Committment ceremony update

[smmast]

Its been quite a while since i first posted that my partner of 14 yrs and i are having a committment ceremony aboard the Disney Wonder in May.
Planning has gone very well. We are now on our third wedding planner from Disney, the first two both left Disney weddings, i believe left the company. Our current wedding planner is wonderful and certainly the best of the three. Everything is pretty much set, only big thing left is the dress, i mean dresses :)
We will be joined by fourteen guests, mostly family. Would be happy to answer any questions.

[Saxton]

I think you're the first one on this board to have a ceremony on one of the ships. :thumbsup2 Three different planners sounds a bit stressful but it sounds like it worked out for the best. I can't wait to hear all the details ... and see the pictures! Congratulations!

[ckdsnynt]

Love to hear details. My DS is having a committment ceremony in June. Not aboard a ship or anything like that but i would love to hear what exactly do you plan on doing at a ceremony such as that. Not trying to be ? or anything but having never been to one, I'm not sure what to expect or how to offer to help out, should she need me to help.

[donald...really]

Kind of OT, but there is a documentary called "Chicks in White Satin" that I saw years ago at a GLBT film festival. It follows two women planning a commitment ceremony and your post reminded me of it. It is one of the best movies I've ever seen. It was funny, touching, very well done. It shows the difficulties of planning a same-gender ceremony, and the joy at the celebration. I have been looking for it for years but haven't been able to find it. If you get a chance to see it, do. And let me know where you find it!

[donald...really]

Found it:

http://chicksinwhitesatin.com/

[ckdsnynt]

Thanks! I know you didn't mean this for me, but for OP but i thank you just the same!

[mickeyfan1]

I'll be on the Wonder in MAy..I hope I am lucky enough to be on the same sailing. Congrats to both of you.

I love love. I am a sap!

[OrlandoMike]

I'll be on the Wonder in MAy..I hope I am lucky enough to be on the same sailing.

Rut Row!

[mickeyfan1]

Rut Row!

Oh noes! Is this another 3 hour tour? Holy cow, I really can't do an extra day at sea.

[OrlandoMike]

Well there is a May cruise on my radar, just not sure which one yet!

But I swear! None of that Castaway Cay stuff was my doing! :rolleyes1

[mickeyfan1]

Something is going on, the Wonder is already in port, about 8 hours ahead of schedule.

I will be on the May 13th cruise. I am having a birthday cruise, finally. So far, there is only one other DISer on board. And every cabin category is available. It;s a 3 nighter, so ost likely it will be semi empty.

[OrlandoMike]

Dear lord, are you watching the Port webcam?

Sometimes they are the first to pull in, and thats around this time. It takes a few hours to bring in three ships in the middle of the night.

[mickeyfan1]

She pulled in about 10:30, it's usually 5am. The webcam is still on the long shot down the shipping channel, but others reported seeing it. Everyone is assuming it is the Wonder, but the Magic has been reported to be shaking side to side after the fiasco, er toga party last week. What did Wlly do,

OMG< we totally hijacked this beautiful womans thread! I am so sorry.

[soulmates]

OP, CONGRATS!~! Wishing you the very best!:thumbsup2

[rpmdfw]

smmast, please give us more details!:thumbsup2

And when all is said and done come back and post pictures!:woohoo:

We love hearing about commitment ceremonies!:yay:

[jenn&nelsonrego]

I want to hear more!!!

I am hoping to do a vow renewal for our 10 yr in Oct 2012 on the Magic so I would love to hear about your experience!

[rpmdfw]

I want to hear more!!!

I am hoping to do a vow renewal for our 10 yr in Oct 2012 on the Magic so I would love to hear about your experience!

But, Jenn! How are we going to crash if you do it on the boat?!?!?!?

You should do a WDW VR! ::yes::

[jenn&nelsonrego]

But, Jenn! How are we going to crash if you do it on the boat?!?!?!?

You should do a WDW VR! ::yes::

You'll have to get on the boat with me! ::yes::
You have plenty of time to plan and save. Get to it! :laughing:

[smmast]

I should have added my update to this post, but was too angry to think straight, no pun intended ;)

[rpmdfw]

We had the private room at Palo on the Wonder in December for brunch with only 8 people. (without even asking for it). So maybe it's not as big a deal as it's made out to be. I'll bet that they'd let you keep the booking unless someone else with the minimum wants to book it. How far out are you from sailing? Hopefully things will work out!

[smmast]

We sail May 30th. I am waiting to hear back. Update to come.

[smmast]

Update: Sent off the planning packet today at the 11th hour. Had a hard time selecting the music. Really only needed four songs, but it was harder than we expected. We chose "Somewhere over the rainbow" by Israel K (can not spell last name) as our seating song.
We will walk in to "Valentine" by Martina Mcbride, Recessional song "Only you can love me this way" Keith Urban and cake cutting song "How sweet it is to be loved by you" James Taylor.
I will be escorted by my sister and brother and Jenn by her two brothers.
We chose a contemporary style cake, vanilla with butter creme filling, boring but our favorite.
we are wearing hawaiian leis instead of carrying bouquets and all the guests will also wear tropical flowers. We chose a basic photo package due to $$.
That's all i can think of right now. Any questions? Disney has been absolutely fabulous to deal with!!

[soulmates]

Update: Sent off the planning packet today at the 11th hour. Had a hard time selecting the music. Really only needed four songs, but it was harder than we expected. We chose "Somewhere over the rainbow" by Israel K (can not spell last name) as our seating song.
We will walk in to "Valentine" by Martina Mcbride, Recessional song "Only you can love me this way" Keith Urban and cake cutting song "How sweet it is to be loved by you" James Taylor.
I will be escorted by my sister and brother and Jenn by her two brothers.
We chose a contemporary style cake, vanilla with butter creme filling, boring but our favorite.
we are wearing hawaiian leis instead of carrying bouquets and all the guests will also wear tropical flowers. We chose a basic photo package due to $$.
That's all i can think of right now. Any questions? Disney has been absolutely fabulous to deal with!!

SO very happy for you both!! :love:

[DVC~OKW~96]

Wow. Sounds fabulous!

And stop with the boring already! It's a classic! :teeth:

Looking forward to hearing how it all went! ::yes::

[Hydani]

Your plans sound great! I hope I can get married by Disney one day. I've always wanted a cruise marriage anyways :) I hope we hear more about the wedding, and see pictures too!

[smmast]

Looking for suggestions. We would like to give our guests a small gift as a token of our appreciation for joining us on the cruise, but having trouble coming up with something. We had thought about ordering gifts from Disney Cruise Line and they would send them to the staterooms directly. We looked at the small duffel and the water bottles, both really nice, but needless to say slightly overpriced in my humble opinion. The other thought was to put something together at home and mail it to the ship and hand the gifts out ourselves, but we may not want the hassle. Help!

[kingLouiethe1]

Looking for suggestions. We would like to give our guests a small gift as a token of our appreciation for joining us on the cruise, but having trouble coming up with something. We had thought about ordering gifts from Disney Cruise Line and they would send them to the staterooms directly. We looked at the small duffel and the water bottles, both really nice, but needless to say slightly overpriced in my humble opinion. The other thought was to put something together at home and mail it to the ship and hand the gifts out ourselves, but we may not want the hassle. Help!

I know it sounds like a hassle, but if you gave away duffles you wouldn't necessarily have to fill them,. Here's an idea, you can go on disney shopping and often they will have sales on the personalized duffles, you could have one made for each of your guests, and if you wanted to fill them you could get each of them a beach towel, you would probably still end up spending less than if you went through DCL. You could even have the package shipped to Florida if they would hold it for you, or maybe one of the nice people on this board in FL would let you ship to their home.

[nordkin]

Looking for suggestions. We would like to give our guests a small gift as a token of our appreciation for joining us on the cruise, but having trouble coming up with something. We had thought about ordering gifts from Disney Cruise Line and they would send them to the staterooms directly. We looked at the small duffel and the water bottles, both really nice, but needless to say slightly overpriced in my humble opinion. The other thought was to put something together at home and mail it to the ship and hand the gifts out ourselves, but we may not want the hassle. Help!

People on the cruise forum rave about the Perfect Gift operated by Shirley Nelson Brown in Cape Canaveral. You tell her what you want, she puts it together, and delivers it to the ship. We have used it and it was great. She has some good suggestions as well. Here is the link. http://www.theperfectgift.cc/

Donna

[ckdsnynt]

We went to an out of town wedding where all the out of towners were given a custom box with the following contents: bottled water, diet coke, regular coke, mints, salted pecans (the wedding was in a state where pecans are big!) trail mix, chocolate kisses, miniature chocolate brownies & chex mix. Then it was tied with a big ribbon and had mini wedding bells on the ribbon. It was great for late night snacks. But probably not on a cruise, huh, where all you do is eat! Except when you go ashore at Castaway Cay? Nice to take there?

[smmast]

We had thought about water bottles, sunblock etc. Had not thought about snacks, but that might be good for my niece and nephew(the only kids joining us) to take to the show at night, also save their mom and dad a little $$. I think i'm making a bigger deal out of this than it needs to be... aka Bridezilla LOL! These are good problems to have. Thanks for the suggestions and keep them coming!

[franandaj]

Its been quite a while since i first posted that my partner of 14 yrs and i are having a committment ceremony aboard the Disney Wonder in May.
Planning has gone very well. We are now on our third wedding planner from Disney, the first two both left Disney weddings, i believe left the company. Our current wedding planner is wonderful and certainly the best of the three. Everything is pretty much set, only big thing left is the dress, i mean dresses :)
We will be joined by fourteen guests, mostly family. Would be happy to answer any questions.

This is cool! I didn't know they did committment ceremonies or would provide same sex couples with planners! At the DLR they go with the laws of the state so I bet during the blink of an eye when same sax marriage was legal in CA they pulled off a bundle of them! Now, not at all. Pleease, give us details, are you both wearing dresses? I've never known two women who wear dresses, that's cool! My DP and I have pretty clear roles, she'd kill me if I ever called her my wife or even considered her wearing a dress! But that's so cool if you both like it!

[smmast]

Got the dress!! Yesterday i went shopping with my wonderful sister and found a beautiful dress. I don't know if i have ever been so excited about a dress ;)
Submitted everything to Disney and waiting to hear back with final numbers ($$).

[OrlandoMike]

Got the dress!!



I'm sorry, but pics must be provided or you will be in BIG trouble! ;)

[franandaj]

Absolutely, we want pics!

[smmast]

If i knew how to upload a picture i would, but not so tech savvy. I will try.

[soulmates]

HUGE trouble if we can't see those pictures!! ;)

[smmast]

Can anyone tell me a SIMPLE way to upload the picture? I downloaded it to my desktop, and i work on a mac.

[soulmates]

Can anyone tell me a SIMPLE way to upload the picture? I downloaded it to my desktop, and i work on a mac.

What I do, is I opened a FREE account with Photobucket. I upload my pics to photobucket and then it gives me the link to post pics, very simple. Good luck.:thumbsup2

Chris

[smmast]

Well we are T-minus 38 days and counting until we depart for our commitment ceremony cruise. I have a list the length of my arm of things to do, some of which are my own doing. Never was successful uploading a picture of the dress, but i think it is beautiful and so does my partner, the two votes that count ;) We will all be staying at BCV the night before the cruise departs and taking DCL transfer to port. We found very cute beach bags at Five Below and have filled them with all sorts of little things to use as stateroom gifts for our guests. We will be mailing that box ahead of time so it will be in our stateroom when we arrive and then we can give them out.
i am so excited i could burst!!!
OH, i almost forgot after the cruise we have decided to go back to WDW for Gaydays!!!! the perfect ending!

[smmast]

Ok here goes with a link to the dress, wish me luck.

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3069200?origin=sendtofriend&cm_ven=OrderCorrespondence&cm_cat=TEXTNORD&cm_pla=FriendEmail&cm_ite=254576

[franandaj]

Wow! That's one heck of a dress and if you look that good in it you need to contact me off list so you can post your wedding photos. It's quite untraditional, but since we're all untraditional, you have every right. Me and my DP on the other hand are almost a straight couple except that we're the same sex so we don't qualify.

At my wedding I got all these comments on what a femme I was, it sounds like the two of you are both femmes, if you'll both be wearing dresses, that is so cute. We all want to see pictures, email me if you need to know how to post them it's really easy!

Can't wait to hear more!

[smmast]

Well it won't be long now. Just last minute details, like, i don't know RINGS and SHOES!!! Having trouble with both. Also can anyone chime in on who we should be tipping on the big day? I'm never sure who to tip and don't want to snub anyone, suggestions? i would guess at least the photographer?
Got really cute photocards made to place in each guests cabin to say welcome aboard, so excited. I'll try to post, no promises!

[DVC~OKW~96]

Not so sure about the photographer? That's a professional postion? It'd be like tipping the officiant, wouldn't it?

I'm hard core on tipping though. I tip servers, bartenders, hair stylists, cabbies...

I'd tip any server or bartender you had at the service or party, of course.

I'll leave the others to sort that out though. Like I said, unless it's a position that is taxed on the presumption of tips, I'm not a supporter of tipping for the sake of tipping.

[smmast]

Ok, i'm in panic mode!! We leave in six days for WDW , 5/28, and cruise departs 5/30.
The actual ceremony takes place on June 1st. I am so nervous that i'm slightly nauseous. In between now and then, we both are working horrible schedules. As a matter of fact i work until 11pm the night before we leave; so there is a basis for my panic. We usually pack at the last minute for any trip, but i don't think that will work this time. I'm just hoping everything goes off without a hitch.
Pray for me ;)

By the way DVC~OKW~96, love your quote. I run to that song all the time!

[wallyb]

Ok here goes with a link to the dress, wish me luck.

http://shop.nordstrom.com/S/3069200?origin=sendtofriend&cm_ven=OrderCorrespondence&cm_cat=TEXTNORD&cm_pla=FriendEmail&cm_ite=254576

Love the dress!:thumbsup2

[smmast]

Thank you!

[DVC~OKW~96]

Ok, i'm in panic mode!! We leave in six days for WDW , 5/28, and cruise departs 5/30.
The actual ceremony takes place on June 1st. I am so nervous that i'm slightly nauseous. In between now and then, we both are working horrible schedules. As a matter of fact i work until 11pm the night before we leave; so there is a basis for my panic. We usually pack at the last minute for any trip, but i don't think that will work this time. I'm just hoping everything goes off without a hitch.
Pray for me ;)

By the way DVC~OKW~96, love your quote. I run to that song all the time!

Big breaths... pant, pant, pant, cleansing breath... oh wait. No. That's Lamaze...;) Seriously, everything will be fine. :hug:

That song and Giant... two of my favorites. ::yes::

[smmast]

Giant?? Do i know that one? Always looking for good running music.

[smmast]

Well we are back!! We had the most amazing ceremony and experience courtesy of Disney. I am still overwhelmed. More to follow!!!

[rpmdfw]

Well we are back!! We had the most amazing ceremony and experience courtesy of Disney. I am still overwhelmed. More to follow!!!

Congrats!

Can't wait for the details and the pics!:woohoo:

[Sphyrna]

Welcome back!! Glad you had a magical experience!!

[DLR2WDW]

Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing photos!

To backtrack a bit on the thread...franandaj mentioned that Disneyland won't do Commitment Ceremonies but I don't think that's true. When WDW and DCL started doing them a few years ago I believe DLR in Anahiem did too. If you are interested, I would double check with them! :thumbsup2

[rpmdfw]

Congratulations! Looking forward to seeing photos!

To backtrack a bit on the thread...franandaj mentioned that Disneyland won't do Commitment Ceremonies but I don't think that's true. When WDW and DCL started doing them a few years ago I believe DLR in Anahiem did too. If you are interested, I would double check with them! :thumbsup2

Well we know that KingLouie1 and his partner had their wedding there last year, so I'd say that's a good indication that they do. :laughing:

[franandaj]

That's good to know. It was some time ago that I looked into it (more than a few years), and at that time they would only support what was "legal". However after having seen the pricelists back then I never gave it a second thought. When we did get married legally, I didn't bother to check since I knew it was completely out of our price range. We did it locally (5 minutes from home instead of 25) and brought our own Disney touches!

[DVC~OKW~96]

Giant, by Melissa Etheridge.

I can't wait to hear all about the ceremony!!! ::yes::

[smmast]

At long last i have posted a photo from our cruise. Its under wedding may 2010, not sure if i did this correctly.

[hematite153]

I can't see the photo...am I missing something?

I'd love to hear the details.

[smmast]

Ok... i can't figure out how to post a photo from Photobucket. Please help, this is why i have not posted any photos.

[franandaj]

Ok... i can't figure out how to post a photo from Photobucket. Please help, this is why i have not posted any photos.

From your photobucket account, click on All Albums. If you have not created specific albums, then all the photos will be in your "default album". Click on the title of the album of the pictures. You will see the pictures from that album, and if you hover your mouse over the pictures the "share" box will show up, move your mouse down to the code that reads, IMG code. Click on that box, and copy the code into your DIS post.

I'd love to see the pictures!

[smmast]

Ok here goes... (i'm the littler one)


http://i954.photobucket.com/albums/ae28/smmast95/Wedding%20Cruise%20May%202010/OCR0003.jpg

[franandaj]

What a great looking couple you are! :thumbsup2

[hematite153]

Nice photo -- thanks for sharing.

[rpmdfw]

That's awesome! You both look beautiful! :thumbsup2

[OrlandoMike]

Nice! :thumbsup2

[smmast]

Thank you!

[DVC~OKW~96]

Just now saw this with your photo! Lovely! Thank you for sharing it with us. ::yes::