Groom-to-be with questions!

[bmoore09]

Hey everyone!

 

Looks like i found the right website with actual experiences to go off of! SO far all I found were brochures and the like. My fiance and I are looking at a cruise for our wedding. We're planning on a March 2011 date. No exact date in mind just yet, though. We're still in the infant planning stages.

Neither of us really want to get married ON the boat. We were thinking more of a wedding on the beach at one of the ports of call. We're leaning towards Grand Cayman. Anyone else out there with any experiences of an OFF-board wedding with Carnival (or maybe even Royal Car)?

 

We are thinking about going with a TA. She's been a "cruise expert" for a while..or so she says (she's pretty old, and seems to know what she's talking about, so I tend to beleive her :-) ). But from what I read here we have to go through TWE? I don't really think of this as a problem for us, as the more of the wedding that's kinda planned for us the better. We just want something simple, on the beach, with about 20 guests.

 

I'm just looking for a little advice on what to look out for, or what to make sure I do/don't do.

I'll continue to read this board for advice though. But I would appreciate any thoughts. Even with the month. That's not concrete either. Are there better/worse months for an offboard wedding?

 

Thanks in advance!

[tigercheerfan]

At Grand Caymen you get tendered in. The ship doesn't dock. If the weather is bad they don't stop you get another day onboard. Just something to think about.

[hunniebee724]

At Grand Caymen you get tendered in. The ship doesn't dock. If the weather is bad they don't stop you get another day onboard. Just something to think about.

 

Right...if you choose a tender port, there's more of a chance you could miss the port, and your wedding would be canceled. It's a risk you take with this type of wedding. You would also have to speak with Carnival or Royal Caribbean to find out your options for a beach wedding in the ports you're looking at. You may need just use the cruise as transportation to the port and go through an outside planner for the actual wedding depending on the port you choose. We decided to do an embarkation day wedding in NYC so we could have non-sailing guests and not risk missing our wedding port because we sailed in hurricane season.

[LilBlackDress]

As said before GC is a tendered port. From what I have been told/read St. Thomas is the least missed port. If that helps you any...

 

Also if you are getting married at a port you do not have to use TWE (which personally I would NEVER recommend using them) You can use any local planner that works out of the port of your choice. There are plenty of planners that have great reputations. With a local planner you tend to get more for your money, more options, more personalized. Once you figure out which port I am sure there will be many people who can advise you on planners.

 

From what I know (and I could be wrong) hurricane season in the Caribbean is from June to early December.

[hunniebee724]

I've heard that about St. Thomas also...but if you're traveling in March, it won't be hurricane season so you'd probably be ok. I didn't have to deal with TWE because Carnival uses A Wedding for You out of NYC, but I haven't heard many good things about TWE. Best Destination Weddings would be a good site for you to go to for recommendations if you decide to go with an outside planner.

[AZPam]

Even though it won't be hurricane season, Grand Caymen is still missed a lot in March due to the high winds.

[kwilliams137]

Most of the people already said, GC is skipped alot, so I personally would not take that chance of having the wedding there...and as far as TWE, I personally didn't have a problem with them, because whenever I had a question I searched this site to see if someone already posted the question or answer...If i didnt find the answer I would post the question and call Carnival's Wedding Department as they were very helpful...I think the only time I spoke with TWE was getting my final details and day of the wedding...

[bmoore09]

Thanks for all the replies. We may be switching our port to St Thomas after reading all of the posts here. We're not sure. I'll certainly be checking back here to some helpful hints. Anyone have any Wedding Planners they've used in St Thomas they had a good experienc with?

[LilBlackDress]

The most common planner for St. Thomas that I have read on the boards (with great reviews too!!) is Island Bliss Weddings. There are a couple others but I can't remember their names and don't have the sites saved.

[Tiggertastic]

I'm using Leslie from Perfect Weddings.

 

She has been fantastic. She has taken care of everything for me, has set packages or tailors them to what you want and answers any weird and wonderful question no matter what time I send it

 

I also hear that Janelle from Island Bliss Weddings is good too.

 

I do not recommend Debra at Fantasia weddings - she was pushy to the degree that she became a nuisance sending me messages 2 or 3 times a day by email when i hadn't even booked her and tried to get me to marry 100 yards from the flight path across the road from the airport.

 

There are a few threads on here about St Thomas weddings that may help

 

Jan

[imsulin]

One of your big problems cruising in March is that it is the month for the ...gasp!...dreaded Spring Break crowd! Carnival and RCI will most likely have young partiers and young kids all over the ship. I cruised the last week of March for YEARS until 2003, when the "Spring Break" thing became so annoying and disruptive that I quit. A better time would be late April/early May (before the school graduation season). The weather will still be good...no hurricanes. I also support those that say Grand Cayman is an often missed tendering port. The Bahamas has a 72-hour waiting period. Your best bet for a beach wedding is St. Thomas, if you're both US citizens. Just keep in mind that there can be several ships in port at the same time, and traffic in St. Thomas is....how shall I say this....terrible!! Just make sure you'll be in port for at least eight hours. Congratulations and good luck!

[seaweavers]

Yes spring break could be a problem. We were married in St. Thomas on 2/26 and it was perfect. We used a local wedding coordinator (Weddings the Island Way). I had to find a cruise, pick the day that it arrived there, contact the wedding coordinator with that date, then book the cruise and the wedding. It take a lot of coordinating. Good luck.

[imsulin]

Your wedding will also be during the week, unless you choose to get married pre-cruise....which would be on a Sat. or Sun. There was a poster here a few months ago who decided to get married in a civil ceremony before the cruise, and then did a beach ceremony in Nassau. It's all about the residency requirement for places like the Bahamas, Mexico, and Jamaica.

[merees17]

If you are doing a port of call wedding, whatever you do, take out the insurance.

 

We were married on board before leaving port. Another couple onboard planned to have their ceremony on St. Thomas. Huge storm and we had to divert to another island. No wedding, no license.:( RCCL did give them a ceremony on board, but could do nothing to refund any of their money since a outside vendor handled the wedding.