Can you marry on the bow?

[Jodyflower]

My fiance' and I are sailing January 15, 2005 on Splendour of the Seas and would like to have a no-frills, short wedding ceremony on the bow of the ship at port in Tampa before sailing. The only people in our wedding party will be our two children. We do not want to have a ceremony in the library or a lounge but on the bow of the ship. When we contacted Royal Romance, we were very rudely told that "with the fish smell and everything going on, not on this cruise line!! (Royal Caribbean)". I find this hard to believe and have tried to find a direct contact to RCCL to find out if this is possible but have not been able to get a straight answer. We were actually considering getting a Justice of the Peace in Tampa and just have them come on board and perform the ceremony on the bow - which is where we want it. If we could find a wedding coordinator that could pull this off so we can have flowers, photographer and a few frills on the BOW, we would definitely hire them! We just want the ambiance of being married outdoors on a ship. Has anyone done this or has a definitive answer as to whether or not RCCL would allow it? Any comments are much appreciated - thank you!:)

[MandyGirl]

Oooooohhhhh.... how romantic!! On our last cruise, we were near the tip of the bow (close to the bell) for sailaway. It was so awesome! No fish smells there! :) We thought it was neat because we had not been that close to the very front like that for sailaway, and our ship had a door where passengers could go out there (Holland America). Not all ships allow access like that, but some do.

 

I haven't read of weddings there though, but did a little searching using google. This article makes reference to the breeze blowing across the bow. This article references standing on the bow of the ship (Serenade of the Seas) to view the glaciers in Alaska. And you can have weddings on the bow of other vessels like Windjammer (and even on smaller catamarans)... so why not on a cruiseship when it is not moving?? I had no luck finding reference to a wedding held on the bow, but I didn't search all that long though.

You would imagine that a wedding coordinator company like Royal Romance that handles so many ships would put Customer service first. Maybe their business is booming so much right now they can afford to be rude like that??? In any case, not appropriate. I would suggest to call them back again, and hopefully get a different representative. Hopefully they would see that weddings don't have to be cookie-cutter weddings, and they actually might enjoy orchestrating a unique wedding that would create lifelong memories for a happy family. Sometimes, you just have to think outside of the box, and maybe the representative you spoke with has her box all sealed up with duct tape... :confused:

Unfortunately, if I am understanding correctly, if you are marrying onboard a ship at a port (or embarkation port) you must use the cruiseline's wedding coordinator group. Any nonsailing guests (like a JP, photographer, etc) must be registered in advance. Please post what you continue to find out!

[Jodyflower]

Mandy - I appreciate your comments very much! We will attempt to contact another coordinator at Royal Romance. It just seems like a simple request to us. If you can get married skydiving or even while scuba diving, why not on the bow of a ship? I will post any new info I find on this. In the meantime, if anyone out there gets wind of any info regarding this post, please let me know! Thanks!

[Jodyflower]

Well, I found out my answer - Royal Caribbean does not allow weddings ANYWHERE outdoors on their ships. It is considered a fire hazard to block walkways. I am a bit disappointed I must say because I couldn't possibly see how four people (my fiance', myself and the two children - there is no wedding party or guests) could be blocking walkways while the ship is in port when there will be over 2,000 people milling about on the ship while at sea...doesn't make sense to me. At least I have my answer (which I had to contact multiple people to get) and can pass this information on to any other hopeful brides or grooms out there. Looks like we might consider a port wedding now, probably in Grand Caymen (our first port). I'm off to find threads of weddings there! Thanks all!

[MandyGirl]

Jody - YUCK! That really bites! I wonder how different that is from having inside weddings and then the photographer taking pictures outside in those exact same areas? :confused: But my guess is that maybe one time, somewhere, there was almost some sort of incident... and it probably ruined it for everyone in the future. Maybe a legal liability of some sort in a round-about-way for Royal Caribbean????

 

The one and only negative thing I have ever read about Grand Cayman is that ports can be missed due to weather/rough seas since you definitely must tender in. We had researched that as well - especially since you can get there easier from Texas (cruises from Houston, Galveston, New Orleans...). That is the one thing that scared us away from there, so we started looking into eastern Caribbean. I wonder if you are able to get statistics somehow of cruises that miss a port due to weather/sea conditions? At least January isn't in hurricane season! I wonder if you post that question on the Cayman Islands boards under "Ports of Call" if you'll get much response? But, on both cruises that we went there (Nov & Dec) we made it to the island both times. :)

[Jodyflower]

Sorry for the long delay in replying to you, Mandy:o . I am so appreciative of your responses. We are now looking into getting married in Costa Maya. It is our last port of call on the cruise and we will be there the longest (7 a.m. to 11 p.m.). We have excursions planned at all our other destinations and none in Costa Maya, so we figured it would be better to get married on a day that is totally free. This might sound like we are putting excursions before our wedding, but we may never get the opportunity to cave tube in Belize or swim with sting rays in Caymen again. Besides, this is a second marriage for both of us and we just want it very simple - just somewhere tropical;) . I have had a difficult time finding info on weddings in Costa Maya but I finally found a site that plans them and I have sent them an inquiry via email. We'll see if we can make this work! Royal Romance was not the way to go for us. They would not budge an inch outside of their "cookie cutter" blueprint. Oh well, they just lost a sale by being that way. Will update when I get more info. Thanks again!

[Jodyflower]

Here's some more info: Costa Maya requires you to be in Mexico for three days prior to the wedding so you can get your blood tests there (will not accept blood test documents done elsewhere) and so all the paperwork can be translated to Spanish - there is no way around it. So a cruise wedding in Costa Maya is out of the question. We have decided to book a wedding through heartofcaymen.com in Grand Caymen. Besides the fact that they are easy to work with, Caymen does not require blood testing or any waiting period. So if anything, I hope I have given helpful info to any hopeful couples out there. Happy cruising to all!

[brigittetom]

Jodyflower, I'm guessing you are doing the Western. I wish you were doing the Southern because I could give you some very good information on getting married in St. Thomas. Beautiful and not alot of money wasted on wedding planners that aren't needed. Since you won't be having wedding guests you might want to contact the local courthouse in Grand Cayman. Look up local clergy on the internet and ask about their Island wedding procedures. I didn't need a wedding planner to be a go between and charge a fee for their service. You can do it all by yourself on the internet. Have a wonderful wedding.

[loten]

we are also getting married at Grand Cayman.

december 5, mariner of the seas

At first I contact the Wedding experience.

but they could not guarantee where the wedding would be.

And I could not change the flowers in their "package"

So now I have booked everything for myself over internet.

I have found a faboules place. A gazebo at the "Grand Old House" .

Also I booked flowers horse and carriage, and a photographer.

If you want to look at the Grand Old House the website is:

www.grandoldhouse.com They also have many helpfully links.

 

wish you the best luck

Charlotta

[Jodyflower]

Thank you all for your information! We have decided to book with Heart of Caymen because we want a simple beach ceremony which they can provide. We did get a phone number for the wedding official in Grand Caymen but to make it less stressful and have transportation to and from the ceremony site was more appealing to us. The wedding planner told me that they will provide transportation for us from the ship to whichever beach we choose. When I told her we weren't sure which beach we wanted she said no problem; they will drive us to a few beaches and then we can decide. We are ok with that because even though we are looking up beaches on the net, the setting at the time will ultimately decide for us. Thank you again for your responses and I wish the best for you as well:)

[Jodyflower]

Well, it's been awhile since my last post...we have been unable to get back in touch with Heart of Cayman to continue our wedding preparations since the hurricane! So with alot of serious thinking, we finally ended up booking with Royal Romance to be married while at port in Tampa the day of sailing. After reading comments from many about the possibility of not even stopping in Grand Cayman, we wanted to kind of have some "insurance" for our wedding and just marry the day of sailing. It is not our top pick to be married in the library (if that's where we end up) but at least we will have a ceremony and not worry about whether we would even be able to do THAT if the ship didn't stop on the island. Bon Voyage Jan. 15, 2005!

God bless all those on Grand Cayman and all the others who were so badly hit by the hurricanes...