Jump to content
Cruise Critic Community

Wedding Planning Update

williamske

By williamske,
in Honeymoon & Wedding Cruises

Recommended Posts

williamske

williamske

Posted
Posted

It has been awhile since I have been able to get on this message board. Work has been extremely busy with travel! Anyways, here are some updates.

 

 

  1. Changed our cruise date to March 20-27 out of Miami on Carnival Valor.
  2. We have had plenty of success extending the group rates every month. I just call up and ask for a 30 day extension on the rates and Carnival is happy to comply. We currently have 12 rooms booked and more to follow.
  3. We decided to do JUST the CEREMONY in Grand Cayman. We will be legally wed in USA before leaving because we do not want paperwork issues, plus it only costs like $30. We have placed a deposit for the Grand Old House. We are not booking through carnival directly because their prices were literally 3x the price of booking directly. You can book your ceremony directly through them and can get married on the beach OR you can buy a cake and punch from them for your guests and they let you do everything on their gorgeous dock. We are doing the dock wedding ceremony with bamboo setup and sand ceremony. We are also placing a deposit ($200.00) at Sancho's in Cozumel as our backup plan in case the ship cannot port in Grand Cayman. Worst case, we cannot port and we lose $500 and get married in Cozumel, best case we port in Cayman get married and lose $200 deposit from Cozumel. Either way it is MUCH cheaper to plan a back up ourselves then to have Carnival 'handle it'. Which I have heard they are not to good at dealing with change of port weddings.
  4. We are having an at home reception in NJ when we get back. Our deposit was placed and a second deposit is due at the end of the month. For those of you from the area it is at The Carriage House in Galloway, NJ. We are getting the place for literally more than half the price per head because a family member does business with this venue :-).
  5. I placed a deposit on my dress. I originally thought I would be buying a destination gown, but found that many of the destination gowns fit me like a night gown and really did not compliment a my figure. I fell in love with a dress called Adorae by Sottero and Midgley (pic attached).
     
    Adorae1.jpg
     
    It is light enough to wear in the islands and hugs me in all the right places. Plus I like the 50's Hollywood glam look. Very affordable as well.

 

And that is all for now. Any comments/recommendations? I think I am on track. I ordered the save the dates and we addressed them and stamped them tonight. We did Magnets from vista print.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cattie

Cattie

Posted
Posted

Looks like you have it all figured out!

 

Talk about a small world though, I will be getting on the same ship when you'll be getting off. AND, I like walking distance to Carriage House =) Have you ever been to anything there? I personally haven't, however I've heard there food isn't that great though. We had our AHR at Buena Vista CC it was unbelievable.

 

Oh, you may want to look for your shoes now, especially if you want a peep toe or sandals they will be hard to find soon. My wedding was in May and I had a hard time finding flip flops before hand.

 

If you're doing any type of OOT bags for your guest, check out 5 Below, Target dollar spot and Christmas Tree store in Mays Landing.

 

That's all I can think of atm!

Link to comment
Share on other sites
crystalbeachcruisers

crystalbeachcruisers

Posted
Posted

What a beautiful dress. I know what you mean about a dress complimenting your figure. My figure has gotten a little larger over the years, and alot of styles out there make me look pregnant. I want something that makes me look slimmer, not fatter.

Good luck with everthing. Sounds like you are a planner, so I'm sure it will go perfectly. I'm getting married in October on the Conquest, and that's about all I have planned so far. Bought a cocktail dress, bought shoes, and they don't match. But it will all work out.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
alr_2009

alr_2009

Posted
Posted

I love your dress! I was looking at her destination collection and was thinking that all of the dresses seemed like they were just silk, a little too hugging!! :)

Then I went to her original collection and had my eye on the same dress that you selected, if you dont mind me asking, how much did you find this dress for?

Link to comment
Share on other sites
MalibuBarbie

MalibuBarbie

Posted
Posted

I have to agree that your dress is stunning and I wish I could pull off a style like that. My hips are just a little too wide for it!:D

 

It sounds like you have everything going well and I am sure your day will be wonderful! Keep us posted!

 

MalibuBarbie

Link to comment
Share on other sites
williamske

williamske

Posted
  • Author
Posted
I love your dress! I was looking at her destination collection and was thinking that all of the dresses seemed like they were just silk, a little too hugging!! :)

Then I went to her original collection and had my eye on the same dress that you selected, if you dont mind me asking, how much did you find this dress for?

 

Most places had this dress for $1249.00 but alterations were extra and they wanted to charge for a petite size (3 inches shorter direct from the manufacturer).

 

I found it at a dress shop near my mom for a total of $1199.00 and that includes petite sizing at no extra cost, plus any and all alterations (bustle/cups/hemming/etc). It was really not that bad. Plus I fell in love with it! If you live in the NJ area I can get you the shops information.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
williamske

williamske

Posted
  • Author
Posted
Looks like you have it all figured out!

 

Talk about a small world though, I will be getting on the same ship when you'll be getting off. AND, I like walking distance to Carriage House =) Have you ever been to anything there? I personally haven't, however I've heard there food isn't that great though. We had our AHR at Buena Vista CC it was unbelievable.

 

Oh, you may want to look for your shoes now, especially if you want a peep toe or sandals they will be hard to find soon. My wedding was in May and I had a hard time finding flip flops before hand.

 

If you're doing any type of OOT bags for your guest, check out 5 Below, Target dollar spot and Christmas Tree store in Mays Landing.

 

That's all I can think of atm!

 

 

Thanks for the recommendations. I went to a communion there. We loves the grand ballroom! We fell in love with it. The food was not bad when we went there, so I have no complaints. I really really cannot beat the price I am getting it for due to family business.

 

I am going to start looking for some comfy flip flops to wear, ones with a lil heel/height that I can wear at the reception haha. Good tip on looking for shoes! I did not even think about the season and how shoes may become hard to find.

 

I wanna do OOT bags but have no started shopping yet for the stuff to put in them.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
williamske

williamske

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Do we need to have a rehearsal dinner? I do not even know how we would do it because we are getting off the boat on the 22nd in Grand Cayman for the ceremony. Anyone have any suggestions? Do we NEED to have one? I mean, not much to rehearse in my opinion.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Hzak1203

Hzak1203

Posted
Posted

We are doing a welcome dinner the first night of our cruise, everyone is seated together in the MDR and we are going to use this to hand out gifts to the wedding party and thank everyone for joining us, not a real rehearsal dinner, but it is not costing any extra either:)

Link to comment
Share on other sites
Cattie

Cattie

Posted
Posted
Do we need to have a rehearsal dinner? I do not even know how we would do it because we are getting off the boat on the 22nd in Grand Cayman for the ceremony. Anyone have any suggestions? Do we NEED to have one? I mean, not much to rehearse in my opinion.

 

I wouldn't. Maybe have welcome cocktails somewhere so everyone can meet? There's nothing really to rehearse. I'm sure your planner will tell everyone once you're there if they're going to stand where or sit during the ceremony.

Link to comment
Share on other sites
  • 3 months later...
fxygal5

fxygal5

Posted
Posted

I love your dress! It definitely compliments you! Mine looks a lot more fancy that a typical 'destination' gown but the fabric was SO MUCH lighter than all the other dresses I tried on - I love it!

 

We are doing the ceremony on-shore and then having a reception back on the Valor with a DJ and food and an open bar - it should be a great time. I like your idea of having a backup - I may do that. I'll have to see what Carnival's doing with their ports as we get closer to March.

 

Thank you for your updates!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

Go to topic listing
  • Forum Jump
    • Categories
      • Welcome to Cruise Critic
      • Hurricane Zone 2024
      • Cruise Insurance Q&A w/ Steve Dasseos of Tripinsurancestore.com June 2024
      • New Cruisers
      • Cruise Lines “A – O”
      • Cruise Lines “P – Z”
      • River Cruising
      • ROLL CALLS
      • Cruise Critic News & Features
      • Digital Photography & Cruise Technology
      • Special Interest Cruising
      • Cruise Discussion Topics
      • UK Cruising
      • Australia & New Zealand Cruisers
      • Canadian Cruisers
      • North American Homeports
      • Ports of Call
      • Cruise Conversations
×
×
  • Create New...