Questions about timing before ceremony

Hi everybody!

I am considering a day of embarkation cruise wedding with an hors d'oeuvres and cocktail reception afterward and have been reading these boards a lot to see if it is right for us. I wanted to confirm a few things with all of you experienced planners and blissfully wedded folk.

My concerns are all about the time when my guests are waiting to embark, and then waiting for the ceremony to begin. I have seen times as early as 10:30 AM mentioned for everyone to get to the pier, guests included, for a 1:00 P.M. wedding.

Is 10:30-11:00 A.M. the latest people should arrive at the pier?

Is there anyway to host something at the pier? My concern is that the wait before the ceremony is over two hours, and overlaps a meal period when I am only serving hors d'oeuvres at the reception. I see a lot of people saying that their guests did not have time to get anything to eat on the Lido deck due to snafus in the boat arrival times.

Has anyone done anything different to host their guests for the period from when they actually get on the boat to when the ceremony starts? I really don't want my people to be unwatered and unfed over the lunch time, especially if I am not feeding them lunch after the ceremony.

Any suggestions? Would pushing the ceremony to 1:30 make any difference in terms of people having sufficient time to grab a bite and a drink before the ceremony starts?

Thanks so much for your help! I am really excited about the idea of a cruise wedding, just trying to figure out a workable format for us.

Hi, I'm getting married on the Norwegian Breakaway on Feb 12, 2016. The following is the timeline I received by the wedding coordinator. It does seem like a long time for our guests to be waiting especially if some people come as early as 10:00am. I'm assuming that it may take a little while to get through customs, so that may waste some time. But it will still be at least an hour before the ceremony will began. I guess that best you could do is tell people to eat a good breakfast so they can survive until after 1:00pm lol. My main concern is that everyone will get bored. So I'm thinking of providing little activities people could do to keep themselves busy.

The timeline of the day is as follows:

10:00am – guests begin to arrive at the terminal

10:30am – check-in process begins for group

11:30am – group priority check-in for wedding party & guests

12:30pm – earliest time ceremony can begin

1:00pm – earliest time reception can begin

4:30pm – latest time guests have to be off the ship (non-sailing), or they will be escorted off the ship immediately after reception

I am having an embarkation cruise next month on the Norwegian Getaway. We didn't receive any of our scheduled times or ceremony & reception locations until we had all of our numbers in for our sailing and non-sailing guests. Our timeline is very similar to Nell2122's. We were told to get to the pier between 10-10:30am (no later than 10:30 as the check-in process will be held up because of late guests). I told my guests 10-10:15 so they will be there before 10:30.

I don't think hosting anything at the pier is necessary. Guests will know they are not provided a sit down lunch, only hot and cold hors d'oeuvres at the reception. (after you tell them this info). So having a large breakfast that will last until the 1pm reception would work. I had to do a lot of research on my own as I didn't have much luck finding info on websites or even cruise critic...maybe I have to search harder?

I did see someone mention that once you board the ship (I am assuming by 11:30) guests will have an hour to roam the ship before the ceremony start time at 12:30 and they can go eat lunch if they want! Sailing guests won't have a guest pass so non-sailing guests will just take off their guest pass. That is what I am going to tell my guests in advance. Also, you can't choose the time of your ceremony when booking.

Times provided to us:

10:00-10:30 - arrive at the terminal

10:30-11:00 - priority check-in for sailing and non-sailing guests

11:30-12:30 - guests are welcome to roam the ship

12:30 - ceremony begins

1:00-2:30 - reception in the same location as the ceremony. We are having an hour and a half reception. We have more non-sailing guests than sailing guests.

2:30-2:45 - non-sailing guests will be escorted off the ship

4:00 - ship sails

I hope this helps!! The embarkation wedding is a great option for family and/or friends who either can't get the time off work, don't like to cruise, or just don't want to cruise. :)

We are having our wedding April 24th 2016 on the breakaway and I have the same concern. I'm pretty bummed that the luncheon is not an option for embarkation weddings but I think the best you can do is keep everyone informed and then they can make the decision to come or not and to sail or not.:)

Thank you so much, you guys! It's really helpful to see the timelines you have been provided.

The more I look into it, the more uncomfortable with a lot of different aspects of the embarkation day ceremony, so it looks like this isn't a good choice for us.

We are working with a limited budget so it is so helpful to be able to figure this stuff out prior to putting money down and potentially being unhappy.

Thanks again everyone. I will continue exploring other options. If only I could win the lottery and pay for all my loved ones and friends to come on a wedding cruise!

We had an Embarkment wedding and loved it. All of our guests were very happy. At the pier everyone was waiting in the same room so we were able to say hi and everyone could mingle.

1. Your guests have to be there BY 10:30. You board the ship as a group. If they are not there they may not get to board in time. If they are non-sailing they will not be permitted to board if they are late.

2. As the previous poster said, you wait to board in a room together so everyone gets to talk and laugh and have some fun beforehand.

3. I know that it seems like a long time but really it flies. the guests have time to explore the ship if you board on time.

4. If the ship is late clearing customs you will not board as quickly nor have as much time.

5. You can't really change the ceremony time. The ship has to run on a tight schedule. Your wedding is not the only thing going on that day. Also you don't want to cut into your very short reception time.

We hosted a dinner at restaurant in Long Beach the night before the cruise and all of our guests who came in the night before attended. I had prepared a canvas bag for everybody, from a handbook explaining how everything would work the next day to a wedding word search, and maze puzzle with pencils, but I also included in that bag package of Chips Ahoy for each person (I made one bag per family), a bottle of water for each person and a carton of gold fish (yeah Chips Ahoy and gold fish were corny but if you can't be corny for your wedding when can you be?). For those who didn't make it to the dinner the previous night, I left the extra bags with my daughter and step daughter (my matrons of honor) to give out as people arrived...the little bit of snacks and water held everybody over. We did buy the Lido Deck lunch for everybody as well, and the way it worked out for us, we were on board by 11, so everybody had plenty of time to eat and check the ship out. I would suggest that you pack some crackers and a bottle of water for you and whoever you have waiting with you, as you will need it to calm your nerves, although again my daughter and stepdaughter showed up with margaritas for all of us when they ran up to grab some lunch.