Beautiful Wedding Venues on a Cruise Ship!

Your wedding is one of the most important events in your life and the wedding venue you choose for your ceremony and reception is one of the most important decisions you'll make regarding your wedding.

A winery, a beach, a Victorian home, or - a cruise ship! Wedding venues can be found just about everywhere so why not surprise guests with a wedding, and a honeymoon on a cruise ship. Often, some of the guests join the happy couple on their honeymoon. A cruise gives the newlywed couple plenty of privacy yet allows them to join family members and friends in a variety of activities.

In this article I'll mention a few beautiful wedding venues on some cruise ships. Whether onboard the ship or in a port, cruise lines and their staff are happy to help you pull off the perfect wedding. A variety of wedding packages might range in price from about $1000 to several thousand depending on how elaborate a ceremony and reception you want, number of guests, etc.

On Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines the bride and groom must be cruise guests; they will have to provide a reservation number before ordering a cake and finalizing ceremony and reception details. Charges for the wedding package, including license fees and all applicable taxes and surcharges, must be paid in full at the time of the booking. Wedding ceremonies are not held at sea on this line but they do provide weddings at many of the ports they call on - a sparkling Caribbean beach perhaps!.

Onboard ship, outside vendors are not allowed; all services such as photography, florist, food preparation, etc. are provided by Royal Caribbean. A Royal Romance Wedding Coordinator will work with you on all the details for your special day. (Visit royalcaribbean.com for additional details.)

With Princess Cruises, you're able to have a wedding ceremony "at sea" on some of their ships. In 1998, on the Grand Princess, this cruise line was the first North American company to have a ship captain perform wedding ceremonies while at sea. Today, your friends and family not taking the cruise with you, are able to view live pictures from the wedding chapel via a special web cam to be viewed on the official cruise line (princess.com) website.

Similar, to Royal Caribbean,Tie the Knot ,™ the Princess wedding folks, have various prices for a large selection of ceremony and reception packages. They also provide ceremonies at various ports of calls - a pristine bit of Alaska's wilderness...a historic city...or ??? (Check out princess.com or call 866-444-8820 for more information.)

What about chartering an entire cruise ship for your wedding and honeymoon? Maybe not a huge ship, but consider a SeaDream Yacht which holds 55 couples plus a crew of close to a hundred. This company, with two yachts, has won many accolades for its superb service from Conde Nast, Travel & Leisure and others. In addition to their regular itineraries, it's possible to charter a yacht for a special cruise. (Go to seadream.com for details.)

Weddings on ships book up very quickly, especially those going to popular destinations. Please make arrangements for your wedding as early as possible. You might want to enlist the help of a travel agent to assist you with all the details of the guests traveling with you. Consider arriving at your ship's port of embarkation a day early to avoid any last minute travel delays and to work out all the final details of your special day.

There are many more beautiful wedding venues on cruise ships, private yachts and the like. These are just a few suggestions to get you started in looking at ships as a possible wedding venue. Look for another article about more beautiful wedding venues soon.