Tinkerbell82's Cruise Wedding Planning Blog

[Tinkerbell82]

Well, we’re finally about one month away from our wedding! I can’t believe it’s finally my turn to share our planning story. We’ve had so much fun DIY’ing our hearts out. These boards were SO helpful to us – hopefully I’ll be able to return the favor!

 

The Story of Us

 

Billy and I met about two and a half years ago. We worked in the same building and ended up chatting at a happy hour at a place close to our work that everyone frequented. Little did we know that 6 months later we would be dating, and a year and a half later we would be engaged! We both know in our hearts that we are soul mates, and were meant to be together. I am so lucky to have such an amazing guy and best friend!!

 

Our Engagement

 

I am a big fan of Disney World, and Billy and I agreed that for Valentine’s Day 2013 we would splurge on a weekend trip in lieu of gifts for each other. When we got to the resort Billy was acting SO strange! I thought he was just really excited about our trip. Little did I know that when we got to Magic Kingdom he was going to pop the question in front of the castle!! As you can probably tell, I had NO idea (I would have at least done my hair, haha).

 

 

Very shortly after our engagement, I booked a wonderful photographer for our engagement pics from Ashfall Mixed Media. We live in St. Petersburg, Florida, and I really wanted to capture the city the way it looks now, especially since the pier has since shut down. She did a wonderful job and I highly recommend her!

 

 

 

Our Cruise Wedding

After exploring several options around our town, we realized that we wanted to do a cruise wedding.  We are both fun-loving people who love to travel, so we thought “Why Not”! We had a cruise planned on the Carnival Glory last April, and booked our wedding cruise while we were onboard.  As soon as we got back we called Carnival Weddings and booked our wedding aboard the Carnival Paradise sailing out of Tampa on April 5, 2014.  Aside from the wedding being fun and different, it was so much more cost effective that any of the land-based weddings in our area!  I couldn’t justify spending upwards of 20k on one day, so the cruise wedding it was!  They offer all-inclusive packages at a very reasonable price.  We knew starting out that not everyone would be able to sail with us, but the way we booked it our guests that are not sailing can board the ship in the Port of Tampa for the day and disembark before we set sail.

 

 

The Atrium of the Carnival Paradise

 

Save the Dates

Once we secured our date and location, I wanted to get our Save the Dates out as soon as possible.   They were designed on Vistaprint and paid for using a Groupon and discount codes.  We got them for a very reasonable price!  I also spent a few weeks designing our wedding website with all of the information people would need to book their cruise, etc.  After several weeks of tweaking the website was up and running, and our Save the Dates were sent!

 

 

You can check out our website here:

 

www.weddingwire.com/tinaandbill

[Tinkerbell82]

Invitations

Next up on the “to-do” list were the invitations.  I knew that we wanted to do something really fun and memorable to set the tone for our wedding cruise.  After many weeks searching I finally found the perfect invites!  The only catch was that they were DIY, but I was willing to take on the project as nothing else could compare to the ones we found.  The template was purchased from Vanessa’s Destination Wedding Invitations.  As soon as we bought it we downloaded a free trial of Adobe Illustrator and got to work right away.  There were many sleepless nights and hours of work involved in getting them just they way we wanted, but I have to say they came out PERFECT!  The total cost for 100 invites, including printing and supplies, came in right under $200.  It felt so good to get them out in the mail and our guests LOVED them!  All of the hard work was worth it.

 

 

[khinken]

Hi Tina!

First of all, CONGRATULATIONS! I am in awe with all the great ideas you had while putting your wedding together! I just booked my Carnival Cruise wedding out of Port Canaveral for May 2015 and am not completely confident about the decision. I feel like even though the wedding ceremony and reception will turn out to be less stressful, the getting people there, and staying within the 50 non sailing guest head count will be more stressful. I have so many questions for you and hope you don't mind answering some of them.

 

What was your overall experience with your wedding coordinator? Were they helpful in pointing you in the right direction/ making decisions?

 

When it came to inviting people to the wedding, were you concerned about the 50 non sailing guest limit? If so, how did you send out save the dates knowing that you may have to turn people away if too many decided not to sail?  

 

Did you bring decorations on to the cruise ship for the wedding or did you just leave it the way they decorated? 

 

How did you coordinate a rehearsal dinner without knowing what was actually going to happen?

 

Did you have to already have your hair done when you got to the cruise ship?

 

Were you and the groom together at boarding and then go to separate staterooms to get ready?

 

Were you pleased with how the ceremony ran, since there wasn't a rehearsal?

 

For the reception, were you able to pick the song for your first dance, daddy-daughter dance, mother-son dance or was it just provided?

 

Was the hour and a half reception actually enough time? Did you do a bouquet toss etc?

 

Did you work with your wedding coordinator to book the private events that you hosted on the ship for your guests throughout the cruise?

 

How was the photographer? Did you end up loving the pictures that they took?

 

Thank you so much for anything that you can help me with!

 

Katrina

[FutureMrsGlover]

Love the invites!

[BarbaraBusybee]

Found her sight.  You are an inspiration.