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

[JBeanBunny]

I feel like such a bad DIS bride... I haven't even opened the site since I went on my "research" cruise in January! I've only caught up on about 6 pages of notes, and I miss all of my familiar brides, and it's nice to see new ones too!

I guess it feels like I have nothing new to share! Since everything is so cookie-cutter (pretty much just check the boxes in the wedding packet) that I don't have anything to do... and I feel like I should be doing something! I guess our #1 concern is getting everything paid ontime! I've got two countdowns on my phone, one for the wedding (163 days) and only 87 until final payments are made! Eep! What scares me even further is that I have about 50 guests, which adds another $1,000 to tack onto my cruise payment.

I've noticed that other brides worked with group bookings? How did you go about this? I just had all of my guests book their own rooms, and I guess I need to get working on getting the reservations linked so they have my guest list... I don't know if I should just call DCL to link my rooms with reservation numbers, or if I should work with Shanda... sometimes it feels like working with DCL is easier, but it would be easier to send the names and reservations via e-mail instead of reading about 26-rooms worth of 8-digit confirmation numbers!

It does get on my nerves that you don't get any special treatment for booking LARGE parties on these cruises (lets face it, mid-september is definitely the OFF season! I'm doing them a favor!) especially since my party is SO large, they don't know yet where they're going to put us! But in terms of booking spa appointments or excursions... I'm not doing any of that! My cruise is too short and I'll be trying to spend it with all of my guests! I'll book my free palo night, of course (We're going to do it either our first or our last night since we're getting married in the middle) But I feel for all of your frustrations, especially when booking couples massages! The bride(s) and groom(s) of every sailing SHOULD have first dibs, in my opinion! For whoever was talking about booking Remy- it's PHENOMENAL! But it's about a 3-hour dining experience, so keep that in mind! There's really NO way to shorten it, and nor should you want to! We had Adrien on the Dream and he was a doll!

I'm getting antsy waiting on my dress shop to call me saying that my dress has arrived! I bought it in Illinois and live in Orlando, so I need all the time I can get to plan flying up north for my fittings! I'm also terrified about traveling with my dress since it's a ballgown and I don't want it to de-poof!

I'm also slowly assembling favor bags that we'll hook onto each of our guests rooms. I think I'm going to beg a DIS-igner to design us a DCL wedding logo to tie everything together! I could print that onto iron-on transfer paper for the bags, and also put names on it and turn them into magnets for their doors! I tell you, it's SO much easier to find your door if it's decorated! What is everyone else doing for favors? I'm doing things like lip balm (bulkapothecary.com had super cheap ones), I'm making TWO kinds of mickey soap (One using a Mickey muffin mold, and the other using the Mickey-face ice mold and embedding that into an oval mold) all of that from brambleberry.com with the EASY melt-and-pour soap technique- I seriously learned how to do it with one afternoon and their "soap queen TV" youtube channel! I'm also raiding the Target "dollar spot" for things like glow sticks and mini-lint rollers. We're going to include something like an emergency kit including things like safety pins and band aids, maybe sewing kits or squeeze led-lights... I'm also going to have "Koozies" made for everyone, and fill it with a pretty cellophane package of treats... I have a collection of WDW pens that I'll throw into guest bags with post-it notes, so they can leave notes on other guests doors. I also want to give everybody a welcome note including all of the other guests room and wave-phone numbers.

Wow, I apologize for that last paragraph being one long run-on thought after the other! I guess I'm really trying to make my guest bags something special to show them appreciation for spending their resources and time to share our wedding weekend with us! I'd love to hear what everyone else is doing for guest gifts or favors! I'm a sucker for new ideas! Also, in terms of wedding registry, I registered at Bed Bath & Beyond (for those guests who can't attend as well as wedding showers) and I WAS going to sign up for the Disney Honeymoon registry, but it KILLS me that they charge 7% in service fees! I'd rather just ask guests for Disney gift cards directly with NO charge for the SAME thing!

I hope everyone else is having fun planning!

 

[Evi]

I've noticed that other brides worked with group bookings? How did you go about this?

To qualify for groups the groups open window has to be available for your cruise. (you could call groups to verify if your cruise qualifies for groups as not all of them do) All the reservations would have to have you as the primary coordinator, meaning all payments would go through you, all requests, reservations such as palos, excursions etc. could only be requested by you for all the members of your group. You have to have more then 8 reservations.

There is no benefit to my understanding since we are not travel agents they offer no discount and no extras. Technically my cruise is not open to groups at least not as of yet. I only got in touch with groups to see if I could do a group excursion but it may be that all my guests will have to make the request individually I just don't know yet. It was suggested by our reservation agent that I contact them because otherwise there was no way for them to link all the parties.

Groups also coordinates stuff like conferences and large functions but they don't coordinate the weddings per say. I'm not sure if that helped but thought I'd share what I've been told so far.

 

[JBeanBunny]

To qualify for groups the groups open window has to be available for your cruise. (you could call groups to verify if your cruise qualifies for groups as not all of them do) All the reservations would have to have you as the primary coordinator, meaning all payments would go through you, all requests, reservations such as palos, excursions etc. could only be requested by you for all the members of your group. You have to have more then 8 reservations.

There is no benefit to my understanding since we are not travel agents they offer no discount and no extras. Technically my cruise is not open to groups at least not as of yet. I only got in touch with groups to see if I could do a group excursion but it may be that all my guests will have to make the request individually I just don't know yet. It was suggested by our reservation agent that I contact them because otherwise there was no way for them to link all the parties.

Groups also coordinates stuff like conferences and large functions but they don't coordinate the weddings per say. I'm not sure if that helped but thought I'd share what I've been told so far.

Thanks! I'm so glad I didn't go that route, I don't want to be responsible for my guests payments and reservations! What a headache! They're on their own for all that! I was told that I could link our reservations and they NEVER ever mentioned anything about groups. All of my guests booked on their own, and the only reason I was told I need to link the rooms is for dining together and so they know who is attending my wedding with an accurate guest count! Gosh, I hope that they don't consider me a "group" leader if I link the reservations together! I've got at least 25 rooms so far, and that's not including anyone that will get a last-minute discounted rate!

Thanks for the info!

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

Thats what I wanted to do but Shanda said it wouldn't be possible to do. I asked if even if I did my photos first and she said no that they seat at 6. Then when I requested to reserve it she said that they don't do a 6pm seating only a 9pm seating. The contradiction alone has been bugging me. I really don't want to go into regular dining rotation after our ceremony. Its not the ambiance I want. I also don't want guests to miss fireworks by going to dinner at 9pm. I had my heart set on a sunset ceremony. I know the table is available for that day because I spoke to groups and they told me its open but Shanda has to reserve it for me. Not sure what to do.

On a side not I was rereading this thread and have to say I love your wedding photos.

Thank you! I loved every minute of the day!

At first, I didn't think 6pm was possible, but they told me there were only 2 times 6 and 9. Maybe someone already has the 6pm time taken??
I would call the groups person back and tell them that Shanda told you that 6 is not available when clearly it is..and that you want to speak to the groups supervisor because you are bringing alot of people on this ship and that being told 2 different stories is making you uncomfortable with your choice of DCL

Good Luck!

 

[Evi]

Thank you! I loved every minute of the day!

At first, I didn't think 6pm was possible, but they told me there were only 2 times 6 and 9. Maybe someone already has the 6pm time taken??
I would call the groups person back and tell them that Shanda told you that 6 is not available when clearly it is..and that you want to speak to the groups supervisor because you are bringing alot of people on this ship and that being told 2 different stories is making you uncomfortable with your choice of DCL

Good Luck!

I'm being told that the 6pm slot is still available but Shanda is suggesting I move my wedding to a 4-5pm window. I'm still trying to keep the window I want so that we will have a sunset during out ceremony. I'll keep you posted with how this works out. But thank you for the advice I'm going to see what they say.

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

i didn't think we would make the 6 either but they came and got me from the suite at 5:20 and the ceremony was about 6 minutes I think (according to the video below)..we took a ton of pictures and then everyone headed to Palo while we went up to the top deck and took pictures at the funnel. By the time we got to Palo (stopping to potty outside Palo which was hysterical to try and do in a wedding dress) we were in Palo with our photographer and he took pictures of the cake and toast before he left at 6:30.

Now..I did have my cake set up in Palo so we didn't do the cake and toast after the ceremony..that saved time I guess..be firm with them..tell her you want the 6!!

All this strolling down memory lane is making me want to go back and watch my video again!

 

[PixieDust1969]

Thanks! I'm so glad I didn't go that route, I don't want to be responsible for my guests payments and reservations! What a headache! They're on their own for all that! I was told that I could link our reservations and they NEVER ever mentioned anything about groups. All of my guests booked on their own, and the only reason I was told I need to link the rooms is for dining together and so they know who is attending my wedding with an accurate guest count! Gosh, I hope that they don't consider me a "group" leader if I link the reservations together! I've got at least 25 rooms so far, and that's not including anyone that will get a last-minute discounted rate!

Thanks for the info!

Hi! Don't stress about linking rooms. In your packet that you have to send to Shanda, you list all of your guests and staterooms. Shanda will make sure they are all linked together. About dining, I asked her if I could do a seating chart for us all to be together. I sent her a list with people assigned to a variety of 4, 6, and 8 top tables. She sent it into the cruise line and they tweaked it a little bit and sent it back to me. I made some corrections based on the tables they had in the dining room in one section and it was perfect. We all (59 of us) ate in the same general area of each dining room. All of my guests booked on their own, I only took care of my reservation. The only ones you may have a problem linking are the rooms that book after all of your planning stuff is turned in.

 

[lexis]

Whatever you do don not become a group coordinator by making your wedding a group. I did it and regret it, the only reason we did it was to make sure we had enough rooms because we booked late. It is very frustrating to deal with group reservations department when you are not a travel agent. Let your guests take care of themselves.

 

[Evi]

I'm not doing the group coordinator because its not really beneficial or if there is a benefit I guess I'm not seeing it.

On a separate note, I haven't gotten a response from Shanda regarding my requested dining option. One of the suggestions Shanda made was for my party to have dinner at the Royal Palace on our wedding night. I have my heart set on going to Palo's with our families on our wedding night. Will I be disappointed if I go with standard dining rotation on my wedding night. I do plan to go to Remy's on our last night, just the two of us. Considering it is only a 3 day cruise and the dining is on a rotation wouldn't it just blow if they had everyone in royal palace the first night and then they go back again on our wedding night?

Am I being paranoid about this? I just feel like its my wedding night. how hard can it be to sit 14 adults at 6:30pm? I mean were talking one year and eight months from now and its a Friday the 13th I just don't see the brides beating down the door for that date.

Ok ladies thank you for letting me vent.

Getting back to wedding business, I'm trying to plan how long the actual vow/ceremony portion will be. Does anyone have any kind of outline for the vows they do if you don't write your own. We plan to write ours but was just wondering how long of a window we have. Also will we have time after our first dance to do a father daughter/ mother son dance or should I plan to try to combine them?

Thanks guys I'm trying to distract myself with other elements of the wedding since I can't seem to control the time that it takes place. I'm just feeling stuck since at this point I've sent out my save the dates and I have 10 confirmed cabins reserved for our party.

 

[JBeanBunny]

On a separate note, I haven't gotten a response from Shanda regarding my requested dining option. One of the suggestions Shanda made was for my party to have dinner at the Royal Palace on our wedding night. I have my heart set on going to Palo's with our families on our wedding night. Will I be disappointed if I go with standard dining rotation on my wedding night. I do plan to go to Remy's on our last night, just the two of us. Considering it is only a 3 day cruise and the dining is on a rotation wouldn't it just blow if they had everyone in royal palace the first night and then they go back again on our wedding night?

The way I understand it, you wouldn't be going to Royal Palace twice in a row (Although, I would love that because the food at Enchanted Garden was not great), you would just change rotations so that Royal Palace is on your wedding night. That's the way I'm planning my party, to have an ERA rotation, (Enchanted Garden, Royal Palace, Animator's Palate) because we're getting married on the Nassau day in the middle of the 3-day cruise. My party is MUCH too large to hold in Palo, and there will be two children that wouldn't be able to attend. I don't mind having my "reception dinner" in this location among the other cruisers- the way I see it, I'll STILL be center of attention, and when I was aboard the Dream in January, I notated the center table in Royal Palace, and I'm going to request that my party be seated in tables around that spot (and they'll move slightly according to the table locations in the other restaurants on the other nights). I hope this is useful or gives you a better idea of the rotations.

 

[Evi]

The way I understand it, you wouldn't be going to Royal Palace twice in a row (Although, I would love that because the food at Enchanted Garden was not great), you would just change rotations so that Royal Palace is on your wedding night. That's the way I'm planning my party, to have an ERA rotation, (Enchanted Garden, Royal Palace, Animator's Palate) because we're getting married on the Nassau day in the middle of the 3-day cruise. My party is MUCH too large to hold in Palo, and there will be two children that wouldn't be able to attend. I don't mind having my "reception dinner" in this location among the other cruisers- the way I see it, I'll STILL be center of attention, and when I was aboard the Dream in January, I notated the center table in Royal Palace, and I'm going to request that my party be seated in tables around that spot (and they'll move slightly according to the table locations in the other restaurants on the other nights). I hope this is useful or gives you a better idea of the rotations.

Thank you JB. I'll keep you all posted with how things go.

 

[Freckledginger]

I'm not doing the group coordinator because its not really beneficial or if there is a benefit I guess I'm not seeing it.

On a separate note, I haven't gotten a response from Shanda regarding my requested dining option. One of the suggestions Shanda made was for my party to have dinner at the Royal Palace on our wedding night. I have my heart set on going to Palo's with our families on our wedding night. Will I be disappointed if I go with standard dining rotation on my wedding night. I do plan to go to Remy's on our last night, just the two of us. Considering it is only a 3 day cruise and the dining is on a rotation wouldn't it just blow if they had everyone in royal palace the first night and then they go back again on our wedding night?

Am I being paranoid about this? I just feel like its my wedding night. how hard can it be to sit 14 adults at 6:30pm? I mean were talking one year and eight months from now and its a Friday the 13th I just don't see the brides beating down the door for that date.

Ok ladies thank you for letting me vent.

Getting back to wedding business, I'm trying to plan how long the actual vow/ceremony portion will be. Does anyone have any kind of outline for the vows they do if you don't write your own. We plan to write ours but was just wondering how long of a window we have. Also will we have time after our first dance to do a father daughter/ mother son dance or should I plan to try to combine them?

Thanks guys I'm trying to distract myself with other elements of the wedding since I can't seem to control the time that it takes place. I'm just feeling stuck since at this point I've sent out my save the dates and I have 10 confirmed cabins reserved for our party.

Hi Evi,
I was told by Shanda that if I wanted to request the private dining room in Palo that I could have a maximum of 14 guests, and could choose between a 6:00 or 9:00 seating. Requests needed to be sent into Shanda with all parties reservation number, and she would let you know if it had been approved 30-45 days before sailing. Not sure if you had that info already... DF and I have too many guests attending to reserve Palo, so we're just going to eat in a main restaurant. The pirate night atmosphere could be interesting, haha.

As far as the ceremony is concerned, I was told that it generally lasts 15-20 min. For a transcript of the ceremony though, maybe one of the past brides can give you an idea of this?

Best of luck with your planning!

 

[karyn09]

i am getting married on the dream april 20 and the wedding is schedule for 5:30 i will have more infor on how smoothly it works in a couple of weeks but right now that is what my paper from DCL is saying Hope that helps

Hey! We're getting married on the same sailing (Dream Apr 19-22) - my fiancee and I will be getting married on the 21st at Castaway Cay. We'd love to meet you and your fiancee once we get on board!!

BTW, do you happen to know Sterling and Hula? We heard from them that their friend was getting married on the same ship and we can only assume it's you! =)

 

[twobrides042012]

Hey! We're getting married on the same sailing (Dream Apr 19-22) -

Hi Karyn and flawlessdreams, we are two brides having our ceremony on the April 20th on the Dream. See you there!

 

[jtlover]

Does anyone know if I can have mixed coloured roses in my bouquet at my vow renewal inSeptember. I haven't decided for sure but I wondered if I can mix colours. I really like the colours in the tropical but think I would prefer roses. I quite like the colours in The floral tiki torches as they seem to be mixed roses.

Also I have bought crystal butterflies to pin into the bouquet do you usually get the bouquet in enough time for me to put these in?

Thanks

 

[DisneyDmbNut]

I got my flowers delivered about 1 hour before my ceremony..so there is plenty of time to add something.

I asked for the tropical bouquet, but asked for white and jade roses to match my green theme. I think they can try and give you the colors you are looking for, no problem.

 

[jtlover]

I got my flowers delivered about 1 hour before my ceremony..so there is plenty of time to add something.

I asked for the tropical bouquet, but asked for white and jade roses to match my green theme. I think they can try and give you the colors you are looking for, no problem.

Thanks

 

[Evi]

Does anyone know if I can have mixed coloured roses in my bouquet at my vow renewal inSeptember. I haven't decided for sure but I wondered if I can mix colours. I really like the colours in the tropical but think I would prefer roses. I quite like the colours in The floral tiki torches as they seem to be mixed roses.

Also I have bought crystal butterflies to pin into the bouquet do you usually get the bouquet in enough time for me to put these in?

Thanks

There are like 6 or 7 colors of roses you can choose from but I'm not sure if you can mix them. Definitely a question to ask Shanda. If DCL doesn't allow you to mix them you can always bring your own but they would need to be synthetics. I've heard of many brides having real touch or silk flower bouquets made for their cruise wedding. If you do a search you may find some.

 

[speedo]

Do they give you a wedding cake server and champagne flutes with the package to keep? If not, did any of you bring your own? I was thinking of surprising my parents at their vow renewal by bringing their original server and flutes from their wedding but a little nervous about it since they have been kept so nicely for 35 years.

 

[stl_figment]

Does anyone know if I can have mixed coloured roses in my bouquet at my vow renewal inSeptember. I haven't decided for sure but I wondered if I can mix colours. I really like the colours in the tropical but think I would prefer roses. I quite like the colours in The floral tiki torches as they seem to be mixed roses.

Also I have bought crystal butterflies to pin into the bouquet do you usually get the bouquet in enough time for me to put these in?

Thanks

Yes you can mix the colors of roses. I mixed the bright pink with orange.

I got my bouquet when walking out of my room to catch the golf cart to the ceremony site.