arubabride

Gorgeous photographs! Love your dress!!! You look stunning!!

I also booked with Sell Off Vacations Group and they have been awesome. After my fiance and I flew down to Aruba in January to check it out. We decided on the Riu and mailed out our Save the Dates after we returned. Than our travel agent at that time (not Sell Off) said the price went up $1000 per person. I just about lost it! Not only is Aruba expensive, now it was going to be $1000 more!!! I actually was crying because we didn't know what to do. We found out that when we travelled, the Riu still had introductory rates and that the rates would be going up, something our travel agent neglected to tell us. Anyways, the price went down $200 with this travel agent. Still not enough. So I went shopping around. Sell Off Vacations got it down to $600 cheaper, not perfect but we were extremely happy. What I did was put a deposit down for 10 people because I knew they were coming and the rate got extended to October 31, 2009. So now people have tons of time to confirm. And I'm also trying to find another hotel for the people that still can't afford to go. Sorry to hear that the booking is so crazy. I went through it myself but it will all turned out! Trust me!

Everything looks amazing! You did such a great job!

I'm hosting my sister's bridal shower this weekend. I'm doing wedding bingo where the guests fill in the blank squares with what they think the bride will get and a guessing game where I put numerous pictures of my sister and the guests have to guess her age. I have some pretty awesome pictures of her. I also have some pretty sweet prizes from Crate and Barrel and Bath & Body Works!!! I hope the games work out!

Okay, so I have a bit of a long winded and unique situation and I’ve turned to my fellow brides for assistance and advice. Plain and simple, I am seriously considering firing one of my bridesmaids. BUT, and this is a big but, it will essentially end a number of friendships. Background: I went to a professional school in the US and a group of 8 of us became really close. We were a pretty tight knit group during those four years, but three have passed since we all graduated and I am north of the border once again. In the last three years we have met up at least twice a year for reunions and for conferences with respect to our professions, all great, it’s like we were all back in school each time. Enter a couple engagements. So my bridesmaid (who I lived with for all four years of school), lets call her XX, gets engaged in May of 08, just before doing a 6 month stint in Iraq with the army. She calls me to tell me the good news and asks me to become a bridesmaid which I happily accept. While she was away, I also got engaged, and I also ask her to be a bridesmaid. While she is away she lets me know that she wants to get married in the spring of 2010 but not sure when. She also tells me to pick a date whenever we make a decision. She said that because she was in Iraq she could not make a decision and essentially not to worry about stepping on her toes. My wedding is a destination wedding and will incorporate family from Europe. I eventually choose the third week in January of 2010 because of family reasons and a number of other reasons. I should add that family is the primary reason we chose this date and that it is imperative that they attend. Incident 1: She returns from Iraq, calls me, leaves me a msg and I could immediately tell that there was something wrong because I know her voice and how she speaks when there are issues. I try to call her for almost three weeks, placing a number of calls/msgs, and finally she calls me back and we speak. She is upset because I never consulted her with the date of our wedding and believes that it will be inconvenient for our friends to attend two “destination weddings†because of travel and cost. Okay, more background, her wedding will be in Florida and all of our friends live across the US. But her wedding will be over a weekend, and may I add that all of our friends make good money (so it's not a financial concerns). She also then tells me that they have decided on a wedding date of Feb 27/2010, and demands to know why I want my wedding so close to hers. She questions my decisions and tells me to change my wedding to an earlier date and does not understand why it has to be this week. She also said that she felt like I was "upstaging her wedding". I share my feelings with her and a number of emails back and forth and essentially she says “Let's forget what happened and let bygones be bygones.†Incident 2: I find my bridesmaid dresses at the beginning of this year. I sent all the bridesmaids pictures of the dress in March and include the closest store so they can try it on and let me know what they think. In April, I sent another email to all the bridesmaids asking for their sizes and measurements. The other three bridesmaids send me back everything I need within 48 hours (this is including one bridesmaid from Europe). XX does not even respond. I email her a number of times, no response. I was venting to my fiancée and he says he will send her a Facebook msg since I am not on Facebook. So he sends her a polite, upbeat, and cheery note. She responds with a txt message saying “Why are you having (my fiance) send me messages? My measurements are ...†I write her a text back saying I would also like a size because the dress fits big and is empire style so she could totally avoid alterations (if she tried on the sample as I asked her!). I get no response. So I send her an email saying that obviously something is wrong and I only want your measurements and dress size because the sample sizes are large and I wanted to save you the cost of alterations. I address the fact that she may be busy with her wedding and that dealing with my wedding and being a bridesmaid may be adding to her stress level. So I say that if this is the case she does not have to be one of my bridesmaids. She writes back and says that she was so upset about my email and she cried reading it and ends it by saying “if you don’t want me to be your bridesmaid then I won’t; but if you do, I will.†But still nothing on the dress size. I write her back and say I ordered her a size (I just picked one!), and she does not respond to the email. Incident 3: The group recently got together last weekend for a wedding of one of our friends. I was the last to get to the hotel and ran into a friend who says they are all at the bar come and join them. When I walk in, I see one of the girls mouth “she’s here†to XX. Everybody greets me and my fiancée, but I can tell things are off. When XX and I are usually together after not seeing each other for a while we are like sisters. But for the entire 3 days we were at the wedding we spoke for basically 5 minutes. When we did speak she was fake and did not ask about anything to do with my wedding. Even worse, is that I can tell that she has been talking about me because some of the other girls were also giving me the cold shoulder. What to do? It’s rather hard to type out to give the appropriate impressions but trust me things were weird. If somebody was to look us interact, you would not think we were friends. So this brings us to the big decision. Do I fire her? I am also aware that if that happens, our friendship will be over. It will also probably end the friendship of at least four of the other girls. Why you may ask? Because we are a group that meets as a group, the girls don’t meet up one on one because of location. So if I say goodbye to her, I’ll essentially be saying goodbye to all of them. I am prepared to do that with how I was treated this past weekend. So there you have it, thoughts are appreciated. Has anyone else been through something like this?

Hey Ladies! I'm actually getting married in Aruba in January 2010 and staying at the Riu Palace. It's AMAZING!!! My fiance and I went to check it out this past January. The resort is great and the food is awesome. I'm big on food and I had one of the best steaks ever there and one of the best desserts. Our guests are staying there for the week. Now in terms of getting married there, we wanted something intimate and personal. We didn't want to get married ON the beach and wanted a restaurant to ourselves. The only thing the Riu could offer is the ballroom. We were ok with that until we checked out The Link golfcourse with a wedding planner that associated with the Divi/Tamarijn and it was EXACTLY what we were looking for. The clubhouse restaurant is great and has a view of the ocean. The ceremony will be by the pond of the golf course and then golf carts will take us across the street to the beach for photographs and back to the restaurant for the reception. The restaurant will be exclusively ours and anything we want can be done. It's so great! And our wedding planner is super nice, quick to respond via email and has great ideas. Let me know if you need any more information. I have a ton of photographs of the Riu and The Links. We also went to check out the Holiday Inn, Divi and Tamarijn. We want an all-inclusive and these are the only all inclusive places. Out of these four, the Riu is by far the nicest place! Let me know if you have any questions about Aruba.

My fiance and I are going to check out Aruba next week. We're staying at the Riu and checking out the Divi, Tamarjin and Holiday Inn as well. We're hoping to select a hotel and a date so we can send out STDs when we get back!

I'm a January 2010 bride. We will nail down a date once we check out our hotel in 2 weeks! We're staying at the Riu but checking out some other hotels. Time sure is flying by though. I got engaged in October and not it's only a year away!

She did sound upset when she left her message. And it's definitely not a financial concern. Who knows! Thanks for your advice!

Hi everyone! One of my best friends got engaged several months ago and then she was sent out to Iraq (she's in the army). Then I got engaged while she was away. On a side note, we're in each other's bridal party's. She told me she was planning for Feb/Mar 2010 but was going to set an actual date when she returned. She told me to go ahead and select a date. I let her know that we were thinking of end of 2009 or beginning of 2010 but finally decided on Jan 2010 (that's the only time my family from Europe can come). She seemed fine with that but she just returned home (thankfully safely) and left me a message saying that she's surprised that I want my wedding so close to hers. I've called her twice, sent an email and still have not heard from her. I don't understand why she's so upset. Am I in the wrong for wanting to get married in January? errrrrrrrrr. This is too much drama for me! Thanks for your help!

Hi everyone! Just got engaged in Europe and we're planning on getting married in Aruba in January 2010! We just don't know where! We've already booked a trip to Aruba this upcoming January for a site visit and staying at the Riu. I would love any advice on hotel selection and planning in general. Thanks!