Well, it's been a fair while since I was here so I thought I'd give you all an update before I get on the Magic this Saturday.
Like others before me, I have found the lack of communication between departments to be very lacking in
DCL. It has been my major frustration to be honest.
We wanted Palo brunch for our wedding party, we couldn't have it due to the numbers. We have 54 to the wedding, but wanted around 25 spaces for Palo. It was an absolute no and we even went and spoke to the chef and head honcho in Palo on our cruise in June .. it was a no due to the reasons already given by Orion (small kitchen).
We then thought we'd have some desserts for our 1 hour reception from the Groups Menu .. this was fine but we actually didn't go with it in the end.
Because we have so many people at the ceremony, we couldn't comfortably hold it in Keys which was out first choice. Although 54 people standing up drinking would be fine, seating that many people would be nigh on impossible and many would have their view blocked by the pillars in there. Our favourite staff members are in there though so we have had DCL agree that they can be our servers for the reception. So, now we are in D Lounge and I'm sure it'll be perfect .. we're not precious about many things really, so D Lounge is fine.
On our cruise in June, we met up with the wedding co-ordinator and she was fine to a point. There was a lot of 'it's not my decision' going on and that was frustrating. More frustrating was the fact that she wouldn't tell the right people (shoreside) that my plan was ok with her. I figured if she told shoreside it was ok for the ship to accommodate my wishes, it may help them make a decision. She told me it was ok, but when I asked her to pass that to shoreside, she then repeated the 'it's not my decision' line. I knew it wasn't her decision, I just wanted her to speak to them .. arghghhggh. I ended up walking off as she frustrated me so much ... can deal with a 'no', but not what I got from her!
Anyway, we're all set for Friday 12th Sept. We got our requested date, but not the time. The time is a big issue for me as we are on main dining (6pm). ceremony is 4-5pm, then within 1 hour, we have to be seated for dinner. No time for photos outside and around the ship, no time to stop and talk to people. This is the only thing that I am precious about and DCL really need to look at their timings as 4pm is not appropriate. Before anyone screams about us fitting in with the Captains schedule ... bear in mind, this is a transatlantic sailing and this would be the first of 5 days at sea. What could the Captain (or officiant) possibly be doing earlier in the afternoon that someone else couldn't do? As I said, it's my only big annoyance, so be prepared for a major rush if you are in the same boat (no pun intended).
I've changed the words that the Captain will speak as they were so mushy, we all felt sick reading them. Neither of us are big romantics so I have re-done his words. I had to send them to Kaity for approval as obviously DCL don't want anything offensive (ours are not anything like that).
Did I tell you we are having the bar open during the reception? Bar staff cost $25 per hour per staff member, or maybe it was $15 .. blimey, brain has gone! Anyway, we have our favourites from Keys joining us hopefully.
I have chosen all of our music from Spotify. If you don't know what it is, download it, it's awesome! It has all genres of music, all artists and most songs every released. By paying a small amount per month, you can listen to the songs offline too. I have created playlists (bride aisle, bride & groom aisle, guests arrival etc), bought the necessary leads and connectors and I will be able to plug my Ipad or Iphone in to their system for the music. I'm not sure who will be pressing the buttons to get the right playlist going at the right time, but I'll figure that one out once we get onboard.
For dinner, we have chosen to eat in Lumieres for the wedding night as it's our favourite restaurant. They met that request fairly easily.
We had some guests on main dining and some on late which caused confusion for them, but our TA has been a great help here as she has stacks of experience on DCL ships so knows the layouts etc. We wanted a table of 10, plus tables of 5, 6 and 4 for main dining, then tables of 14, 4, 4 and 6 for late dining. They sent me an excel sheet with the proposed tables on it .. I had to put the names in. It was painless, but our TA had to make numerous changes to their mistakes.
I was already aware that Table 1 and 2 may be next to each other in one restaurant but not another, so it won't be a shock to me when we're a little way apart from friends/family in Cariocas or AP.
We have requested one server by name but I do not know if we'll get him until we arrive.
For Palo, we have: dinner for 14 in the private dining room on the 11th. Brunch for 18 in main room the morning after the ceremony. We have 14 people at 10am and the rest at 10:30am .. the late people will arrive at 10:15am. Our tables will all be close, but not one obviously.
So, in summary ...
We cruise this Saturday, get married on the 12th in D Lounge, have 54 guests, have done gift bags but will be delivering them ourselves, have not put music on a CD and will still try to get them to start earlier!
There you have it ... only a few days until we sail and I can't bleddy wait. Did I mention we upgraded to a 1 bed concierge too? We're gleeful as never done it before and probably won't do it again, but for 2 whole weeks, we get the space and luxury .. wohoohoho
I'll post updates when I come back, but if anyone has specific questions for the Magic, please let me know.
Joa
and welcome to the disboards this board is a great place to get ideas! Are you going to be doing a Trip Report would love to hear all about your wedding! 
that was so helpful to be able to see how the ceremony goes and their vows were so cute loved that the groom teared up and loved his bowtie (ideas for groomsmen hmm
) and do you think they would let us decorate up the outlook more its pretty but maybe some chair bows or aisle runner or something??
