mnmcutienyc

I did it. You're pretty much just paying for them the set up and use of a small table that you put the items you bought on. All of my guests (as well as myself) had never seen a sand ceremony before so it was definitely worth it!!

I got many ideas off of this site when I was preparing for my wedding so I figured I would give it a shot again and get some well needed advice. We got married May 2nd on the island of St Thomas while cruising with about 40 guests. Now we've decided to do a church wedding as well in Nov which gives us little time to plan. The question is what to do and how to start. I don't know the proper protocol involved. We were planning on having the church ceremony and then going to a nice restaurant afterward with just immediate family like our grandparents that weren't able to attend the DW. No big catering hall or anything since we were anticipating on having about 20-30 ppl out for a nice, intimate dinner. I will be wearing my wedding gown to the church and then planned on just buying another simple white gown to change into for dinner. Are we supposed to do the whole formal invitation all over again for so few ppl? Or can we just let ppl like friends, co-workers and such know by word of mouth that they can come witness us exchange our vows at the church? And then just let my family know since there is only a handful what our intentions are reception wise? My family is not formal at all so I was hoping we could get away with something like that. Or is this really out of the question?

We are doing an 8-day cruise out of NY and getting married on the beach of St Thomas. We tried to take into consideration the fact that a DW is inconvenient for most so we tried to work around it. We thought that choosing a cruise out of our hometown of NY rather than our regular cruise port of FL for convenience for our guests would be best.. We thought that by choosing a month like May when spring break was over would be good... We even went as far as taking into account that people would have their tax refunds by then to have extra pocket money. Still, we got grief from those around us when they heard that we were still going through with our plans. We had to do what we knew would make us happy and be selfish for just this one time. What we chose to do was pay for our immediate family members to join us; my parents, his parents as well as my sister and her family. My best friend and her family booked right away as soon as I told her. These are the only people we felt that we HAD to have with us. Invites will be out shortly and I would love to have all of my friends and family share in our wedding, but if they can't we understood that would happen by sacrificing and doing a DW. At least we made sure that our parents will be with us! We only finalized all our details last week and so far we have 12 guests booked!!!

Prettyhazardous... I just have to say that you did a fantastic job with all your wedding planning...your website was phenomenal and full of great info for all of your guests. I am looking at doing the same type of destination wedding like you. We estimate to have at least 20 guests joining us and cruising out of NY on the Carnival Miracle and marrying on St Thomas. We still haven't decided whether or not to use Carnival Wedding Coordinators or do like you did and book directly with the vendors on the island. May I ask, what was your deciding factor in doing it that way?

Thanks for all the great info!!

I, myself am still in the process of figuring out how to go about doing a cruise wedding for the end of April 2011. I don't intend on getting married aboard the (Carnival Miracle) ship; instead I plan on having the ceremony on the island of St Thomas which looks just so beautiful. I have been reading so many of these forums for advice and ideas on whether or not to book the actual cruise and all the formalities directly with the cruise line, find a TA or go off on my own and find a vendor from the island which might end up being cheaper and more customized. I have sailed with Carnival 3x already and have been pleased each time.

May have been long, but well worth it. So much info! Thanks.

My fiance and I just LOVE taking cruises. Our last cruise was on the Carnival Glory less than a month ago and that will always be a vacation to remember. We got engaged in Belize and continued celebrating for the remainder of the trip!! I never wanted a "traditional" wedding so we both agreed that it would only be natural for us to do a cruise/destination wedding. Only in the early stages and haven't made any final decisions yet so we are open to ideas. We live in NY and for convenience purposes, we were able to narrow it down to a cruise leaving from NY at the end of April 2011. St Thomas would be the only island on our itinerary which would allow for a ceremony. My question is do we do everything directly through Carnival Wedding staff which seems to be pricey for the little that they offer, look for a wedding coordinator in St Thomas or deal with a travel agent in my area? ~Maria~