ccsci

Hi Soulfish,

We had our reception at Dazzles and it is a very nice venue. We went to there two more times during our cruise. It is a two level lounge found on the 8th and 9th floor. Dance floor lights up, very comfortable chairs.

Soulfish, were you able to have the reception for the wedding at the signature restaurant immediately after the wedding or after embarkation?

 

And if I may ask, where did you choose? Another couple two years ago used CHOPS. Are you planning on using a DJ for after dining?

Thought of something else. Not sure how you are going to feed your attending guests, but we did the buffet.

 

I have to tell you it was the best food!!! The roast at the cutting station was better than at the main dining hall on board the ship. They really do go the extra mile for the reception food. I do not drink very often, but I thought the drinks were good at the open bar. We had a two hour open bar with the buffet, and they did leave the food out for both hours.

 

The cake was delicious, we chose vanilla, with raspberry, and it is decorated very nicely. I do not know what the topper would look like or if they supply one, I had my own created here locally to match my flowers.

 

About flowers. The bridal flowers are beautiful, white or red to choose from. I work in a florist during busy holidays so I can tell you these are quality roses!! They lasted past the 7 day cruise. I had mine in water in our stateroom the entire trip and they could have gone home with me that is how nice they were upon departure. We purchased corsages for the mothers (not a waste of money). I wanted specialty flowers and fresh they would have been ridiculously expensive because they must go through quarantine and be made special for RCCL. So I went the latex and silk flower route and had them made in my home town by my florist.

 

Music. If you are not getting a DJ, go with iPod and technical music fees if you can. Its much better sound for the venue. The CD and boom box will just not cut it with the amount of people in your party.

 

If I think of anything else, I will come back on. Until then, ask away. Glad to help

There are several options and it is dependent on two things, the number of people attending the wedding, and how many weddings.

 

#of people is first priority and they get chapel first. However, in your case, it seems you have too many for that venue. The chapel is lovely.

 

Is Jazz a show??? The 4th and I think 5th floors have large Theater venue areas. There was a Quinceañera in one of those venues and it was absolutely beautifully decorated. I think it was the same place where there was the Bingo game the day before.

 

If you are having a wedding, the decor is usually very nice.

 

Reception venues: Chances are they may use the same venue and have a draped area to designate the separation if there are too many weddings on the same day. I can not remember if there is a large lounge on the 4th floor.

 

However, they may put you in the big night club for the reception called Dazzles. LOVE, LOVE IT! It is on both 8 and 9 floor. It is beautiful and they really decorate it beautifully for a wedding. That is where mine was, and I had 37 guests and it easily holds up to 100 people.

 

I will send you invite to my FLICKR account and you can see the pictures of the wedding reception at that venue. If you want to see a quick snap shot of it and the chapel decor which will probably be what they will have for your venue see page 11 ariawoman's wedding.

 

I know somewhere in this thread there is a full disclosure of the final questionnaire RCCL gives you a month before the wedding so you can choose what you want and make some decisions. I am a teacher, I needed the list much sooner because their timeline and mine did not mesh well. They did consider that and gave it to me early and I had it ready for when they called a week before the wedding!!! I am a Type A personality and was panicking as you can imagine!

 

They are slow to answer any questions and do not want to be bogged down with early planners! Go figure! They are pros at this and I tell you they have this thing worked out like a fine tuned piano.

 

They have it timed to the "T". They will escort you and your party. You will have several coordinators to "herd" the masses of people. Because it does feel like you are being herded from the terminal to the ship! They will take you and your bride to your rooms to get dressed while they take the others to their places to wait.

 

I had special things I wanted set out and a cake topper that needed tending to. They took my stuff. Other brides, that wanted a larger amount of extra decorations gave instructions to people they brought on board to decorate. I will tell you that the less you have to worry about the better!

 

Have little bags of snacks and a bottle of water for all your guests to bring to the holding area while you are waiting for entry onto ship. It was a tip from FLDOG and it was very wise! Saved my guests from fatigue and getting too hungry. Its a long wait from breakfast to lunch.

 

They work backward from when the boat will make your non-sailing guest leave, which is 2:30-3:00. They start gathering people to say their goodbyes at 2:30 and then scramble them off the boat at 3:00. So whichever your reception type will determine when you get married. I wanted a 2 hour reception, so my wedding had to be at 12:30.

 

I tell you it was a scramble to get the wedding off on time too. They took way too long to get us on board. I did not get on board until 12:00!!! Yes, we flew getting me ready! It was the fastest time getting me in my dress and we rehearsed it at least 7 times! You would be surprised how long it takes to get in those gowns!

To JoJoT would love to hear about the "at sea wedding"!

 

For Vegas82 and Cloudscout the original author of the thread and I began this journey. She and I were so outraged about how we were treated in the beginning. She had the time to start the thread. She is now very very busy. I can help answer any questions, I am an older bride and have time available now that school is out for the summer.

 

FYI, I had Maria, the planner, and she is FANTASTIC, FLDOGMASSAGE was not as fortunate.

 

I have pics on my FLICKR account. I can not figure out how to upload them. Have tried three different times following the instructions. If you send me your email addresses I will send you invites.

 

My suggestion about pictures....buy the entire CD if you have the money and love most of the pictures. We did and have over 200 pictures. The photographer was fantastic and our photos were great, too many to just pick a few. The CD purchase allows you to have the copyright and a legal paper came in our leather case with our CD.

 

Their lack of contact is because they are busy with people who are getting married and boarding within the smaller time frame and you want some answers. This is where the mindset of this thread came in. SO, ask...

 

FLDOGMASSAGE and I went through this process together pulling our hair out sometimes and soothing each others ruffled feathers. We went off this thread but left this one for future brides and grooms.

 

My husband and I were married 6/9/2013 on the Allure...we would do it again in a heartbeat!

So happy you had a wonderful day! I can't imagine the wedding planners loosing you! How can they get your guests on board but not the bride and groom! I was in their face the entire time, worrying about the timeline for the wedding/reception since I had paid for a two hour reception and getting us on board was a problem that day.

 

I do not know what a camera wave is at all! How does that work?

 

Do you have a place where we can see your pics?

I was married in the Chapel and my guests waited for the wedding in the pinnacle and the chapel. I think Fldogmassage had her reception in the Pinnacle. Her reception was only one hour, mine was a two hour and they set it up at Dazzles. My photographer was so awesome I ended up purchasing the entire CD instead of a few photos. I personally like having the copyright on my wedding pictures and being able to get as many and as large a photo of any photo I want. Just some suggestions.

Its getting close and you may not get on this thread again. I just wanted to wish you a wonderful wedding and happy cruise!!! Enjoy every step! Post pics and let us know how much fun you had on the cruise. Congrats Lightskinedgyal!

Hi Princess, RCCL took over their Royal Wedding in house in 2012 so it may be as a result of that change. There have even been changes since then. Flodogmassage and I signed contracts during the change over and our contracts were still under the old contracts, but RCCL management. The new girls on the board here are under the new contracts, so there could be new rules about how many weddings per sailing.

I don't agree with the Wedding Planner. There can be a problem with your choice of venue because there may be other ceremonies taking place and the largest group gets the chapel! Now, of course, there can be two ceremonies on embarkation day in the chapel I think and still have a reception as long as one is a two hour reception and the other a one hour reception. The timing works backward. If you are only having an hour reception, the guests leaving the ship need to start getting off at 3:00 (its actually 2:45) so you need to start the renewal at 1:30 no later. That means that another wedding can happen before you. If you want a two hour reception, than you must start at 12:30. That is what we did. There is definitely some scrambling to get there on time, but we did it.

However, there does not seem to be too many brides getting married on RCCL, they usually go to Carnival because its cheaper.

I love RCCL, had many more positive reviews about RCCL anyway. The Allure is amazing!!! They really have a beautiful lunch buffet reception! It was decorated lovely and the food was better than the main dining room. The flowers they provide are very nice and last the entire cruise as decor in your stateroom. So, you may not have any problems getting the venue you desire. Hope this helps.

So glad you had us going before you to help you.

Oh, I am so excited for you!!!! Do you have everything ready?

I don't remember or don't think I ever knew a specific name of the company. Did you get a call from them already?? You should have someone's name soon and their cell phone number.

Just remembered something we really enjoyed. We registered with RC bridal registry. Anything that is purchased will be waiting for you on your shipboard account and when you enter your stateroom your gifts are waiting for you as a wedding gift announcements. It was a nice surprise to see how much money we had to spend that was not coming out of our pockets. A wonderful way to start the cruise. Some people will not like doing that, others will really like that they could be a part of giving you some money to spend on your cruise.

Its a nice alternative gift for couples who have established households as some of you do. We certainly appreciated it and gave us more freedom on our cruise.

Vivalaparte,
My sister asked me if I would have changed anything after the wedding was over. I knew what I was getting. I read the boards, asked lots of questions, watched a wedding on youtube, talked with people who went to weddings on cruise ships. We investigated what we wanted. We loved our wedding and would not change anything except have them turn up the volume on the CD player and pay for the extra hour of the photographer.

Well, that is strange they think the wedding is free. My wedding reception Luncheon ended up costing $66/person when you add the welcome drink! That is NOT CHEAP! It is cheaper than many venues and for the price of that kind of luncheon quality, it is very inexpensive! I planned my daughter's wedding and spent much more for a beach wedding. Lovely and a bit more expensive, without the quality of food.

We chose this venue because of it is really close to planning free compared to a local wedding, and you just can't beat being able to take off to your honeymoon destination hours after the wedding. For those who are getting married while sailing, I really wanted to do that, but my in-laws would not be there and that just would not work for me. I wanted as many family in attendance as possible.

Maybe your family thinks its a perk of the group.

Most of your guests are cruising?? So this means you will get some funds returned when you get back from your trip right?? We ended up giving our group $50 per cabin, can I ask what your giving your group? My travel agent said we could have a bottle of wine for each cabin, a private cocktail party or the money. With you having such a large group, I wonder what your group benefit was? You don't have to say, just curious.

Did you say you live near the port or do you have your hotel picked out for the night before? How about your hair and make up?

Well, that's funny, all the font is in blue!!!! Changed it to red so you could read the answers easily!

Here are your emailed questions and my answers are in Red! For anyone reading this...I sent my Flickr pics of my wedding to Blue Line so he and his fiance' could see them. I can't seem to get them to load on this forum. He asked to have the questions answered here for everyone's benefit. I agree. That's a good idea.


If you get a chance, I was just wondering a few things:
Was that the standard cake, or did you upgrade it?
[COLOR=Blue[COLOR="Red"]]Cake is standard for 50 guests. It is only one tier. It is very beautiful, they make it look like it is ornate. Nice detail, I thought. I brought the double heart accents and the topper was made by the same florist that did my bouquet.[/COLOR] [[COLOR="Red"]COLOR=Blue]We had the yellow cake with raspberry filling. LOVED IT. It has about 4 layers to it.[/COLOR][/COLOR]

[COLOR=Blue][COLOR="Red"]The extra cake can be sent to your room and you can eat it, but it is not taken to the kitchen so you can throw it out, or save it. I saved it for a bit only because it was that good and my mother loves wedding cake! I also let my stateroom attendant take some and share it with the staff that evening.[/COLOR]
[/COLOR][/COLOR]

What time was your wedding, and when did your reception start and end?
[COLOR="Red"][COLOR=Bl[COLOR="Red"]ue]Since my reception was a two hour reception, and the ship leaves at 5:00pm, guests need to be off by 3:00. They actually get escorted off then but begin to get escorted off at 2:45 and are then walked around the ship. Some brides and grooms have walked around the ship with their guests. THe hour of your wedding works backwards from when they need to disembark. So, I needed to be at the alter by 12:30 to make sure the reception was going on by 1:00. I had the Buffet Luncheon with bar service. I also had a the extra hour bar service. In actuality, we are not a drinking crowd, but I wanted the extra hour of time with my family that was traveling across the country to the wedding. The paperwork says that the lunch is taken away after the hour, ours was not. I will tell you the food was fantastic! In fact, the roast beef was much better than that in the main dining room that night! I cut some and took it back to my room for later (sounds tacky, but I wanted to enjoy what I paid for and I brought extra ziplock bags with me). [/COLOR]
[/COLOR][/COLOR]


Did the onboard photographer take the photos you have on Flickr? And if so, what package did you get? And did you wish you would have got a different one? (I regretted not buying the disk last year on our cruise with all the pics, that's why I ask)

[COLOR=Blue][COLOR="Red"]All the pictures you saw were from the photographer. After Fldogmassage had her wedding, she told me the smallest package was 499.99 and they go up from there. You only get 15 photos for that price! There are other price points too, $799 for 25 photos I think. But the best deal is buy the entire CD. I was set on only getting 15 photos for $500 price, but for the hour he took 228 pictures. They do not keep the photos so you must decide then and there. I pleaded with him to call the company and let me have some time to buy the Cd within a year of the wedding but I would have to pay the whole CD price which is $1200 after spending $500 on the cruise. That is lots of money. They bring you to the studio, show you all the photos, and of course you love them all. Those candid shots of my family hiding the fart machine...priceless! My husband and I decided that we would just bite the bullet and buy the whole CD while we were there, that allows you the entire copyright to your wedding photos. Look, this is how I see it, you have to decide what you are willing to spend your money on. My entire family except my beautiful daughter's family was there at my wedding. That will NEVER happen again. Those pictures were priceless to me, I recognized that and I can pay that credit card off relatively quickly. If I had known that was what I was going to do in the first place, I would have paid for the extra photographer's hour (its only $95) and had a list of family photos I would have had him do. I would love family photos of all the families that were there. That is my only regret. I could have gotten wonderful family photos of each family, gotten one for us, and send one to each of them for a post thank you gift for coming to our wedding.[/COLOR][/COLOR]

Hope this helps any of you who are deciding on what do to with your photography. I know it becomes costly when you start adding up everything leading up to the cruise, wedding, gratis, port events, and for some of you getting to the wedding and the hotel stay the day before. Its all in how you budget it all. Figure out where your money is going and what is important to you. Another way to look at it is this....15 photos for $500 o in my case, 228 for $1200. Seems like the better deal! Maybe prepare on spending a dollar amount and then go from there.

Hi lightskingal, its been a while. Your wedding is right around the corner!!! Getting nervous? How are the plans coming? With Fldogmassage's review, did you feel less stressed? I wish we had this kind of review to help us.

The on board crew is even better than Vivian, so you are in great hands and smooth sailing. The next person will give you her cell phone number for personal attention to ensure that your shipboard part of the wedding planning goes smoothly. So you have the preplanning section with RCCL, then the ship planners that supply your wedding cooridinators. They were EXCELLENT at my wedding. I had two of them because I had over 25 guests and I was thankful they were in place. One to help us newby cruisers, and one to get the non-cruising guests in place. With 20 newby cruisers, we needed all the help we could get and my poor husband lost his $400 camera in the hustle of check-in at the terminal and the minister took him everywhere to find it! THEY DID! Everyone with RCCL worked hard to make sure our waiting (which was too long for some reason), our entry on board (everyone to their proper place) went off on time.

I think the key was that I had a two hour wedding reception. It kind of forces them to get their timing right. I am not sure how things go if there are multiple weddings on the same day. Fldogmassage had three weddings going on her day. Although she only had one hour reception and her wedding actually was later than mine. They did not make sure her guests had her full hour. That was wrong in my opinion and I made sure the WC at RCCL knew about it and I was not going to stand for that at my wedding and would ask for reimbursement of any time they shortened the reception. Of course I said it in a nice way. After all we prepay for it!

FYI, that finalization notification came around at the two week before the wedding mark! We were very nervous that RCCL claimed they will finalize at the 45 day prior to wedding. I think they may notify you (maybe) and give you the very long list. I believe earlier in this thread is an example of the list we were given. Then you decided.....give it back to RCCL....they will tally up the $ and get back with you on how much it costs and you will then prepay for the rest of the wedding planned events of the reception, cake, extra flowers, sound technician or DJ, etc. You need a sound technician if you chose to use your Ipod. it costs $150 more. I just used a CD that I prerecorded with all the music I wanted. No upcharge, they use a boom box, but its not very loud. It was disappointing.

One thing I did like, if you have a wedding on embarkation day, I added the welcome drink. Its only $2.50 each person. It was nice for my family who had been waiting since 9:00 for the wedding. Why you ask?? Remember, they have to get themselves ready, then from their hotel (wherever that is) shuttle to the port, which can take time depending on how many of you are traveling on that shuttle, wait at the terminal maybe even until 11:45-12:00 in some cases, and then wait on bride and groom. Then not get a drink until after the ceremony! That is around 12:30. That is a long time without something to drink. Fldog. had water and snacks for her guests at the port for them. I had snacks and asked them to bring their own water, however they still were thankful for the punch.

Ok, I think I have exhausted my ideas again. If I think of anything else, I will post. I am trying to post on my own review site for my wedding. I am still trying to get pics up there for you all.

Oh, one more thing. The one tier cake is not bad. I used a nice size topper so it did not look disproportional. It will cost you more for the two tier cake only because you will have to buy both cakes. It costs must more to do it that way. We opted not for that, some do because they have that many guests anyway.

There are other girls at Royal Romance as well. Fldogmassage had a girl named Maria, she was not so impressed, and I had a girl named Vivian (I loved her). So, it is all who gets assigned to you at their end. It may be by ship, or by rotation. Who knows. Fldogmassage and I were on the Allure and only a month apart.

I started with a girl named Amy and she quit working there and I was not notified at all! If I had not called and asked why I was not being serviced after waiting 6 weeks with no communication I would have never known.

I will say, besides that little glitch, and what sometimes seems like no correspondence for a long time, my wedding was awesome. Its gets better nearer to the wedding date. Vivalaparte is right, you just have to give up on the "need to handle everything NOW" when its a year out, 6 months out....they will notify you. However, I will tell you I notified them that my schedule was going to be too hectic when they were going to need my info. SO, I requested they send me the finalization papers early, so my husband and I can leisurely decide on things and then when they call for the details I have them ready. I was afraid of needing to make hasty decisions because they were like "johnny come lately" with me.

I am a teacher and planned my wedding shortly after school was out because that happens to be right at the beginning of hurricane season. Living in Florida and going through about 9 hurricanes myself, I did not want to be on...around...near....in a hurricane during my wedding/honeymoon. That meant that when RCCL needed my wedding finalization, my students my full attention, not my wedding planner.

FYI....did my anti-hurricane plans work???? NO! My husband (who has never had to drive through a tropical storm or hurricane) had to drive through the eye of tropical storm Andrea to get us to Ft. Lauderdale from the panhandle of Florida!! Murphy's LAW wouldn't you know! What doesn't kill you makes you stronger! I have driven through tropical storm near hurricane strength before! It's an interesting ride. Really, its just a long thunderstorm that ebbs and flows. Was not too bad, just a pain.

Matt aka Blue Line,
I think the western Caribbean would be calmer only because its inside the Gulf as oppose to the perimeter leading into the Atlantic. If you look at the weather patterns right now in the gulf and Atlantic, you can see that storms develop everywhere in the gulf from the Yucatan Peninsula to the western edge of Africa. Really, look at a Farmer's Almanac and look at the July patterns in the Gulf to see what is the best time to go on the cruise. Early July is not as active, but Hurricane Dennis developed in early in July and I can't remember where it began either. H. Ivan started off the western Caribbean in Sept. so when do the storms develop and make it bad for a cruise ship is questionable. I love the Oasis class would go again on the Allure in a heartbeat!

FYI,
Silk flowers can be purchased from Hobby Lobby, they are always having 1/2 off sales and their latex flowers are so realistic. When you see my bouquet, most of it is from Hobby Lobby.

Hi Matt,
Sent you an email. I was not sure if I interpreted your email address. Before I sent you to my picture account, I thought I would send you and email first. Send me a confirmation back so I know that it works. Glad to help any newbies. There was very few people that could help and those that could were really a big help, but had very little to offer. Fldogmassage and I were really in the dark and thought we would do our best to make it different for anyone coming after us. She is a little busy right now.

Hi Jessica,
Sent the email to you. Check your email. Glad to help!