Getting hitched in a sea of love

Did you know that 10 to 25 percent of all weddings take place away from home? Never slow to catch on to a trend, cruise lines are going all-out to promote cruise weddings — both aboard ship and ashore in some exotic port. Thousands of couples have taken the plunge at sea, often citing the ease and convenience afforded. For starters, you can have a wedding and then sail off on your honeymoon, and there's no travel time wasted between the vows and the celebration. Best of all, you can leave all the legwork to the cruise line's wedding planners and crew.

Standing on ceremony
Susan Breslow-Sardone, author of "Destination Weddings for Dummies," says a cruise-ship wedding is the easiest kind of destination wedding you can have, but you will still have to hire a company that specializes in cruise weddings to help you arrange the ceremony. That's because the actual ceremony will almost always take place in port (Princess Cruises is the only cruise line that enables captains to marry couples at sea), and the requirements of the port's jurisdiction can be complicated, especially if it is overseas. A good cruise-wedding service provider like The Wedding Experience can help you obtain a local marriage license and find a member of the clergy or other official to perform the ceremony pretty much anywhere in the world — and ensure that you are legally married.

Couples can also marry in their U.S. port of embarkation before the cruise begins. That way the guests can come aboard, enjoy the service and reception, and disembark before sailing. Alternatively, friends and family can come along for the cruise, if the couple so desires.


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