1. Flowers: Norwegian Cruise Line (and I'm pretty sure most other cruise lines) do not allow guests to bring your own real flowers onboard. I'm not exactly sure why, but it probably has to do with possible pests/bugs/diseases being brought onboard. However, I was provided with a bouquet of fresh white roses and a matching boutonniere for Andrew with the option to purchase additional bouquets for my bridesmaids through the ship's florist. This option was very costly, so instead I opted to purchase artificial bouquets. Mine were made by Leslie Healey who owns/operates Polished Bouquet Design in Clarke's Beach, NL. She uses real touch flowers and can pretty much make any type of design you can dream of. The quality of the flowers is amazing and such a great alternative to the real deal. They are also lightweight and easy to travel with and of course you don't have to worry about keeping them alive.
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| Bridal Bouquet and Matching Boutonniere's made by Polished Bouquet Design |
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| Bridesmaids/Flower Girl holding bouquets made by Polished Bouquet Design |
2. Cake Topper and Wedding Favours: These were made by Powerhouse Designs. The owner, Deanne Power, really goes above and beyond to ensure that her customers are happy. I sent her a picture of what I wanted and she made it exactly right. After a good experience with the cake topper, I asked Deanne if she could make custom lanyards for the wedding favours. I ordered a bulk pack of lanyards from eBay and then she applied the lettering. The lanyards were a hit and my guests loved having a lanyard to put their cruise ship cards in. I will mention that due to unforeseen circumstances, Deanne had to cancel order pick ups on the day I was scheduled to pick up. To make up for it she offered to make us customized shirts or bubba kegs or we could have a full refund. I was shocked that she made such a generous offer because it wasn't that big of a deal that it was going to be a bit later until we received our lanyards; as long as I had them before the wedding I was good! This just shows how much she really cares about her customers and keeping them happy. I would highly recommend Powerhouse Designs for any custom products for any occasion.
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| One of my bridesmaids' lanyards made by Power House Designs |
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| Custom Cake Topper made by PowerHouse Designs |
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| Outfits from LeChateau |
4. Bridesmaid Dresses: The girls ordered their dresses from Azazie. They are the colour spa. The dresses seemed to be pretty good quality and the girls only needed minor alterations. I would say the only downfall to ordering from Azazie is that you have to pay a ridiculous amount of customs. I've heard from other brides that if you order all of the dresses at once and get them shipped to the same address you will pay a lot less customs. However, my bridesmaids didn't have that option as everyone lived in different provinces. I would still recommend ordering dresses from Azazie as my girls were pretty happy with their dresses and the colour and style selection is huge.
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| Bridesmaid Dresses from Azazie |
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| Custom Wedding Guest Book I made on Mixbook.com |
6. Wedding Programs and Favour Tags: I ordered them online from Etsy. They were a matching set from a vendor called BlissPaperBoutique. They were very easy to use, we just had to customize them with our names and wedding date then print them off. I printed them all of at Staples on Stavanger Drive and the girl at the print desk was fabulous to deal with. They were done quickly and they even laser cut them all to save me the hassle of cutting them myself. I use Staples for all of my printing needs (invitations, Christmas cards, wedding stationery, etc.) and I would highly recommend going there for anything you need printed.
7. Travel Agent: We used Melissa Gavin at Go With Hippo. She did such an amazing job planning the cruise for everyone. We had 43 people go on the cruise with about 15 needing flights booked as well and she made sure that everything went off without a hitch. She was always texting, calling, email and Facebook messaging all of our guests and making sure that everyone was taken care of. I know we probably weren't the easiest bunch to deal with all the time, but she was very patient and quick to respond to any issues anyone had.
8. Wedding Dress: I ordered my dress from JJshouse.com. I love the style of my wedding dress and it was super affordable. It actually cost only a little more than my bridesmaids dresses. The quality was amazing for the price. I was a bit wary of ordering my wedding dress online without ever seeing it in person, however, I'm so glad I ordered it. I was not interested in going and trying on a ton of dresses and I also did not want to spend a lot of money on my dress. My sister ended up paying for the dress as my wedding gift (thanks Jill!). It fit me very well and I received a lot of compliments from people on the ship. It was a very non-traditional style, but it was exactly what I wanted and was perfect for the warm weather in the Caribbean. I would definitely recommend using JJshouse.com for brides on a budget or even just brides who don't want to spend a fortune on a dress they will wear for a few hours. One downfall is that they do not accept exchanges or returns unless there is a manufacturers defect so be careful and make sure that your sizing is right and it's the style you want.
8. Wedding Dress: I ordered my dress from JJshouse.com. I love the style of my wedding dress and it was super affordable. It actually cost only a little more than my bridesmaids dresses. The quality was amazing for the price. I was a bit wary of ordering my wedding dress online without ever seeing it in person, however, I'm so glad I ordered it. I was not interested in going and trying on a ton of dresses and I also did not want to spend a lot of money on my dress. My sister ended up paying for the dress as my wedding gift (thanks Jill!). It fit me very well and I received a lot of compliments from people on the ship. It was a very non-traditional style, but it was exactly what I wanted and was perfect for the warm weather in the Caribbean. I would definitely recommend using JJshouse.com for brides on a budget or even just brides who don't want to spend a fortune on a dress they will wear for a few hours. One downfall is that they do not accept exchanges or returns unless there is a manufacturers defect so be careful and make sure that your sizing is right and it's the style you want.
9. Shoes: My shoes are from the Betsey Johnson "Blue Collection" which is her range of wedding shoes. I actually saw another girl post them on the Newfoundland Brides Buy and Sell Page on Facebook. They were new and never worn and I got them for $50. They are such a unique style and fit perfectly with my dress. The only negative is that the strap broke off of the shoe, which was kind of annoying, but it didn't happen until the ceremony was over (thank god!!). However, I still got tons of compliments on them.
10. Airline: About 15 of us flew using WestJet. I wanted to do a little shoutout to WestJet because they went above and beyond to make sure our trip was enjoyable. We always fly WestJet whenever we can because they've always been great in the past plus their WestJet MasterCard program is amazing (look it up/apply for one if you don't already have one; and no I'm not being paid to say this but I wish I was hahah). Anyways, when we got to the St. John's airport on Christmas morning to fly to Orlando, the lady at the check-in counter was so friendly and she upgraded our seats to Plus for free. This was so amazing and we really appreciated the extra room (especially since we were travelling with our 8 month old baby) and all of the free coffee and Bailey's and food. It really made the flight so much more enjoyable and we couldn't thank them enough. On the flight from Toronto to Orlando, we didn't get Plus seats again, probably because the plane was full, but the flight attendant noticed we were carrying wedding garment bags and she gave us and all of our other guests on the same flight free champagne and sandwiches! That was super nice and totally unexpected as well. On the way home flying from Orlando, our bags were like 15lbs over and of course I was worrying about having too much luggage and having to pay extra fees, but she let both of our bags go for free and even let us check one of our carry-ons for free. WestJet just made traveling on this trip so enjoyable and I would highly recommend flying with them because they are just consistently better than any other airlines we've flown with.
11. Completely forgot to add this in here!! So I've edited to add Colleen Butler. She was our wedding commissioner. Since its very complicated to get married in another country, we decided to just do a symbolic wedding on the ship; which meant we would have to do a legal ceremony either before or after the wedding on the cruise, to make it official. We had a short, small ceremony in our living room on Christmas Eve. We met with Colleen at her house in CBS several months before the wedding to go over details and she was super nice and clearly knew what she was talking about. It was a very streamlined process and Colleen made it very simple and stress free. I would highly recommend Colleen for anyone looking for a wedding commissioner!
Thanks for reading this super long post, but I hope it was helpful for anyone looking for more information on vendors to use when planning their wedding. Please feel free to email me at caitlin_fitzgerald@live.com if you have any questions about planning a cruise wedding or a wedding in general!
Stay tuned for wedding photos when I finally get them edited!!
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