Weddings can be both the most exciting and stressful times of a person’s life. Sure it is certainly fun to design wedding invitations, plan your reception and pick colors for your ceremony and bridesmaid’s dresses. On the flip side, the woes of budgeting for a wedding, hiring a minister, hiring a caterer, and securing entertainment can be just as stressful as the fun parts can be enjoyable.

For those who are trying to produce a wedding, a wedding reception, and a honeymoon on a limited budget, there may be one option that you have not yet explored. Getting married on board a cruise ship is a classy yet relatively inexpensive option for your wedding. Most cruise lines carry their very own wedding planner who can put together an entire wedding, minister (or the cruise ship version of one) reception, catering, and all. Wedding planners, even for small weddings, can cost upwards of a few thousand dollars but you can secure a low cost, thoughtful and memorable wedding on board a luxury cruise liner for less than a thousand dollars if you are lucky. This is on top of the costs of traveling on the ship for the duration of the cruise as well. Of course this is not the most extravagant wedding, and obviously you get what you pay for so the more money you put into your luxury cruise liner wedding, the fancier it will turn out to be.

Realistically, you would not expect all 50 to 100 of your wedding guests to shell out thousands of dollars just to sail around the world with you and your loved one to celebrate your wedding with you, and of course the cruise lines do not expect that either. Many lines will allow your guests to come on board for your wedding and reception for a couple of hours. The liner company may choose for themselves or give you the option of having your wedding on a docked ship and never have the cruise liner leave the area, or to sail around the port for the duration of the wedding. Most times the ship will never even leave the port during the wedding, as this can cause problems with marriage licenses when it comes to what may or may not be United States or international waters.

There are plenty of cruise lines that will give you a quality, fun wedding that will be truly memorable for you and your loved one. Carnival Cruises, Princess Cruises, and the Disney Cruise line offer fun, romantic wedding packages at prices that really are hard to beat, especially when compared to the combined price of a wedding, reception, and honeymoon done the more traditional way. Princess Cruises even offer wedding packages that pamper the bride and groom prior to the wedding, and add little touches like stringed instruments, flowers, and candles to create a ceremony that you, your loved one, and your guests will always look back on fondly.