Weddingbee boards

Hi again bees,

I'm wondering if anyone has pics and/or experiences to share about having your wedding and reception on a cruise ship before going on a cruise for your honeymoon?  I have been looking EXTENSIVELY, online, but am really only finding info from the cruise lines themselves, not the couples.

Thanks!

oh oh...  I am a future cruise bride and have attended a cruiseship wedding before.

I loved the one I attended.  Same experience as above, arrived at terminal at 10 am, wedding was at 1 pm, Was able to eat at the buffet beforehand.

Guests had to come dressed to the terminal.  The reception was short and sweet and we were all enjoying the cruise shortly after that.  It worked well for combining the 2 very different families.

Which is one the reasons I chose one.  I wanted simple, destination, but something that both of our families would like.  We have about 50-60 guests sailing with us afterwards.

Since my fiance is in school this was a logical choice.  A local wedding with both of our huge families would run us over $50,000.  Our cruise wedding budget, including DisneyWorld beforehand is $15,000 for everytthing.

Also check out the wedding section of cruisecritic.com  Tons of helpful brides there.

One thing to note, is that if you are the type of bride who wants tons of little details, completely control of everything (including location!) than a cruise wedding may not work.

You can't have fresh flowers unless you pay a significant upcharge.  The max length of your reception will be 2 hours (depending on cruise line, it may be shorter) and etc. 

However, it is the perfect type of wedding for those that aren't too picky, can go with the flow and just want to have an easy wedding!

Thanks PuntaCana, I will definitely reach out on that website!  OK to Caszos and Crislen thank you both as well...you guys weren't "put off" by having to be on the boat for 3 hrs prior to the wedding?  I'm worried my guest will be bored while I'm getting "gussied up". 

Also, it doesn't look like many, if any more than one other couple will actually cruise with us, so it is rude for me to expect all those non-travelers to deal with a port after the wedding? My FI and I are very inclined to do a destination wedding, but decided against it so that the most important people wouldn't miss out because of cost...this is only about 4 hrs away and we were thinking of doing a small get together the night before for all the people coming and staying in a hotel.

As for the "detail/control" thing...well, yes, I am a bit of a control freak...but I will deal with that part of my brain in order to have a nice ceremony that is cost effective for us.  I adopted my niece (consider her my daughter) 2.5 years ago and so the $ is a very critical issue.  If you don't mind me asking, how many people are you having that is costing you $15k?  I'm not expecting more than 30-45 people.

Thank you all again for your advice!  Congratulations to you all!!!

@amyknz: I wasn't put off by having to wait in the port / on the boat prior to the wedding.  We used that time to socialize and to book excursions etc. as well as have lunch on the lido deck.  It was my (and most others) first time on a cruise so it was a great chance to explore the boat.  The worst part was the wait in line to check-in (~20 minutes)

As for the budget, it includes everything and is higher since we are flying down beforehand:

We so far have just under 60 ppl booked sailing with us with no non-sailing guests.  The cruise wedding portion itself is going to cost us around $3500 for the ceremony and reception ($30 pp after the first 20 ppl on Carnival plus base fee)

• Flowers (I went silk) $400 for all bouts and corsages etc.
• Dress & alterations & shoes & undergarments etc. $2000
• Our cruise $1600
• Flights down for both of us $1200
• Hotel night before $150
• Invitation, STDs, stationary etc. $300
• Tuxedo rentals $600 - we are paying for the groomsman
• Bridesmaid dresses $600 - we are paying for those as well
• Rings $2000 - darn custom things!
• Guest book - $150
• Guest favours - $300
• Disneyworld pre-trip $1500
• Misc. $1000 (all the other little things lincluding hair and make up and transportation to terminal for everyone)

  If you did without a lot of the extras (that I still wanted) It would be easy to pull off a cruise wedding for around $5000.

I didn't include photography which can run as high as $2000 as that is our parent's gift to us.