Weddings at Sea
One of the hottest trends for couples taking the plunge and getting married nowadays is a destination wedding. For many reasons, the task can be a challenging and costly choice. It involves long distance organization and not everyone has the money or the health to travel to the destination. One simple solution may be a wedding at sea.
All of the major cruise lines today have wedding coordinators that will offer their assistance to help plan a simple wedding or even an extravagant affair to meet all tastes and budgets. With just one person to deal with, you can arrange the cake, flowers, invitations, food, drinks, pictures, minister and any other items you may want. Or simply put, it’s a “wedding in a box”. The bride and groom deal with a specialist trained to make their day a memorable occasion and an added benefit is it’s provided by the cruise line at no additional cost.
Most cruise lines offer a wedding onboard the ship in either a chapel if they have one or a private room on the ship. Arrangements can even be made for the wedding to be held at major port of call; although this can be tricky due to international laws and the legality of the marriage. The bride and groom will need to work closely with the cruise line wedding coordinator to make sure all legal formalities are worked out.
One option many couples are deciding upon is having the wedding ceremony early in the afternoon before the ship leaves for the cruise. Guests are allowed to attend the wedding while it’s in port, and then leave before the ship sails. This way, the bride and groom can still have all their friends and family attend and share in their special day. Another option is to continue the party and have those guests join the wedding party on the cruise. Everyone has a great time; they can spend as much time as they want together or only see each other for dinner in the evenings. The happy couple won’t feel obligated to entertain their guests. As a travel agent, I’ve booked several groups similar to this.
This is a great way to make your wedding as stress free as possible. Wedding vow renewals are also available onboard. The main thing is timing and making a decision far enough in advance. Just like all other weddings, June and the holidays are always booked early. If you can avoid these busy months, you’ll save yourself extra stress and possible costs.