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A Royal Wedding - Harmony of the Seas January 21 2023 - Join the adventure!

helloxxannie
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helloxxannie

helloxxannie

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Hi everyone! My fiancé & I met on the Allure of the Seas in 2019 and when we got engaged, we thought it would be perfect to get married on a Royal Caribbean ship. Well, the day is quickly approaching & this Saturday we'll be hopping onboard the Harmony of the Seas to have a wedding on embarkation day so our friends in Fort Lauderdale who aren't sailing can join the festivities. 

 

Hope you'll all join along the adventure as I'll update you all on the wedding experience along with the cruise. I'd be happy to answer any questions you may have as well 🙂 

 

Details on the Wedding: 
Embarkation Day, January 21, 2023 onboard the Harmony of the Seas

100 guests in total, 31 sailing & 69 non-sailing 

 

Experiences So Far

Royal Caribbean uses a company called The Wedding Experience as their vendor, they are new (within the past 6-7 months) & they replaced a company they used before. I contacted Royal in January 2021 to book my wedding & my date was "on hold" at the time until they hired a new company (now The Wedding Experience).

 

There are different wedding packages you can pick from depending on your budget & how you envision it. Weddings can be on embarkation day, at sea, or at port. We chose embarkation day as my fiancé is from Fort Lauderdale & we wanted to include as many guests as possible. Each wedding package will include your basics like a wedding venue, onboard wedding co-ordinator, wedding cake, stateroom décor,  breakfast-in-bed for the couple, dinner at a specialty restaurant for the couple. Once you choose your package, you get to pick your add-ons like food, alcohol, DJ, lighting, photography, etc. 

 

The good part about it is that you basically fill out a form with everything you want, and that's about it, Royal Caribbean handles the rest. However, communication with the wedding company can be frustrating as they don't always get back to you in a timely matter. I genuinely enjoyed just having to deal with one vendor and just check off the things I wanted, made wedding planning easy overall. With that being said, I did get a little worried when we didn't have the final details secured 3 weeks before the wedding! 

 

Only 7 more days until our dream Royal Wedding onboard the Harmony of the Seas! 

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helloxxannie

helloxxannie

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23 minutes ago, John&LaLa said:

We're doing a wedding on Allure in November. 

 

Communication is non existent 😪

I'll be honest I had very limited responses from their department up until about 2 months before the wedding date! They are so behind & busy, it only seems like they have one person as the contact for bride/grooms. I had to get my travel agent to help contact them a few times with my questions. 

 

 

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helloxxannie

helloxxannie

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Only 6 days away until wedding day! We've hit a few inconveniences but we're so excited for our dream wedding!

 

We requested via the wedding co-ordinator, our travel agent & the wedding department to have dinner in the evening of our wedding for the 31 guests that are sailing. We've been going through circles and we don't actually have anything booked yet. Since my family is from Canada & my fiancé's family is from USA, we have two separate group numbers although we booked through the same travel agent. Plus, our agent has some of our attendees on My Time Dining & some on Traditional dining times. Because of all this, no one has been able to help us find a way to get everyone to dine together. If I had known it would come to this, I would have told everyone just to book in the same currency & ensure with our travel agent that we're on the same dining style. The Wedding Department has reached out directly to the ship to see if someone can help. Otherwise, you'll see me prancing around the buffet on the wedding day in my dress. 

 

Since we have 69 attendees who are not sailing, everyone had to send their ID's to the ship prior to boarding for security clearance. Turns out, one of our attendees had a previous issue on a RC trip and our wedding coordinator called us to let us know he was denied boarding. That was quite the awkward conversation we had to have with our guest, apparently there was an altercation on an RC cruise a few years back. 

 

Other than that, sent in the final details to the ship and waiting for the final invoice from the wedding department. We're SO excited for the big day! 

 

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la_croisiere_s'amuse

la_croisiere_s'amuse

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2 hours ago, helloxxannie said:

Turns out, one of our attendees had a previous issue on a RC trip and our wedding coordinator called us to let us know he was denied boarding. That was quite the awkward conversation we had to have with our guest.

 

Ohhh boy, I can only imagine how awkward. 😳 Sorry you had to deal with that.

 

Congratulations on your wedding and I look forward to following along! 

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LilBlackDress

LilBlackDress

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Word of advice... 

The Wedding Experience was RCs vendor back in 2009 when we got married on Indy. There was a lot miscommunication between TWE, RC and myself. Royal Romance has changed vendors a few times and even had an in house division for awhile.
My Advice... Print out your contract, your package info, your guest list and any important changes or upgrages you made. KEEP IT WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES!! Or Give it to a family member, someone in the bridal party anyone who will keep it from the time you get in the terminal until after the ship leaves!!! 

They told us I didn't purchase an add-on package that included alcohol for our guests. I didn't have the proof so everyone either had champagne or paid out of pocket for drinks. The odd part was 4 guests that were not sailing with us, paid with cash for drinks?!?!?!? Not sure who got that money. Just Sayin

When we returned home I was reimbursed but it should have never come to that. 

 

Another thing we asked for (and did receive😉) was an extra photo shoot during one of the Sea Days. It gaves us more time with our non sailing guests during the reception and some opportunity to take our time and not be so rushed. They gave us all the proofs that were unedited. Not sure if they were supposed to do that or not 

 

Edited by LilBlackDress
Typos
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nelblu

nelblu

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That's wonderful.

 

Wonder if there are any other celebratory events that Royal allows on their ships.

 

Decades & decades ago, cruise ships allowed family and friends to board and celebrate with Bon Voyage parties.   Those were the days of streamers and confetti adorning the ship and pier.😊

 

 

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helloxxannie

helloxxannie

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8 hours ago, LilBlackDress said:

Word of advice... 

The Wedding Experience was RCs vendor back in 2009 when we got married on Indy. There was a lot miscommunication between TWE, RC and myself. Royal Romance has changed vendors a few times and even had an in house division for awhile.
My Advice... Print out your contract, your package info, your guest list and any important changes or upgrages you made. KEEP IT WITH YOU AT ALL TIMES!! Or Give it to a family member, someone in the bridal party anyone who will keep it from the time you get in the terminal until after the ship leaves!!! 

They told us I didn't purchase an add-on package that included alcohol for our guests. I didn't have the proof so everyone either had champagne or paid out of pocket for drinks. The odd part was 4 guests that were not sailing with us, paid with cash for drinks?!?!?!? Not sure who got that money. Just Sayin

When we returned home I was reimbursed but it should have never come to that. 

 

Another thing we asked for (and did receive😉) was an extra photo shoot during one of the Sea Days. It gaves us more time with our non sailing guests during the reception and some opportunity to take our time and not be so rushed. They gave us all the proofs that were unedited. Not sure if they were supposed to do that or not 

 

Wow! Thank you so much for the advice, it definitely seems like they're unorganized so I will be printing everything out and bringing it with us! 

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helloxxannie

helloxxannie

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3 hours ago, nelblu said:

That's wonderful.

 

Wonder if there are any other celebratory events that Royal allows on their ships.

 

Decades & decades ago, cruise ships allowed family and friends to board and celebrate with Bon Voyage parties.   Those were the days of streamers and confetti adorning the ship and pier.😊

 

 

Oh that sounds so fun!! 

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helloxxannie

helloxxannie

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Thanks to everyone for following along our journey! Thought I'd take the time to introduce ourselves properly!

 

My name is Annie, my fiancé is Bryan. I'm from Toronto, Ontario while Bryan was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale! As mentioned, we met on the Allure and we navigated through a long distance relationship over the past few years. Lots of flights back and forth and cruises across the Carribean - we made it work and we can't wait to set sail on the next chapter of our lives on Saturday! 

 

image.thumb.jpeg.eac51e7bcc8fc06abe86cce0e6c32e3f.jpeg

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Jimbo

Jimbo

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6 minutes ago, helloxxannie said:

Thanks to everyone for following along our journey! Thought I'd take the time to introduce ourselves properly!

 

My name is Annie, my fiancé is Bryan. I'm from Toronto, Ontario while Bryan was born and raised in Fort Lauderdale! As mentioned, we met on the Allure and we navigated through a long distance relationship over the past few years. Lots of flights back and forth and cruises across the Carribean - we made it work and we can't wait to set sail on the next chapter of our lives on Saturday! 

 

image.thumb.jpeg.eac51e7bcc8fc06abe86cce0e6c32e3f.jpeg

Congrats, Beautiful Couple.

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John&LaLa "Live from...." Rare

John&LaLa

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1 hour ago, helloxxannie said:

It will be at dazzles! There were other options such as Central Park, but due to the size of the wedding, dazzles was the only venue that would hold us all! 

 

We're doing Dazzles. Great venue

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