Planning a wedding cruise in NYC? Read the top 5 Things You Never Thought of to Make Your Wedding Cruise a Phenomenal Success!
So you’ve decided on a NYC charter yacht for your wedding venue. Congratulations! That’s an excellent way to assure a captive audience for your nuptials. A yacht is luxurious without being pretentious, and unique without being strange. Now how can you assure that your yacht wedding is a resounding success? Here are your strategies.
1. Not All Yachts are Created Equally
Once you have your guest list set, it’s time to pick the right size yacht for your NYC wedding. But size isn’t the only thing that matters! You’ll also want to consider style, amenities, and design. For instance, do you need great acoustics for a live band? Ample space for games? Abundant seating space for elderly or disabled guests? Also, you’ll want to choose between a yacht that is elegant in a traditional way or sophisticated in a more modern way.
2. Depend on Your Yacht Charter Service for Other Wedding Vendors
Increasing complexity also increases the potential for something to go wrong. In other words, every extra step you create for yourself adds a chance that mistakes will be made. The ideal way to simplify planning, reduce the “oops” factor, and keep the budget under control is to utilize the vendor relationships your NYC charter yacht service already has in place. For example, you can work with them to secure a florist, entertainment, the wedding dinner menu, and more. Less work for you, less stress in planning, fewer mistakes, and most likely significant cost savings that you can use for something else, like that mindboggling dress you have your eye on or the all-day couples spa treatment at your honeymoon resort.
3. Shorter Service Equals More Time for a Fun Reception!
When planning your service, you need to think in terms of the overall length of your yacht charter cruise. If you’re taking a two to four hour cruise around NY Harbor, you’ll want a short and sweet ceremony to leave abundant time for taking photographs, visiting with your guests, eating, dancing, and other plans. An extended wedding service doesn’t make you more married. It just leaves you less time for that special daddy-daughter dance or taking a few extra photographs while the bride and groom ham it up feeding each other wedding cake.
4. Time Your Inside & Outside Activities
Speaking of timing, you will want to coordinate your timeline so that you are out taking pictures when the boat passes notable landmarks. Think about what time of day you’d like to be on the deck taking pictures — such as high noon when sunlight is peak, or right at sunset when the ambiance is so romantic. Finally, when drafting your timeline, consider how long it’s been since your guests last ate. If the yacht charter embarks at 2 p.m., your guests have already driven to the marina, after dressing, and likely ate before getting ready. That means that when the wedding starts, they’ve already been 2-4 hours without eating. Add another couple of hours to that for boarding, seating, the ceremony, etc., and folks start getting cranky. That’s especially true if you’ve got little ones on the guest list.
5. Double-Check That Date for Common Conflicts
Perhaps the best thing you can do to assure your wedding yacht cruise is a success is to make it as easy as possible for guests to make it on board for your big day! This means considering what potential conflicts might keep them away. Are you inviting lots of your friends from the office? Well, avoid dates that conflict with industry trade shows and conventions. Family full of sports fanatics? Be sure not to schedule your NYC charter yacht wedding for NFL Sunday, the World Series, or March Madness. The fewer competing events your wedding faces, the more folks you’ll have in the crowd that day.
Ready? Set? Go! Let’s start planning your perfect yacht wedding now!
