Saltwater Living

Warning: This is going to be a very long blog post, but I wanted it to be as informative and helpful as possible.

For anyone who has ever tried to plan a cruise ship wedding, you have probably had a bit of trouble trying to find any information or testimonials online. I tried to find any info I could to help make the planning process a lot easier, however, all I could find were discussion forums on CruiseCritic.com and then the actual wedding package information on various cruise line's websites. This is why I've decided to write a blog post about my experience in planning a cruise wedding.

First of all, I'll give a little bit of background information on why we wanted to get married on a cruise ship:

1. We LOVE cruising. This was our 3rd cruise we've been on and we absolutely love every aspect of cruising. You can just sit back and relax and enjoy all of the amazing things to do onboard, plus you get to wake up each morning in a different port. Andrew and I get bored easily, so constantly having options of things to do on vacation is very important to us. We are convinced that cruises are the best way to travel.

Left: On the Royal Caribbean "Allure of the Seas" (January 2016)   Right: On the Carnival "Pride" (May 2014)

2. We wanted a smaller wedding. The idea of having 200+ people at our wedding (most of whom we haven't talked to in years...or ever) did not appeal to us in any way. The thought of dealing with having to plan such a big wedding (venue, catering, photography, DJ, etc.) seemed like such a daunting task that I wanted to avoid at all costs. Large weddings also come with a bigger price tag, of course; and after having a baby, spending money frivolously is not something we were interested in.

3. We had a shorter timeline. We got engaged on March 24, 2017 and wanted to have a winter wedding and the thought of having to wait until the following winter seemed too long. When planning weddings, people apparently have to book their venues at least 1-2 years in advance and we did not have that kind of time. However, we originally were going to go with a different cruise line and they were all booked up, so time is of the essence when booking any type of wedding. Luckily, Norwegian Cruise Lines had our dates available and offered us a great group package so we ended up booking with them.

4. Ease of planning. I'm sure many brides can relate to me when I say that most...well pretty much all... of the planning was left up to me. Andrew is a very laid-back person who has no interest in being stressed out and worrying about planning a wedding; so of course, everything was left up to me. Having a wedding on a cruise required very minimal planning as you are provided a wedding coordinator to do all of the planning up until the wedding, and then a day-of coordinator on the ship who makes sure everything is carried out the way you wanted.

5. Bonus: We didn't need to book a honeymoon. Since the wedding was on a Caribbean Cruise, we didn't feel as though we really needed to book an additional trip for a honeymoon. Of course, it would be nice to have our own getaway just the 2 of us, but we have an 8 month old baby who we would not want to leave without. We were already on vacation, so a vacation from a vacation seemed like an unnecessary expense.

Alright, now I guess I'll talk about the whole process when going about booking and planning a cruise wedding.

Number one tip: GET A TRAVEL AGENT. Do not try to make a large group booking by yourself or something will get messed up and you will lose your mind. I had my dear friend Melissa Gavin (at Go With Hippo Travel Agency) book the cruise for everyone as well as air fare for several guests.

The day after we got engaged, we made a group on Facebook and added whoever we thought might be interested in going. We knew we had a short timeline (about 8 months) so it was vital that we get everything finalized as soon as possible. At this point, we didn't have a specific date as that still needed to be determined with whatever cruise line we chose, but we did know that having it around the holidays would be ideal as most people would already have time off work. We ruled out Christmas Day as we figured people would want to celebrate it at home, so the next best date we could think of was New Years Eve or New Years Day. We ended up going with New Years Day as it was an "At Sea Day" on the Norwegian Epic so that would be perfect for a wedding as we wouldn't be interfering with any days in port. Plus when you're at sea all day, you have to try to find things on board to do to keep busy.

Once we had the dates chosen, we confirmed with our guests on Facebook and then Melissa and I started the decision process on which cruise line to book with.

We had cruised with Carnival and Royal Caribbean prior to our wedding cruise, so since we were familiar with those cruise lines, they were the first ones we thought of when choosing who to book with. Melissa got online and also called them to see if they had our dates available as well as costs and any extra group perks they would offer us. I believe Royal Carribbean didn't even have our dates available, and Carnival was very expensive and would not offer us any group perks as we had less than a year to book such a large group. So we started to explore other options. I had never cruised with Norwegian Cruise Lines before, but after doing lots of research, I decided that they might be a good option. Melissa ended up getting us the dates we wanted on the Norwegian Epic. She also managed to get everyone an unlimited drink package for the duration of the cruise (approx $1000 value) as well as $100 off each persons cruise fare. Once we had the cruise line and dates booked, it was all smooth sailing from there (pun intended lol). Melissa booked all 43 people with ease and everyone was set to go.

Now that I had the actual cruise part handled, I had to get the wedding part done. We decided to go with the "Symbolic At Sea Wedding Package". There are several options where you can get married in a port or on the beach as well, however we wanted our wedding to be on New Years Day which was an at sea day, and I figured it might be too chaotic to try and get 43 people off the ship in time for a beach wedding. Plus, the cost was double and we also would have had to interfere with a port day and there would be no time for anyone to explore the destination we would be in that day. This is what was included in our package:



 Cruise weddings are done through a third party company called Royal Ocean Events (they plan weddings for several cruise lines including Norwegian). I just had to call them to confirm the wedding date and put down a deposit. I was in contact with a lady named Jade who planned everything with me. She booked the photographer, DJ, restaurant reservations, flowers, cake, meals and the venue onboard. It was very handy being able to do everything via email or phone instead of actually having to go out and meet with vendors. Of course, options are limited to only what the ship offers so I couldn't really customize anything, but that made things easier and less stressful.

The only things I really had to take care of myself were: artificial flowers-you can't bring your own real flowers onboard- for the bridal party (they provided me with a complimentary fresh flower bouquet as well as a boutonniere for Andrew), outfits for the wedding party, guest book, small decorations, song list for the DJ, cake topper, wedding programs and favours. *I will do a separate blog post talking about the Local Vendors I used for these items.


Alright, so now I will do a quick review of the vendors on the cruise:

1. Off-Ship Wedding Coordinator (Jade)- She was fabulous to deal with and definitely made planning go very smoothly. Sometimes, she would be out of the office sick or on holidays and her office is located in Vancouver so the time difference was 4.5 hours which was a bit of a nuisance when trying to communicated, but not too big of a complaint. I'm glad that she was included in my package because she really took care of everything for me.

2. On-Ship Wedding Coordinator (Ligaya)- She was super nice and helpful; however, she was not specifically a wedding coordinator, but her job title was group services coordinator. There were a few things that myself or my Maid of Honour had to suggest such as a rehearsal (apparently those aren't really typical unless you request them), and the order of events, etc. She did go above and beyond to ensure our day ran smoothly and I'm glad that she was part of it all.

3. Photographer- I would have to say that this was my biggest disappointment. I knew that the photography would not be up to par on the ship because on past cruises the quality is not great and they end up coming out really cheesy. I was hoping that this would not be the case as in our initial meeting with the photographer they reassured me that they would know all of the poses to do and good locations on the ship. The package was pretty expensive for what we received ($749USD for 2 hours of photography, 50 unedited images on a USB, and 10 unedited printed images). I know that seems cheap compared to what you might pay at a typical local wedding, but you get so much more for that money back home. We went up to the top deck to try and get some cool, cruise-y shots, but there were people everywhere watching, and the wind was absolutely crazy. Of course these are out of the photographer's control, but she suggested that we try the studio instead to finish off the session. It felt super posed and cheesy but I tried to stay positive; unfortunately, I ended up being right and all of the photos taken in the studio turned out super cheesy. I was also very disappointed that none of the photos were edited. She did end up getting a few good shots that I love but I will still need to edit everything myself. I have all of the photos on a USB but I don't want to post them all until they are edited...sigh. Tip: if you know someone who is a photographer that you can bring along with you on the cruise, try and do that so you aren't disappointed with your photos; beware though because many cruise lines do not allow outside photographers onboard.

Here's an example of on the cheesy in-studio photos

My favourite photo from the wedding

4. Venue- We had our ceremony and reception in The Manhattan Room. It serves as the main dining room during dinner time and it's a very grand room with large two storey windows located on the back of the ship. It was the perfect room on the ship to be married in as it had a dance floor and tons of seating with a stage and also food service.

Andrew, Blake, and me with one of the Ship's Captains

5. Meals- We had two options when booking our reception: cocktail reception or sit down luncheon. Unfortunately Norwegian does not offer evening wedding receptions as they need the venues for all of the ship's guests to use during peak hours. As our wedding was very non-traditional, we wanted to have some traditional aspects so we decided to go with the sit down meal. It made the wedding seem more formal and everyone seemed to enjoy the food. We had soups as the appetizer, prime rib and salmon/scallops as the entree, and chocolate mousse or pina colada cheese cake as the dessert. Service was on point, as usual on cruise ships.


6. DJ- The DJ did a wonderful job. I had Jade send him a list of the music we wanted to use and he had it all downloaded and ready for us when we got to the rehearsal. We didn't have any other music chosen to play in between so we told him to just play whatever he wanted. He played a great selection of rock, pop, and dance music and most of the guests got up on the dance floor and had a great time.

7. Wedding Cake- A 6' cake was provided as part of our wedding package. I requested an all white cake and thats what they provided. It was tasty, however, most of it went in the garbage as the guests didn't really eat any (as dessert was already included in the meal) so it ended up in our stateroom and there was no way two of us were eating that whole cake. We had the option of getting a larger cake but of course that would have cost more and there would have been no point as no one would have eaten it.



I'm sure I left some details out, but feel free to comment below or send me an email if you have any further questions about planning a wedding on a cruise. Enjoy all of the planning as it goes by so quickly and before you know it the big day is here. And then that blows by even quicker and then you don't know what to do with yourself lol.