Attending a shipboard wedding on a gorgeous Saturday in JC can make you feel like you’ve missed the boat. Hey, why didn’t I think of that for my wedding? Or it might be just what you needed to take the plunge.
Camille Cerria launched Smooth Sailing Celebrations 12 years ago. As the name implies, she handles all kinds of onboard events, including those for corporations and nonprofits. Weddings account for about 50 percent of the business. But, she acknowledges, “When a bride starts to think about a venue, it’s not the first thing that comes to mind. They always tell me they never thought about a boat.”
“I’m the first to say that a yacht wedding is not for everyone,” Cerria says. “The people it appeals to are the ones who tell me they are looking for something different, something fun outside the box, but not too far outside the box. It still has to be a somewhat glamorous, elegant, upscale venue.”
Twenty-somethings who are wedding-ed up to here are prime candidates. “They’re tired of the cookie-cutter wedding,” Cerria says. “Young brides in their 20s, and their friends, have been to six weddings in one summer. In the ballroom-type setting, they can’t tell one from the other.”
Cerria started her business with corporate events and moved warily toward the wedding market. “Like everybody else, I’d watched TV shows like Bridezillas, and I thought that was what the industry was like,” she says. For the uninitiated, in Bridezillas, the time-honored convention of planning their weddings transforms seemingly normal young women into monsters. But by the time the big day arrives, the monster is slain, and a beautiful bride walks down the aisle with Dad.
When some of Cerria’s corporate clients started getting married, she agreed to do their weddings, and the rest is history.
Weddings on the Waves
“Brides are great,” she now says. “They’re very happy to take direction, and they’re very grateful for information. I love to educate people and tell them the pros and cons of what they’re thinking of doing. It’s mutually beneficial.”
The downside to a yacht wedding? “The one thing I can’t control for people is the weather,” Cerria says. “Every single boat has a Plan B for the weather. Though we always hope that we don’t have to go to Plan B, the bride has to be OK with that.”
Though most weddings take place in the warmer months of spring, summer, and fall, Cerria handles yacht weddings year-round.
“I will say that in all these years with so many events, I’ve had incredible luck with the weather,” she says.
Darn. I was hoping for a storm anecdote, with thunder, lightning, squalls, blizzards, waves, fogs, hurricanes, or typhoons. The best she could come up with is a cute story about a bride who ascended to the rooftop bridge for the obligatory tossing of the bouquet. The bouquet, instead of coming to rest in the outstretched hand of a bridesmaid, was blown away by a Hudson River breeze.
Speaking of the Hudson, the wedding party might start at one of the Jersey City marinas, such as Liberty Landing or Newport, but then New York Harbor itself becomes the venue. “The New York City backdrop is a huge draw for most couples as the yacht sails past all the sights and landmarks of the harbor with the city lit up,” Cerria says. “People tell me it’s breathtaking.”
Christina Krivoshein and Christopher Holmes invited 150 guests for their September yacht wedding. “It was magical to have these people taking this adventure with us,” says Christina. “We said, ‘let’s do this marriage journey together.’ The views were spectacular. You take the setting and throw in lots of love, and it was wonderful.”
Cerria recommends “starting with the sun and coming back with the stars. The ceremony should take place just before dusk, while it is still daylight, then there’s sunset, and people get to see the full range of the Hudson in all its many phases.”
The Onboard Option
Though people have come from all over the country to get married on the Hudson River, the majority are local folks.
As with most people in the wedding business, for Cerria, same-sex marriage has been a boon. When New York was one of the few states where gay marriage was legal, a lot of brides and grooms came from other parts of the country.
One gay couple knew that they wanted to be married in June. Cerria booked it for the last Sunday of June, so that the fireworks of Gay Pride Day could become part of the ceremony.
When it comes to the size of the wedding, Hudson River yachts can handle anything from 12 to twelve hundred.
“The sweet spot is 75 to 200 guests,” Cerria says.
The bottom line?
“I’m going to objectively tell the client all the pros and cons to help them make the right selections and pick the boat that’s right for them,” Cerria says.
The best time and place for your wedding?
Says Cerria, “Evening on the Hudson.”—Kate Rounds
Resources
Smooth Sailing Celebrations
1500 Harbor Blvd.
Weehawken
(973) 409-4456
smoothsailingcelebrations.com
Cerria is paid by the boat companies to bring them weddings and other events, but the boat companies themselves also handle weddings.