on the Pride Apr. 23, 2017. And I wanted to know if Carnival made the video, or did someone else.

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