Tobi

Quote: Originally Posted by merocket59 Good review, I'm a little sad to hear about the service on Destiny but I've read it in other reviews as well so I will go in knowing not to expect much, as long as we have our fam and friends there we'll have fun too! I completely agree that your photographer gets an A++ those pics are great!! Well hopefully you will luck out. We had guests that had great service form their room attendant so we just got a sucky one =) I'm sure they are on every ship. Like you said, you guys will have a blast no matter what.

Next port was Jamaica where we did our TTD and the Dunns River Falls/Mahagony Beach excursion (not through the cruise ship but a private company). TTD pics: Jarva Shaw tour guide: A+ Then we used Marva Shaw tours and we had her son Jarva take us to Dunns Falls and Mahagony Beach. It was a BLAST! It was so cheap compared to the cruise excursion...I highly recommend them. My Aunt sprained her ankle on the falls when she fell down at the end and some of the guys rented a bananna boat at the Mahogany Beach and 1 ended up w a cracked rib! OOPS so be careful! It was one of the best parts of the trip.

IPOD reception: A+ This was cheap and worked great. We did not miss the DJ at all. Since we had an absent wedding coordinator we knew the timing of certain events by the song that was playing. This kept us on time with garter toss, cake, etc. Our first dance was to Red on a Rose by Alan Jackson: When we got back onto the boat one of the GM had the reggae band play us a song so we danced again... We thre our vows overboard as we left the port: Continued...

Officiant: Rev. Godfrey Meghoo A He got a little long winded for our taste but he was exceptional! He did a palm blessing after we read our handwritten vows and worked into the ceremony being barefoot on the beach with a biblical story. Guests commented on the great job he did. Transportation in Grand Cayman: A We used Majestic Tours for a bus to p/u our guests from port and take them to the hotel and back to port after the wedding. The bus we very nice and the driver gave an impormptu tour of the island which was great. We also used the company for a BMW for my DH and I to get back to port. I recommend having separate vehicles because it gave us some time to be alone and enjoy the moment. They were reasonably priced and reliable service. Photographer: Summer Gibbs and Megan Kime A++ These 2 wonderful ladies came with us on the trip and went above and beyond with georgeous shots of the entire trip. They were a wonderful decision and I would recommend either of them over and over again. In fact one fo my bridesmaids is getting married this Oct and is using one of them. Our pics are on both of their websites if you'd like to check them out: Summergibbs.com Megankime.com Continued...

Ok so I am finally doing my review. We had a 5 night cruise with 35 guests and a beachside wedding in Grand Cayman at Grand Cayman Beach Suites with cocktail and hors 'd. Cruise ship: C Beautiful cruise ship with tons of activites to keep everyone happy. Clean and updated. Food was not that great with the exception of the lobster, nachos, and sushi bar! Service was not very good either. Our room stewart sucked and was not even friendly. I don't recommend taking a kid below the age of 6 to 8 on a cruise...it's really not very fun for them! All in all we had a WONDERFUL trip because we were surrounded by our best friends and family...you could put us in a cardboard box and we would have fun. Grand Cayman Beach Suites: A+ The hotel where we had the ceremony and reception was beautiful! The food was great (a little on the expensive side so thank goodness we did appetizers) and the bartender service was great. Wedding coordinator Caroline Deegan: D- Comes with an wedding package at the Beach Suites. She sucks! She coordinated 3 details of my day and that was the officiant, flowers, and cake. The only time I saw her the wedding day was when I gave her the cake stand before the wedding and when we walked down the aisle she timed us out. How do you coordinate a wedding you do not attend? She gave me quotes on transportation for my guests and rental of a mic that were 4 times higher than what I got when contacting vendors. She also refused to coordinate the timing of the paperwork with the officiant so I had to contact him myself. Here are the pics of what I wanted my cake and flowers to look like compared to what they turned out as...in the end it didn't matter but FYI Actual: Requested: Actual: Requested: Continued...

My radio morning show reports that they are back together! He called her on her bday and they have reconciled since then. I can't believe she would feel that low about herself. So sad!

i love your shoes! i think rccl is the best cruiseline ive been on too. we decided on carnival and did not have the service or food i was familiar with on rccl. completely off topic but has anyone ever told you that you look like nicole richie??

Thanks for all the compliments guys! It's hard to get over the fact that these images are actually us at our wedding and not someone elses beautiful images to envy. I was very lucky we made the right choice not knowing much about our photographer. We lucked out though. You all have inspired me to pick my own top ten favorites (of course I can't just pick one!) because I have been flipping back to check out the pics when you list your favorite number. In no particualr order =)... 271 341 572 728 734 994 982 973 712 959 Ceremony shot-480 GM-359 BM-326 Son-527 DH-681 Me-867

Quote: Originally Posted by JoLo908 OMG a mountaineer bride! I love it! I went to WVU! PS you look gorgeous! Congrats! Ha! LETS GO...Mountaineers! My hubby is from WV and he bleeds blue and gold so the garter was for him

Quote: Originally Posted by lil_miss_frogg I LOVE LOVE LOVE the picture of you and your DH and your baby. Am I safe in assuming that IS your baby? I can't wait to see some non pro pics because these were great! Yes, thats OUR baby =) Oh yes...the pro pics are in! I put the gallery link online.

Quote: Originally Posted by DanielleNDerek beautiful. and how did you copy the snapfish pics. i've tried to do it like a 100 times and they always copy to be way small. This is the problem I had! I figured a sneaky way to go to "share" then share with a link then email it to yourself but make sure you are logged out of snapfish. When you click on the link it brings up the pic in a medium size and you can right click it and save to your computer. It was TRICKY!

I wouldn't have posted the non-pro if I'd have know I'd be getting my pro gallery back today...KWINKYDINK. Summer Gibbs is AMAZING! I recommend her 110%. I told her and everyone else I know that besides marrying my hubby she is the best decision we made! You'll see that she shot the wedding, TTD, climbing the Dunns Falls/beach in Jamaica, plus numerous great shots around the boat. I can not thank her enough![ Check out the gallery and it's 1200 beautiful pics! If you have any questions about her feel free to ask. She is not a member of this site but I am going to ask her to join! To get to your gallery: 1) Go to my website, Summer Gibbs Photography - North Carolina and Destination Wedding Photography - photojournalistic and romantic style 2) Click on Clients 3) Type "tobi" when it asks for a password.

Quote: Originally Posted by merocket59 Are you back? How was it? Oh it was amazing! We had the best time ever and all of our guests said it was the best wedding they have ever been to. Not a bad compliment! I am waiting on my pro pics to do a formal review but I posted some non-pro pics if you want to check them out. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t37620

Various shots of our wonderful day!! Our first dance (our song is like red on a rose by Alan Jackson. It goes back to the first time we said I love you to eachother): The handsome boys posing for a pro pic (we didnt get any of the BMs with me as non-pro cuz they were the ones taking pics and the other guests werent there yet): Throwing our hand written vows over board as we left the Grand Cayman port: I can't wait to share my pro pics since these non-pro do not do the day justice despite how great they are.

I am drooling while awaiting my pro-pics but we got some good ones collected from our guest so I FINALLY figured out how to cheat snapfish out of a decent size pic to copy. Hope you enjoy!! (Oh ya...I'm going to do my official review once I get my pro pics back) Ceremony spot on 7 mile beach behind the Grand Cayman Beach Suites Reception spot for cocktails and munchies Flowers...look nothing like my inspiration pic which I will attach for the review but atleast I liked them! The cake on the other hand...didnt look like the pic and didnt really like it even though it was super YUMMY more to come...

You will prolly be able to find some good sales for after Valentines Day clearance. I found mine at Burlington coat factory (of all places!) for the cutest sets at $12!! I bought a couple and then ended up getting like 5 more at my bachlorette party. My hubby is happy =)

The onboard credit is a given (comes with a group booking in most cases) and is very appreciated by the guests but I think the personalized towels are a great idea too. They will come in handy when you are off the boat exploring the islands. I just came back from our cruise wedding and we have an 18 mo old (stroller, diapers, etc) and did the OOT bags anyways. Which in the end they were pretty small and only took up a 1/2 of a small suitcase. Our guests carried them around the pool and enjoyed the coozies inside. It's totally up to you and I am sure they will love whatever you decide.

i would suggest maybe going to Welcome to Weather Underground : Weather Underground and looking up your wedding date temps in past years. itll give you a good idea of what climate you are looking at. i stalked this site when i was planning for my own wedding.

Our wedding was at 11 a.m. and I felt rushed simply because I had to get ready, get off the cruise ship, and meet the Rev in port by 9:30 am or our ceremony would not be legal. As long as you are already at the hotel or location you are getting married and no meetings need to take place prior to then I say go for it! Just be prepared to wake up early but if you are like me you'll prolly be so excited you can't sleep in anyways.

i dont have our pics back yet but we wrote "thank you' in the sand on the beach where our ceremony took place.

My turn!! Would do again: **Marry my soulmate of course! People say marriage won't change the relationship but my hubby has been opening car doors for me and big time effort around the house...wow! wonder how long it will last...LOL **Have a destination cruise wedding in the Grand Caymans but thru a local hotel (Grand Cayman Beach Suites)and not thru the ship wedding coordinators. I believe this saved us a ton of money plus flexibility to do what we wanted and a prettier backdrop of the beach instead of the ship. **Have a ceremony on the beach and cocktail reception on the pool deck...2 beautiful spots which allowed for tons of great pics. **IPOD reception. Again saved us money and we had every song we wanted in the order we chose. It also kept us on time with cake cutting and 1st dance. **Hired Summer Gibbs as my photographer instead of a local GC photog! She is awesome and fits right in with our entire party. Not only did she do the wedding and TTD as expected but she went to our Dunn Falls excursion with us and shot the entire climb! Also taking pics of events on the boat like us girls singing kareoke (sp?) and a private cocktail hour. She brought her assistant along so I got 2 for the price of 1! She showed me a few pics on her camera and I cant wait to see them all and have them to share!! **Wear a veil for the ceremony and hair flower for the reception. I loved the 2 looks and am happy that I didn't choose one or the other. **Make a welcome brochure with room numbers on it. Everyone used these throughout the trip. It was a lifesaver. **Get custom coozies, tshirts, and hats. My DH said none of the guys would wear the shirts but he ate his words by the end of the trip when everyone had worn their atleast one time. Everyone loved them. **Hire a car for our transport back to the ship while guests went in a bus. It gave my hubby and I a second to just savor the moment alone. Plus the guests in the bus got a mini tour of the island which they loved. Majestic Tours did a great job! **All white for my groom. It made him stand out against the GM who wore khaki linen pants w white and blue pin stripe linen tops. The embroidery on my DH's shirt actually matched my dress! It looked great. **Had the girls wear long chiffon BM dresses. I took me forever to settle on their dresses but the chiffon blew in the wind and looked light yet elegant...I was happy with my choice! **Not pay extra for girls bouqets. I was the only one with flowers since that is what the package came with and nobody ever missed them! I'm glad I didn't spend the $$ **Would do everything again! Our day was as close to perfect as it gets! Would not do again: **I made our OOT bags with an iron on transfer. Numerous people used these daily at the pool to hold their items and by the end of the trip the transfer was peeling and looked like crap! I would have splurged on the bags to get them professionally done or embroidered. **Found a kid friendly cruise ship. Carnival advertised their day camps for kids but my 18 mo old did not qualify most of the programs (only 2 hrs per day...during nap time!) and he hated 75% of the week we were away. If he would have had a chance to play with other kids and toys he would have felt more "normal" and had a better time. **Had our wedding in Feb. The weather was beautiful until the last day at sea which was super windy and a little chilly. I wished it could have been 10 degrees warmer so everyone could enjoy the pool. If I did it again, I would make the wedding in April. **Depended on our hotel wedding coordinator (came w the package) for anything. The only thing she coordinated was timing the wedding party at the ceremony. She was not even at my reception. I coordinated the transportation, mic, timing of the day, meeting with the Rev to sign paperwork, etc. She did the flowers and cake which looked nothing like the pics I sent her (still beautful though).

Feb 2 sure did seem like a long time away when I started planning a year and 1/2 ago but it is done and over with now! The wedding was absolutely perfect! We were complete babies reading our hand written vows and we must have had the audience captured because the reverend reminded them they may have a seat after we read them aloud =) I'll do a review later but Rev Meghoo did a great job and read a palm prayer which I had never heard of before but it was awesome! He even worked in the whole barefoot on the beach theme by using the "take of your shoes to walk on holy ground, etc". We did a cocktail and appetizer reception on the pool deck (in a trellis area)which looked beautiful on display and tasted great. Then back to the boat for dinner and dancing. We would not change a single thing! I already watched the video and cried my eyes out when I was reminded about all of the special moments which happend that day. It was totally US, totally PERFECT and I got several comments from guests saying it was the best wedding they have ever been to...WOW! Good luck to those of you right around the corner...it's rewarding to see all of your hard work come together and work out 'just right'!! A couple super small pics are below in my signature. I can't wait to get the real ones from the photographer and share them out!

we live in FL so no need to get a hotel. we have borrowed my cousin's "mini winne" (motor home) to get a huge group of people to the pier...its our homemade party bus =)

i LOVE the back of your dress...just beautiful!