AshleyW

Yep!! They only had my size left, so they had them marked way down - $70ish, if I remember right. If you want them, though, Amazon has them on sale as low at $103 (depending on color/size) right now, plus they're a style that is part of their 25% off promotion. So once you add them to your cart, it takes 25% off the price! Not a bad deal. http://www.amazon.com/Steve-Madden-Womens-Partyy-R-Satin/dp/B0058WXFSY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1321554395&sr=8-1

All right, I HAVE to show off my shoes. They're the Partyy-R pump by Steve Madden. They had my fuschia color on sale at Nordstrom, so I even managed to get them for almost half off. Love them!

Hi ladies!! Another non-Chicago bride here. I'm Ashley and I'm getting married May 5, 2012 (cinco de mayo!! ) on a Carnival cruise. We'll be getting married while in port in Tampa, then we'll be headed to Cozumel and Grand Cayman. Right now we're getting ready to send out STD's and hopefully will get started on some other projects right after the holidays.

That's what we decided, too! It costs the same, and is less work for us, so pretty much a win/win situation.

I went ahead and booked the DJ - I don't mind having our reception in the cheesy disco. Plus my family likes to dance so I'd rather have the room and music for everyone to have fun. As far as the cake - my coordinator said mine would be 2 tiered based on my guests (approx 30) and most likely plain white with some white piping on it. I brought my own cake topper so it would at least be a little personalized. That's what I was told as well. I'll have lots of family there taking pictures, so I'm not going to risk bringing along a professional photographer and have something happen.

YAY another Paradise bride!! Too funny that our weddings are so close together. We thought about doing our wedding at one of the port stops, but it absolutely terrifies me that there would be bad weather or something and wouldn't be able to make port. I've heard some mixed reviews on the Carnival Paradise, too, because it's kind of an older ship, so I'm hoping everything turns out okay. I'm sure most people will be having way too much fun (and drinking way too much!) to notice too much, anyway.

Congratulations!! My wedding sounds similar to what you're doing... nothing fancy, just some family. I had no idea there were laws about re-marrying after divorce.. that's crazy! Anyway, I'm actually going through Carnival instead of RCI - but I agree about how much stuff there is to do! We're going through Carnival for the actual wedding aboard the ship, and then we're using a TA to book the actual cruise and our guests booked through her as well. Congratulations again, and make sure you look around the forums - there is a TON of information and helpful stuff on here!

Congratulations!! Sounds like everything went great for you!

Quote: Originally Posted by acireta Hi Ashley! Welcome! I'm a cruise bride also - what cruise line are you using? Thanks for the welcome! We're actually going with Carnival. A bunch of our guests will be first time cruisers, so we wanted to try and keep it as cheap as possible for them.

Good to hear about the photographers, thanks! That's kind of what I've heard about TWE.. they told me that my wedding planner would contact me within a week of booking our package, and it's been two weeks and I haven't heard anything yet. I'll probably call in a couple days if I haven't heard anything... at this point, it's still pretty far out, so I'm not too concerned.

Thank you!! We're inviting 54, and have gotten a pretty solid 'yes' from about 32 people - I was a little surprised at how many people wanted to come! The group booking deadline is coming up soon though, so we'll see how many people actually pull the trigger. Thanks! Our cruise will leave out of Tampa, FL - my parents live there. It'll be 5 days to Grand Cayman and Cozumel. The actual wedding & reception will be on the boat while it's in Tampa, before everyone else boards the ship. I thought about getting married at one of our ports, but it made me nervous thinking about what would happen if we got bad weather and couldn't get off the ship that day. Thanks for the warm welcome, ladies!

Wow, great pictures!! You look amazing!

Beautiful pictures! Thanks for sharing

Beautiful wedding & pictures! I love your invitations, too cute.

Hey ladies! Can I join in with you all? I'm Ashley, and another midwest bride. The fiance & I live in Iowa - we're getting married May 5, 2012 on a cruise! I've been trying to keep my eye out for stuff for our wedding, but there hasn't been hardly any tropical themed items out in the stores in Iowa in the middle of winter, haha.

Awesome! Thanks for the tip!

Cute idea! Thanks for sharing.

Guys, I am SO excited, I just had to share!! The fiance & I just booked our wedding through Carnival. We'll be sailing May 5,2012 on the Paradise out of Tampa. It's a 5 day cruise with stops in Cozumel and Grand Cayman. The wedding will be on embarkation day. We decided on the Welcome Aboard package, which is the 1 hour reception with appetizers & open bar. Just wondered if anyone has any experience with the Paradise or the Carnival folks in Tampa? I'm crossing my fingers everything goes smoothly, but I'm a bit of a worrier. We're hoping to book the DJ for the reception, but then we'd have to have our reception in the disco, and the pictures on the Paradise look a little ugly.. gold animal print. Also, how has everyone's photography experience been? That's the main thing I'm worried about, I think. I just want to make sure I'm going to have some nice pictures to remember everything by. Thanks, ladies, for any advice or experiences you can share!!

Okay, I'm a bit of a noob but I thought I'd show off my kitties.. This is Aikman: and Skeeter! They're pretty rotten, if you couldn't tell.

Quote: Originally Posted by Norma83 Hi Pat291 - I think it just depends on everyone's situation. My fiance and I will be engaged for 3 years come July 4th and by the time we get married in 2012, we will have been engaged for almost 5 -- AND we've been together for 9 years! So, I know what you mean when people always ask, "when are you getting married?" or "When is the wedding date?" I would just tell them, oh it'll happen when it's supposed to happen or I'd also respond with, what's the rush? Don't get discouraged, it'll happen when it's supposed to happen and know that you aren't alone I agree! My fiance & I have been together for 8 1/2 years (high school sweethearts) and engaged for almost 2 1/2 years. By the time we get married in 2012, we'll have been together for just shy of 11 years and engaged for a little over 4 1/2 years. I always just tell people that we're trying to get all of our ducks in a row beforehand. I'd like to finish school before the wedding, and we're hoping to save up for a house to buy around wedding time. I don't think there's anything wrong with a long engagement.

These look great! I really like the wax seal, I think that's a great touch.

Just stumbled upon your thread - I'm planning on a Carnival wedding too, and your review is definitely reassuring! I've been a little nervous about how nice it would be, but yours looks GREAT! I'm really impressed with the "around the ship" pictures your photographer did. A little late, but - congratulations!

I love those centerpieces! The kite is really cute, too. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the welcome, everyone!

Hi everyone!! I'm Ashley. My fiance (Zac) and I have been engaged for about two years now. We're trying to wait to have our wedding until I finish nursing school, so we're shooting for a October 2012 wedding. I know, we're still pretty far out, but I'm a compulsive planner so I thought I'd jump in now and get started as much as I can. We've been talking lately about having a Carnival cruise wedding, but I've been seeing all these beautiful Jamaican weddings on the board and might be changing my mind!