2016 Brides!

What a great video! I would love to see your photos, if you would like to share. :)

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Hello brides!! Just got off my wedding cruise on Carnival Freedom on Saturday and it was AMAZING!!!!

 

I've added a link to our wedding video below, and I ended up with ~140 pics for anyone who cares to see!

 

Congrats to all! We seriously picked the absolutely best way to get married!!!!

 

Congratulations! I would love to see your photos!

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Beautiful!! I'm crying happy bride tears for you. Praying for a beautiful life and marriage. Can't wait to see the photos! It'll make our days seem that much closer (February feels so far away!)

Thank you both so much!

Here is a link to the pics.

I hope that works.... If not, please let me know! :)

Thank you both so much!

 

Here is a link to the pics.

 

I hope that works.... If not, please let me know! :)

Oh wow, what a beautiful video! And your photos are wonderful. You look amazing! :) Congratulations!

Good morning all fellow 2016 brides!

 

I have made it to the 3-month countdown and everything has been moving along smoothly for the most part. All aspects of the wedding are pretty much taken care of, but I am having one little issue with the actual cruise booking and wondering if anyone can give me some input. We have ourselves plus I think 10 other cabins booked however, we are not in a group booking (I couldn't get enough to book all together in the beginning to get the group rate and once I had all 8 booked Carnival told me there was no more group space available on my sailing) and we did not go through a travel agent (all parties booked online via Carnival.com.) I've called Carnival to try and link all of our cabins together for dinner dining purposes for the 4 nights of the cruise, and according to them the only way to do it is for every person to call Carnival, set up a pin #, give that pin # to me, and then me call and give pin #, every person's birthday and name in order to link every single booking number to my booking number. I really don't want to do this for 2 reasons. 1st of all, I don't want my guests to have to worry about me and fiance having access to their bookings and 2nd of all, it seems like an awful lot of work/information gathering/time spent on the phone with Carnival. I am planning on sending an e-mail to the maitre d' at about 1 month out requesting each cabin to be put together for dinner in the main dining room. Do you all think this would be sufficient or is it risking it? I'd hate for some of our family or friends to end up at other tables with strangers for the duration of the cruise. We have a number of first time cruisers and I want them to be comfortable and not feel left out. It seems like there should be an easier way than described above to handle this.

 

Other than this one issue, I am happy to report things have been going according to plan and pretty low-stress in the wedding planning department!

 

I hope you all are doing well with your planning and any input or experience that you may have on this issue I'd love to hear it! Thank you!!

Were you able to get your dining situation resolved? I am an agent and you should be able to Carnival with the booking numbers (you will need these) and just ask to be linked for dining. If they do not help, just call back an hour or so later .... you can literally speak to a dozen people and get a dozen different answers. Good Luck!

Were you able to get your dining situation resolved? I am an agent and you should be able to Carnival with the booking numbers (you will need these) and just ask to be linked for dining. If they do not help, just call back an hour or so later .... you can literally speak to a dozen people and get a dozen different answers. Good Luck!

Thank you for your input! No, I haven't gotten this taken care of yet and I thought that it would've been just as easy as you described but when I called the last time (after gathering all of the booking numbers and everyone's birthdays) I was told no and that each person would have to call on their own booking, set up a pin number, and then give that to me for me to call back with all the pin numbers! It is just exhausting thinking about it. But, I will try your suggestion (calling over and over until I get the right person!)

I did however link all of the bookings to my cruise manager on carnival.com...do you think that would help make sure we are all together for dining purposes in case I can't get them to help me on the phone? Thank you so much for the information!

Ahhhhh 27 days!!! I can't believe we are less than a month away. I have been so busy doing last minute stuff I haven't been on here. I'm about to post a lot so bear with me :p

My bridal shower was last month. It was Kate Spade themed and it was perfect. My mom and Maids of Honor worked really hard and it showed! My bachelorette was last weekend in Dewey Beach, Delaware and it was insane in a good way. There was 10 of us in a condo and it was SO MUCH FUN. The perfect send off before our wedding!

I have my final dress fitting this weekend and I am so so so excited. My dad is also taking me to get my wedding day jewelry and I think he is more excited about it than I am haha. I chose my bridesmaids dresses from Forever 21 (SHHHH don't tell anyone but they actually look like really fancy dresses and they were only $40) and I'm letting my girls pick the shoes to match.

I sent my final paperwork in to ROE and Carnival Weddings several weeks ago. Laura @ ROE has been a JOY to work with. I have had no issues communicating with her and she even worked with me to get the bouquet I wanted from Pinterest made at no extra cost. We are doing single stem bouquets for the bridesmaids and boutonnieres for the groomsmen. I wanted full bouquets for bridesmaids and corsages/boutonnieres for parents and grandparents but we are now having a rehearsal dinner at Cucina Del Capitano for HALF THE PRICE of those additional flowers. We paid Carnival for our additional guests (we have 50 attending and only 20 come with the package) and I have also had no problems communicating/getting things done with them. So far it has been a breeze working with these companies to get our wedding planned....I guess we will see how the actual wedding turns out!

My grandmother works for Carnival embarkation in Port Canaveral and lives nearby. She is hosting a "Welcome Dinner" the night before the cruise leaves at her house. She makes AMAZING homemade Italian meals and I think this will be fun for everyone who is in the area the night before we sail. We have a wedding block of hotel rooms at the Country Inn and Suites Port Canaveral the night before the cruise leaves. They have been awesome to work with and gave us a fancy King Jacuzzi Suite so I'm excited for that! A ton of our guests aren't flying/driving in until the day of. My two Maids of Honor are cutting it super close and flying in at 11am the day of the cruise. I've pushed this information into the back of my brain or else I would stress constantly about it. Hopefully NO flights are delayed and everyone makes it :confused:

We made welcome bags and they are finally complete. I went a little overboard with them but I think the guests will love them. Just a little way of us saying thank you for coming! I'm going to have them delivered to staterooms when we board the ship because there is 20 of them. I already spoke with Carnival and Carnival weddings and they said to just take them to the guest services desk as soon as we arrive and it shouldn't be a problem.

I don't get my wedding locations/times confirmation call for another 2 weeks. I requested that our ceremony be in the Spotlight Lounge and I know for sure our Reception is in the Vibe Dance Club because we booked the DJ. Every time I call I'm told there are no other weddings that day so I think we will get Spotlight. I asked them to push back the ceremony time until 3 because we don't even dock until 11am and then we have to go to the courthouse in St. Thomas for our wedding license, come back to the ship, and then get ready.

As for the day of I have a hair appointment at 9am. I'm a little nervous since whoever is doing my hair won't be practicing beforehand. I have reallllllllly long hair and like it curled a certain way. I will have her use a ton of hairspray so it doesn't fall when we get off the ship to go to the courthouse. One of my really good friends coming on the cruise is doing my makeup. We have practices 5 or 6 times and she has a really amazing setting spray that keeps my makeup on for over 12 hours without a smudge. So no worries there!

I'm not doing any extra decor for the ceremony but I do have special songs that we chose to play. We are gonna burn the playlist onto a CD AND give them one of our phones with the songs on them...and probably a list of which songs need to be played when. Just so there are no mistakes :rolleyes: For the reception we have a custom cake topper, a decorative birdcage for cards, a poloroid camera & guestbook for our photo guestbook, and the favors. I ordered some signs off Amazon that say "favors" and "photo guestbook" etc etc that I put into black frames (also off amazon) so people know what is what. Our favors are custom etches wine glasses filled with custom M&M's (they have our faces on them :D:D:D) all in a white ribbon tied box.

WOW that was a lot to type! Makes sense since all of this stuff has been taking over my life the last couple months. All that is left now is to organize all of our paperwork and pack all the wedding stuff. And to twiddle our thumbs and wait 21 days until we fly to FL!

I will post pictures soon of our guest bags and my Bridesmaids gift bags...and other random stuff I think of. YAY!

Hello!

I was wondering if anyone had any trouble working with Royal Ocean Event Planners. The person who I have been in communication with hasn't been very helpful. Every time we ask her a question about cost and specific details, she refers us back to the brochure. We've read the brochure a bunch of times but I still feel it's not providing us with the actual details of what the wedding will cost us.

We are planning on having a wedding next August on the Norwegian Dawn. We don't know if we can afford to have our ceremony on the beach in Bermuda. It looks like the least expensive option would be to get married on the ship.

Has anyone out there had their ceremony on the Norwegian Dawn? If yes, any recommendations for us? And any feedback on Royal Ocean Events? I wish I could say I feel like they care about us, but when I call or email they make me feel like just another number.

Thank you in advance for your time!

Hi!! I was originally booked for 12/31/15, but due to scheduling issues we moved the date to 4/7/16 on the Carnival Victory (celebrate big package)!! I am very excited!! Congrats to all you other 2016 brides!

I have a few questions that maybe someone will know:

- does anyone know what the bridal bouquet looks like that comes with the wedding package? I've been trying to find pictures on here, but they all look like upgrades.

- so I know you can do a signature cocktail.. would that be considered an upgrade? If so, does anyone know the price??

Hello, I am getting married on Carnival Victory 2017. Has anyone gotten married on this ship? Any advice? I am doing a vow renewal. How's the lighting for the reception? I would like to know how this particular ship is with their weddings.

Thanks

I am new to cruise critic. I really enjoy reading all the different comments and advice. I will be getting married on the Carnival Breeze in April 2017. I'm so happy we have finally booked.

Did anyone have photographer other than the one carnival provides? I have a cousin that would like to gift us wedding pictures... any advice on that?

Boy, I wish I knew about this thread earlier!

Getting married in a couple of weeks on the Carnival Victory ship in Port Canaveral. Any last minute tips/advice from other brides who have gone through the process would be helpful and very welcome! :D

Hello, I am getting married on Carnival Victory 2017. Has anyone gotten married on this ship? Any advice? I am doing a vow renewal. How's the lighting for the reception? I would like to know how this particular ship is with their weddings.

 

Thanks

Holly,

That is the ship I am getting married on in less than two weeks -- I will definitely tell you how it goes and post some pictures afterward!

I've spent countless days and hours reading through the wedding posts on this forum. I plan to submit a detailed review at the end of November when we are back from our honeymoon. We are getting married on the Carnival Valor on a short 3 day cruise. The ceremony will happen while we're docked at Nassau. We did everything through Carnival and Royal Ocean Events. We have 49 sailing guests and we are super excited! I will say that a cruise wedding is probably much less than we would have spent on a traditional wedding but by no means is it inexpensive. I have also still spent so much and time and energy with planning other aspects of the wedding. I'm sure that many brides have done it simpler but I just wanted to warn everyone that it can be as time consuming as a traditional wedding. We are doing to 90 minute Time to Celebrate Big package with the DJ. We chose the DJ primarily because we really wanted the dance floor. He proposed to me in January and we booked the cruise in February. We have made our final payment to ROE and are waiting for our Carnival wedding coordinator to give us the final invoice for the reception. I probably went a little overboard (yikes, no pun intended) but we are bringing decorations and favors. I have things for the reception table, the cake table, cake decor, favors for the ceremony, etc. Once I started warming up to the idea of planning a wedding, the Pinterest boards and bridal forums caught my attention with all of the great ideas. Our ship leaves November 10th and our checklist is 80 percent complete. I have a busy weekend ahead of me but the excitement is growing!

I have been working with Doris with ROE and she's been fair to work with. She is definitely more likely to return communication when there is a payment due.

 

 

 

I don't get my wedding locations/times confirmation call for another 2 weeks. I requested that our ceremony be in the Spotlight Lounge and I know for sure our Reception is in the Vibe Dance Club because we booked the DJ. Every time I call I'm told there are no other weddings that day so I think we will get Spotlight. I asked them to push back the ceremony time until 3 because we don't even dock until 11am and then we have to go to the courthouse in St. Thomas for our wedding license, come back to the ship, and then get ready.

 

 

*Ahh, so it looks like Carnival DOES stick to not giving the updated reception location and wedding time until two weeks out. Our wedding is November 11th so I guess we have a couple of days before they contact us.

Thank you both so much!

 

Here is a link to the pics.

 

I hope that works.... If not, please let me know! :)

Heather, your wedding pictures are beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing.

I have a question for you. Do you know where the lady in the yellow dress found her dress? I assume she is the mother of either your husband or you.

Everything was wonderful! I can post a review later but I just wanted to say that this board really helped me get prepared. We had the best time and our guests said the ceremony was the most beautiful and the reception was the most fun! Orange Hill Beach in Nassau is truly quiet and the perfect setting for a private wedding ceremony. The Carnival DJ did a superb job at the reception and we danced the entire time! We cruised on November 10-13 on the Valor leaving from Port Canaveral. The cruise was short but the perfect length to accommodate so many out of town guests.

We are dealing with Royal Ocean Events and have found them WONDERFUL! We are getting married on the Norwegian Getaway, ask to deal with Tiffany, she has been great, she replies to emails extremely quickly and is always helpful with answering every little question.

Heather, your wedding pictures are beautiful! Thank you so much for sharing.

 

 

 

I have a question for you. Do you know where the lady in the yellow dress found her dress? I assume she is the mother of either your husband or you.

Oh my gosh I'm SO SORRY!!! I just now saw this!!! Yes that is my mom. I believe she got her dress at Ross or Marshalls, so I'm not sure if that helps. And thank you!!! It was a beautiful wedding, but I may be biased ;)

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Can you all believe that our wedding year is coming to a close? I was in full force preparation mode at this time last year and this year we all get to ring in 2017 with our new hubbies! Congratulations, fellow brides! And cheers to our first anniversaries in the new year!

Does anyone know if non sailing guests have to pay for parking?

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Does anyone know if non sailing guests have to pay for parking?

 

 

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Our non-sailing guests from Port Canaveral on the Carnival Victory did not HAVE to pay for parking. They just told the attendant they were day guests for a wedding and were directed into a specific lot.

I'm looking to get a hotel before the wedding so me and the girls can get our hair and makeup done! Does anyone have any suggestions on hotels in Port Canaveral? I have someone in mind to do our hair, just not sure about makeup. Any suggestions on makeup out there as well?

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Hi all,

 

I booked my cruise and sent save the dates to 45 family members and friends for a wedding aboard Norwegian Escape April 2016. Escape is a new ship so very little information is available and they are not accepting wedding bookings until the ship sails in October 2015. I would like to have a symbolic ceremony at sea with all my guests, hire a photographer for an hour and a dinner at one of the speciality restaurants to follow.

 

Anyone else booked for a wedding on a Norwegian ship?

 

Congrats to all the brides of 2016!

Hi!

Now that your wedding is over - how did you like getting married on Norweigan? We are thinking about booking a cruise wedding with them for 2019! I'd love to hear your thoughts.