Sovereign of the Seas Brides

[Justagirl]

Hello Ladies!!

 

I am sooo excited to have found this forum....what a great help it will be!!

 

Here are my stats:

Wedding date-August 25,2006

Sail date-same

TA has block of rooms on hold and we have booked our cabin, but have not secured the wedding package yet. (yikes!)

 

I called RR and they said all 3 slots are still available. We are getting married in Port Canaveral since we live in Orlando (an hour away) and will have several non-sailing guests. ( maybe even my mother-in-law) :) Tee-hee

 

My TA has been great so far....but I am a bit worried about the folks at RR from what I have been reading.

 

Who else out there has been married on the Sovereign? (Ashley, I saw all of your pics and info....WOW! Sooo beautiful) And who elas is planning to?

We cruise a lot-this will be my 19th I think, but I have not been on SOS since she came out of dry dock and am excited to see the improvements. We are thinking of doing the Harmony package and adding the hor d'oeuvres/open bar recpetion with a DJ (one hour or two???), the videography package, bigger cake and champagne toast. Do we need and extra hour with the photog? Also any other suggestions or hints? I have tried to read as much as I can, but there's a LOT on here!

 

Congratulations everyone!! Here's to the most fabulous weddings EVER!!

 

Julie

[ashley&tony]

Hi Julie and Congratulations on your upcoming wedding! You are getting married on my b-day! You will love the SOS- she looks great after being in dry dock!

 

We did 2 hours for the DJ and I'm so glad we did- one hour would not have been long enough IMO- especially if you will have a lot of non-sailing guests. That will be all the time you have with them. And we actually booked the photographer for an extra 2 hrs. That way we had him for the ceremony, 2 hr reception and still had time after the reception for pics around the ship. We didn't have to leave the reception for pics and miss out on any of it. We also got our DVD in the mail from the videographer and it turned out great- I've watched so many times and love it! We debated on it since it was so expensive but it was definitely worth the money to have all those wonderful memories on video!

 

Anyway, congrats again and good luck with all your planning. I'm definitely in wedding planning withdrawal- I want to do it again!!:p Let me know if I can help with anything.

[Justagirl]

Thanks, Ashley! Getting married on your b-day has got to be a good omen...esp since your wedding looked so amazing! :)

 

I forgot to post that we are probably having between 20-30 sailing guests, and maybe 10 non-sailing, so we will be a smaller party than what you and Tony had. I like the idea of the extra 2 hours for the photographer....I have read the posts about being pulled from the reception for pics.

How was the DJ and did you also make your own CD of songs you wanted? Do you recommed bringing my own cake-topper? Also, we have booked a jr suite but are thinking of upgrading the a Grand...any thoughts?

 

I am sure I will drive you crazy with a million more questions! :P Thanks for all your input and advice and congratulations on your newlywed status!

 

Jules

[ashley&tony]

Thanks Julie- I am enjoying being a newlywed- it's great!!! :D

 

Our DJ was great- his name was Jeff. RR will send you a form to fill out for all your song requests. We ended up making a CD of the songs for our introduction, first dance, father/daughter, cake cutting etc. to make sure we had those since they were special to us. I had a feeling they wouldn't have my father/daughter song so I just wanted to make sure. Jeff ended up calling me 2 days before the wedding to go over everything- he had some ?'s and sure enough didn't have that 1 song and I told him I was bringing it. He had everything else. He had a great personality and played all the songs at appropriate times. As for the cake topper, we were very happy with what they provided- it was just roses on top but very pretty. If you want a different look though difinitely bring your own!

 

Funny about the rooms- we seem to have a lot in common!- We also booked a Jr Suite but eventually changed it to the Grande. Mainly because I wanted my bridesmaids to be in the room while we got ready and wanted plenty of room. And we thought- why not!- it's our wedding!! My mom and dad and Tony's mom and stepdad had Jr. Suites and they were very nice but were smaller than I thought they'd be so I'm glad we went with the Grande. I think I have some pics of our room if you want to see them.

[ashley&tony]

Thanks Julie- I'm enjoying being a newlywed- it's great!!

 

Our DJ was great- his name was Jeff. RR will send you a form to fill out for all your song requests. We only made a CD of songs for our introduction, first dance, father/daughter dance ,cake cutting etc. since these were very important to us. I was sure they wouldn't have my father/daughter song and just wanted to make sure. Jeff ended up calling me 2 days before the wedding to go over everything and he had some questions and sure enough he didn't have the father/daughter song so I told him I was bringing it. He did a great job- great personality and played all the right songs at appropriate times. As for the cake topper, we were very happy with what they provided- it was only roses on top but was very pretty. If you want a different look though definitely bring your own!

 

Funny about the rooms- we seem to have a lot in common!!- We also booked the Jr Suite but eventually changed it to a Grande. Mostly because I wanted all my bridemaids in the room with me while we got ready and wanted to make sure there would be plenty of room. And we thought- why not!!- it's our wedding!! My mom and dad and Tony's mom and stepdad both had Jr Suites and they were very nice but much smaller than I thought they would be so I'm glad we went with the Grande. If you can, I would highly recommend the Grande. I think I have some pics of our room if you want to see them.

 

Guess I better get back to work even though wedding talk is so much more fun!:D

[ashley&tony]

Oops! Sorry about the double post. I typed the first one and it disappeared from my screen and i thought I lost it so I retyped it, posted and they both show up! Crazy!:eek:

[Justagirl]

So glad to get your input on everything...Eddie and I have been engaged for a year, but we have been going back and forth between a beach wedding here vs.cruise vs. everyone flying to the Bahamas to an all-inlcusive for a while now, AND have not been able to settle on a date. (he has a brother in the Navy and my best friend is a cruise ship performer...trying to accomodate everyone is hard) Now that we have finalized everything I am getting really excited!! :)

And feeling a little overwhelmed...this is a second marriage for both of us, and I had forgotten how much goes into wedding planning. I think this will be less stressful and way more fun, tho!

 

So far my TA has been great. He seems to think we will be able to upgrade our cabin to a Grand for very little once the cabins book up. I hope so! It looks fabulous. I have actually sailed on this ship a lot...it's one of my favorites. The only thing that was missing was balcony cabins and now that they've fixed that, I am thrilled. And YES....I would love to see pics of the room. My email is juliejnfla@aol.com.

 

 

I went back to your website and found the cake pics- you're right, it is perfectly lovely. We originally were doing a beach wedding on the coast here in Florida, so I may want to add some seashells to it. Not sure hoe far I want to take that "theme" yet.

 

We are having a more casually dressed afair. My dress is awesome, but very "beachy" I will try to post a link to it for you to see. The guys are wearing linen pants and those "cuban" type shirts...short sleeved with the embroidery down the front that you don't tuck in...probably in a shade of blue. (just the shirts in blue...that sounded like I meant blue head to toe- EEEK!) August will be WAY to hot for tuxes and panty hose! :)

I am having a hard time finding my maid's dresses. I actually just found this Lille Pulitzer that is soooo cute, but again I am not sure how far I want to take the island theme....will also try and post a link for you to check it out.

 

You had your bouquet upgraded, too, right? I will have to go back and look at those pics again.

 

You're a lifesaver!

 

Julie

[Justagirl]

BTW- I went back looking at your pics and guess what? i am getting married on your b-day, and you got married 2 days before mine!! How crazy is that? :)

[ashley&tony]

Hey Julie- you've got mail! That is too funny that I got married right before your birthday!!

 

The guys outfits will look great! I love the cuban shirt and linen pant look. I would love to see a picture of your dress and the idea for BM dresses. I had a hard time picking out BM dresses too. I changed my mind so many times!

 

My bouquet actually wasn't upgraded. My package came with the cascade bouquet and didn't want those so I did purchased the standard round classic bouquet that comes with one of the other pkgs. I also purchased 4 BM bouquets, bouts. for the guys, and the 2 ceremony arrangements to replace the silk ones that came with my pkg. But all I told them was I wanted white flowers for the bouquets and bouts. which is how they came anyway. I had no idea what the ceremony arrangements were going to look like (RR was pretty vague on their description of them) so I was very nervous about them but they turned out beautiful!

 

I'm so excited for you! You are going to have a fabulous wedding and so much fun on your cruise! Tony and I are already trying to plan our next one (mabye for our anniversary!). Talk to you later.

[Justagirl]

Hey Ash-

Thanks for the pics....I just emailed you a pic of my dress but I can"t figure out how to send the MOH ones I am looking at. If you want, you can go to the Neiman-Marcus website, click on apparel for her, then dresses, then classic dresses and it's the 2 Lillie Pulitzer dresses that are on the first page. I actually like the white one with the caribbean decor along the bottom. Since the boys are wearing a shade of blue, I wonder if I could have it professionally dyed? Or do you think the white is ok b/c of the bottom? I am only having a MOH, I think...maybe one BM and MOH. We have so few guests that I think it would look silly if 10 of the 30 or so guests were standing up front with us, don't you? Originally we had 4 each, but that was when we were doing the beach thing with 100+ people. So, now we are thinking just BMan/MOH. If I had more than that, I think the Lillie dresses would be too much. The hard part, I think is that my dress is so beachy and casual, I don't want my girl(s) to be dressier than me, you know? If you have any suggestions for websites to check out, I would love it.

 

You must think I don't do a thing all day but wedding stuff! I actually just started a new job (same field, new co) and they have me working from home, sorta....Mostly I am getting a paid vaca til I go to Atlanta for training. Wish we could go on a quick cruise! :)

 

Julie

[ashley&tony]

Hey Julie! Nice that you have a little break from work! I am actually on here all the time at work!! That's funny that your coming to ATL for your training- that's where I live! Better bring your coat- it's much colder here than in sunny FL!! They keep saying it's going to be warming up so I'm hopeful.

 

I looked at the dresses and I also love the white with the palm trees and design on the bottom. I think it would cute it you just have the one MOH. Your probably right that it would be too much white with more BMs. I bet there will be a lot more summer stuff coming out soon too. I've heard of a lot of DW brides using J Crew dresses so you might want to check them out too. Good luck with your search! Well, back to work!

[Justagirl]

Hey Ashley!

Thanks for the input on the MOH dress...I think it's a done deal. I just think it's too cute...very classy but different, you know? I will check out the JCrew site also, just in case.

I will be in Atlanta the first week of Feb....I hope it isn't too cold! I am spoiled with this Florida weather!! I am a transplant from Texas, but I still don't do cold very well! :)

We've had a great respnse from everyone so far...I think we may have more people than we thought, which is awesome. I noticed someone else say that if you have more than 35 guests, you have to do the lunch buffet....that kind of stinks, b/c we really liked the casual hor d'oeuvres thing. I may try to sweet talk RR into making an exception, unless we have 50+. What did you think about the lunch buffet? It looked beautiful. I just hate to pay for all that food when it's comped on the ship...I'd rather spend the same $$ on an open bar for twice as long! :

 

Julie

[ashley&tony]

Hey Julie- The lunch buffet was great (I even got to eat a little bit of it!) but I've also heard that the hor d'oeuvres are good which was our original plan. Definitely sweet talk RR- they were going to let us still do it when we had around 60 people. They also said if they approved it for 60 we couldn't go over that number. We held off for a while to see if anyone else would book and when we ended up with over 100 we knew we had to go with the buffet/open bar which we booked for 2 hours. But if RR will let you I'd say stick with the hor d'oeuvres- it is much less $$ and there is food all over the ship!

 

Happy Friday!

[Justagirl]

Hey Ash-

Good to know about doing the hors d'hoeuvres for up to 60...like you said, there's food all over the ship! I checked out the JCrew site and there were som adorable dresses, Thanks!! The ones I liked the best only came in black and olive, but there were 3 blue ones that were really cute, too.

My TA put together a website for us, and today I got the brochures he made for us to hand out to our friends here. I am spending the weekend getting the save the date cards out...any suggestions for the best place to get them?

Have a great weekend! J

[ashley&tony]

Hi Julie- How was your weekend? Did you have any luck finding your save the dates? We ordered ours online but I can't remember where. Well I'm here at work but just wanted to pop in and say hi. Hope you have a good day!

[Justagirl]

Hey Ashley-

Had a great weekend, I hope you did, too. We had some friends in from out of town for a big birthday celebration. I looked for some save-the date cards online. Stupid question...can you do email save-the-date cards, or do you have to get paper ones and send regular mail? I would love to do electronic ones if I can. We partied so much this weekend, I only looked once. :)

I am going to be in Atlanta next week for training, so I have some free time this week to play and plan. Better take advantage! I am looking for some ideas for my bouquet. I think I want to do something tropical, instead of what comes with the package. I think I will copy you (again!! :) ) and use that one to decorate the cake table.

I showed the photos you sent me to my friends so they can see what our cabin will look like and they were all super excited. We are planning one hell of a sail-away party in our cabin!

Well, off to cook dinner. Havew a great night!

Julie

[ashley&tony]

Hi Julie! How is your planning going? Did you get the save the dates figured out? I've been pretty busy the past week but just wanted to pop in and say hi! Hope all is going well with you.

[Justagirl]

Hey Ashley- You were right, Atlanta was COLD!! ( and rainy, too) Just got back last Friday and have started my new job, so the time for playing on here and planning has gotten slimmer. I am in the process of getting my contract from RR and will see how that goes. I went ahead and ordered regulat save-the-date cards to send by snail mail. They are really cute. And I am trying to work out reservations with the Raddisson for the night before.

Stll have lots to do! Once i get settled with work, I am sure I will have lots more questions for ya! :) Hope you are having a good week.

Stay warm! J