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What I wish I had known before the big day - advice from past brides


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So we need to be ready to haggle! I agree, give me the pics in any form and I will create my own book, DVD, CD, etc. (I say that now and will probably want everything when I'm all emotional.)

 

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We also did a Shutterfly photo book from our digital photos instead of a traditional album. Had copies made for ourselves and our parents and definitely look at it more than we would a regular album!

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  • 5 months later...
Soooo happy I stumbled across this thread!! Anyone else out there have anything to add? I'm one year out, and am obsessed with these boards!

 

 

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Thank you for bringing this back up. I'm 30 days out today and am starting to stress! I got several tips from reading through this, but if anybody else has any tips.

 

Also, does anybody know is it an option to get just DVD/CD or whatever of the photos rather than the actual prints? And if so what is the price of that?

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Also, does anybody know is it an option to get just DVD/CD or whatever of the photos rather than the actual prints? And if so what is the price of that?

 

You may have luck negotiating with your photographer for that, but I haven't seen anyone on thee boards have luck with that in the last three years. Carnival puts the disc in the more expensive packages because that's something that younger (mostly millennial) couples really want and will pay accordingly. We did a Dreams shoot for our engagement pictures on the Glory and figured out that with the editing they do, the images just doesn't look the same when they're scanned.

Edited by Carnival_Brides
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Thank you for bringing this back up. I'm 30 days out today and am starting to stress! I got several tips from reading through this, but if anybody else has any tips.

 

 

 

Also, does anybody know is it an option to get just DVD/CD or whatever of the photos rather than the actual prints? And if so what is the price of that?

 

 

 

We were able to do that on NCL for $750, but I do not remember hearing about people getting it on other cruise lines. We did not buy any prints, but my mom did ask the photographer to throw in the set of 4 by 6's she had printed for us to look through when choosing our photos and she agreed to do that if we bought the DVD.

 

 

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  • 1 month later...
OMG!! :eek:

 

Thanks for the tip! We'll be bringing it for sure!

 

If they (the cruise line or their 3rd party planners) ever sent you a form (contracts, price lists, anything where you made a payment, etc), download it to a tablet or bring the actual form with you. We had issues with photography pricing last year and I think ImaginationCruiseBride had a similar experience for her wedding.

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Any recent brides want to contribute to this thread? I think it's awesome to know what you wished you had known/thought of. I am getting married in April 2015 on the Carnival Fascination! Thanks in advance!!

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This is advice I've heard for typical brides also, but bring something to snack on. My husband is the type to get really cranky when he's hungry, so we planned ahead on this one. We did pack some snacks in our carry-ons just in case. But we had decided that we wanted to join our guests quickly for lunch in the buffet prior to getting dressed, because we knew we would need to eat during the long day, but there's not much time for it. We boarded on time (about 11am), dropped our stuff in our cabin, had about 15 minutes to eat, then we were still rushed on getting dressed. But, at the reception we were so busy talking to people and enjoying our reception that I don't think either of us ever touched the reception food. I did eat some fruit, but that was it. But, if we hadn't eaten at the buffet, it would have been a very long day until dinner. And there's no guarantee that you will have time to go to the buffet before ceremony, so plan to have some type of snack to munch on while getting ready so you aren't having to chow down a full meal at the reception and can spend more time mingling with your guests. And if you don't eat enough or plan for snacks, 8pm dinner is a long way off with a lot of energy consuming craziness filling the day.

 

And I certainly agree with taking ALL of your paperwork. I had put together a book with all of my contracts and travel info for the trip. I used an art portfolio that had plastic sheet protector things in it, but a binder or anything like that would work. But, I had all my flight info in it, travel insurance, hotel info w/confirmation numbers, cruise booking info, all wedding contracts & documents, our vows, marriage license instructions & application, birth certificates (needed for marriage license), passports, excursion booking info, flight & ship boarding passes... basically any important info we could need. But, then that book never left me or was locked up, since it had all our critical info and documents. I was terrified of losing it. My hotel didn't have a safe, so it stayed in our suitcase with luggage locks at all times. And it was in the safe on the ship... although ship safe isn't too secure either. Ours got stuck closed and maintenance guy was able to open it with just a screwdriver in under 15 seconds. :eek:

 

I also made a "cheat sheet" that had our flight confirmation numbers & itineraries, ship confirmation & itinerary, hotel info & confirmation numbers, travel insurance policy number, and phone numbers for all of the above. I also had phone numbers for my banks & credit card companies. It was very useful to have a quick reference for all that info.

 

And I took photos with my phone of all important contracts/forms, passports, drivers licenses, birth certificates, credit cards (front & back), medical insurance cards, my cheat sheets, etc. and saved them in my phone. That way if things got lost, or we got stuck in a port or something (without our passports or whatever), we had that info right there on that phone if needed.

 

Another tip that actually came in handy in the port city pre-cruise. My hotel had their guest info book in the hotel room (typical for every hotel I've stayed at) with useful info. One of those pages had phone numbers for local taxi companies. I decided to take a photo of that page, just in case I needed it. I used a taxi to get to my hair/makeup trial on other side of town and when I needed to call to have taxi come pick me up, it was useful to already have the numbers in my phone. I could have searched online or whatever to find the numbers, but this worked great.

 

A more wedding related one, be prepared for sales tactics with the photos. At the time I was aware they were doing it, but still let myself get sucked in. First, they set our appointment to look at photos for 10pm. So, you're tired and may not want to sit there for hours selecting which photos to buy. Then of course they start high on prices and negotiate. You can be prepared with the price list they provide before hand, but that's not all the packages they offer, so they will try to upsell you or customize a package. She offered us the full package with all photos, all extras, the books, etc. It was more than we wanted to spend, so we started looking through to select which photos we wanted, then she says she has other things scheduled that night and was willing to drop the price for the full package, so we didn't need to spend the time selecting photos. I recognized the sales tactic at the time, but also was tired and wanted to just get it over with (which was her plan). We talked her down on price and bought everything.

 

Looking back, I'm glad we bought all the images & got digitals of everything, but wish we had skipped some of the extras. The 2 canvases are still sitting under our bed, and will likely remain there, maybe forever. Partially because we don't need that many large prints, and partially because we rushed to select images and they aren't my favorites. I do like the large 24"x36" metal print, which is hanging in our living room. I like the metal print a lot more than canvas. I love the quality of the books, and they really are laid out great, but I wish they were more all-inclusive of our trip. Especially since we did a beach photo shoot later in the cruise, so I wish the book could have included those in it. We really don't use the books since they only show part of our wedding experience. I think doing the additional beach photo shoot messed it up for us. I think if we hadn't done that, we probably would have been completely satisfied with the books showing our wedding. But, some of our favorite posed wedding photos are on the beach, so the books just seem incomplete now. If it could show all our photos, I think I would say it might worth the high cost. But, since we wanted something that had the wedding and both posed photo shoots, we ended up spending $50 to make a Shutterfly book and just show that off to everyone now, and our amazing $1500 books are sitting in a closet. But, in the Shutterfly book, we also were able to include pre-wedding photos of wandering around port city, hair/makeup photos, ship boarding, cruise photos, excursions, and everything that we feel encompasses our "wedding", because to us that includes the whole trip, not just those few hours. You can't include all that in the ships book because their photographer isn't there for all of it. So, if you want an all-inclusive book, skip theirs, buy the digital photos, and make your own book at home.

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My husband and I sailed on the Sky (Norwegian) in Sept 23 with 72 guests for our wedding. We're still not sure how we convinced that many people to cruise with us :D, but it was the MOST wonderful weekend of our entire lives!!! Best advice I can give:

 

1) If you'd like to have welcome bags delivered to each stateroom, you can absolutely do this!!! Bring the bags with you, with a list of each stateroom number and the guests names, and hand them to the port of call team members when you arrive. They charge $1.00 per bag being delivered, charged to the Bride and Groom's stateroom.

 

2) I would HIGHLY suggest splurging on a really nice suite. We booked a suite for our wedding, and it ended up being party central all weekend, as well as a lovely space for me and my bridesmaids to get ready the morning of the wedding. You may not think it matters as much now, but when you're cruising and realize this is for your WEDDING, you'll wish you had gotten a really big suite so the pictures of the bride getting ready are really nice.

 

3) If you're having a rehearsal dinner on the cruise, make sure you bring name tags for the guests. I forgot to do this, and had a hard time directing people where to sit. I was frazzled, and no one wants to be frazzled on the weekend of their wedding.

 

And my BEST advice...

 

4) The wedding packages are not worth it!!! We brought our own photographer (a big "no no", right? Who cares! They didn't bother her at all, our photos were wonderful, and we found one who was willing to shoot our wedding for free if we paid for her cruise fare. DO IT!). The cake, the champagne, etc...it's all just an expense that isn't needed. Use your group points for a 1 or 2-hour cocktail reception, which your guests will appreciate way more than cake! We also got married "legally" a few days before the cruise and had a friend officiate our wedding on the cruise so we didn't have to have a stranger do it. There are ways to personalize your wedding, I promise!! You just have to get creative.

 

Good luck, lovely brides! ;)

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A couple pieces of advice....first of all try to get some lunch on the Lido Deck if you have anytime at all because I didn't have a chance to get a bite at the reception...it just goes so fast...also, I asked the groomsmen and the groom to not wear their shirts and ties to lunch before the wedding (my husband is famous for spilling, you can't take him anywhere (just one the quirks that makes me love him even more) and I didn't want food on their shirts and ties for wedding pictures. Also, my daughter and step daughter (my matrons of honor) put on their dresses after they got on board as well, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have spilled, but I just felt better about it.

 

I know it has been mentioned before, but my daughter's college roommate did my hair (she doesn't have a mother, so we sort of "adopted her") and she followed us to my stateroom while we got dressed and stayed with me when everybody else had to leave for the rehearsal, to keep me company and do touch ups after I got dressed, so I wouldn't freak out. It was also nice that she and I had a chance to pray together before the wedding.

 

The most important thing is to have fun, and don't let the details stress you out, it will be beautiful and you will likely be the only one who will know the little things didn't happen as you planned.

 

Also, I am a retired teacher so I probably go a little overboard on planning stuff, but I put together a 10 page "Welcome Letter" with a schedule and everything. I also wrote out our entire wedding outline and script including our vows. I'd be happy to share with anybody who wants to see.

 

Oh one more thing, we had a friend as our officient, she got ordained to do my daughter's wedding in April and since she was coming along on the cruise anyway we asked her to do our wedding, so we were able to have a quick "rehearsal" at the hotel the night before. We ran through the entire thing so we could time it, to make sure we were under the time limits.

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Would you share the 10 page welcome letter you mentioned? That would be amazingly helpful! Thanks in advance!

 

My email is cathyr99@yahoo.com

 

Thanks!

Cathy

 

A couple pieces of advice....first of all try to get some lunch on the Lido Deck if you have anytime at all because I didn't have a chance to get a bite at the reception...it just goes so fast...also, I asked the groomsmen and the groom to not wear their shirts and ties to lunch before the wedding (my husband is famous for spilling, you can't take him anywhere (just one the quirks that makes me love him even more) and I didn't want food on their shirts and ties for wedding pictures. Also, my daughter and step daughter (my matrons of honor) put on their dresses after they got on board as well, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't have spilled, but I just felt better about it.

 

 

 

I know it has been mentioned before, but my daughter's college roommate did my hair (she doesn't have a mother, so we sort of "adopted her") and she followed us to my stateroom while we got dressed and stayed with me when everybody else had to leave for the rehearsal, to keep me company and do touch ups after I got dressed, so I wouldn't freak out. It was also nice that she and I had a chance to pray together before the wedding.

 

 

 

The most important thing is to have fun, and don't let the details stress you out, it will be beautiful and you will likely be the only one who will know the little things didn't happen as you planned.

 

 

 

Also, I am a retired teacher so I probably go a little overboard on planning stuff, but I put together a 10 page "Welcome Letter" with a schedule and everything. I also wrote out our entire wedding outline and script including our vows. I'd be happy to share with anybody who wants to see.

 

 

 

Oh one more thing, we had a friend as our officient, she got ordained to do my daughter's wedding in April and since she was coming along on the cruise anyway we asked her to do our wedding, so we were able to have a quick "rehearsal" at the hotel the night before. We ran through the entire thing so we could time it, to make sure we were under the time limits.

 

 

 

 

 

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Also, I am a retired teacher so I probably go a little overboard on planning stuff, but I put together a 10 page "Welcome Letter" with a schedule and everything. I also wrote out our entire wedding outline and script including our vows. I'd be happy to share with anybody who wants to see.

 

would you mind sharing your letter with me as well? Thanks. dchoney1@hotmail.com

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