jojo194

Wow Barefoot in the Sand, it sounds like you have a lot done already. I am sure that will be a good thing with the holidays and everything in between now and then. We started planning earlier because we wanted everyone to be able to take time off of work and plan any vacations around it or with it. Plus it also helped reserve lower prices on the cruise (if prices drop we can get the reduced prices, but if they go up and no one has booked then people will just have to pay more). I am not sure if these same things happen with hotels or resorts, but cruise prices seem to go up and down. Currently I am just finding all the DIY things to do on this site, although I do need to become more active to be able to see some templates. I have a ton of time right now and not really anything to stress about. So I am hoping to become ahead of the game because I am thinking when it gets closer I may have other things to be arranging (like bus transportation, the at home "pre-party", and people asking me questions...I have found people don't like to talk to the travel agent, haha). Jerseykitten and ebredhawk, I really like your monogram. Did you design that or have someone design it for you. That is hopefully my next step. Well before that I guess I have to pick definite colors, but hopefully that will be done soon as well. I was looking around these forums and saw places where people did them on their own and where they used a website to get designs. So I was just wondering what you guys did. I will definitely keep you guys posted about any new cruise planning to consider.

Those are great! I am hoping to be able to use them. Thanks for sharing!

That looks great! I've got a while before I will be able to start working on these, but seeing pictures is so helpful in deciding what will be best to do in the future. Great job!

Hey everyone...I know I am coming in late, but I just joined this site today. I am also a April 2010 bride to be. Specifically April 24, 2010 (I know someone else in this group is on that day too)... My fiance was actually the one who really encouraged a destination wedding, and especially the cruise wedding (it saves a lot of money, he has been wanting to go on a cruise, and requires less stress planning (kind of, haha)). When we got engaged in March, we knew we were going to do a cruise wedding. After researching all kinds of options and travel agents we finally found someone to help us. We also decided we would rather do the wedding on the beach than on the cruise ship. Then we picked a cruise that was more 'friendly' for our guests (shorter, over the weekend, from a relatively close location) which limited our options for beach weddings. Finally we figured out a way to have our cruise and our beach wedding ceremony too (although we may have had to sacrifice a reception since we are not using Carnival's wedding planners...I am working on that). Within that month or 6 weeks we found a travel agent, booked our cruise, and made our own save the date magnets (I will have to post a picture once I figure out how to) with the 'engagement pictures' my mom took of us at our local beach. It took about a month of spreading the news, making the website, mailing out the magnets with a friendly letter, but then people started booking like crazy. Right now we have 41 cabins booked and 96 people coming. This is way more than I expected and kind of makes arranging the wedding a little more difficult (the package was designed for 10 people and I told her we would probably have 40 people). Oops. Oh well, I am sure we will have a blast on the cruise with so many people and I will have to just work on all the details. My fiance and I are hoping to have an at home pre-party as well where we can go over any final details and so on. However, we still have to plan that one. I have been loving thinking about putting together OOT bags and this site has been awesome for getting ideas for that. I am still trying to figure out my color scheme though so I can't really purchase anything. I am excited to have so many people to share ideas with!

Hello everyone! My name is Joanne and I am getting married on April 24, 2010 on a beach in Nassau, Bahamas. We are taking a 5 day cruise to get there, but our wedding is through a private wedding coordinator. So far we have 96 people booked (which is way more than I was originally anticipating). I am looking forward to participating in this forum and hopefully getting lots of ideas.