Post # 1
Member
31 posts
Newbee
Hi Bees,
My Fiance and I are planning a cruise wedding but getting married in St Thomas. Planning to get married on the beach but I am so confused as what to do for a reception. We are aiming for June 2014 so I am sure it’s going to be HOT….and I really really want to do a reception but I don’t really want to pay for food Because food is so plentiful on a cruise. But it’s so important t to have a traditional first dance and cake cutting.
My Fiance are trying to this “budget” since we are paying and we are also saving for a house.
I don’t know if we should have the reception on the cruise or somewhere on the island…which is somewhat difficult since time is of the essence.
I am also wondering how things work time wise with having to get off the boat, get the license, getting hair and makeup done..before a beach wedding.
Can any cruise wives/dw wives please advise. Thank you
Post # 3
Member
1239 posts
Bumble bee
@MochaPrincess: I have heard that often cruise liners do the wedding on the ship before you leave the first port. You could choose to do it off the ship on the island but I have heard of cruise liners changing course due to weather or something else and you might miss your port. Not sure how common this is though. I love cruising so i am sure your wedding will be awesome! There are a few other bees who have done cruise weddings, if you do a search for cruise wedding on wedding bee you might find them.
Post # 4
Member
8369 posts
Bumble Beekeeper
A few of the cruise lines will charge you a bit more to have a recpeion onboard after your wedding.
Personally as a guests I would feel kind of iffy about not getting a reception if I was paying for the cruise as the only way to attend your wedding and then eating the dinner that I paid for as part of the cruise. Personally I would try and do something extra for my guests.
Post # 5
Member
31 posts
Newbee
@j_jaye: Thank you for ur input….we will def do a reception w food then 😉
Post # 6
Member
31 posts
Newbee
@traveller: Thank you.. I will def doma search… Loving these boards so far so much info 😉
Post # 7
Member
3501 posts
Sugar bee
check out cruisecritic.com – and its true that cruises usually only stay in the port a few hours at each destination. 10am-5pm, 6am-4pm, 11am-7pm… times like that. once you pick a cruise itll show you how long your at each place for. cruises have conference rooms n banquet rooms too, you could probably get a cake on the ship to do a cutting and use one of their rooms to hold a reception since foods free on board. so neat! also some cruises own islands, like royal caribbean owns coco cay and labadee and they bring lots of food on to the island for a picnik type thing for cruises to have.
Post # 8
Member
1239 posts
Bumble bee
@MochaPrincess: yup everyone is pretty friendly and helpful on the bee, I love it! 🙂
Post # 9
Member
1282 posts
Bumble bee
I am doing a cruise wedding too, but decided to have the ceremony on the day of embarkation, that way some of our guests who could not come on the cruise for whatever reason could still attend the wedding on the ship, then disembark before the ship leaves port.
We also decided to only do a 3 day cruise so that hopefully more people would be able to go — long weekend vs taking off a week from work. Our cruise only has one port since it is so short, so we didn’t want to take up the one day at the destination to have the wedding.
+1 on PP suggestion about cruise critic website. Lots of helpful info there.
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