Ecofrugal

We're also bringing our own photographer. Photography is one of the most important details for me and half of our budget is going toward ours. I would not trust a cruise photographer with my big day. We aren't announcing it to the cruise line who she is, she's just coming as a guest and will just happen to be at the wedding with some cameras. With so many people with cameras these days, for all the cruiseline knows the "pro" is just a cousin with a fancy camera or something. I remember one bride joking that the photographer was her "best friend from college"... yeah, they had never met before the cruise! But, again, the cruiseline doesn't know this, nor do I think they really care at the end of the day.

Not sure about that but they all had them. And the coordinators were talking to the photographers and telling them how the ceremony would go so the coordinators knew the B&G had hired their own. And no one kicked them off. I think it's like Sandals. You aren't supposed to bring your own, but if they are a guest and they are sailing (or staying at the resort) they aren't going to turn away their money.

Hey LadyLove! I am technically a March bride (March 1st), but our cruise leaves on February 26th so I feel more like a February bride sometimes since all of my deadlines are then. Also an RCI bride (Navigator). We actually just sent our invitations out last week. Can I ask why you sent yours out so early??

Weird! I remember posting the first two replies but they didn't show up so I posted the third one. Now there's the first two replies. Sorry! I didn't mean to post all the same info twice!

So glad I could help!! And happy you got the answers you were looking for. I swear, adding the word "wedding" on anything just makes it so much more difficult and expensive!

Is that a current map? Did they lift the warnings on the Acapulco area??? We were originally planning a wedding at Playa Viva but changed plans because of a warning about travel to the Acapulco airport. US travelers were apparently being targeted and we figured better safe than sorry. So now we're getting married in Haiti. <---- (Seriously, though, it's a peninsula owned by Royal Caribbean!). Anyway, I don't like TheKnot sites. For one, they are searchable and I have a semi-crazy ex-husband to worry about! And for two, I hear really wonky things happen with them. Like guests typing in your URL and ending up on a different couple's website and RSVPs not being delivered. Instead I spent all weekend building one on Weebly. I got a custom URL from GoDaddy.com for $7.50 (look up coupon codes on Retail Me Not for .com URLs or just get a .info for $0.99). http://www.janineandcody.com I like our site because we had a lot more info to put in there than just wedding info. In fact, we don't even really have a wedding info page yet! If you want something fully customizable I recommend Weebly. But it does require a little more work since it's not directly set up for wedding websites.

I haven't been to Dreams but I have been to Moon Palace. Here are some thoughts... -It's a really, really big resort. It's actually like 3-4 resorts sort of put into one. I can't remember what the name of the section we stayed in was, but it's the section with the animal buildings. I don't remember the room number, but it was the second floor of the building with the red bird sitting on a green twig. Helpful? Haha! Anyway, we had a great view of the Catholic wedding gazebo and watched several weddings from our balcony. I love how they bring brides up in the horse drawn carriages. Anyway, my biggest complaint was the size. It took forever to walk anywhere and you had to wait forever for a shuttle. My friend was 24 weeks pregnant when we went and it rained almost the whole time we were there (mid-April). The tiles they use for the outdoor walkways get EXTREMELY slippery when wet (I doubt they were made to be outdoor tiles!) so we would walk everywhere using the covered walkways so it took us at least 7-10 minutes to get anywhere on our side of the resort. -The rooms are AMAZING! I think we booked the lowest level resort view room, but we could still see part of the ocean from our room. The beds were beyond comfortable! My pregnant friend didn't want to leave because she actually slept well at night in them. The hot tubs in each room are amazing even though it's a *little* odd that they are in the middle of the rooms. We only used it one night but it was nice. -The food is fantastic. We would always go to a restaurant for "first dinner" and then a few hours later order room service for "second dinner" (pregnant friend, remember?). I enjoyed every meal, although the room service quality and timing went downhill later in the week as the resort filled up more and since it was raining I think more people were ordering. Still good though. -Free calls to the US and free internet (in 2010 anyway) are a huge, huge bonus! I was able to call clients and do some work online while I was there without spending any extra money. -GREAT pools! But during our stay the beach was closed so we couldn't enjoy that. The rain brought up a bunch of muck and they didn't clear the sea weed off the beach the whole time we were there which was a little disappointing. Even if we could go in the ocean I still would have liked to lounge on the beach, but they didn't even put the chairs out. The pools made up for it, but it wasn't the "beach" trip I was expecting. But even the bads (a little too big and it rained almost the whole time) didn't spoil all of the amazing goods for us. And I really, really like how they do weddings. If you want to be treated like a princess I recommend getting married here!

I stayed at Sandals Negril in 2008 for a wedding. It was great! I loved the rooms (I don't remember the name but we were in the buildings set to the back next to the swim-up rooms... they are like 4 little houses with 4 rooms each, 2 on each level). From the map it looks like they are right against the road but we heard no traffic noise. I love the 4Cs restaurant the most. Delicious pasta! I'm sure a lot has changed since 2008 so I won't say much more other than wherever you go in Negril you will love it. It's my favorite vacation spot!

Actually, taking a closer look at the pictures I'm curious how long it is? Could someone who's 5'7 wear it with no shoes or just flip flops and have the dress lightly graze the ground? If so, I'm very interested!

Oh man, if only you were 2 inches taller! This is the exact dress I was looking for. Good luck with your sale.

I just spent way too much time reading this thread. I'm in love. I didn't go all the way back so I'm sure some of these have been mentioned by I'm using (or wish it were in my budget to use)... 1) Loobie Labels- http://www.etsy.com/shop/loobielabels I love the concert ticket candy bar invites for a unique, custom wedding invite (even though she doesn't market it as that). Over my budget at $2/each but not a bad price for a normal wedding budget. The photo candy bar favors we are hoping we can get for our OOT bags. I have to figure out if it'll be allowed first. They are $2.25 each BUT we're only planning on about 15 people coming to the wedding so it's friendlier on the budget. 2) The Pink Lobster- http://www.etsy.com/shop/ThePinkLobster Considering these as gifts for my bridesmaids (or maid... I may only have one) so she can attach her sign and sail card to it (cruise wedding, if you can't tell!). 3) Coralie Beatrix- http://www.etsy.com/shop/CoralieBeatrix I was originally thinking convertible dresses for the BM dresses. But since it looks like I'll only have one girl coming I decided to just let her pick her own dress. But if she comes to me for guidance, I'll lead her this way. I love the prices in this shop! 4) Aawsomblei Jewelry- http://www.etsy.com/shop/AawsombleiJewelry If you like vintage or antique jewelry you will love this. I BEGGED for FI to get me this ring as my e-ring: http://www.etsy.com/listing/66313644/antique-amethyst-ring-vintage-art-deco but he thought it looked tarnished. But I think it's great. They also sell some great cuff links. 5) Croska- http://www.etsy.com/shop/Croska Brooch bouquets that I could actually accord (well, some of them, anyway!) And finally... Personally Speaking- http://www.etsy.com/shop/PersonallySpeaking Great for Mrs. Undies, Game Over Tees, and Going to the Beach clothing. I think she does custom orders as well.

I'm not much help, but I'm pretty sure you can reserve a conference room or even one of the clubs for private cocktail parties. Maybe if you called the cruiseline itself and said you wanted to book a room for a two hour long cocktail party with food they'd be able to provide you more information. Maybe it's just having the word "wedding" attached that is making it difficult? But I imagine you can still do everything you want to do without it being considered a "wedding reception" with the cruise line (like have dancing, food, and drinks). Although you may not be able to have a full sit-down dinner, it might be appetizers. At least that's how Carnival does it. I'm an RCI bride, too, but we're not doing anything through the cruiseline and I've never sailed with them before, either.

Hey! I was on the Paradise twice this this year (April and June), both times for weddings!! OK, I will be very honest about one thing, the theater where they both wedding were held was very... uh... gold? And, yes, the decor in the clubs (and the ship in general) is just hideous. Bu if you can get past that it's a nice ship! My suggestion is to look at pictures and choose colors that won't clash with the decor of the ship and the theater. Pastels will look a little strange in that theater! Both weddings picked a shade of brown for the bridesmaids dresses and it looked fantastic. Also both of the brides hired an outside photographer to shoot their weddings. Both wanted pictures BEFORE the ceremony back at the hotel (the portraits and getting ready) since I think a lot of the family and bridal party weren't sailing. If I recall correctly, there isn't that much time between the ceremony, the reception, and the time the non-sailing guests have to leave the ship so if you have a lot of non-sailing family members you want in the portraits you might consider hiring someone for an hour or two before the ceremony, maybe to take those family pics in the port before you board? But if everyone is sailing I don't think this would be a problem. Although one photographer ended up sailing with the group and took pictures of all of the dinners (a ton during the formal dinner) and they did a trash the dress around the boat one day that was kind of neat. The ship itself is older and smaller. But I got very lucky on the Craps table and enjoyed the comedians they had on board. Oh! Be sure to make it to the Marriage Game and try to get the Newly Wed spot. It's pretty fun for you and your guests. If you have any questions I did play a roll in both weddings and got to see some of the inner workings of Paradise Welcome Aboard weddings so feel free to ask!

Thank you! You know, in the past year I've been to four (yes, four!) Carnival weddings and they were great! Yeah, in some countries (DR, St. Martaan, I believe Belize and a few others... mostly the Latin countries) a divorced woman cannot remarry for a YEAR after her divorce. Now, a man can remarry the day after the divorce is final but the woman has to wait a year. Learning that really upset me. My ex and I have been separated for two years but didn't file the divorce papers until we were separated almost a year and then the divorce itself took a while to go through the system and then I completely forgot to sign the final papers until this last May. But the cruiseline said that didn't matter, we couldn't get married on St. Martaan which is one of the ports we could legally get married in. So we just decided to do a symbolic ceremony on the cruise. And this way I can have my sister (who's in seminary) perform the ceremony. It's working out better in the end.

What ship are you marrying on? We finally picked ours- Navigator of the Seas 6-night Caribbean. The ports of Grand Cayman, Jamaica, and Haiti (Labadee). We'll be married on Labadee. We also ended up going through a TA. She's been great so far! A little slow at replying to emails but that's honestly my only complaint and it's my bad for hating the phone and not calling her when something comes up! But she got us a better rate on the cabins and extra OBC. Only 5 months... I'm getting REALLY excited!

We are still debating between two cruises but we have narrowed them down to RCI cruises! We will be married on one of RCI's private islands (Coco Cay or Labadee) while in port. It won't be anything fancy, just us and a few guests. We're not even going through the cruiseline or hiring a planner or anything because I can't legally get married in the Caribbean thanks to some very outdated and sexist laws (I'm divorced). BUT, we'll still have a great time and just make it legal later. Any other RCI brides out there??? We just started planning and even though I've been to several cruise weddings (that's how Cody and I met, actually!) I'm still very overwhelmed by all there is to do! Are you using a TA or just going through a cruiseline planner?

OK, confession... I spent HOURS reading this thread, literally almost every page, and getting ready to order a dress from a knock-off site after seeing what they can do. Then I randomly was walking around town and found a dress shop (not a bridal shop, just a regular dress shop) that carried the exact dress I've been eyeing and for only $181. It was off the rack and fit me like a glove. Lucky, huh? BUT, since I spent so little I can now get a nice TTD dress. There's a "dress dash" coming to town where all the dresses are $150 so I was thinking of looking there first, but that's not until October 22nd. My wedding is the last week of February. Do you think that, assuming I don't find a dress at the Dash, I can order a TTD dress from a knock-off site and get it in time? I've been reading that dresses are sometimes finished in days, sometimes in weeks, and just wanted to see what the average is about.

Oh, as far as photographers go, all of the cruise weddings I've been to have hired their own photographers from outside. I hear the actual photographers on the ships are great, but they over charge for prints and only print your images on cheap paper using their less-than-accurate printers. As a photo junkie myself I wouldn't like that. So we are hiring and bringing our own photographer with us on the cruise. It's going to end up being MUCH cheaper then using their photographers because all we have to pay for is her cruise, flight, and a small fee on top of that. About $1500 and we get all of our digital negatives.

I've been on Paradise twice this year, actually! It's an OK ship. Older, small, kind of an odd layout (you have to go through the front theater to get to the Serenity Adults-Only Area or go up/down 3 flights of stairs). It's also very yellow and the club decors are... interesting! But it sounds like your ports are a lot more interesting then ours were (just Ensenada) and I'm sure you'll have a great time! And I had no clue that Paradise moved to the east coast. I wonder what's leaving out of LA these days...