February 2012 Cruise Brides let's connect!

Hi Brides! Lady Love here and wanting to connect with other Feb 2012 brides. We are taking the Oasis of the Seas and getting married in St Thomas on Feb 14. We sent out invitations for our wedding in Oct-Nov 2010 and I can't believe how fast time has flown. 2012 is just around the corner :eek:

Hey LadyLove!  I am technically a March bride (March 1st), but our cruise leaves on February 26th so I feel more like a February bride sometimes since all of my deadlines are then.  Also an RCI bride (Navigator).  We actually just sent our invitations out last week.  Can I ask why you sent yours out so early??

Hey Ecofrugal!

 

Thanks for the reply.  Even though we got engaged in October and announced it to our family and friends then with the invitation, we had been planning since August. We wanted to help our guests as much as possible by giving them enough time to take vacations from work and save up since we are cruising the Oasis which is pricey and all our guests have to pay to fly to Florida. Also, we knew the ship we chose was rather financially ambitious for our guests, so for our wedding invitations we made an amazing PowerPoint presentation put on a customized CD in a personalized case that sold the hell out of the Oasis, its 3 ports of call and our wedding as well as really promoted why our guests wouldn't want to miss the trip.

Lastly, my FI and I are kinda controlling and wanted to control how the idea of a destination wedding was presented to our family and friends since we are the first to do this in our family, hence the elaborate CD presentation invitation. 

 

How has the response been so far with your invitations? I think you still gave a good amount of time, but did most guests know the plan before they received the invitation?

Congrats Lady Love! I'm sure it's going to be a gorgeous wedding! What a perfectly romantic date! I'm getting married too in St.Thomas, but on Feb 16th, sailing with Princess. Time does fly!!! Looks like you have done a lot already. We just decided last minute so still so much do to. What are your guest doing after the ceremony if you dont mind me asking.

Originally Posted by LadyLove 

Hi Brides!
Lady Love here and wanting to connect with other Feb 2012 brides. We are taking the Oasis of the Seas and getting married in St Thomas on Feb 14.
We sent out invitations for our wedding in Oct-Nov 2010 and I can't believe how fast time has flown. 2012 is just around the corner

 

Hi Coquine! Congrats to you too and sorry for the delayed response. 

After the wedding we plan for the guests to have rum punch and wedding cake and take pictures on the beach. We will go back to the ship and have dinner in the dining room and want to have a private cocktail reception. We are still trying to coordinate this via my travel agent talking to the ship which is a bit frustrating. How is your planning going? What are you planning on doing with your guests after? 

 

Yay! For another Feb 2012 Bride 

LadyLove, 's ok , no worries. Thank you for replying, it's helpful to know. Initially I thought maybe having lunch with my guests after the ceremony but I will be with them for a whole week cruising!! Hehe I thought maybe they would like to visit a bit instead and we could have a private dinner reception like you mentioned. I didn't go through the cruise line wedding package so I wont be able to have a private reception but I thought to have a nice dinner in one of the specialty restaurants instead. I haven't done much yet since I still don't know how many people are coming. I have the photographer/videographer/ceremony/bouquet/cake decided. I don't plan to give out any OTT bags because I didn't want to give extra things for my guests to have to carry. I may just give them some sport water bottles or travel mugs because I found them very handy on my last trip. I thought instead covering for their tips and get drink packages for them. Well lets see depends how many are coming. I dont expect a lot so maybe it will be affordable. With certain cruise line you can send a referral to your guests and when they book their trip they can get an extra shipboard credit from the cruise line (on top of the one given my the TA) and you get it too per guests booked. It's not much but it nicely adds up! Any help is welcome. I still have to find my personal accessories (wedge flip flops, shoes, jeweleries, hair piece, etc) and a dress for the flower girl. I thought I wouldn't have much to do since it would be a simple wedding but just shopping those personal attires is very time consuming! Also I can't afford to buy everything all at once so I have to get one thing at a time... very slow pace and the wedding is coming soon so it is stressing me out a bit. Oh well... I hope your planning is going smoothly. Time flies! 

Hi Coquine,

  We are also not doing our wedding through the cruise line, but are using Janelle with Island Bliss. We did have some trouble with our TA to book a private room, and with advice from other brides here on BDW I called the cruise line to verify what was possible and to book a private reception space is very possible and then I had to instruct my TA how to do it. It was frustrating because it was so simple and all she had to do was call Royal Caribbean, plus she's supposed to be very experienced and I can't believe some of the headaches I've had with her thus far. Anyway, we really want the private reception for dancing to good music, bouquet and garter toss and to just party for a bit exclusively with our guests - about 45 people including 3 kids. Our challenge now is timing so we are still working out kinks.    I am very interested in the referral on board credits you were talking about. We are with Royal Caribbean, do you know if they are one of the cruise lines that do that? Do you have any links I could check out? You are absolutely right, every little bit does add up and I'm sure my guests would love that to buy more alcohol     I also do not think we are gonna do OOT bags. Just another thing I don't need to stress about. I do like the water bottle/mug idea. I've have seen someone else mention that they got personalized water bottles for their guests and it was well received because they came in very handy.   You seem like you are progressing nicely! I still have to decide on wedding cake flavor and style as well as my bouquet and my bridesmaids bouquet. There's just so many pretty choices. I also need to find wedding shoes, hair accessories and flower girl dress. I was lucky that for my birthday this year my fiancé bought me a beautiful earrings, necklace and bracelet set that I love and will use for the wedding. Plus, we need to get attendants gifts. I'm hoping to find an earrings and bracelet set (their dress doesn't need a necklace) that's reasonably priced and nice for my 5 bridesmaids.   I know it's hard, but try not to stress too much. You will have an amazing wedding!!! I take comfort in this thought when I start feeling overwhelmed or pissed or like why didn't we just elope?!     

Originally Posted by coquine 

LadyLove, 's ok , no worries. Thank you for replying, it's helpful to know. Initially I thought maybe having lunch with my guests after the ceremony but I will be with them for a whole week cruising!! Hehe I thought maybe they would like to visit a bit instead and we could have a private dinner reception like you mentioned. I didn't go through the cruise line wedding package so I wont be able to have a private reception but I thought to have a nice dinner in one of the specialty restaurants instead. I haven't done much yet since I still don't know how many people are coming. I have the photographer/videographer/ceremony/bouquet/cake decided. I don't plan to give out any OTT bags because I didn't want to give extra things for my guests to have to carry. I may just give them some sport water bottles or travel mugs because I found them very handy on my last trip. I thought instead covering for their tips and get drink packages for them. Well lets see depends how many are coming. I dont expect a lot so maybe it will be affordable. With certain cruise line you can send a referral to your guests and when they book their trip they can get an extra shipboard credit from the cruise line (on top of the one given my the TA) and you get it too per guests booked. It's not much but it nicely adds up! Any help is welcome. I still have to find my personal accessories (wedge flip flops, shoes, jeweleries, hair piece, etc) and a dress for the flower girl. I thought I wouldn't have much to do since it would be a simple wedding but just shopping those personal attires is very time consuming! Also I can't afford to buy everything all at once so I have to get one thing at a time... very slow pace and the wedding is coming soon so it is stressing me out a bit. Oh well... I hope your planning is going smoothly. Time flies! 

 

 

LadyLove,

 

It's actually the cruiseline who told me about the extra online credit (referral). We are travelling with Princess. I don't know if RC has the same offer, it would give them a call to ask. I hope they do. How did you manage to book the private reception? I don't have any bridesmaids so less decisions to make...and I wont have many guests. :-) I think it gets stressful or overwhelming when I look at the whole list of things to do but when I am able to mark of of them done, it feels so much better. I just booked my flights today.. phew.. I am thinking as long as I get there with my FI... the rest are just details!.. I do hear you.. easier to say than done. Sounds like your wedding is going to be so much fun! So matter what St-Thomas will be gorgeous and so will your wedding! :-)

 

 

Hey Coquine,

 

With RC it was pretty easy to book a room. If you went with a TA they contact the cruise line, if you booked direct then you call the cruiseline, and make a formal request that you would like a cocktail party and tell when you want it and for how many people. To book the space is free, but alcohol, bartenders, music set-up, food, basically anything you add comes at a cost. So not too bad. My challenge initially was my TA discouraged us from doing it saying a private reception was gonna cost us thousands and thousands of dollars, we asked her how much exactly? and then her answer changed to its not possible. For some reason I didn't believe her, posted on BDW and called RC myself where they told me its free for a room I just have to request it and if they have availability then we can have it. However, I couldn't do the request myself but through my TA, so I had to go back to her to instruct her what to do   

 

 

LadyLove, That's awesome that you were able to get a private reception. Thanks for info, I am going to try see if that works with my cruise line. Good thing you insisted with the TA!