Wedding Location Pictures

As some of you have heard, it was *quite* an ordeal trying to get photos of the wedding location that was described as the "Garden Terrace" location. This is what took us so long to decide on a location. The wedding coordinator was finally able to provide me a link to this website, which shows some pictures of Blackbeard's Castle (where the garden terrace is).

You'll notice that the pictures are of the location, but they don't show where the ceremony actually takes place.

At the bottom of the page they have a link to "View our Gallery of images to our venues". However, when you go through that gallery, there is no description to tell which venue is which.

When going through that gallery, I *believe* the following numbers are from the garden terrace: 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 13, 15, 36, 37, 38, 39, and 40. I know that the couple pictured in shot #4 got married at the garden terrace, based on the fact that I got some of their pictures emailed directly stating that it was the garden terrace.

Although I would think that would be an easy thing for the wedding coordinator to identify, it was not... so I guess we will see when we get there if my assumptions are right.

The beach locations are pretty, however the arch and aisle are very expensive and I just couldn't justify spending the money for 15-20 minutes... therefore, we decided the garden terrace should be pretty enough without having to spend money on decorations/flowers. An undecorated beach was also an option, but in the end we just decided to take a chance on the garden terrace. Hopefully it will work out :-)

Time Zone

All of the islands we will be visiting on our cruise are in Atlantic Time Zone (one hour later than Eastern).

I've been told by the wedding coordinator and confirmed with Princess customer service that when the ship leaves port from Fort Lauderdale at 5pm Eastern time, they will set their clocks ahead one hour for the duration of our trip.

Therefore, the itinerary for our stops and all wedding timeline times below are in Atlantic time.

Wedding Day Timeline

Here's our tentative timeline for the wedding day. Bold/Italics times are now confirmed.

This is obviously my timeline... you are certainly free to form your own timeline for the day based on the confirmed times below. You probably have some time to go out and explore St. Thomas prior to the wedding... just be ready to depart the ship at 1pm for the wedding.

7:00 - Ship arrives in St. Thomas
8:00 - Breakfast (approximate)
10:00 - Rachelle's hair appointment
11:00 - Lunch (approximate)
11:30 - Get dressed / ready (approximate)
12:45 - Rachelle and Gary depart for court appearance
1:00 - Guests depart for Blackbeard's Castle location
2:00 - Ceremony begins
2:20 - Photos - Garden Terrace @ Blackbeard's Castle (approximate)
3:00 - Return to ship (approximate)
3:30 - Hors d'oeuvres reception on ship
4:30 - Non-sailing guests must depart ship
6:00 - Ship departs St. Thomas / Dinner reservations at Sabatini's

One confirmed time on Wednesday (St Maarten evening)...
6:30 - Dinner reservations at Sterling Steakhouse

Stateroom Amenities

This is on the Princess website, but in case you haven't looked yet, here's the items that are included in the staterooms:

- shampoo
- conditioner
- body lotion
- fresh fruit (by request)
- bathrobes (as mentioned earlier, by request)
- private safe
- private refrigerator
- standard U.S. electrical plugs
- electric hair dryer

More Details

We're getting close to our "45-day before departure" deadline when all of our details need to be planned and paid for with the cruise line.

I worked with the wedding coordinator yesterday on the following details:

Ceremony - We requested a 2pm ceremony time, we'll find out soon whether that is possible. We finally decided to go with the garden terrace location. It's at Blackbeard's Castle. (Click the link for some photos).

Reception - We will be having an hors d'oeuvres reception back on the ship. That will be approximately 3:30-4:30 and will include cake. For those guests on the cruise, we've arranged dinner reservations at the Italian restaurant on board (Sabitini's) at 6pm. We'll probably hang out in a lounge from 4:30 to 6:00 or you can, of course, do your own thing.

"Rehearsal Dinner" - Not really a rehearsal, but we've requested dinner reservations for the group for Sterling Steakhouse on Wednesday evening (night before the wedding).

Photography - We decided to skip the extra expense of a ship photographer. The photographers normally come around taking pictures at dinner anyway so we can get a group shot at dinner that way. There are also several nights when they do portraits around the ship, so we'll cross our fingers that Thursday is one of those nights and get a picture that way as well. We'll just take our own snapshots at the hors d'oeuvres reception.

Flowers - I found an acceptable/affordable bouquet for Roberta. I ended up sending in a picture and getting a quote. Yay!

Spa - I requested a hair appointment for myself for the morning of the wedding. If anyone else is interested in having their hair done, let me know and I believe we can get it arranged ahead of time. (There are some spa appointments that can be arranged in the Cruise Personalizer, but hair is not one of them).

As for non-cruise line items:

Shoes - I've really been struggling to find some shoes, but I did order some yesterday and I'm hoping they will work out. I have to have them before my dress fitting, which I just scheduled for 12/30 (the latest possible appointment in order to get my dress back by 2/2).

Gary's Attire - Still no luck finding what we have in mind... we're a little out of season for what we really wanted. I found a possibility on Monday, so I need to take him to see that.

Shore Excursions - I sent everyone a list of some possible group excursions that we could do in St. Maarten... just waiting to hear back from everyone.

I think that's it for now.