Question - Just Beginning To Look Into Cruise Wedding!

[jessicajoy44]

Hi there! My fiance and I got engaged on a Carnival cruise last year and are beginning to think about having a cruise wedding! We love to cruise! These forums are very helpful and I wanted to see if anyone had any good insight on a few questions:

- For those of you who have chosen to do a beach ceremony vs. having it on the ship... have you booked that directly through the cruise line's package? Or do you book directly through the island? I'm not sure if it would be more cost effective to book direct.. but then I'm wondering if the ship would give a hard time about getting wedding pictures on the ship, etc. It looks like the cruise line picks the beach ceremony location if you book through them.

- Does anyone recommend an island for the beach ceremony - specifically one that has less requirements (i.e. residency for XX many hours since we will be arriving via cruise ship)? Or has anyone been really pleased their ceremony location?

Our initial thoughts are to do a beach ceremony and then have a reception back on board.

Thank you!!

[gresley]

We haven't actually had the ceremony yet, but we're pretty far into the planning process, so I can tell you what we've found out so far.

 

For context, we're going on a RCCL cruise in April, and getting married in Nassau with an outside planner.

 

First, from everyone I've talked to, DO NOT USE THE CRUISE LINE'S WEDDING DEPARTMENT. I have to agree. Just dealing with them for group-non-wedding events, they're a pain in the ass to work with. We went with an outside planner in Nassau who has done bunches of cruise weddings, and it's a much better experience. You also get a lot more bang for your buck, and a lot more control over the details.

 

We'll see about photography...We're bringing our photographers (who are super awesome and amazing and flexible) on the cruise, and planning that they'll act like "guests with fancy cameras" more than photographers to avoid the outside vendor rule. The cruise ships photo packages were crazy expensive.

 

For residency requirements, we're avoiding that by having a symbolic ceremony, and then doing the legal paperwork once we get back into the US.

 

In terms of ceremony vs reception, we're doing ceremony+reception on Nassau for a couple reasons, the main one being NOT WANTING TO WORK WITH THE CRUISE LINE. Also, because some people are flying in, and so we want them to be a part of the fun, and not just the 30 minutes of the ceremony. We're going to be at the venue from 10-3, have lunch, play games, hang on the beach, and then head back to the ship. We're figuring that back on the ship will be the "afterparty", if we're not collapsed from exhaustion by then, lol.

 

Good luck! Let me know if you want any more advice from one cruise bride to another  

[mark21]

Yeah, it's really good idea to have such kind of wedding. As I was also thinking to have beach wedding for my own wedding. There is nothing bad in this idea as we may sanction on this idea.

[FutureMrsGlover]

This is wonderful information....I originally planned on doing a DW on the island but my parents don't want to fly (they can drive to a port)...so I have been considering doing a cruise wedding.  It seems as if the cruise wedding packages don't meet my needs and I had never thought of using an on island planner.  I will check this out.  Thanks!

[gresley]

If you are considering Nassau, I ABSOLUTELY recommend Anna Fox from http://www.annasweddingbahamas.org/

 

Our day was absolutely PERFECT, and everyone had a blast. Anna handled everything, and I have nothing but good things to say about her.

 

Also, I didn't follow my own advice, and still tried to plan a few functions through the group coordinator on the cruise (sail away cocktail party, rehearsal dinner, etc). It turned out to be a disaster, and I'm SO glad that the cruise line wasn't involved with the actual wedding in any form. I don't regret doing a cruise wedding, but I'd definitely recommend not using any of the event/group services on the cruise if you can help it.