Disney Cruise Brides - Let's Chat about our Weddings/VR's!

[princessheather]

quick question;

for brides that had outside photographers come on the ship to take your pictures did you have to pay for them to come on the cruise & the prices of their own packages? I do have a photographer in mind but he & his wife reside in NY .. i could only imagine the expenses for traveling alone. lol

 

[acomasdiaz]

Hi girls,

Just though I would drop in and say Hi and have a look at all the new DCL bride’s plans everything looks fantastic

We are just starting to finally get on top of everything and now that we have most of our photos back (still waiting on our MK shoot album but that’s another story) I was thinking of doing a trip report as I never started a planning Journal.

I saw Lisa’s comment and just wanted to add my 2 cents as this was our experience too


Our onboard photographer was hopeless as well, my one real regret is that I didn’t prepare for this a little better. We learnt a lot about the onboard photo situation after the wedding as we ended up officially complaining both onboard & back on land as it was not just the photography, but also the service & the manager that were appalling.

But for all those who can’t manage an external photographer and have to work with the ship’s a few little things (in our case especially) could make all the difference.

1) Go through the TR of a few past brides and copy/paste into a document examples of all the photos you would like to have (ceremony, reception, around the ship etc). Give this to your photographer & planner when you first get on the ship – I was completely unprepared for how much direction the photographer would need, so a lot of the photos I wanted we missed out on as I couldn’t remember on the spot.

2) Any photos that you especially want (eg bride with mother, decorations etc) list all these down in a checklist so he/she can just tick them off on the day (also give a copy to your coordinator) as the 2 hrs goes so quickly and you want to be able to have fun and not worry.

3) As soon as you get on the ship go to shutters and introduce yourself, find out who will be your photographer and ask them to let you know their schedule of where/when they will be shooting on the ship prior to the wedding. Then go line up and have them take your picture a few times, it doesn’t matter if it’s a character or backdrop location, but it will allow you to see what kind of pictures they take & also both of you will get to know each other a bit. I really wish we had known who our photographer was before hand as we very quickly picked out one guy as completely useless after he had taken our photo around the ship a few times (thankfully he didn’t shoot the wedding) and when we would see him at a spot or with a character we wanted a photo with, we wouldn’t even bother lining up till the photographer changed as we knew the photo would be dreadful.

4) If you have anyone coming with you ask them to bring a camera and snap away as you can’t have too many photos.

5) We also befriended people on our cruise (through the cruise meet thread) and they stood and watched over the balcony above deck 7 & we got some great shots from them too.

I'm sorry you didn't have a good experience with the photographers. Unfortunately, we can't afford to bring a photographer with us, so I definitely appreciate your tips. I am definitely going to look around at some of the pictures to get some ideas and be prepared.

 

[pinkcow]

We did luck out with good photography, our photographer's name was Goran, do ask for him if he's onboard. I did give the onboard wedding coordinator two contact sheets of images that I liked and ones that I did not. So there was a "do" and "do not" list. I gathered photos from every TR I could find. I also took great care to ask that any random day guests be cropped or angled out of the ceremony photos.

Here are some of our photos:

HTH!

 

[Goofy4Ever]

quick question;

for brides that had outside photographers come on the ship to take your pictures did you have to pay for them to come on the cruise & the prices of their own packages? I do have a photographer in mind but he & his wife reside in NY .. i could only imagine the expenses for traveling alone. lol

From what I hear, some will swap their services for the cruise itself. I know this is not an option for me...bummer

 

[pinkcow]

From what I hear, some will swap their services for the cruise itself. I know this is not an option for me...bummer

The other thing we did was pretty sneaky! We stole all of our guests’ photos from their memory cards!

Actually, it worked like this, we setup a photo hunt after the Palo reception, split everyone into teams and gave out a list with point values. An example would be "Someone really enjoying a piece of cake". Then, once everyone was back onboard we all sat down and each team tried to explain the pictures they took. This was beyond priceless and completely hilarious!! My sister had her laptop and a universal card reader. I had instructed her to um.. steal all of the wedding photos as each team explained why they should win the grand prize (a beach bag full of goodies!) All of the photos went into a Flickr pool later. There's a lot more about the photo hunt in my TR if interested.

Anyways, if you can designate someone to bring a laptop, universal card reader, and external hard drive (photos take a lot of space!) collect as many cards and photos as you can while still on the cruise. The best part, is that it didn't cost us any additional money and we have tons more photos.

HTH

 

[Goldeelox9]

Does anyone have the template for the Mickey Fans? I would like to make them myself.

I do...send me your email address!

 

[Goldeelox9]

quick question;

for brides that had outside photographers come on the ship to take your pictures did you have to pay for them to come on the cruise & the prices of their own packages? I do have a photographer in mind but he & his wife reside in NY .. i could only imagine the expenses for traveling alone. lol

I would shoot them an email. I knwo of a few Photographers who have agreed to swap a CD of imagies for the cruise and travel expenses. Look for FL photographers too. I actually know of one, she is good and may be willing to do it.

http://www.dbimages.ca/

She is wonderful!

 

[Goldeelox9]

The other thing we did was pretty sneaky! We stole all of our guests’ photos from their memory cards!

Actually, it worked like this, we setup a photo hunt after the Palo reception, split everyone into teams and gave out a list with point values. An example would be "Someone really enjoying a piece of cake". Then, once everyone was back onboard we all sat down and each team tried to explain the pictures they took. This was beyond priceless and completely hilarious!! My sister had her laptop and a universal card reader. I had instructed her to um.. steal all of the wedding photos as each team explained why they should win the grand prize (a beach bag full of goodies!) All of the photos went into a Flickr pool later. There's a lot more about the photo hunt in my TR if interested.

Anyways, if you can designate someone to bring a laptop, universal card reader, and external hard drive (photos take a lot of space!) collect as many cards and photos as you can while still on the cruise. The best part, is that it didn't cost us any additional money and we have tons more photos.

HTH

We too "borrowed" everyone's pictures. Youshould do this for sure! I had a good friend usem y DSLR to take a bunch too. He was way more photojournalistic then the Ship's photographer.

I went to shutters right away and introduced myself. I had a list of pictures too. I just wish someone had given me a heads up! Pinkcow....Your pictures have always made me jealous...Lucky girl!

 

[Goldeelox9]

Hi girls,

Just though I would drop in and say Hi and have a look at all the new DCL bride’s plans everything looks fantastic

We are just starting to finally get on top of everything and now that we have most of our photos back (still waiting on our MK shoot album but that’s another story) I was thinking of doing a trip report as I never started a planning Journal.

I saw Lisa’s comment and just wanted to add my 2 cents as this was our experience too


Our onboard photographer was hopeless as well, my one real regret is that I didn’t prepare for this a little better. We learnt a lot about the onboard photo situation after the wedding as we ended up officially complaining both onboard & back on land as it was not just the photography, but also the service & the manager that were appalling.

But for all those who can’t manage an external photographer and have to work with the ship’s a few little things (in our case especially) could make all the difference.

1) Go through the TR of a few past brides and copy/paste into a document examples of all the photos you would like to have (ceremony, reception, around the ship etc). Give this to your photographer & planner when you first get on the ship – I was completely unprepared for how much direction the photographer would need, so a lot of the photos I wanted we missed out on as I couldn’t remember on the spot.

2) Any photos that you especially want (eg bride with mother, decorations etc) list all these down in a checklist so he/she can just tick them off on the day (also give a copy to your coordinator) as the 2 hrs goes so quickly and you want to be able to have fun and not worry.

3) As soon as you get on the ship go to shutters and introduce yourself, find out who will be your photographer and ask them to let you know their schedule of where/when they will be shooting on the ship prior to the wedding. Then go line up and have them take your picture a few times, it doesn’t matter if it’s a character or backdrop location, but it will allow you to see what kind of pictures they take & also both of you will get to know each other a bit. I really wish we had known who our photographer was before hand as we very quickly picked out one guy as completely useless after he had taken our photo around the ship a few times (thankfully he didn’t shoot the wedding) and when we would see him at a spot or with a character we wanted a photo with, we wouldn’t even bother lining up till the photographer changed as we knew the photo would be dreadful.

4) If you have anyone coming with you ask them to bring a camera and snap away as you can’t have too many photos.

5) We also befriended people on our cruise (through the cruise meet thread) and they stood and watched over the balcony above deck 7 & we got some great shots from them too.

Nessa....It's so sad that some of us got not so great pictures and others lucked out. I wish it was more uniform. I did end up with a few I love and I know that is because I made the photographer lay in the sand and take shots she didn't plan on taking...LOL

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

quick question;

for brides that had outside photographers come on the ship to take your pictures did you have to pay for them to come on the cruise & the prices of their own packages? I do have a photographer in mind but he & his wife reside in NY .. i could only imagine the expenses for traveling alone. lol

http://www.stephanieasmith.com/

This photographer did my best friends wedding and she was amazing..I talked to her about cruising for a wedding and she was really up for it..Since your date is August, it shouldn't be too hard to get something booked.

Good luck!

 

[Kathysf1014]

Thank you so much , I will defenitely be asking for your photographer , pinkcow . I love your pic's. I'm only 15 days away and it's sad to say that the only thing that has me stressed out is the photos ( and the thought of the heat in my dress) . I will cross my fingers and hope for the best, I'll let you all know how it goes.

 

[3xthejoy]

Hi ladies... If you don't mind taking a peek at my PJ and leaving me some feeback on post 27 I would really appreciate.
Also... Should I have them shorten the back being it's a CC ceremony on the sand?

Here's the link:http://www.disboards.com/showthread.php?t=2500825

Thanks

 

[chepic]

Thank you so much , I will defenitely be asking for your photographer , pinkcow . I love your pic's. I'm only 15 days away and it's sad to say that the only thing that has me stressed out is the photos ( and the thought of the heat in my dress) . I will cross my fingers and hope for the best, I'll let you all know how it goes.

Oh my gosh....so close.....can't wait to see pictures and hear all about it.

che

 

[sja03a]

thanks for the tips! i would have to say that i am nervous about the cruise photographers. every bride knows that photography for our wedding makes the top 3 most important things part of a wedding. I've seen the prices for using their photographers and its not anything cheap for what they give you. you would expect Disney to make sure that the photography is phenomenal

well im hoping with the new Disney dream MAYBE there will be some changes for the best i hope especially for the wedding portions on the ship that they take every complaint and really work on making the changes necessary to make things better.

are there any Disney dream brides for 2011?

I am a March 2011 Disney Dream bride I agree. I am worried about my photos on the ship. I am saving up money separately for photography because we want to do the Epcot Photo shoot afterwards as well but I def want to have pics of the ceremony and around the ship. I hope they take every complaint into consideration.

We also have a DSLR camera and we are practicing on how to use it in different settings but I don't think I know anyone that is coming to the VR that can use it?
Has anyone heard anything about where the onboard ceremonies will be held on the Dream. are there any new venues or whatever? I really want to have a reception too.... Maybe at a lounge??

 

[pjstevens]

Thank you so much , I will defenitely be asking for your photographer , pinkcow . I love your pic's. I'm only 15 days away and it's sad to say that the only thing that has me stressed out is the photos ( and the thought of the heat in my dress) . I will cross my fingers and hope for the best, I'll let you all know how it goes.

Try not to stress, print out some photos you like and ask that they PLEASE give you an experienced photographer. Tell them what you want. It will all be fine. We didn't have any friends at our VR (well a couple we met on the DIS) but not to take 'real' photos for us. So I had to rely on the ship photographer. We were so blessed to get the gal we had. She was on top of everything, gave us poses to do and let us 'climb up' where we weren't supposed to be for this photo

 

[Yunchman]

Does anyone know, and this might be a dumb question but, since we are getting married on CC and will not be down to the beach until at least noon, will they allow you to reserve a small area of chairs so that your group can hang out together on the beach after the wedding? I'm just worried because we have a large group and I want to be able to hang out with everyone after wards on CC and not be split up because we can't find an area/chairs...just a thought. TIA!

Stacy

 

[Goldeelox9]

We were a group of 30 and had no trouble find chairs around noon!

 

[Yunchman]

We were a group of 30 and had no trouble find chairs around noon!

Oh wow, cool, guess I don't need to worry about that then. Thanks!

 

[princessheather]

Hello DCL brides

how is planning going for everyone? I finally found "The" Dress Friday & im soo excited!

for the whole photographer thing, i might just get the middle package plan, take the advice given, and hope for the best. we have a good amount of people coming & they'll have their cameras and take pictures as well. i know this has nothing to do with Disney or the cruise line but my step mom had her wedding and hired a professional photographer and they weren't bad but her favorite picture were the pictures the guest took. so i guess i will go in there with all the tips former DCL brides has given me and just PRAY for the best. like you guys say its a hit or miss if not i can always rely on family to take some good pictures they know what we like.

my question i have is i am switching the Palo dinner for another night and after your ceremony, if it was in the evening or which ever, were you able to reserve tables at the other dinning places on the ship? since i am having a late evening ceremony right before our dinner i thought it would be nice to sit down and eat dinner with my guest like a mini dinner reception. is this possible?

 

[martinezfamily1126]

Has anyone purchased extra hours of photography services? I am going to be using disneys photographers and am curious. THe packages say 1 hour of photography services and my mind scream "WHAT?? THATS NOT ENOUGH!" Can anyone enlighten me? If they are only giving you an hour of services my head is saying how am i getting pictures of the ceremony, reception and pics aroung the ship in 1 hour? Not possible?

Also do they arrange the reception right after the ceremony? or do you take pics in between?

Thanks for the help.