Carnival Mexican Riveria Cruise & Cabo Wedding!

Well, I guess I will be the first to post here in the Mexican Riveria forum---hopefully, I won't be too lonely down here! LOL I know that there HAS to be more of us! I would have loved to go on the Carribean cruise and get married in St. Thomas but we don't want to fly to the port so the only cruises really out of LA are Mexican Riveria ones!

 

We have not booked anything yet because we want to know what we can and can't do before we plunk down large amounts of money on deposits. My FH, Brent and I want the best of both worlds---the traditional/formal wedding as well as the fun destination/beach type wedding so we have decided to go with a cruise. Neither of us have alot of family so no one will be disappointed in our choice, which is great! This is my second marriage and Brent's first so we are paying for it ourselves.We have been engaged for a LONG time and we keep having to postpone it because of finances. It is so hard to save because Brent got into a car accident and now he is on Social Security Disability and I am the only one working. But, we have decided that we are tired of putting it off and waiting so here I am! I think we are shooting for May 23, 2010 which will give us plenty of time to save what we have to. We are planning on being "officially" married on the ship in Long Beach on the embarkation day. We are doing it that way so we can avoid all those licensing issues in Mexico as well as having the more "formal" type of wedding. You know, big poofy dress & tuxedo---pictures on deck, that sort of thing. If you are a cruise ship bride, then you already know that you pretty much have little to say about any of the arrangements for the cruise ship wedding and I really don't even want to get into the whole The Wedding Experience issue. I have no idea of any of our options/upgrades that we will have since we can't get any info prior to us booking. So, if anyone has the upgrade/additions list that Carnival offers, PLEASE email it to me. I know that we can't do any of that until right before we leave so we want to be financially ready for anything that TWE or Carnival throws our way. The last thing we want is to have to do without something because it wasn't in our budget. Anyway, we will only be in Cabo San Lucas for a short time on our 5th day so this is really where we have the most questions and we are most undecided about. We have to decide whether we want to just hire a local photographer and do our beach pictures as well as our "trash the dress" pictures (if they even do that!) and let our guests do their own thing that day or if we want to hire a local coordinator and have a symbolic 2nd ceremony, a mini reception and then the pictures, etc. We are only having like 10 people sail with us so we don't know what to do. For us, the most important thing is the beach photos but we want to also keep our guests occupied. Does anyone know which coordinators stay away from cruise brides?Anyone have any recommendations for people who handle smaller weddings? Obviously, I won't be having anything elaborate (due to time, money and small guest list) but we would love to hear how other cruise brides decided to do their beach weddings. I have been reading alot of the Cabo forums and it just seems that it doesn't apply to us---most of the brides are staying there for a week so I am sure that things are handled much differently than a cruise bride would have. I have emailed a few local coordinators but only heard back from one and they were way out of our price range ($5800.00) YIKES! Well, I would love to hear from anyone who has done this type of wedding or anyone who has any alternate ideas. I am so open to anything!

Barbara

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I am feeling kind of lonely here!

Barbie

Hi There!

 

I think your idea is great! I love cruises. I have only been on one, but the experience was great. I'm sure your wedding will turn out good and the fact that you are planning so ahead is an advantage.

Your not alone. We are looking at cruising into the Mayan Rivera. We are total cruise addicts!

I say hire the local photographer! At least to me the pics are top of my list of important things.

You could do your ceremony, then let your guests enjoy their time in Cabo while you get pics done.

Then meet back on ship and use dinner (which you can wear your dress to since they required business casual or nicer in the dinner rooms) as your reception dinner?

You can order a small cake ahead of time and do your cake cutting right at dinner. Then there is the evening show and dancing. All of which will cost you nothing cause they are included in your cruise ticket (well minus the cake).

That way your guests don't have to give up one of their days in port where they might like to be exploring Cobo, you can get the pictures you want done without feeling rushed and still stay within a budget.

Also you said you were getting married on ship at your embarkation port. Have you thought about doing the legal stuff at home ahead of time and then doing the ceremony in Cabo! Talk about some amazing pics!

I hope that helps. I am here if you want to bounce any other ideas. Carla

Your ideas are great and pretty much are in line with what we thought we would do. We have spent the last couple of days discussing our options and we have decided that we are still going to get married on embarkation day---it really isn't that expensive and that way the few people that we do want to be there, will be able to come. We found out that the smallest package includes a cake and champagne toast and they will allow us to have it at dinner instead. We are thinking of doing the supper club for dinner that first night...they have live music and a dance floor so we will be able to have our first dance after all. Carnival supper clubs are an additional $30.00 a person but we are only having about 10 people so for $300.00, we are getting a 5 course meal, our cake, music and dancing! I think that will work out perfectly! As far as the extra beach pictures go, we have since decided (after talking to a photographer in Cabo) that we are just going to let our guests go on their own when we are in port and Brent and I are going to do all our pictures. The photographer said that they do this type of thing all the time and that he would meet us at the ship and take us to a couple of places as well as the beach and do our formals and our trash the dress session and then he would bring us back to the ship (or into town if we wanted) He thought 2 to 3 hours should be suffucient time (so for about $1000, we will have the pictures we wanted. Now, all I have to do is find the right photographer! Of course, we would love to get Juan Carlos but I don't think he would be interested in doing our small little photo shoot but I am going to email him. anyway....you never know! I have to get some emails out to the photographers. I am getting more and more excited as things are falling into place. We all have these ideas of what we would like to do but actually getting them done can sometimes be the challenge! Since we are not going to do the actual second ceremony in Cabo, we are basically saving enough money to cover the extra day of photography!

I will post more as things come up!

Barbie

Wow! We think so much alike! I am so happy you have your plans set.

 

I like the idea of the supper club too. It is something we have not actually done on a cruise yet but I hear it is AMAZING!! I love the fact that you can do the cake and champagne there too. We are not going through carnival for our ceremony. Wonder if we could order that separate for our dinner?

 

Our original idea was to do the ceremony in one port and TTD in another but I REALLY wanted both in the Rivera Maya. So I think we are going to do 2 back to back cruises that stop in Rivera Maya; first one is wedding cruise with family, second one will be our honeymoon cruise.

 

Can't wait to hear more about your plans. It is nice to know someone else is going through the same planning process.

Even if you are not going thru Carnival for the wedding, there is absolutely no reason why you couldn't use the supper club for your reception. The only thing would be that you would have to purchase the cake since you aren't getting it with a package but just how much could that be? How many guests are you having? Oh and I forgot to ask, when is your cruise?We are still looking at May 25, 2010. I definitely feel better knowing that I am not sitting in this forum talking to myself!

Barbie

I was beginning to feel the same way. LOL

I think we are going to try and shoot for a January 2010 or 2011. The rates are so much lower during that time we can afford to do back to back cruises. Plus we are really hoping to have a VERY small group with us maybe 10-15.

We will be sailing Carnival also. I looked on their bon voyage page and found these: Carnival Cruise Lines - Gifts & Services They must have just added these in the last month. I was kind of hoping they would have a two tier one but I bet my TA could put in a request for one. They are usually pretty good about that kind of thing.

January is a great time to take a vacation. We would definitely go in January if our guests could go too. We are limited to when we can go. My two kids are in college and they cannot take off any time during the year because of the attendance policy at the school. We either have to go during the summer or during one of their breaks but we wouldn't know when those breaks are scheduled until the September of each year. We need the extra time to save so we have decided to just pay the increased fare and do the third week in May--which is exactly the week that the fares start to increase.

 

If you are using a TA, then I am sure that she can arrange for a two tiered cake---TA's can arrange for alot of things. Right now I am trying to come up with some sort of a letter to my guests explaining everything because we are going to book it as soon as the May 2010 rates are released and they will only have 30 days from then to put down their first deposits. I want everyone to sort of know what's going on and to have figured out if they want or can go by that time. I am not having too many people so it shouldn't be too big of a deal but I am not using a TA, I am going to go directly with Carnival. I am going to check with the local TA to see what kind of rates she can get, but I think I would be fine just dealing with Carnival and getting their group rate. I just wish they would release the rates already!

 

Barbie

One of the best tips I learned is no matter what rate carnival gives you ANY TA can give you a better one. What happens is a TA gets say 5-10% off the list price of a cruise for their commission. TA's will then cut their commissions to give you a better rate than what carnival says. The trick is that they are not allowed to advertise things (per the deal with carnival) but as soon as you ask they come up with some amazing prices.