NCL Harborside in St. Thomas or on the beach

[kayjaypea42]

Hi. I am helping my cousin plan her wedding. We have a dilemma: she has invited 30+ people who will be joining the couple on the NCL Escape for the wedding. She wants a beach wedding, but the budget is EXTREMELY limited. (The 3k NCL wants is too much.) I was thinking it might be a bit more economical and practical to have the wedding on the ship while in the St. Thomas port. That way she still gets the awesome background, but no one has to worry about the transportation. And then they could go to a beach location with their photographer and take pics after the fact with the dress on, etc.

 

But I'm no wedding planner. I could really use advice. Does anyone have experience with a destination harborside wedding vs a beach wedding? Do you have any cost-saving tips for having it on the beach?

 

We looked at a few planners in St. Thomas (Fantasia, especially) but reading between the lines it seems like they're going to nickel and dime the kid. Ex: $5 per person for plates, napkins, and forks. $2 per person for glasses. $15 per chair for a folding chair that's decorated... Lots of fine print to read with them, and it seems like they're going to pay a whole lot for not very much. I don't want my cousin to be disappointed OR her parents to be too far in debt, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[k9_Cop]

Hi. I am helping my cousin plan her wedding. We have a dilemma: she has invited 30+ people who will be joining the couple on the NCL Escape for the wedding. She wants a beach wedding, but the budget is EXTREMELY limited. (The 3k NCL wants is too much.) I was thinking it might be a bit more economical and practical to have the wedding on the ship while in the St. Thomas port. That way she still gets the awesome background, but no one has to worry about the transportation. And then they could go to a beach location with their photographer and take pics after the fact with the dress on, etc.

 

But I'm no wedding planner. I could really use advice. Does anyone have experience with a destination harborside wedding vs a beach wedding? Do you have any cost-saving tips for having it on the beach?

 

We looked at a few planners in St. Thomas (Fantasia, especially) but reading between the lines it seems like they're going to nickel and dime the kid. Ex: $5 per person for plates, napkins, and forks. $2 per person for glasses. $15 per chair for a folding chair that's decorated... Lots of fine print to read with them, and it seems like they're going to pay a whole lot for not very much. I don't want my cousin to be disappointed OR her parents to be too far in debt, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

We had our wedding in St Thomas last year and it's not really nickel and diming, it's just how they do it. We paid $30 or so pp for dinner, $20 or so for chairs at the beach so on and so on. $3k is a tight budget but they are going to either have to sacrifice something or open the budget to get what they want.

[BeachBride86]

We are getting married on St Thomas in January 2015. We are using Weddings by Deb. She has been AMAZING!! Very reasonable.

[BeachBride86]

Sorry I meant January 2016.