I know it’s been a while since I’ve posted but so much has been going on with the wedding (we’re 50 days away!!) First let’s start with the bad:
Words of advice to anyone considering a wedding with Royal Caribbean- don’t, just don’t do it. Their Royal Romance department is nothing like the customer service they provide on the ships. From lack of communication, inadequate information, to ridiculous all most impossible deadlines, this is a very unorganized department. Even after speaking to a supervisor, the most they could do for us is give us a free wedding cake. A years worth of uncalled for stress and that’s all we got. All I can say is thank god this experience is almost over but I’m still worried about the day of and the smoothness of our wedding.
Ok here’s the good:
Wedding favors are ordered and on they’re way. I will post pics when they get in 🙂
I’ve also bought the bridesmaids gifts, I will post pics of them as well. The biggest win of all is my wedding dress. After searching high and low and not finding anything I liked I did the unthinkable and searched Amazon. And found the dress of my dreams for only $110!!! It just arrived yesterday and today I took it to a small bridal shop to start alterations, which are very minimal: a bustle, a snap for the panel in the back and taking it in a lil at the bust area. I really want to post pics but i want to save the element of surprise for the wedding day lol.
Now I’m just waiting for my veil to come in (also bought on Amazon) and my mother is making the flower girl dress.
I hope all of you bride to be’s are having a fun time planning your wedding!
Peace, love & wine
Sami ❤
Wednesday’s are all about weddings. I wake up excited to read the goings on of all you future brides and I was hoping to share my update with you all as well. But I have nothing to update, my wedding coordinator was supposed to call me this morning and I never heard from her. Derrick and I are having trouble finding a parking lot for our guests and transportation to get them to the cruise port. The fact that no one shuttles to the cruise port is becoming way more of a problem then we ever imagined. Also, we have finalized the guest list (60 in total) and want to begin paying for the reception but I have found out not only do I need the correct full name of all my guests, but I also need their date of birth, country of citizenship, what type of identification they’ll be presenting and the identification number *bangs head on laptop* I can only pray that my actual wedding day will be so beautiful it will take away from all the headaches and stress caused by getting married on a cruiseship. Oh another thing, to make my silk flowers will be, if not the same price, a bit more expensive then just getting the bridesmaids bouquets from Royal Caribbean. So fresh flowers it is (one less thing for me to worry about) I was losing my mind in Micheal’s trying to put bouquets together. *takes a deep breath*…… I hope all my fellow brides-to-be have had a better week of wedding planning than we.
Bridesmaids are like the second most important thing to a bride…. first is the dress of course. One thing that I’ve learned through this journey of wedding planning is to think things through. I made the mistake of adding girls to my wedding party because one: I have a major case of OCD and the thought of an uneven number caused instant anxiety, two: I didn’t understand the importance of what it meant to be a bridesmaid (not someone who just wants to do all the fun stuff, but also the really tedious and boring stuff like paying for and planning a bridal shower), & three: I didn’t want to hurt anyone’s feelings. The last one was really important to me, when I told my childhood friend that another friend was going to be my maid of honor it hurt to see the hurt in her eyes, even though she smiled through it. Another friend begged and made so many side comments that I felt bad she wasn’t in the wedding and I added her without even consulting my fiancé. It wasn’t until recently when I remembered who’s wedding it was. Mine. And I don’t mean that in a selfish way, but if you don’t feel comfortable with having certain people in your wedding, don’t do it. It’s hard, trust me I know. I originally started out with five, I now have three, and there were tears involved; LOTS of tears, but now I’m confident that the three women standing next to me at a major milestone in my life understand me and Derrick and how important this day is. Because yes, it is a day of happiness and celebration, but it goes way past this day. This is forever, this is a commitment, this is my life, our life. And just because they’re not IN the wedding doesn’t mean they won’t be there, remember: theres a whole guest list you have! Your bridesmaids are your confidants, your support team, and yes they are supposed to cater just a little bit. So if this day isn’t important to them almost as it is important to you, nix them. And if they still don’t understand and get mad, then they aren’t your friend. When we first got engaged, other married couples told us we would see who is truly there for us during this time. The stories they told me were unbelievable and I thought there was no way that would be my friends and myself. But here I am writing this, it can and most likely will happen that you will lose at least one friend. Thats what happens when major life changes occur, it sucks big time. I’ve been on the other side and honestly I was a terrible maid of honor, it haunts me to this day, even more so now because I’m a bride and I think ‘omg I was so selfish!’. Words of advice to anyone who’s a bridesmaid out there: understand what the bride has asked you to do, she has picked you for a real reason, not because she thinks you’ll look good standing next to her, and not because you have 20 years of friendship under your belt (well maybe a little). She needs you to be there, if you can’t then be a friend, do her a favor and say no. She may be sad at first but you’ll save her a lot of stress you don’t know about.
This is a piggy back off of another post I read about how after you get engaged you don’t really feel like a bride. Well, in my case I haven’t felt like a bride 85% of the time I’ve been engaged. And now I’m back at that feeling. One thing about a cruise ship wedding is that they take care of all the minor details like flowers, seating arraignments and set up. That stuff accounts for a lot of time spent feeling like a bride and planning your wedding. When I found out that I wouldn’t be speaking to my wedding coordinator until like 3 months bepfore the wedding, I literally freaked out….. full blow bridezilla mode turned on. Not because I didn’t trust them, I just wanted to be involved and I was eager to get the ball rolling on planning. But the food is already picked out, So I can’t do a tasting (bummed), no need to look at center pieces (super bummed) and knowing all this my matron of honor won’t let me help plan the bridal shower (just rude lol ). So here I am, after the excitement of being at 100 days until our wedding has died down and once again I don’t feel like a bride. I don’t go in for my first dress fitting until the end of the month 😦 I’ve found my wedding favors but it’s too soon to buy them, also too soon to buy bridesmaid gifts. I’m making their bouquets but no sense in them laying around the house for three months running the risk of getting ruined. I HAVE NOTHING TO DO! This is the very big down side to getting married on a cruiseship. I’m sure it will be lovely, especially since Royal Caribbean is such an awesome company but still, it makes me sad. What’s a bride to do when she’s feeling unbride like? Go to 
Loves Anthem 