A Moonie mass wedding inspired a travel agency owner to take nuptials to the high seas
AHOY MATEY | Tom Pecena hopes to take 50 couples on a honeymoon cruise after they wed aboard the Carnival Pride. (David Taffet/Dallas Voice)
The captain of the cruise ship Carnival Pride won’t be performing 50 same-sex weddings aboard ship next spring. Instead, ordained minister Karen Emery of A Wedding for You will perform those 50 weddings onboard ship while it’s still docked in Baltimore.
Tom Pecena, owner of Ahoy Cruises in University Park, blocked 50 cabins for same-sex couples who’d like to combine their shipboard wedding with a honeymoon cruise.
He said he can accommodate up to 50 couples as well as additional family and friends who’d like to witness the wedding and accompany the newlyweds on their cruise.
The seven-day cruise departs April 26, 2015. That’s a Sunday, but couples must arrive in Baltimore by Friday morning to get to the county clerk in time to pick up a wedding license. Maryland has been a marriage equality state since 2013.
Emery called the Carnival Pride the perfect name for a ship to host the weddings.
“Hopefully, the 50 couples will come from all over the country,” Emery said.
She said she’s arranged a cocktail party after the ceremony and then a beach party at Port Canaveral, Fla., the ship’s first port of call.
Pecena said the preferred departure ports were Galveston or Fort Lauderdale, but Texas and Florida don’t have marriage equality. Cruises leave from San Diego and Los Angeles, but California requires people to make appointments to apply for a marriage license, so this type of event couldn’t be arranged.
Making those type of arrangements can be challenging for anyone planning an out-of-state wedding.
Cooper Smith, who refers to himself as bridezilla, is getting married this summer in San Francisco. He said he thought a wedding cruise was a wonderful idea.
“Because anyone’s wedding from Texas has to be a destination wedding, we’re looking at where everyone will stay,” Smith said. “We’re having to play tour guide. A cruise would have taken care of that for us.”
Pecena’s company specializes in cruises, safaris and luxury trains. Among the trips he features is a river cruise up the Thames from London to Stratford-upon-Avon. His Egypt trips are with an Egyptologist rather than a tour guide. Among his favorite train trips are scenic routes between Cape Town and Victoria, South Africa, and Singapore to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
While this is the first same-sex wedding and honeymoon cruise he’s put together, he done a number of specialty cruises. He said a big band cruise with Jan Garber and His Orchestra attracted more than 100 couples.
“We danced our way through the Caribbean,” he said.
A nine-day golf cruise included stops in Nice and Corsica.
What inspired the trip may seem odd.
“I saw an old picture of a Moonie mass wedding,” Pecena said.
But once he got his inspiration and connected with Emery, he began promoting it to his clientele and has already had inquiries from more than 100 interested couples around the country.
To reserve a cabin, contact Pecena at 214-761-1968. A $250 per person deposit must be paid by May 30.
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition May 9, 2014.