To be honest, I don’t even know where to start after part 1. We had made it to our new home, our things finally arrived but only a week before the wedding. Making unpacking our home a full time job for me so we could pack for our wedding and honeymoon trip.

Being in my swells of grief was very hard, Kaley (my bestie that had passed/maid of honor). It almost felt like triple grieving (is that a thing?!), not only grieving our plans we had for when I moved in and her being here, but also our plans for my wedding and also the plans for my bachelorette party. All of them were nice, but it was her energy and presence I was most excited about. She was a force of nature that just lit up every space, she was incredible at planning such fun events, being the life of every party. While it was a bummer that the Barbie bachelorette party never happened, not having a maid of honor, best man or wedding party because after she passed it didn’t feel right, there is no way to replace her. I just felt hollow, I lost a piece of me that I can’t get back, future dreams, hopes, all of it. In another post I’ll go more in-depth.

But as they always say in show business, the show must go on…

My dear friend, Erica whom I’ve known for 12 years and has always been there for me stepped in. She was my bright light in the dark. Always encouraging me when I was feeling so low. I may sound melodramatic, I know I was marrying the love of my life, the person who puts me on a pedestal and is King of My Heart! I just wasn’t in a new “bride to be” headspace. Erica and I ended up going to The Davenport in Spokane for a girl weekend and I had a wonderful bachelorette party just us two and it was perfect. Again, a post for another day.

Onto happier topics like the pros and cons of having a wedding on a cruise ship….

When having a wedding on embarkation day at Royal Caribbean there are a lot of things to take into consideration for your big day. Mainly is, everything has to be done by them. You can’t bring in outside food, drinks, cake, photographers, DJs, etc. They handle it all.

For me, that was a pro. When I originally was trying to wedding plan for the Vezer Vineyard wedding, finding wedding planners, wedding cake bakers, DJs, etc. the options were overwhelming. Like I had said in my last post, most were booked out years in advance so it was stressful vetting them, then finding out they aren’t even available.

When planning my wedding with Royal Caribbean, I was given a wonderful wedding planner, Sandra. She was so great! However, with Royal Caribbean, the options for certain things are in your control and some aren’t. If you’re a control freak that is amazing at planning events and you like tons of options this isn’t for you. But if you are a scatterbrain/ADHD and having tons of options is overwhelming and you get lost in indecision, this is definitely for you!

Wedding cake choices were 4 different styles of cakes, a handful of cake options and filling options. You can also customize the layers if you want different flavors on each layer. We just wanted to keep it simple. We chose this orchid cake with red velvet layers and a cream cheese filling. It was delicious, when we cut into it, it looked like a bit of a murder scene. But still yummy none the less!

They chose who would be our DJ. They do pick top of the line entertainment, so he was great! They let us curate which songs play when the wedding party is walking in, when I walk in, the song during the ceremony, the one after that we walk out to and any songs we want during the reception for first dance and dance with my dad. We were supposed to put it on a USB port and we couldn’t get them to work on there, but our DJ was a king and did it all himself. Plus we requested for dancing he plays 80’s, 90’s and now, he nailed it! It was fun energy the entire time and he was awesome.

Cons for me are:

-We were told non-sailing guests would just need a full legal name and email address ahead of time. Then 3 weeks before the wedding we were told we also needed a Driver’s License or Passport number for each non-sailing guest. That was a huge hassle and some guests were apprehensive, rightfully so. Collecting that information was a nightmare and it had to be done on a spreadsheet to send over. The deadline was the day before my cross country move and the timing sucked! Had I been told before I could have had each guest send me that info and collected it ahead of time, saving myself a ton of stress.

-We were quoted that the wedding would be around $5,000 for 50 guests. But of course when you add things on it added up quickly. Basically the $5,000 includes the venue, cake and the officiant. No food, no drinks, etc.

That didn’t include a photographer (our platinum package we chose was $3,500 and that included 3 hours of photography, 2 photographers that we couldn’t choose, all images on a USB drive and 4 metal pictures printed that we still haven’t received as of July 12th, 2024), full bar was $16.50 per person and it had to apply to everyone over the age of 21 regardless if they drink, only 1/2 our guests 21+ drink so it was expensive for not a lot of return but we wanted everyone to have fun, small plates of food was $12.50/person they did accommodate food allergies and preferences as well. If you go over the 50 people you can buy blocks of 25 for an extra $250. This didn’t really make sense to me since it didn’t add any cost onto Royal Caribbean. I’m already paying for extra food and drinks for people. At the end of it I want to say it was around $15,500 for 75 people to attend, not including my wedding dress, Lorenzo’s suit, my hair and make up lady, tipping, plane tickets, etc.

-You really have no idea who your DJ is, who your photographers are, even with the platinum photo package the photos weren’t edited in any way. Our photographers did well but there were times my hair was blowing in a crazy direction and no one fixed it.

-Because the wedding was so early on embarkation day to make sure people were off the boat in time, I had to bring in my own hair and makeup artist. We used a good friend of ours, Peggy Seagren who did an amazing job! But to fly her out, pay for her hotel, etc. that was another $4,500 expense but the results were worth it. I was nervous relying on someone in Florida to show up at 6 am, whom I’ve never met in person, hoping that their Instagram was photos of their actual work and not stolen and if they bailed last minute it would be a travesty. Plus we wanted Peggy there anyway. Win win! Find Peggy on Instagram @makeupbypeggymcintaggart to make all of your makeup and hair dreams come true! She’s the best, I was a model for 10 years and have never had someone work magic like her. She’s also hilarious and does great photography!

Done with the negative off to the positive….

Our wedding was nothing short of spectacular, overall. I joked with Lorenzo that if he wasn’t feeling like he was going to cry when I walked down the aisle, he had better putting his acting pants on and fake it. Of course, I didn’t *really* want him to fake it and he said he wouldn’t, he will do what comes naturally.

Walking down the aisle was a little nerve wracking, we were informed a week before that “down the aisle” would be a staircase we are walking down. My dad has glaucoma and can’t see below his nose, I have depth perception problems so were the blind leading the blind. I was so nervous we’d fall down together in front of everyone, but we made it! No stumbles, yay us!

As an aside, I am from a blended family. Technically, my siblings are all half siblings. We are like the Brady Brunch if Cindy was born to both Mike and Carol. My dad had 3 boys, my mom had 2 girls and then they got married and had me. I NEVER view my siblings as half, we weren’t raised that way. I don’t treat Lorenzo’s kids that way either. They’re all ours, I love them like they’re my own. Just as my parents do with my siblings.

However, my dad always said how excited he was to walk me down the aisle because with my sisters he shared the moment with their dad. In my previous marriage, I had eloped and my dad was bummed (to put it lightly) that he wasn’t there to walk me down the aisle. In 2017, he had a big health scare and we thought he wasn’t going to make it. My biggest regret at that time was that he never walked me down the aisle so it was a big moment for us both!

We survived the stairs and I was escorted to my darling Lo, who was ol’ water works over here (Sex and the City reference) and it made me feel so happy that he was teary eyed when he saw me.

Our officiant, Linda was absolutely incredible. I am not overly religious, I grew up in a Christian home and Lorenzo’s parents were God loving people who believed in Science of the Mind. Linda walked a very beautiful line of reading scripture without being over bearing, praying with us, because I truly believe every marriage needs a higher power to survive and a great divine blessing before starting. Her words were my dream, but I had no idea what I was walking into or how it would go since we can’t pick her and didn’t know who would marry us until we arrived. I literally met her that day. Royal Caribbean really does provide quality people to make the day special so it worked out.

I am a writer by nature and profession, but I am very timid on the microphone. I didn’t want us to do our vows in front of everyone knowing my voice would shake, but of course my actor husband wanted to during the reception. He did before we cut the cake, he even made a Love is Blind reference at the end that made me laugh and made me feel like if my bestie was there, she would be so proud!

His vows were: “I could be dropped in a sea of beautiful mermaids, or onstage with 100 Miss Universe contestants. I could be surrounded backstage by the most stunning actresses or trapped in an elevator with a Victoria Secret model in less than you can imagine, but one thing..
One most important thing..
You are my person. I would swim the oceans through the strongest currents. I would scramble through a collapsing building. I would climb a skyscraper in a storm.
I would search to the ends of the earth to hold you in my arms and love you.
There is no one else for me, Boobie.
You are my soul twin
You are the light I seek
I loved you from the jump, yo”

My father-in-law, Marc Rosen prepared a beautiful speech also. We danced, we drank, we didn’t have enough time with everyone before the ship whisked everyone off of it to prepare for us to set sail (another downside of the boat wedding). But it was a truly magical experience, surrounded by loved ones near and far and I thought it was perfect.

Stay tuned for Part 3, our honeymoon sail…