Allure Wedding May 12 2013

[vegas82]

This has been a fantastic thread.

 

Like Blue Line, I'm also a groom who is in charge of planning an RCCL wedding.

 

I proposed to my fiancé aboard Freedom on April 24th and we've decided to get married on the same ship. We actually met with someone on board who talked to us a little bit about the packages and showed us the chapel and everything. She told us we would have to talk to the Royal Romance people for the full details (she suggested I ask for Maria, actually).

 

The wedding cruise is just going to be the two of us and we will have a big reception back home after we return.

 

We took advantage of the BOGOHO offer and booked our wedding cruise for September 20th, 2015. Our plan is to get married at sea.

 

I called and left a message for Maria almost two weeks ago but haven't heard back from her yet. From what I've read, unresponsiveness is pretty much par for the course with Royal Romance.

 

At any rate, I look forward to hearing more about other people's experiences and I'll be sure to share mine over the next 16 months or so.

 

Its been touch and go for me with Royal Romance...I find it so hard to understand how they can not want to offer better customer service. To be honest, I'm finding working with groups more difficult though, as we will have a group of about 80. We are gettign married on Allure Feb 2015. I cant get many answers about what our options are, and what kind of things we can alter, or get enhancements on. My biggest struggle is not knowing exactly what the venues look like. I guess its all part of the deal when you choose a cruise wedding though! Good luck to you!

[ccsci]

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!

[vegas82]

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!

 

 

Thank you so much for this! i don't know how to send a private message but my email is kerri.power@mcman.ca!! Can you tell me about your ceremony and reception? What venues did you use? What did your day look like? Did you see Jazz on 4? Apparently that is one of my ceremony options since we will have too many for the chapel. I will have many more questions for you but will start with those haha

thank you again!!!

[ccsci]

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!

[ccsci]

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

[Soulfish]

So I'm yet another groom that's organising the wedding on-board the Allure of the seas :). Our wedding was booked in October 2013 and is scheduled for the 12th October 2014 sailing.

 

This thread has been great with all the helpful hints + advice. Have to agree about Royal Romance being a pain to contact. I found it was better phoning them than emailing meant you actually got to speak to someone.

 

Because we wanted to buy-out a speciality restaurant (exclusive booking) we needed to co-ordinate with Royal Romance and the Allure group events co-ordinator. That wasn't fun, but we've now got a confirmed date & time for the wedding - required to enable us to buy-out the restaurant! One less thing for us to worry about at least :)

 

Looking forward to hearing how some of the weddings at sea went!

[ccsci]

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?

[Soulfish]

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?

 

We're getting married at sea, so have a confirmed date of 14th October at 1pm for the ceremony. We're in the process of booking Chops and that would be from 6pm until 9:30pm. The current idea is to have a small music setup for the first dance, but move the party to dazzles or blaze after 9/930pm :-)

[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.

[vivalaparte]

I noticed that this thread has been quiet for a little while... anyone still here? anyone new?

[Zarika21515]

Hi Hun,

 

Welcome to the initial nerves we all started here with, it is daunting to not have more control, more information :confused:. It is time to let some of the A type personality go and embrace taking care of the details that you can ;). I can not get answers because my ship has not even been built yet... so you can imagine the unknowns that come with that.

 

Remember that which ever sailing and Romance package you choose you will have to pay for the ceremony in full at the time your date/ship are accepted by the Romance Dept. Being that you will be legally married already you will be able to select a less expensive symbolic ceremony, but be careful some of them come with a required time of legal marriage.

You will need to decide if you want to be married while at sea, in port at departure or at an itinerary port. The prices have a large range and so to the possibilities of what you want out of your ceremony/reception.

 

If you have not looked at already....

http://www.royalcaribbean.com/content/en_US/pdf/New_Royal_Romance_brochure.pdf

 

I was were you are a few months ago in selecting which cruise. You listed your confirmed guest count which included 4 children. My suggestion is start by having a very honest conversation with those families and your guests that may be the most price sensitive. If you would be offended/hurt or upset if any one did not come due to financial concerns that should be top factor for you. When starting to look I had this conversation with my BF/nearly sister and she was saying " Pick whatever you want, we will figure it out" But now that it is decided and booked she comes up with a million excuses about how she will likely not come. Most of her and her husband's complaint comes with the additional cost of wanting to bring their small son with them on the trip. When a family goes from the cost of 2 to 3 or 4, you may need to watch how quickly that cost rises. We know all to well, not only are we paying for ourselves but two important family members that would not be able to make it other wise.

 

You mention that you were interested in one of the Oasis class ships, that is a good place to start in narrowing the field.

 

If you are looking to start from scratch I would recommend first with the port of departure. If most of your guests can avoid flying and drive to the pier you will lower the over all cost and lose the objection over flying. We live in TX but knew we would leave out of either NJ or MD since the bulk of our guest list is from the east coast.

 

I would also look at shorter over longer cruises if most of your guest list has not cruised before. It may or may not be something they enjoy, or have problems with motion sickness, and being miserable for a week or more is not fun, even on a cruise ship. This will you keep the cost down, also you and your guests will need to use less vacation time. This is why I highly considered a 5 day out to Bermuda and back that left out of MD.

 

In the end for us which ship and the date became the most important factors, and we decided on the Quantum (which will leave out of NJ) and Pi day 3.14.15. We were engaged in May and asked to select a date at least a year out so that people could save and have vacation time to take. Our selected cruise worked out well since we wanted to be married while at sea and our ceremony it is the first full sea day in our itinerary. Dates and ships can be a very personal choice. I would recommend selecting a date at least 6 months out to leave time for planning and saving of funds for yourself and guests. We are still more than 16 months out and it seems torturous but on the plus side we have 17 guests booked and ready to go already.

 

If you have more questions or just need to vent all the girls and boys on this thread are here to help. :)

 

Hi there - thank you for sharing. I'm in a similar boat as you - getting married a month prior though! But we're doing the symbolic at sea as well. How has your process gone so far? Have you been able to discuss any plans yet?

[Zarika21515]

We're getting married at sea, so have a confirmed date of 14th October at 1pm for the ceremony. We're in the process of booking Chops and that would be from 6pm until 9:30pm. The current idea is to have a small music setup for the first dance, but move the party to dazzles or blaze after 9/930pm :-)

 

Hi Soulfish - Your wedding is coming up! How has the planning been going? Is Royal Romance working with you well? How many people will you have in your group? We were thinking of booking Chops for our dinner, but they're giving us some difficulties since our group is around 24 right now...

[Soulfish]

Hi Soulfish - Your wedding is coming up! How has the planning been going? Is Royal Romance working with you well? How many people will you have in your group? We were thinking of booking Chops for our dinner, but they're giving us some difficulties since our group is around 24 right now...

 

Hey - just going through final arrangements with Royal Romance. Had our wedding license confirmed and they've received all of our notarised documents so starting to feel real!

 

Booking Chops was...interesting! Royal Romance were adamant they couldn't give us a wedding date more than 100 days out, and the group bookings co-ordinator on Allure couldn't let us book Chops after 100 days out as that's when they open bookings to everyone. Eventually an email to Adam Goldstein sorted the problem out in under 12 hours ;)

 

There's 26 in our party and we've also just had it confirmed by Royal that we can have the full Chops menu if we pre-order everyones menu choices in the next few weeks.

[Zarika21515]

Hey - just going through final arrangements with Royal Romance. Had our wedding license confirmed and they've received all of our notarised documents so starting to feel real!

 

Booking Chops was...interesting! Royal Romance were adamant they couldn't give us a wedding date more than 100 days out, and the group bookings co-ordinator on Allure couldn't let us book Chops after 100 days out as that's when they open bookings to everyone. Eventually an email to Adam Goldstein sorted the problem out in under 12 hours ;)

 

There's 26 in our party and we've also just had it confirmed by Royal that we can have the full Chops menu if we pre-order everyones menu choices in the next few weeks.

 

This is great - thanks! Can you explain who Adam Goldstein is? So they're letting you book a specialty restaurant for 26 people? You'll sit together i assume? And then pre-order the meals. That's awesome! Thank you again for all your help!

[Soulfish]

This is great - thanks! Can you explain who Adam Goldstein is? So they're letting you book a specialty restaurant for 26 people? You'll sit together i assume? And then pre-order the meals. That's awesome! Thank you again for all your help!

 

Adam Goldstein is the Royal Caribbean CEO. We wanted to "buy out" or block-book out chops entirely which was part of the hassle.

 

Hopefully it'll be worth it!

[Zarika21515]

Adam Goldstein is the Royal Caribbean CEO. We wanted to "buy out" or block-book out chops entirely which was part of the hassle.

 

Hopefully it'll be worth it!

 

Gotcha - can you explain more what you're doing then. Are you buying the whole restaurant out or just part of it? Do you mind sharing how much this costs? It's awesome he was able to turn things around for you :)

[Soulfish]

Gotcha - can you explain more what you're doing then. Are you buying the whole restaurant out or just part of it? Do you mind sharing how much this costs? It's awesome he was able to turn things around for you :)

 

We've got the whole restaurant on the night of our wedding :). It's not a cheap option unfortunately! On the oasis-class ships a Chops buyout is $5000 + a $2000 beverage minimum spend. You have to book via the group co-ordinator for your ship (or via your travel agent if you didn't book direct) and the full fee is due at booking. You can see the various options for booking things and their costs in the Royal customisation brochure here

[Zarika21515]

We've got the whole restaurant on the night of our wedding :). It's not a cheap option unfortunately! On the oasis-class ships a Chops buyout is $5000 + a $2000 beverage minimum spend. You have to book via the group co-ordinator for your ship (or via your travel agent if you didn't book direct) and the full fee is due at booking. You can see the various options for booking things and their costs in the Royal customisation brochure here

 

This is very helpful - thank you for sending! It is expensive to buy out the whole restaurant, so i'm trying to avoid that, but not sure if i'll be able to!

[vivalaparte]

Hi there - thank you for sharing. I'm in a similar boat as you - getting married a month prior though! But we're doing the symbolic at sea as well. How has your process gone so far? Have you been able to discuss any plans yet?

 

 

Zarika,

 

Honestly I have not done anything with Royal Romance in about a year. I got all my initial questions and concerns out when I first started. I am pretty sure my Q & A with Royal Romance is somewhere on this thread or the "What I wish I had known" thread here. When you get the same answer to almost every question of "we just do not know yet" with regards to ship, time and place because it has not been built. So many issues are also dependent on the number of guests so without a firm headcount I realized I needed to let it go for awhile. I plan on sending out my invitations in October so that I can have my head count just as the ship is beginning to sail.

 

 

Are you having your ceremony on the Quantum as well?

[Zarika21515]

Zarika,

 

Honestly I have not done anything with Royal Romance in about a year. I got all my initial questions and concerns out when I first started. I am pretty sure my Q & A with Royal Romance is somewhere on this thread or the "What I wish I had known" thread here. When you get the same answer to almost every question of "we just do not know yet" with regards to ship, time and place because it has not been built. So many issues are also dependent on the number of guests so without a firm headcount I realized I needed to let it go for awhile. I plan on sending out my invitations in October so that I can have my head count just as the ship is beginning to sail.

 

 

Are you having your ceremony on the Quantum as well?

 

Thanks! Mine ceremony is on Liberty of the Seas!

[dancinman66]

Hey - just going through final arrangements with Royal Romance. Had our wedding license confirmed and they've received all of our notarised documents so starting to feel real!

 

 

 

Booking Chops was...interesting! Royal Romance were adamant they couldn't give us a wedding date more than 100 days out, and the group bookings co-ordinator on Allure couldn't let us book Chops after 100 days out as that's when they open bookings to everyone. Eventually an email to Adam Goldstein sorted the problem out in under 12 hours ;)

 

 

 

There's 26 in our party and we've also just had it confirmed by Royal that we can have the full Chops menu if we pre-order everyones menu choices in the next few weeks.

 

 

I threatened an email to Adam before I got some responses and I'm only doing a proposal

They have no management skills whatsoever

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Forums

[ariawoman]

Royal Romance really only gets fully engaged about 1 month prior to the wedding. That's just how it goes. There are other weddings to plan before yours, which is why the operate in this manner.

 

Now in terms of the 100 days out thing - that's complete BS because I booked in July for a December wedding, more than 100 days out. They confirmed the date within a day once I placed the deposit.

 

It's frustrated to not have details, for sure, but be assured - it will all come together. Mine went off with a few minor glitches (the cabin wasn't ready for me to get ready and i basically had to barge in and gave the steward 0 choice lol) and at one point, they forgot to bring me and my guests who were sailing with me, onto the ship. They had, however, already brought non-sailing guests on lol.

 

Those were my two blips. Other than that - can't complain. We were married on the Oasis on 12/7/13. If anyone has questions - feel free. Oh and if you need a hair/makeup recommendation if you're doing an embarkation wedding, i'd suggest Hair and Makeup I Do if you're in fort launderdale. They did a fantastic job.

[Zarika21515]

Royal Romance really only gets fully engaged about 1 month prior to the wedding. That's just how it goes. There are other weddings to plan before yours, which is why the operate in this manner.

 

Now in terms of the 100 days out thing - that's complete BS because I booked in July for a December wedding, more than 100 days out. They confirmed the date within a day once I placed the deposit.

 

It's frustrated to not have details, for sure, but be assured - it will all come together. Mine went off with a few minor glitches (the cabin wasn't ready for me to get ready and i basically had to barge in and gave the steward 0 choice lol) and at one point, they forgot to bring me and my guests who were sailing with me, onto the ship. They had, however, already brought non-sailing guests on lol.

 

Those were my two blips. Other than that - can't complain. We were married on the Oasis on 12/7/13. If anyone has questions - feel free. Oh and if you need a hair/makeup recommendation if you're doing an embarkation wedding, i'd suggest Hair and Makeup I Do if you're in fort launderdale. They did a fantastic job.

 

Hi - i think the 100 day out thing is actually more like 60 days out. They told me that they need to wait to hear what the cruise director books and THEN they can confirm the date/time. Right now they can't since we're about 5 months out. I also think it has to do with the package you're booking. I'm doing symbolic so it's not as 'important' as some of the other packages.

 

It's great to hear that your wedding went off with only a couple minor glitches. I am really hopeful that mine will too - but it's just difficult not knowing anything till last minute. Did you do a reception following the ceremony?

[ariawoman]

Hi - i think the 100 day out thing is actually more like 60 days out. They told me that they need to wait to hear what the cruise director books and THEN they can confirm the date/time. Right now they can't since we're about 5 months out. I also think it has to do with the package you're booking. I'm doing symbolic so it's not as 'important' as some of the other packages.

 

It's great to hear that your wedding went off with only a couple minor glitches. I am really hopeful that mine will too - but it's just difficult not knowing anything till last minute. Did you do a reception following the ceremony?

 

Hmm, maybe they treat symbolic different than what I had?

 

I did have a reception - in Dazzles. It was buffet style. I also had a DJ (honestly not worth the expense you can make your own playlist in an ipod and be as good as they were there - he didn't even speak). Everyone had a great time. Overall I'm glad I chose to do it on a ship - a land wedding just wasn't for me.

 

Oh and just wait until you get all the attention in a wedding dress (if you're doing one for your ceremony). I was the star of the ship all day. The next day in plain clothes, i felt invisible LOL.

[Zarika21515]

Hmm, maybe they treat symbolic different than what I had?

 

I did have a reception - in Dazzles. It was buffet style. I also had a DJ (honestly not worth the expense you can make your own playlist in an ipod and be as good as they were there - he didn't even speak). Everyone had a great time. Overall I'm glad I chose to do it on a ship - a land wedding just wasn't for me.

 

Oh and just wait until you get all the attention in a wedding dress (if you're doing one for your ceremony). I was the star of the ship all day. The next day in plain clothes, i felt invisible LOL.

 

Haha - that's so funny! Which wedding did you have? I totally agree with the playlist vs. DJ! And i feel the same way about not doing it on land, i'm just a little nervous that i have to give up so much.