Disney Cruise Brides!!! Part Deux!!

[JBeanBunny]

Our daughter-in-law dropped her dress off at Guest Services when we boarded the ship, and it turned up later in her room damaged without so much as a note saying there was a problem. They supposedly steamed it and snagged the material in several places and ripped out the tacking that held the rouching in place.

Coordinator only allowed 2 to witness the short "official" ceremony. We argued and they finally let the four parents attend while making the rest of the family wait in the atrium; however, any random guest who walked by was able to witness the ceremony which added insult to injury.

Onboard coordinator was a joke, never knew the answer to any question asked and acted superior to you.

Otherwise, everything else went well.

Bride was compensated for damage to her dress, and they made several attempts to fix it; however, it was never the same as originally purchased.

Sorry to hear about your bad experience. My dress was hand delivered by my wedding coordinator and thankfully nothing was damaged (I did enough damage to it on my own with everybody stepping on it!!!!) We did, however, get a CHARGE for the steaming of the attire, even though it's clearly free with the wedding package! We just had to talk to Laura and she made sure that guest services removed that charge! Laura was incredibly helpful to us, if she didn't know an answer, she would find it. She was helpful when we met her in January on our "research cruise" and even moreso during our wedding cruise.

We, too, were ONLY allowed to have 2 witnesses to the ceremony. (I don't see why this is such a big deal to people- it is clearly stated by DCL and DFTW that you may only have two witnesses! I understand that it's unfair for them to break the rules for some and not for others, but you should be prepared for only 2 anyways) I had Michael's brother and my Maid of Honor to sign the marriage certificate... BUT my mom was very insistent that she be there too, a bit to Laura's dismay. All of my friends (who had all had several drinks of the day) were trying to crash the legal ceremony, but I'm glad they were left out! We were brought into Royal Palace into their private dining area with doors shut. After the quick quick ceremony, we went back into the main Royal Palace dining room to talk about the timing of the event and to go over all of my selections. My photographers were allowed to be at this meeting, too. The DCL gave us two copies of the wedding license and they mailed it to Orange County for us. All-in-all, I'd say that this entire process took 15-25 minutes.

Here's our first "official" photo as husband and wife after the legal ceremony, taken in that private dining room of RP. You can see our officiant in the background.

 

[JBeanBunny]

My DH and I will be doing a VR on the Dream in July 13. We have been married for 40 years and when we married the first time, he wore a uniform and I wore a dress. Am I too old to wear a wedding gown this time? We are both 63 years young!

Congrats! I hope I have many long years of marriage like you have! (I'm up to 4 whole days and going strong! ) I think you should wear a gown! You're never too old! It's a special occasion, after all! Besides, gorgeous attire really fits the atmosphere of the beautiful Dream! Great for pictures! My *husband* (still so weird to call him that!) wore a tuxedo with tails and I wore a very full ballgown! It's your day, wear what you want to wear!

 

[VowRenewal13]

Congratulations on your wedding. Wishing you and your husband many years of happiness! I am going to look at gowns on Friday with one of my friends.

 

[LemonBird]

My sister-in-law was going to get married on Castaway Cay, but has gotten really discouraged by all the lack of personalization options. I'm trying to show her that it's not that bad by presenting different things that she -can- control such as having an alternate bouquet (made from seashells or origami or any of the billion other things etsy offers), giving out fans or programs or something to the guests when they arrive, decorating doors on the ship, favor bags for the guests, cake topper, -anything-. Does anyone have any suggestions? How long do you have once you get off the ship before the actual ceremony starts? Meaning maybe we could quickly hang something on the aisle chairs that would at least appear in pictures? I thought I remembered someone on here mentioning having their own officiant since the actual legal ceremony was done ahead of time, but was that something done on the island? Do you think it would be feasible to have two members of the wedding party hold up a sort of gauzy arch like you usually see at beach weddings? Since it's not really my wedding, I can't exactly ask the planner.

Also, she mentioned that a friend of hers had gone on a Disney cruise that was not part of the wedding and that the ceremony was held right next to a bar playing loud music. Can anyone attest to this?

 

[JBeanBunny]

My sister-in-law was going to get married on Castaway Cay, but has gotten really discouraged by all the lack of personalization options. I'm trying to show her that it's not that bad by presenting different things that she -can- control such as having an alternate bouquet (made from seashells or origami or any of the billion other things etsy offers), giving out fans or programs or something to the guests when they arrive, decorating doors on the ship, favor bags for the guests, cake topper, -anything-. Does anyone have any suggestions? How long do you have once you get off the ship before the actual ceremony starts? Meaning maybe we could quickly hang something on the aisle chairs that would at least appear in pictures? I thought I remembered someone on here mentioning having their own officiant since the actual legal ceremony was done ahead of time, but was that something done on the island? Do you think it would be feasible to have two members of the wedding party hold up a sort of gauzy arch like you usually see at beach weddings? Since it's not really my wedding, I can't exactly ask the planner.

Also, she mentioned that a friend of hers had gone on a Disney cruise that was not part of the wedding and that the ceremony was held right next to a bar playing loud music. Can anyone attest to this?

I can attest that CC weddings are NOT private. There are beach chairs set up about 10-15 feet away from the ceremony location, and it's located on a little "pier" between the water slides, the snorkeling area, and Heads Up Bar. Needless to say, the one I witnessed was still nice. I just personally couldn't handle the idea of having some hairy dude in a speedo being in the back of my wedding photos. I had an onboard wedding last Friday while docked in Nassau and it was incredibly intimate and away from cruise guests! If she's nervous about the CC thing, suggest that she switch to an onboard wedding- it's $1,000 cheaper anyways!

As for personalization, you should check out my PJ. I made everything in my favor bags (and even my favor bags themselves) including personalized magnets, homemade mickey soaps, vials of pixie dust, first aid kits, glow sticks, etc. All of my cruise guests loved the personal touch to the favor bags! I had so many compliments! For our legal ceremony on the embarkation day, I had a feather bouquet & boutonniere made for me & Michael to wear, along with "personalized" Bride & Groom Mickey & Minnie ears. You just have to think creatively and you can make it your own! Their options may be limited, but they really make the event beautiful and mine was even better than I'd anticipated!

If you have any more questions, please feel free to ask! There's many of us DCL brides (past and upcoming!) who have some marvelous ideas to making a DCL wedding special!

 

[stl_figment]

I second that Castaway Cay weddings are not private. And I think I do have wedding photos with a hairy guy in a speedo in the background. However, we still were very pleased with both the ceremony and the pictures.

As for the legal part, it happens the day you get on the ship. Location various, ours was at 3 pm in a conference room. Afterwards we went through details of the actual wedding.

 

[adamwiz]

We just got married on the Fantasy last week and just stumbled on this thread as my wife is putting together an entire disseration on the experience that will cover the good (on board experience with coordinator Alastair and our onboard photographer) the bad (shoreside assistance and the always changing answers from Meredith vs. what we were told by Shanda) and the strange (Captain Marco showing up to the ceremony late and the onboard coordinator frantically calling him, Palo losing our wedding cake top tier and the ship having to make a new one for later in the cruise, specific requests made in the wedding packet not fulfilled after being approved).

One thing that I saw here recently that I will weigh in on was the civil ceremony before leaving port. We were asked to meet our coordinator at Guest Services onboard at 2pm and then he asked where we wanted to go to do the civil ceremony. We just walked to the middle of the shops area on deck 3 by the Walt Disney picture. We had our entire wedding party and about 30 other random folks stand around and watch. No problem with having 2 witnesses, though that's all that were required to sign the certificate.

 

[Soon2bmrsg]

We have put our deposit down for our wedding in May 2013 on the Disney fantasy. We are excited...we have picked out the cake, flowers, songs and such. I think we plan on trying to reserve the outlook lounge if available. Did anyone use this venue? I have seen pics and it is gorgeous..does it need any extra decor? We have 2 small girls who love Disney, hence our family wedding/family moon. Also we want to do nice gifts for our guests since they are paying a small fortune to be apart of our big day. Any ideas or recommendations.

 

[chris31997]

My DH and I will be doing a VR on the Dream in July 13. We have been married for 40 years and when we married the first time, he wore a uniform and I wore a dress. Am I too old to wear a wedding gown this time? We are both 63 years young!

Go for it


Lemonbird, your SIL can personalize so much and people here can give her or you hints on what to personalize that it is almost without limit or limited to your imagination.

 

[VowRenewal13]

Found my gown this past weekend. I love it!!! Found shoes that will match it on sale at Dillards. Will take my 8 yr old Maid of Honor dress shopping at Christmas (told her she could wear any color she wanted, except purple). Undecided whether DH will wear a suit or be cruise casual. He wll wear whatever I would like him to. Have lots of time to think about that. I downloaded Waltograph fonts, and made door magnets. I am using Powerpoint, since I am familiar with that program.

 

[dvhtu]

Hi everyone!!! I read the whole 22 pages and it seems that lots of people do their wedding onboard Disney Fantasy. Has anyone ever done their wedding onboard the Disney Wonder? We want to do the wedding on Alaska cruise because we first met during the winter so we want to have snow and glacier in the background. Has anyone ever done this before? And how was it? Thank you

 

[cruisecrasher]

Hi everyone!!! I read the whole 22 pages and it seems that lots of people do their wedding onboard Disney Fantasy. Has anyone ever done their wedding onboard the Disney Wonder? We want to do the wedding on Alaska cruise because we first met during the winter so we want to have snow and glacier in the background. Has anyone ever done this before? And how was it? Thank you

That sounds beautiful!

 

[lurkyloo]

Hi everyone!!! I read the whole 22 pages and it seems that lots of people do their wedding onboard Disney Fantasy. Has anyone ever done their wedding onboard the Disney Wonder? We want to do the wedding on Alaska cruise because we first met during the winter so we want to have snow and glacier in the background. Has anyone ever done this before? And how was it? Thank you

If you check out the original Disney Cruise Brides thread, which was created before the introduction of the Dream and the Fantasy, you will find dozens of Disney Wonder weddings: http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=1766164

 

[dvhtu]

That sounds beautiful!

Thank you. I am trying to finish reading the old Disney cruise wedding thread. 200more pages to go!!!

 

[JBeanBunny]

Alright, it's been 2 weeks since my BEAUTIFUL wedding and I've finally gotten day 1 (Embarkation day) down in my PJ/ now TR! I hope the have the next two days of the cruise reported by Tuesday or Wednesday! Definitely give it a read if you're getting married soon to get an idea of how the first day will go- from getting to the port, the DCL terminal, boarding the ship, the legal ceremony, etc! Enjoy

 

[Fivepin]

Well, thank you so much for your suggestion, and that's what I'm going to do. I came back from my research cruise and found out they release Fl res rates for our anniverary weekend. I thought how perfect. If we went away for the weekend, the cost of hotel and food and such would be about the same. I had DH ask his boss if he could take 1 1/2 days off. He's not supposed to at the end of the quarters. I told him to tell his boss that I have something planned. Good news he was given the ok. So, I booked the cruise last night!!

Now I need some creative ideas of how and when? I would love for it to be unique, but I have an accountant's brain and am not that creative when it comes to things like this. If I can't come up with anything...I thought I would do it at our dinner at Palo and have them deliver those celebration plates they write in chocolate at dessert time with Will you marry me again?

Any suggestions from you ladies would be greatly appreciated

Wanted to give you guys an update and some photos. Got off our anniversary cruise on the 23rd and did do the reveal on the ship with the help of some great cast members (Ann Marie and Chris) from Vista Galleries. I had met them on my research cruise in August. My best friend was on the ship the week before I was and went to go make sure they were going to be there and to run the idea by them. The reveal happened on the 2nd nite at 10:30pm during pirate night fireworks and show so I knew there would be less traffic then.
They turned one of the walls in the gallery to our wall and put what Cinderella artwork they had on one wall since I love Cinderella. I brought on the banner and 5 8x10's which they matted and framed so it would look nice on the wall.
Chris even drew a picture for me with Cinderella proposing to Prince Charming. They put our champagne and flutes into the glass display case and decorated the whole case as well. The flutes are the ones I'm using for the VR, so it already has the date on there.
Now for some pics:

Funny thing about the banner-it was a last minute thing-had a coupon for Walgreens and they did same day service. I thought I had changed the text back to Happy Anniversary, but it still said Will you marry me again? I didn't want that to be the first thing Ray saw, saw Chris had covered it up with the cardstock I had brought for the photos, thinking he would just put them on there to hang. No, he went above and beyond!!

 

[cruisecrasher]

Wanted to give you guys an update and some photos. Got off our anniversary cruise on the 23rd and did do the reveal on the ship with the help of some great cast members (Ann Marie and Chris) from Vista Galleries. I had met them on my research cruise in August. My best friend was on the ship the week before I was and went to go make sure they were going to be there and to run the idea by them. The reveal happened on the 2nd nite at 10:30pm during pirate night fireworks and show so I knew there would be less traffic then.
They turned one of the walls in the gallery to our wall and put what Cinderella artwork they had on one wall since I love Cinderella. I brought on the banner and 5 8x10's which they matted and framed so it would look nice on the wall.
Chris even drew a picture for me with Cinderella proposing to Prince Charming. They put our champagne and flutes into the glass display case and decorated the whole case as well. The flutes are the ones I'm using for the VR, so it already has the date on there.
Now for some pics:

Funny thing about the banner-it was a last minute thing-had a coupon for Walgreens and they did same day service. I thought I had changed the text back to Happy Anniversary, but it still said Will you marry me again? I didn't want that to be the first thing Ray saw, saw Chris had covered it up with the cardstock I had brought for the photos, thinking he would just put them on there to hang. No, he went above and beyond!!

Love it! And the pins.

 

[XxsmortzxX]

Hi everyone!!! I read the whole 22 pages and it seems that lots of people do their wedding onboard Disney Fantasy. Has anyone ever done their wedding onboard the Disney Wonder? We want to do the wedding on Alaska cruise because we first met during the winter so we want to have snow and glacier in the background. Has anyone ever done this before? And how was it? Thank you

I just got back from the California Coast 7 Day Wonder cruise. The ship had some added features like Outlook Cafe (although its not really big enough for any wedding but I will put up pictures in my PJ). The last time I was on the Wonder, the Disney Dream and Fantasy were still being built. The ship was still beautiful, and I bet it would be gorgeous with the Alaskan landscapes surrounding it.

The only thing we noticed aboard the Wonder was the poor service(although our second waiter and assistant waiter were AMAZING, but we had to request them and then change to late seating). Upon investigating, my older sister said they moved most of the best and more experienced staff to the newer ships. A lot of times, it seemed as if they were unsure what to do or didn't have that 'Disney Smile'. I think I'd be worried to have them handling my cake or dress. :/

 

[JBeanBunny]

Wanted to give you guys an update and some photos. Got off our anniversary cruise on the 23rd and did do the reveal on the ship with the help of some great cast members (Ann Marie and Chris) from Vista Galleries. I had met them on my research cruise in August. My best friend was on the ship the week before I was and went to go make sure they were going to be there and to run the idea by them. The reveal happened on the 2nd nite at 10:30pm during pirate night fireworks and show so I knew there would be less traffic then.
They turned one of the walls in the gallery to our wall and put what Cinderella artwork they had on one wall since I love Cinderella. I brought on the banner and 5 8x10's which they matted and framed so it would look nice on the wall.
Chris even drew a picture for me with Cinderella proposing to Prince Charming. They put our champagne and flutes into the glass display case and decorated the whole case as well. The flutes are the ones I'm using for the VR, so it already has the date on there.
Now for some pics:

Funny thing about the banner-it was a last minute thing-had a coupon for Walgreens and they did same day service. I thought I had changed the text back to Happy Anniversary, but it still said Will you marry me again? I didn't want that to be the first thing Ray saw, saw Chris had covered it up with the cardstock I had brought for the photos, thinking he would just put them on there to hang. No, he went above and beyond!!

Wow, Judy! It all looks like it turned out great! I would have never though to try something like this!

 

[tellemarie]

Hello DCL ladies! I am a very long time lurker and I finally have a reason to post (and of course it's a question ). I wasn't able to really find an answer to this anywhere but since DF and I will be DVC members before our cruise/disneymoon we were considering using points to pay for one of our fares for the actual ceremony cruise and cash for the rest. Has any of you done this? I'm just worried that it might mess up something about adding on the wedding to the cruise booking!

Thanks for any info you can give