Reese78

Hi Ladies! Got back a couple days ago from a wonderful vacation and wedding. It was way better than I could of imagined. Our Royal Romance coordiantors and officiant did a fantastic job! They were all brothers and sisters and went above and beyond handling things once we got on the ship. Of course we were running late..in part due to the slow elevators @ the hotel..but we made it. The cruise was great of course except we had to miss Cozumel, Mexico because of the swine flu. I will suggest if you are shipping your dress to make sure you have business days cushioned before the wedding. This will help in case your dress gets lost which unfortunately was the case for me. Thanks to the quick thinking of the shipper I used I did this and my dress was located and delivered before the wedding. Take your time and enjoy every minute. I want a do over cause it went by so fast ;-)

Hi Ladies! Been back for a couple of days and am trying to get back to my regular self...whatever that is now. Our wedding onboard Royal Caribbean's Freedom of the Seas was more than I thought it could ever be. Surprisingly, Royal Romance, who handles the weddings onboard, did a fantastic job! I took the advice of previous brides and kinda went with the flow and it made that day so much easier. It was such a surreal experience. I did not figure out what I was going to do with my hair until that morning. It turned out great though. Believe it or not my dress ended up being a little too big...what a pleasant surprise...however since it was a corset back no one knew. I also want to suggest that brides who are shipping their dresses be sure to have business days in case the dress gets lost; this unfortunately happened to me and thanks to the person @ the shipping place I did this and my dress was found rather quickly and I received it in time. Other than that and a couple other minor hiccups the day went great and I am ecstatic to be Mrs. Boston :-)

Tamster how are you doing in the home stretch? You have under week. Hope its the greatest time of your life! Be sure to come back and share your experience. Got my final info last week and boy are you right about the cost. We're happy with our selections though.

Welcome to all the recently added cruise brides! I am getting so excited as we are 2 weeks away from the big day. I pray that things go fairly smoothly and remembering other brides suggestions to go with the flow. I'm just finalizing the last minute items on the to-do list. How are you ladies doing?

Sorry for the double post :-(

OMG....This may be it. I've listened to this song thousands of times and absolutely love it. Until I saw your post I'd never thought of walking down to this. So glad I viwed this thread Quote: Originally Posted by JanerisyWilfredo Im walking down to Finally by Fergie. Most of my friends haven't even heard the song. But it's so beautiful. And soooo me.

OK. I think I've been avoiding this thread because I have not done much. I have had two fittings for my dress and have not ordered my veil. I dont know what the hell I'm waiting for...LOL Just have to figure out ceremony music; anyone has any suggestions of a good compilation CD? Happy Planning to us all!! Dont forget to enjoy every minute!

I was going to add flowers for everyone (2 mothers, 2 fathers, 1 groomsmen, 1 Matron). Also a cake but the size depends on our final guest count - the RSVPs are coming in as we speak. An additional hour of photography and the Videography package. I thought about the DJ but we just decided to do CD's or see if we can hook our Ipod up. That's pretty much it. Just typing it here has made me realize the cost of all these additons. Whew....

Tamster I've looked on cruise critics for more details as brides come back after the fact and post on there. We are doing a two hour reception and our rep told us that no matter what it will be over aound 3pm so that non-sailing guests can deboard. She also informed me that most weddings start around 1pm. This is for Miami though I doubt if it will be drasticly diff at Cape Canaveral. I'm getting nervous too and hope that things dont go crazy wrong. We havent even finalized enhancements. Have you; which ones did you decide on?

One of the inserts of our invitations was accomodations. We just listed a few hotels and let everyone know which one we were staying at. I wasnt sure if we were going to have enough people to do a block and if that would affect the price when the time comes to stay. I also said to check the website for more info and on there I included the same hotels from the invitations with a little more detail including the price. I also said to try your favorite travel site to get the best deal. We chose to use the same hotel that we always use when traveling. We also were against the block for the same reason Cattie stated; we already have enough on our plates.

Hi Ladies! Wondering if I'm the only cruise bride getting married in April. Looking to see how we're doing as we close in on the 2 month mark. I'm doing good but still got alot to do. The first thing I have to do is stop buying every cute thing I see. Aparently I've forgotten that I and the guest have to travel with this stuff. BTW: I'm on RCCL Freedom of the Seas. Embarkation day wedding.

The great thing about this process is that you can do what you want. I think that a destination wedding has a whole new set of rules and those rules start with the Bride and Groom. I too added things to my To Do list after joining several message boards. Some I'm keeping and others I'm doing without. We're going to keep some traditional elements and let other go. Like TylersGirl said you're guests will not even miss what you dont have. I'm a strong believer that all this should be a reflection of the couple and my FI and I are too laid back for a bunch of formalities. Don't sweat it and enjoy planning the beginning of your journey together.

I havent but boy do I need to go. Just had my first fitting. The dress fit but of course a few more pounds wouldn't hurt ;-)

Congrats and Welcome to the forum! You'll find what you need here for sure. Happy Planning.

Congrats! I'm sure you'll find all the info you need and more in the forum. Happy Planning.

Quote: Originally Posted by Prettyhazardous Sarice I'm taking my bms to the Bridal Boutique on Sat. Did your bms get their gowns there? We are also checking out David's bc I would expect them to be a little less expensive. One of my bms dropped out this morning so I'm contemplating what I'll do. At this point I only have 2 bms. We have 3 groomsmen. I have two sorors going (maybe more but definitely two line sisters) and I really didn't want to leave them out, but I want an even numbers aof males and females and I dont want to have to pick n choose from my sorors. Ahh the stress why couldn't my FI have more friends. I know what you mean; we just have 1 Matron/Bestman for the same reason. My sister is my matron and we got her dress from an Alfred Angelo in Coral Gables; she lives in Miami. The Bridal Boutique carries Alfred Angelo and I think my sisters dress was a little over $100 (defin not $150). She loves it too; the good thing about the small wedding party is that I gave her complete freedom on the dress. I cant speak for the other designers the Bridal Boutique carries but you can check their website as well as some deisgners that you like; Bridal Boutique likely carries them. Then you can go to David's online and compare prices. I have no idea what brides did before the internet; I couldnt imagine having to go to the stores to do my research

Ok ladies I have a question. Where are you having your Bridal Shower? I know...I know we are not suppose to plan this but I've been asked where I want to do this. Trying to consider convenience for everyone and not sure if a home will accomodate all the guest; may end up being 20 to 30 people. I've considered a favorite retaurant but they dont have a private room; we would just have a section of the restuarant. Is that OK? I'm so confused; does anyone have any suggestions?

We had announcements of our cruise wedding and purchased them from invitations by dawn; there were called Set Sail. Here is the link: Invitations By Dawn

Quote: Originally Posted by ~Andrea~ Hey fellow cruise brides! We are back from our wedding cruise on Freedom of the Seas and it was fabulous! That ship is amazing, so much to do, delicious food, and the best staff around. Sarice, you will just love your cruise! Make sure to check out lunch in the main dining room. I didn't discover that until the last day and it was so yummy! They have this giant salad bar and you walk around and point to what you want. The chef mixes it all together, chops it up, and serves it with fresh bread. OMG that sounds so good right now ! Our guests kept thanking us for picking such a great ship. That was a big relief to hear! My advice after going through our wedding and cruise experience is to be ready for whatever comes your way. Everything I had read on different wedding message boards said be prepared as something will go wrong on your wedding day. Their advice was to just go with it and everything will be fine. Because of their advice, I went on this journey saying I will be totally satisfied as long as I come home married. That really helped me deal with the bumps in the road we encountered on our wedding day. And it turns out we were really really lucky to have our wedding! I woke up, stepped out on my balcony in Jamaica, and found it to be super humid, cloudy, windy, and rainy. On the way to the hotel it rained even more. Once we got to the hotel our WC said we needed to be ready to go promptly at 1 p.m. as pouring rain and a cold front was approaching and we needed to beat it. The WC ran around setting up tents and clearing out the rainwater and mud. After I saw 1:15 pass, then 1:30 p.m. pass with no one coming to get me and my dad, I knew something was wrong. The WC called my room and asked when we needed to be back on the ship. She said everyone was in place and ready to go except the minister hadn't showed up yet. OMG, I couldn't believe it! I was able to let the terrible weather go and accept the fact that there would be no beach pictures, etc. but leaving there unmarried wasn't an option. They scrambled to find another minister and he showed up around 1:45. The new minister was sooooooooo amazing! He gave a beautiful ceremony and palm blessing. I guess it was meant to be that he would marry us . Anyway, I hope by sharing this you can see it never goes as planned but at least it still goes! One of the biggest bummers to me is our pictures and video. We weren't able to get many because of the down pouring rain and wind. We had to hide under tents and this pink cement structure and that's where we took almost all of our photos . But, I do have tons of memories from all of the craziness! The next day our ship was unable to get to Grand Cayman because of weather and a couple on our ship couldn't have their wedding. My heart broke for them and I also knew how fortunate and blessed we were to have our day. I don't have many pictures yet to share. Sarice, if you want Freedom of the Seas pics let me know. As my family/friends start loading them onto our photoshare site I can send them your way! Let me know if you have any questions! Oh, you mentioned needing lots of support in your strapless dresses. I'm also bigger on top (DD) and was worried about that. My seamstress sewed cups under the lining of my dress and it worked perfectly!!! At first I hated the idea of not being able to wear a bra. She suggested buying Hollywood Tape as a security blanket and it worked like a charm! Plus, you won't have to worry about your bra showing or pulling on your dress. OMG! You looked beautiful! Congrats and I'm glad everything worked out in spite of the weather. I would love to see your pics. We are really starting to get excited about the cruise and wedding and surprisingly so is the family. We just sent out our invitations so people are starting to call us; this is also the reason for the delay in my reply...the labor of love that is wedding . I just had my first fitting and the seamstress said I should be fine no cups or anything. It kinda worries me but with the corset back I was OK; it was still weird no bra and out in public. Outside of a swimsuit this is first time for my DD's I even considered having her add straps but she assured me I will be fine; had me walk around a bit and I'll admit I didnt think I would pop out. The final decision will have to be made by the next fitting though.

Quote: Originally Posted by San Fran Sarah Hi Ladies-- I've been lurking on this post for a while I thought I'd chime in. Does anyone elses FI still need to purchase his suit and groomsmen clothes? I'm starting to panic that it isn't going to get done! We still need to get our rings too so I'm way behind. I can't believe how close it is! It's hard to get any work done. I feel like I could do wedding stuff full time. Nope Sarah, you're not alone. FI has been avoiding going to purchase his suit. Thank goodness the best man already has a suit in our color. Don't panic - trying to not to myself. We went and got my ring last week due to my persistence; he is wearing is grandfather's wedding band who recently passed away - so rings are a check. I guess my FI is like most guys and can wait till the day before the wedding to get everything. Then they wonder why we freak out My most pressing concern is getting the invites out. UGH....

We had T-Shirts made with our logo that say "I went to their wedding and all I got was this lousy T-Shirt!" We're planning on putting them in OOT bags. Since we are doing a cruise wedding those guests that are sailing will have the typical OOT bag items (i.e. first aid kit, tissues, etc) and our non sailing guests will have candy and matches in them. I felt like the matches were pretty "standard/cheesy" but the boxes looked to cute to pass up. I can see us adding more goodies to the OOT bags. Lurking the forum to finalize items.

Wow that looks awesome! Never thought about making my own. Perhaps I'll have to look into it now.

Wow that looks awesome! Never thought about making my own. Perhaps I'll have to look into it now.

Quote: Originally Posted by Prettyhazardous That makes sense but my FI really had his heart set on being married on the beach (Like Martin and Gina haha). That's his only wedding request oh and that he doesn't have to wear a suit. So I'm like ok I'll give you those two things. Thus far I have only ordered my gown (like 2 weeks ago) but I loved my one experience there. I'm usually a person who takes forever to make a decision but I got my gown on my first visit there.My consultant was Julie she was great, not at all overbearing but she knew her stuff and knew what would l;ook righ on me, yet she still allowed my mom to pick stuff that was soo not me style just to make her feel good. I actually went there to get this Alfred Angelo gown but they didnt have it so I tried on other gowns and fell in love with this Mori Lee gown. I don't know how familiar you are with Pikesville but We Fit on right on Riestertown road near Backfin resturaunt. Everyone in my family gets their undegarments for weddings or speical events there. We are all rather busty lol. Ah man a beach wedding; thats going to be beautiful! Do you have to bring the dress for getting the undergarment? I just want to make sure my ladies remain in their place for the whole day. This was one of my major concerns doing the strapless dress; support for the ladies. I dont wear anything strapless cause I just dont feel supported with the strapless bra's. Thanks for the referral!

Hi Ladies! Wondering if anyone is buying actual first aid kits? If not, what type of container are you buying to put all the goodies in? I am at a lost of what type and where people are getting these. Did I miss something? Trying to find all the goodies even I dont put everything together for another month...I know I'm a procrastinator but I know it'll all get done Just hope I'm sane afterwards.