Wedding Review: Cruise Ship Wedding!

I wanted to do a quick review of our embarkation day cruise ship wedding! I found it very tough to find reviews/information on cruise weddings when I was doing my research, so please feel free to ask anything!Location: Manhattan Room (main dining room) on the Norwegian Escape in Miami, FL 57 Guests: 20 sailing (including bride & groom)/37 ceremony and reception onlyPros: *Working with Royal Ocean Events - I loved our coordinator, but I did feel like I always had to ask questions. She offered up a ton of options when I would ask for things, but didn’t make suggestions on her own. As long as your know this going into the planning you should be fine. The company is out of Canada and I know some people have had issues with communication, we we never did; we always got quick responses to our e-mails. *Norwegian day-of coordinators were amazing *Boarding the ship was a breeze *The Norwegian Escape is a newer ship and a gorgeous place to get married! *We were able to choose all ceremony and reception music, we just submitted a list and the DJ had everything prepared *Photography was great - way better than we were anticipating. My husband was a little hesitant for me to post them here, but we signed a waiver with Royal Ocean Events, so some may be posted on their Facebook page in the near future *Cake was gorgeous and delicious *All food (5 hot and 5 cold hors d'oeuvres) was really good *Drinks were strong, which our friends and family enjoyed, but may have been a bit much for such a short reception (especially for those who couldn’t stay on the boat) *Ended up spending about $10k, including the cruise itself.Cons: *No rehearsal, so you go into the ceremony pretty blind as to what to expect *Short reception mostly filled with taking pictures *Sad saying goodbye to non-sailing guests *Non-sailing guests have to pay to park at port ($7) *Must be organized! You have to make sure you pack your wedding essentials, reception items, and regular cruise luggage separately. Because we had so much to bring on, the groom ended up forgetting his suit jacket in the car. We didn’t mind so much but it was a little chaotic trying to make sure we got everything we needed on board.A little more detail-Night before: We had a block of rooms at the Hampton Inn at Coconut Grove the night before the wedding. Not only does the hotel include breakfast in the morning, but has rates that include parking for the duration of the cruise, which is a big savings considering parking at the port is $20/day.The coordinator called me at 7pm to go over everything for the next day.Day of: My sisters (bridesmaids), mom and I all got hair and makeup ready at the hotel. I did my own makeup (had been practicing for months) and had my sister curl my hair. They all changed into their wedding outfits, and I wore a casual beachy dress since I would be changing into my dress on the ship.Most of us took Ubers from the hotel to the port. The coordinator had let us know that it would be very difficult for my husband and I to not see each other at all while boarding, so we embraced it and rode by ourselves to the port, which was kind of cool.The check in process was super easy. The non-sailing guests had to go to a specific terminal and tell staff that they were there for the wedding so that they’d be directed to check in. The coordinators were there at security to guide the non-sailing guests to the priority boarding waiting area, which was awesome. All sailing guests had to go to the terminal listed on their boarding passes. This made things a little more chaotic because my terminal was different than the majority of our family, but it went smoothly. The coordinators made sure all sailing guests made their way to the same priority boarding area, and once we were finished checking in our coordinators told us that the ship was cleared for us to board!The guests were taken into the ceremony room, and once there were allowed to explore a bit before the ceremony started. The ship was so amazingly gorgeous, and I know some of them were regretting not booking themselves to come with us!The guys went to one of the groomsmen’s room to finish getting ready. We tried to be super practical and had the groomsmen wear khaki pants and a white button down, which we figured they all already had, and then my husband bought himself a new custom suit (which he’ll wear after because he wears suits to work). They were all already dressed when we boarded and just needed to finish doing their hair. The coordinator then took them to a bar once they were totally ready for a little more preparation.My sisters (bridesmaids), mom and I went to my room to get ready. I had them buy their own dresses, any style, just told them to make sure they were navy. I told the coordinator I meant to bring on a bottle of champagne, and next thing I know she came back with a chilled bottle and four glasses! She was AWESOME. I had about an hour to get ready, so I touched up makeup and hair, sat around enjoying champagne and took some pics of our own (the photographer would have taken pictures for us in the room but I told them at the ceremony/reception only would be find) before putting the dress on.The coordinator came and got us once it was time so we made our way into the Manhattan room and they gave my sisters, dad and I a quick run down of how everything was going to go.Ceremony: The officiant was great. We wanted a quick, non-religious ceremony and we got exactly that. My sister did a nice ready that we picked out, and about 15 minutes later we were married!After the reception we spent about 15 minutes taking pictures of just the two of us. We could have gone to take pictures around the ship, but because of the limited time of the reception I really wanted to take a few quickly and spend the rest of the time with our guests.Reception: We packed so much into that hour! It went by quickly but somehow felt longer than it was. Once we were introduced by husband and wife we danced our first dance, and realized I forgot to have my sister bustle my dress. Oops! We went straight into the father/daughter dance, and then the mother/son dance, which gave me time to have my sister get my dress situated.After the traditional dances we got drinks and headed out to the dance floor to boogie! A lot of our guests joined us, which was great. We were allowed to pick all of the music, so we went with things that we knew would get the people moving.Document signing came a little bit after, which was done up more for pictures than the actual signing. We then did more dancing/eating/drinking before it was time to cut the cake. After cutting the cake we told the photographer we wanted some group photos, so we go all of those in and after that it was time for the non-sailing guests to get off of the boat.We had made reservations for our entire group at one of the specialty restaurants for that night, so the staff offered to box up the remainder of the cake and serve it to us for dessert after dinner. We thought this was so thoughtful! It was the end so a seriously perfect day.Overall, we were so happy with the entire experience. Please feel free to ask anything you may have questions about if you’re considering or planning a cruise wedding of your own! via /r/weddingplanning http://ift.tt/2uODqPO