Cruisebride2016 Cruise Wedding Planning Thread

[cruisebride2016]

Updates from this weekend:

 

-Hadn't heard from the cake topper vendor, so emailed her and let her know that we need to receive the cake topper by Saturday, April 2nd. She hasn't sent us a proof, but responded to my message saying that she will get it to us by Saturday.

-Did another dress fitting on Saturday. The hem and bustle are done. I added straps and they need to be permanently sewn in, then it wil be done. I have an appointment to go in on Saturday, April 2nd for my final fitting and the plan will be to bring the dress home with me that day

-We have gotten our rings sized, rhodium dipped, and cleaned, so they should be ready to go. Since I am still wearing my engagement ring daily, I might go back for a quick cleaning one more time.

-We organized all of the things we are bringing with us (T-shirts, flowers, welcome bags, etc) and put them into our bags. We were able to fit everything into one extra bag. This is great because we have the ability to bring 2 extra bags, but the fewer we bring, the easier to get around with our bags. I had lost sleep over thinking about what needed to be packed and how we would pack it, so this was a huge relief for me!

-We made a guestbook binder on zazzle. This weeked we decided what we would make for the pages. We are going to make it like a passport. We have traveled a lot, so we will take pictures from various trips and make them the background of the pages. Then, we will customize passport stamps for the countries we have visited. We will print these out and guests and sign notes on them for us.

-My parents have passed away, so I am planning to have a chair that is a memorial to them. I bought a frame and created a draft of the saying and pictures I will use.

-A friend of ours created a photobooth for their wedding. They offered to bring it for our wedding. We have decided on what design we would like for the print outs and need to talk with our friends to see if they can create what we want.

-Today, I emailed my makeup artist/hairstylist with my inspiration pictures and with all the details for the wedding day. I haven't heard back from her to confirm everything.

-We picked up the groom's suit after it was tailored. The shop is going out of business, so he was very worried that they would close their doors before he picked up his suit. Fortunately, it all worked out!

-We are going to bring sparkling wine onto the cruise to have a toast. We went to Total Wine and bought bottles to taste test. Last night, we did the taste test. We narrowed it down to 2 bottles and will decide between them depending on availability at the store in Fort Lauderdale. We sure enjoyed the taste testing

-We have a draft of our script for the wedding ceremony. There are great examples on this website that I pieced together to create ours.

-I ordered a few new bathing suits, shorts and dresses online. They should be arriving this week. It is much easier to shop online instead of going to multiple stores to find what I need.

-We booked a cocktail party in our room during our reception once we get back on the cruise. This seems like it should be an easy task, but our travel agent made it much more difficult than it needed to be. It feels great to have the work behind us and have this checked off the list.

 

Since we are 2 weeks away from the cruise (even less from when we leave to Florida), I would expect almost everything would be checked off. Sadly, we are still adding more things to our to do list. I am pretty stressed about what we have left to accomplish, although most of the things are little details that if they didn't get accomplished no one except the bride and groom would know. We still want to try to complete these tasks, so hopefully it won't drive us insane.

[cruisebride2016]

Well, I finally feel like my tanning is paying off. I started tanning at the beginning of February. I splurged on the lotion from the salon because this is a special event and don't want any problems with the tan. Initially, I only had time to go once a week. I started out low on the time to prevent burning and increased the time with each session. I had been going for about 6 weeks and barely noticed anything. I was able to make time to go 2-3 times per week and had increased the time for each session. After 1 week of this routine, I started to notice a difference and people around me (who don't know that I am tanning) started commenting on it also. I am happy to see my efforts finally paying off! I am trying to decide how close to the wedding I should make my last session. We leave for Fort Lauderdale 5 days before the wedding, so I will probably make the last session 6 or 7 days prior to the wedding (3-4 days prior to the beginning of the cruise). I have not really been burning since it has been a gradual tan, so I think this will be ok.

[ashhtayy]

@@cruisebride2016

 

Good luck win your final dress fitting. Fingers crossed everything perfect

 

Great job fitting everything into one bag. If you have any packing tips, please share. I'm getting nervous about how we are going to squeeze everything in but I'm not letting my fiancé know that as he reminds me daily about how much I plan on bringing.

 

Love your guestbook binder idea. What a great keepsake!

 

Buying a good lotion is well worth it in my opinion. I have never tanned well when not using a lotion. They're expensive but it definitely speeds up the process.

 

Don't stress! Sounds like you are in great shape. Good luck!

[cruisebride2016]

@@ashhtayy

 

Yes, I hope the dress is perfect on Saturday!

 

I am not bringing a whole lot of decor, so that cuts down on how much we have. My fiance has a Samsonite hard shelled 4 wheel suitcase that is just open space. The top portion has a zipped cover, but aside from that, there are no pockets or anything. I think this helped because we were able to play tetris within the bag to get everything to fit.

 

Every day I take a deep breath and remember this is an enjoyable and exciting time of my life. This helps me relax and stress less. Having a supportive and easy going fiance helps too!

 

We have checked a few more things off the to do list:

-completed diy wine charms. I am really happy with how they came out!

 

 

-Confirmed reservation for restaurant on cruise ship for our farewell dinner

-Got confirmation from cruise topper lady it will be done tomorrow, then we can proof it and if OK she will ship same day. Fingers crossed it comes in time!

-Emailed wedding coordinator to confirm setup of venue, but haven't heard back in a few days.

-Emailed hair/makeup artist to confirm, but haven't heard back in a few days.

[cruisebride2016]

Finally got a proof for our cake topper yesterday afternoon and approved it, so it is in the mail We were worried she would be rushing and that would lower the quality, but fortunately that was not the case. If we had more time, I would have been nit picky about a few details (such as the groom's actual boutonniere does not have any greenery), but it looks great the way it is and I want it ASAP, so I wasn't going to waste time with little details. The groom has not seen my dress, so when I showed him the picture I put a little icon over the dress It is scheduled to arrive tomorrow, so crossing my fingers that shipping goes smoothly!

 

[ashhtayy]

Looks great!

[calgarybride2015]

Looks fantastic!

 

 

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[cruisebride2016]

Good news and bad news today.

 

Bad news: Went for the "final" dress fitting and the straps were still wrong and the bead decoration had not been reinforced. I bought the sample, so the strings of the beads were loose and some beads had fallen off. Since the first alteration appointment, I had been asking about the beads, so it was on their list of to dos, but they just never did it. The manager got involved and said the initial seamstress will not do any more work on my dress and the head seamstress came over and repinned the straps. They said I could wait 30 minutes or come back tomorrow. I decided to wait until tomorrow. Hope it is truly the final fitting tomorrow.

 

Good news: Cake topper came today and looks good!

[vancouverpetunia]

@@cruisebride2016 Since I will be away when you leave and on your wedding day, I wanted to quickly wish you well on your journey and for your wedding day! You must be so excited (I know I am). Congratulations and looking forward to catching up on how it all went once we're both back.

[ashhtayy]

@@cruisebride2016 fingers crossed for tomorrow! So frustrating but as long as it gets done and you're happy with it that's all that matters.