Wedding on Celebrity Constellation - AMAZING!!

Hi everyone: I've never posted in this forum before, but I've been reading it! I just wanted to say that I just got married on Thursday on the Celebrity Constellation, and it was the most incredible day of my life. TWE was (surprisingly!) helpful, efficient, and did everything they were supposed to do! The ship crew went above and beyond. The on board events coordinator, the maitre'd and sommelier and wait staff in the Tuscan Grille, DJ Carlos, and everyone else involved truly made our day so so special. I highly highly recommend getting married on board the Constellation. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me and I will try to be as useful as possible!!

Congratulations! When you get a chance, post some pics. I would love to see the highlights of the ceremony and reception.

Congratulations! I am so happy that your day was extra special!

Hi everyone: I've never posted in this forum before, but I've been reading it! I just wanted to say that I just got married on Thursday on the Celebrity Constellation, and it was the most incredible day of my life. TWE was (surprisingly!) helpful, efficient, and did everything they were supposed to do! The ship crew went above and beyond. The on board events coordinator, the maitre'd and sommelier and wait staff in the Tuscan Grille, DJ Carlos, and everyone else involved truly made our day so so special. I highly highly recommend getting married on board the Constellation. If anyone has any questions feel free to ask me and I will try to be as useful as possible!!

Congrats!!

Great to hear you loved it. We're trying to decide which cruise we wanna get married on (March 2015). Constellation is on our list. Searching for more info :)

Congratulations!

Congrats!!

Great to hear you loved it. We're trying to decide which cruise we wanna get married on (March 2015). Constellation is on our list. Searching for more info :)

I'm canesgirl's mother; she's on her honeymoon onboard the Eclipse. Feel free to ask any questions. If you want the name of our travel agent who arranged all the cabins and who helped so much with many aspects of the wedding and reception, let me know. She managed to get a few "exceptions" granted and is very efficient. We would highly recommend getting married on the Constellation!

gillyE

Quick question.

Where did the ceremony take place and how many guests did you host?

Thanks in advance :)

The ceremony was in the Reflection Lounge.... 43 people total. We worked with TWE and had a gorgeous wedding canopy set up beneath the skylight, fabulous fresh flower arrangements in front of the canopy on either side, an aisle with rose petals and the chairs set up angled on either side. The lighting was absolutely spectacular. The Ceremony took place at 7 pm night of embarkation. Then we all headed to the Tuscan Grille for an incredible meal with DJ and small dance area. We did a table plan and worked with the maître d re table set up etc., having bought out the restaurant for the night. The best thing we did was board the ship a few weeks before and meet with the maître d. Well worth the cost and was arranged through TWE. The ship' staff/crew were amazing and the wedding absolutely everything my daughter hoped it would be, and some!

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Canesgirl that is absolutely gorgeous. OMG I so wish I could afford a set up like that. So beautiful. Tomorrow 3/28 or 3/29 I'm booking the package with TWE. I'm still so torn on what day to do it or whether I want a shipboard or at sea ceremony on day 2. I have so many questions and I feel a little overwhelmed cause I need to know by tomorrow or next day. I'm gonna keep reading the threads and see if I can come up with a decision ASAP. As of now, the wedding at sea is what we've talked about and I know a reception is mandatory. My guest count will be similar to yours and we'll prob choose the brunch choice. Thanks to your mom and you for answering some of my questions. I'm so excited but so nervous and confused at the same time :(

Thank you!

Do you mean the Nautical Nuptials package? That's what we had to buy - although we took our own rabbi on-board so we didn't have the Captain marry us. We actually got special permission to have the ceremony and reception the first night of the sailing. Our guests started getting ready right after the muster station drill, and our ceremony started at 7pm. Because we were actually in "international waters" during the ceremony, it was purely symbolic, and the rabbi signed our official legal marriage license before we left Fort Lauderdale.

TWE say they can't guarantee what room your ceremony will be in, but we were able to get a guarantee from them. If there is a room you really want... just don't take no for an answer! The Reflections Lounge is so beautiful... and TWE worked with us to create flower arrangements at prices we were comfortable with. We also bought our own flameless candles, and we met TWE coordinators at the Port so they could take them on-board and set them up for us. They were really very accommodating!

Our reception was in Tuscan Grille, and we had to pay for a buy-out for the entire night (which meant paying for more covers than we actually needed), but our guests did get the entire menu and it was definitely worth it! We even had a DJ and a small area for dancing. We booked our entire reception through the Groups Department (not through TWE). You could probably go through the Groups Dept to rent out Tuscan Grille or Oceanliners for a brunch or lunch.

Do you live locally? If so -the best thing you can do is the Test the Waters package. We toured the ship and were able to meet with the maitre'd of Tuscan Grille, the on-board events coordinator, and we found the DJ and got his email address so we could communicate with him.

One other tip is to make a list of everything you want... the venues you want, the type of cake you want, any specific champagne or drinks, table plans, decorations (flower colors/arrangements), etc... and then you can send that to your TWE coordinator and figure out how to get it all done. Mine started out as a wishlist and I edited it as things changed. It ended up being a list of everything we had paid for and/or been promised by TWE or the Groups Dept. Then we made lots of copies of it and gave one to everyone!

Hope this is somewhat helpful. Feel free to ask me anything!

Congratulations

Canesgirl.

You are awesome. So much great info.

One quick question and I'm sure I'll be back for more, lol

Did you have to decide at booking with TWE which day you wanted

the ceremony to be held? I live locally, in Fort Lauderdale, Constellation's port, so we may do

the test the waters package. They quoted me $800 for the license

(Captain performed). Ouch. Anyway, back to planning. Have to decide by today. :eek:

I actually told TWE/Celebrity that we would ONLY be booking the wedding on-board if we could have it on the first night... so we had to get that approved before we booked anything.

$800 is a lot!! We actually paid for the rabbi's cruise so he could officiate our wedding. If you know someone who could marry you (a notary or pastor/rabbi/etc.), you could try that option... unless you've got your heart set on being married by the Captain.

I actually told TWE/Celebrity that we would ONLY be booking the wedding on-board if we could have it on the first night... so we had to get that approved before we booked anything.

$800 is a lot!! We paid for the rabbi's cruise so he could officiate our wedding. If you know someone who could marry you (a notary or pastor/rabbi/etc.), you could try that option... unless you've got your heart set on being married by the Captain.

Thanks for this information! :)

My fiance and I recently traveled aboard the Constellation and loved it so much that we are considering having our wedding next year on the ship. We did have some questions about the restaurant buy-out of Tuscan Grille.

With the buy-out were you able to choose items off the regular menu (just like if you were dining there as a general cruise passenger)? If not, was there a pre-set menu with a few options?

We are estimating around 35-40 guests - did the restaurant work with you on table arrangements?

Hi JimmySting... We were able to get the full Tuscan Grille menu! Celebrity corporate said no to our request at first... but then we met with the maitre'd at Tuscan Grille when we did a tour of the ship (I think it is called the Test the Waters package - definitely recommend you do this!).. And he agreed to give us the full menu. He told us that the waitstaff would not be able to serve all of the tables at once... But everyone ordered so many different courses it worked out perfectly. Our guests absolutely loved being able to order whatever they wanted. I know some people had multiple appetizers and entrees!

We also worked with the maitre'd to create a table plan. We had a sweetheart table (they gave us two of the cool armchairs from one of the lounges). They pushed together the regular square/rectangular tables to create 4 long tables and we arranged them to leave space for a dance area, and room for the DJ. If I can find some pictures of the layout I will post them here for you to see.

We did the table plan and sent it to TWE and also made copies to give to the maitre'd on the day of the wedding. TWE made a beautiful seating chart board, and I made place cards.

Hope this is helpful! Happy planning :)

Hi canesgirl! Thanks for this information.

Question, how would you rate the photographer onboard? I see on other lines it looks like it's hit or miss. How were the photography packages?

We didn't use the ship's photographers. We really wanted a video, and they couldn't do that, so we found some professional photographers (a husband and wife) and paid for their cabin... And they took pics and video of the wedding and did a mini photo shoot in Key West! Worked out well for us!

We didn't use the ship's photographers. We really wanted a video, and they couldn't do that, so we found some professional photographers (a husband and wife) and paid for their cabin... And they took pics and video of the wedding and did a mini photo shoot in Key West! Worked out well for us!

Ahh ok. I'm thinking of doing this as well since we really would like some getting ready pics before arriving at the cruise and a photo shoot on the island.

Was there anything else you wanted that they weren't able to accommodate?

Congrats!!

Great to hear you loved it. We're trying to decide which cruise we wanna get married on (March 2015). Constellation is on our list. Searching for more info :)

Skymady and Canesgirl it looks like I am following in your footsteps!!! Have Celebrity Constellation booked for Jan 2016 for a wedding. Just announced to family & friends, waiting to see how many are going to join us. I am wondering about other sites on the boat to hold the ceremony. It will be brief! I kind of want to be out on deck somewhere. thoughts about a good location on Connie?

I am doing a Celebrity Constellation wedding in December of 2015! I can't even explain how much seeing this post has helped me relax!

Canesgirl.. do you remember who you used for the photography? I am super nervous about the photography and the DJ aspect of the whole thing. I feel like the DJ sets the tone for everything! How did you set up the dance floor? I asked them about finding out if we can rent one because I am worried about it being weird on carpet - what did you think?

I am doing the same thing as Canesgirl did, except our wedding is on the first day at sea. Ceremony is supposed to be in the Reflections Lounge (thank you for the picture!) and we bought out Tuscan Grille for dinner.

Thank you!

Congrats Littletravelbug!

We took photographers on board with us..didn't use the ship's photographers.

The DJ was amazing... We had DJ Carlos. We met with him when we did the ship tour a month prior to our sail date. We asked him for his email address and we emailed him a list of songs to give him an idea of what we wanted. We also a made an iTunes playlist for our cocktail hour so we could be sure he would play certain songs.

When we met with the maitre'd of Tuscan Grille, he suggested a way to set up the tables to leave space for a dance floor. We didn't rent a dance floor... It wasn't necessary at all. We all danced all night on the carpet :)

If you're able to do the ship tour... Definitely do it!