Anyone ever renew wedding vows on a cruise??

My husband and I will be married 15 years this Christmas Eve and thought we might renew our vows while on the 2/27/05 Explorer of the Seas cruise. We're traveling with our two very good friends and have asked them to stand up with us. Wonder how this all works??

Thanks for any help.

Elaine

Hi Elaine,

We just renewed our vows, but we were on Zuiderdam...The captain and hotel manager officiated over the ceremony, the words were beautiful. It cost us 99.00 plus 12.50 per guest, and they presented us with a keepsake album,

flowers in our suite, photographs taken by the ship's photographer and a cake. We were really pleased by how it was handled, and something we will always remember ( it was our 40th Anniversary).

We are also interested in the answers on this thread. Are there specific days that they renew vows? For example, if it is on a holiday sailing, do they limit it to only a certain few days/times?

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/allaboutcruising/weddings/renewYourVows

I think this is the link with the info...if it is not just go into RCI's website and do a search for vow renewal....anyway Royals deal cost is $400.00 for the ceremony, music, flowers, champagne and whatever else they do...its all outlined there for you. Good luck!

We renewed our vows on our Christmas/New Years cruise - Hawaii to New Zealand in 2002 on the Legend of the Seas. This cruise was taken to celebrate our 25th anniversary and we hadn't planned on renewing our vows - just taking a most fabulous cruise to celebrate. We were married in a protestant church despite the despair from my Catholic in-laws who never really thought we were really married in the eyes of God. Well, one of our table-mates on the cruise was a most delightful man, Father Frank Palmereo. As a surprise for my husband, Father Frank performed a wedding renewal ceremony for us (and another couple). He called us up during mass and my surprised husband was delighted. I had given our daughter the job of taking photos during the service, but she was too overcome with emotion to take a single shot. While we didn't have fancy flowers or have the ceremony in a chapel, it was absolutely perfect. After the service, Natalie (our daughter) took pics of Father Frank, Rick & I - how cute we look with the disco ball hanging above our head (yes, church services were held in the "disco"). No cost to us, and one the best things to come from this cruise is a wonderful friendship with Father Frank.

WE did it right the first time !

:cool:

Thanks, everyone, for your input! We are really leaning toward something very informal and casual rather than dressed up, in a chapel, wedding cake, etc. I think I'll get in touch with Royal Caribbean and see what other options there are.

And, yes, we also think we "did it right the first time":) , or maybe that's not the right phrase for us as this is a second marriage for each of us!! In any event, our 15th anniversary is December 24 and since we're not getting any younger,:p we thought we'd take a moment on a great vacation to let each other know we're glad we made the decision to marry 15 years ago!

Kamloopscruisers, that was a great story about your vow renewal!

Elaine

Elaine ~ I had to respond to your words as they brought tears to my eyes. My husband & I also will be married 15 years this Spring and it is my second marriage. I almost lost him recently due to illness, which puts a lot of things into perspective. I'm planning a cruise for April to celebrate life, and think it's a wonderful idea to renew our vows! We share your feelings in that we know how blessed we are to have each each other. Thanks!

My brother and sister-in-law renewed their vows on our recent Enchantment cruise. Since my siblings and spouses were also on the cruise and my brother-in-law is a minister, he performed the ceremony. We had it in the Viking Crown Lounge (my brother-in-law had asked them where we should do it). It wasn't fancy at all, and they didn't turn the music off in the lounge, so you can hear it on the video tape, but no one was there but us and it worked out fine.

My sister-in-law had asked before we left home, so my brother-in-law was prepared with several services to choose from.

JerseyCruiser,

Your post also brought tears to my eyes! I can just imagine how you must feel having found the "right" one and then almost lose him. Hopefully, all is well now.

We're looking into a very informal renewal of our vows and hope we can come up with something to our liking. Our two very good friends will be with us, but no one else. We'd be happy to be in very casual attire and have someone do the non-religious "officiating" with our friends witnessing. Anyone got any good ideas??

Elaine

WE did it right the first time !

:cool:

That's kind of rude!!!!!!:mad:

My husband and I will be married 15 years this Christmas Eve and thought we might renew our vows while on the 2/27/05 Explorer of the Seas cruise. We're traveling with our two very good friends and have asked them to stand up with us. Wonder how this all works??

 

Thanks for any help.

 

Elaine

On our 15th anniversary we sailed from Vancouver to Hawaii on the Dawn Princess. We renewed our vows in the Grotto. They sang Elvis songs and did the Hula love dance. It was great.......35 couples renewed their vows (and smooched ). We took lots of memeorable pictures as cameras were being traded lol,,, so we could all capture the moment. Very romantic in all the tropical falls and vegetation.

I would do it again in a heart beat. :D

Thand God, someone else is trying to get ideas and info. I have posted these same questions with very few replies.

We have been thinking ("me" more than "he") !!! typical men! of doing this on our cruise in Sept.

Yes my bladder is rather close to my eyes, and your stories brought tears to me too. I would be like your daughter....... wouldn't be able to take pictures, crying too much! Don't know how I'll ever get through a renewal service?

I would like to do it on the ship, but don't want a "crowd"

Would love to arrange a minister off the ship to do it, but............ having a hard time finding the right one etc

We got married the "right way" according to everyone else!!!!!! Now we want to do it OUR way......... private, casual, and NO family telling us how to do it!!!!

We were the two that wanted to go to city hall privately, romantically, and meaningful..... but got the church wedding, reception, people we didn't know or want at the reception....... shall I go on????? ha That was 32 years ago.

Now we want to do something private and casual, and say some words that we really mean this time !!!!!!!:D Not the words everyone else expects us to say:eek:

I dont know if this will be any help but, check out the wedding and honeymoon thread on this forum. I am planning to get married July 2005 with RCCL and have found alot of great and helpful suggestions!! Cogratulations!!

Now we want to do something private and casual, and say some words that we really mean this time !!!!!!!:D Not the words everyone else expects us to say:eek:

When we got married 15 years ago, we actually wrote our own vows...they were meaningful to us...and we were married in our own living room next to the decorated Christmas tree with just our immediate families and a couple of close friends attending, 25 in all. Get this...I was wearing a red satin dress!! Now, who would do that the first time around?!!:p Now, we want to do it even more casual and might just say the very same words!!!!

Elaine

Elaine,

We share a Christmas Eve anniversary! Great time for a wedding, but a lousy time for an anniversary (or at least that's what we found) until we started cruising in early Dec. to celebrate. We'll be married 18 years this Christmas Eve, and have celebrated with a cruise for the last 3. Saved my marriage!! :D

Best wishes for many happy years!

I dont know if this will be any help but, check out the wedding and honeymoon thread on this forum. I am planning to get married July 2005 with RCCL and have found alot of great and helpful suggestions!! Cogratulations!!

Thanks for the suggestion. I have picked up a few ideas and posted a request there, also!

lacruiser, I agree that a Christmas Eve anniversary isn't the very best time of year to celebrate!! We can't even find a restaurant to go to for dinner that night!

We actually picked that day as, at that time, it was my husband's family tradition to have their family Christmas gathering on Christmas Eve so it made it easier to make sure that immediate family could attend!:) And, since we were married in our own living room next to the Christmas tree, we didn't have to concern ourselves with a place to hold the event. We had a bit of a problem, however, finding someone to cater it, but that worked itself out, and we had a fabulous catering team come in and take right over!

We usually go on a two week vacation right after Thanksgiving, returning about the middle of December. However, in our "old age" and the fact that we live in Boston, we now like to wait to the really bad time of the New England winter to get away from it all!

Thanks for all the thoughts and suggestions!

Elaine

We would've loved the living room with the xmas tree........... ahhhhhhh.

You gave me a great idea........ in my cabin......... and the steward can perform the ceremony :D :D

We're getting so old, we'll just remove our glasses, have a few too many wines, we're already getting a little hard of hearing (said very quietly!) so we won't really know if he goofs!

Would love to hear others ideas.

Especially the men................................... us women don't want to be pushy, tacky, or put you guys into a position that you're uncomfortable in....... tell us the truth........... what do you really think?

Let me start by saying that I am a guy and it was my idea 5 years ago to renew my vows with my beautiful bride of 23 years. No, it was not a "special" year nor was it held on our anniversary. It was a time in which all of our kids would be with us (including a few grandkids) and we took advantage of it. And while I didn't know it then, I am glad that I suggested the vow renewel.

You see, it is now 5 years later and I just went through the 3rd anniversary of something that we never had planned. I lost my wife to a brain tumor and had I waited for one of the "special" days or years, I would not have been able to look at the pictures that we took on that wonderful day. I would not have had the memories to keep me warm. I would not have had the mental hug and kiss in my mind from her.

So, if you want to renew your vows, DO IT. I can't say that you will lose your spouse like I did, but what if it does happen to you. Do you want your memory to be filled with could ofs or should ofs?

Don

Don,

Thanks so much for sharing your story. How tragic to lose your wife so unexpectedly. Everyone should realize that life is so very short...none of us should put off whatever it is we want to do because one never knows what lies ahead. Alan and I have been living our lives doing exactly what we want, what we can afford, what we enjoy. Too many people we know have died far too young or have become ill and incapacitated, also far too young.

This vow renewal has been an item of discussion between us for a while. We didn't want anything formal and have decided to just have our two friends stand with us somewhere and sometime on the ship during our upcoming February cruise while we tell each other once again how much we love each other and how glad we are to have come together when we did! We wrote our own vows when we married 15 years ago...we will probably say the same words because they hold the same meaning now!

Elaine

We renewed our vows on the Legend for our 10th anniversary using the RCL package in 1999. Hubby arranged it as a surprise for me (but I kind of knew he had done it.) The price has gone up a little since we did it, but we felt it was well worth it and would do it again even at the higher rate. The Legend doesn't have a chapel like the Voyager class so you can pick anywhere on the ship to renew, but they recommend the Viking Lounge. The social hostess performs the ceremony and will do it any day EXCEPT formal night due to the photographers being too busy on formal night. The package includes a fabulous wedding cake, ours could have fed at least 12 people, a small rose bouquet and boutinere, music,the ceremony, and a photographer for about an hour. Oh, and a bottle of champagne. The photographer will take pictures during the ceremony, after of things like cutting the cake and then will go anywhere on the shop to take pictures of you as a couple. On deck, by the pool, in the attrium, etc. Let them take lots of pictures and then only choose the ones you like. I think the package includes one picture in a frame, but you can buy any pictures you want extra. They had an albumn option, but it was pretty pricey.

Our social hostess was great and really went the extra mile for us. My husband wanted my flowers to have a green ribbon that matched my wedding flowers. Who would have thought he even remembered what color they were! Well, the flowers come stock with a white ribbon, but the hostess got off the ship in Acapulco a bought a green ribbon for us. Wow! The provide a canned ceremony "do you xxx take xxx again..." which we used as a base, but Hubby found a great Native Indian wedding prayer he also asked her to read. It was really touching. The only thing I can say is to meet with the social hostess early, tell what you want and hope you have someone as accomadating as we did.

Hubby invited our CC friends to join us. It was kind of funny because it ended up he wanted to do it as we were sailing thru the canal, which was 50s casual night. He and I were dressed in Tux and white dress for the ceremony, one couple was in poodle skirt and biker garp and the other couple was just casual. I loved it!

The only flaw if you will was we did it in the Viking Crown lounge during cocktail hour before dinner. The DJ was spinning records and his music was louder than the little boom box they provided for the wedding music. It I did it over again, I would make sure that conflict was eliminated. They roped off an area of the lounge for us, set up a floral "chapel" and had the cake and champagne on ice on display. We did our little ceremony, pretended to cut the cake, had the photographer take lots of pictures and then went into dinner. They served the cake for our dessert.

You never know what tomorrow will bring and a ceremony like this is priceless. Please do it or something similar if you are at all inclined. Congratulations on your many years of matrimony.

To Coach Don - I am so sorry for your loss. We can certainly all learn from what you experienced. No one knows what the future will hold, so a person should definitely do things when they can. You will have those wonderful cherished memories forever. Cheryl

I too have been moved by this thread (not the self righteous 'did it right the first time' though) We took our first cruise,Celebrity's Galaxy, in the summer. We are Catholic and enjoyed the daily service and were surprised on the last night (I think) when our priest announced that there would be a renewal of vows after that mass. We were very casually dressed- taken by surprise- but some couples had made a special effort - obviously pre-planned. Although we felt a bit embarrassed at first, the whole event was beautiful and was really moving because you realised that all those couples shared similar feelings of love and gratitude! Then we both realised that as christians we renew our baptismal vows regularly at services - so why not recommit our love to each other - after 33 yrs! We had no photos, no other celebration just a reminder of what we mean to each other.

Yes Coach Don, you are so right............ as Alan Jackson sings "Live Like you are dying"..............been our motto for some time now. We're getting closer to an age of what if's, and when we approach old age, or illness, I don't want to have any regrets or thoughts of "Why didn't I take more risks".

Thank you Murphy for all the info, the way you explained it made me feel better regarding what to expect.

Yes Coach Don, you are so right............ as Alan Jackson sings "Live Like you are dying"..............been our motto for some time now. We're getting closer to an age of what if's, and when we approach old age, or illness, I don't want to have any regrets or thoughts of "Why didn't I take more risks".

Thank you Murphy for all the info, the way you explained it made me feel better regarding what to expect.

I admire all who want to renew your vows. I admit, I was a bit "put off" in this thread by the "did it right the first time" post. I think it is important to embrace what you have... and celebrate it!!!! We have friends that are going to renew their vows... with new friends... and old friends. They have been married 10 years. He has brain cancer. We also want to renew our vows on our next cruise simply as an expression of our continued love. It has nothing to do with doing it right, or not doing it right, the first time. It has everything to do with love... and the expression of... something the world could use more of!!!!! IMHO!!!!

So, any other info anyone has on vow renewals... bring it on. I would love to read about it and get ideas!!!!