A Wedding at Sea

A few days before our cruise, Freddie and I celebrated our wedding anniversary. 

May 30, 1992

So when we read in the Fun Times newsletter that we could renew our wedding vows onboard the ship, we decided to go for it! Our children were especially excited to attend "our wedding" since they missed it the first time around. Haha!

Carnival Cruiselines offers two different packages for Vow Renewals. The basic difference between the two is the number of guests included, and whether or not you want an open bar with hors d'oeuvres for the reception. Since we were cruising with 5 other family members, making us a party of 9, we chose the first option.

1) Standard Package:  ($385.00 Package Price)

• Special-ceremony location
• Ceremony performed by the Ships Captain
• Keepsake “Renewal of Marriage Vows” Certificate signed by the Ship’s Captain,
Presented in a leather folio.
• Recorded ceremony music
• Photography Service
• One Long Stemmed Rose for the Wife and matching Rose Boutonniere for the Husband
• 2-Tier Wedding Cake
• Sparkling Wine and 2 Etched (“Love”, “Honeymoon” or “Anniversary”) Champagne Flutes
• One 8x10 Wedding Photograph (Additional photos available at a reasonable price)
This package accommodates up to a maximum of 8 guests, including the celebrating couple. Additional guests can be included at a rate of $12.00 per person.

2) Deluxe Package: ($735.00 Package Price)
• Special-ceremony location
• Ceremony performed by the Ships Captain
• Keepsake “Renewal of Marriage Vows” Certificate signed by the Ship’s Captain,
Presented in a leather folio.
• Recorded ceremony music
• Photography Service
• One Long Stemmed Rose for the Wife and matching Rose Boutonniere for the Husband
• 2-Tier Wedding Cake
• Sparkling Wine and 2 Etched (“Love”, “Honeymoon” or “Anniversary”) Champagne Flutes
• One 8x10 Wedding Photograph (Additional Photos available at a reasonable price)
• One Hour Open Bar with Hot/Cold Canapés
This package accommodates up to a maximum of 20 guests, including the celebrating couple. Additional guests can be included at a rate of $22.00 per person.

The Wedding Coordinator first had to check with the Captain to see when he would be available to perform the ceremony. He asked if Sunday afternoon would be okay with us. That was the day the ship docked in Ketchikan. But it would be a short day in town since the ship left around 12:30pm, so we agreed that would work and we scheduled the ceremony for 3:30pm.

The day before the ceremony we met with the Wedding Coordinator in the Chapel so that she could explain the order of the ceremony.  At the event itself, the Wedding Coordinator was there, as well as the Captain, a Photographer, and 2 waiters.

The Chapel is beautiful with several murals painted on the walls. They had also brought in a few floral arrangements to display near the altar. And I was given a long-stemmed red rose to carry and Freddie was given a boutonniere.

As soon as the Captain arrived, the ceremony began. I walked down the aisle behind the children to a recorded soundtrack. The music was nice, even if it did include an instrumental version of "Careless Whisper" by Wham.

The Captain, in his heavy Italian accent, had us repeat the ocean-themed vows . . .

After the ceremony, we posed for pictures with the photographer. Then the head waiter popped open the champagne and we had a toast in our engraved champagne flutes. They provided ginger ale for the kids.  Then we cut our cake and served each other a bite, just like the first time around.  The cake was two tiers, so we had one tier that was chocolate and one that was a white cake.

Overall, it was a very nice ceremony and the memories are well worth the money. The next day, they delivered to our cabin the cake topper, the champagne flutes, a copy of the vows, and a white leather portfolio with the wedding certificate in it.