soxgirl

Congratulations on your recent engagement!! I'm from Boston as well and I was recently married in Aruba at the Divi. Great resource here for a lot of information. Also check out the forum on aruba.com. There is a great section on weddings there. Good luck with your planning!

Congratulations! We are getting married at the Divi in Aruba in May!

Congratulations! We're getting married on May 7th in Aruba at the Divi. Good luck!

I agree that Friday is a great way to go. We're arriving on Tuesday, guests are coming Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday. Welcome party on Wednesday, rehearsal dinner Thursday, wedding Friday. Most of our guests are staying through Sunday and that gives everyone Saturday to relax. The thing to consider is that many of your friends and family will make this a vacation so flying in during the week should not be an issue. Just give everyone plenty of notice to plan. Good luck! Sounds like it will be a wonderful wedding weekend!

I am an Aruba bride on a budget as well. I made some compromises to plan my wedding there, including the resort, but it's all worth it as Aruba is such a wonderful island. We booked the Divi All Inclusive, definitely not a 4 star resort, but for our guests more than affordable and will meet their needs. It's an island resort and we have many family and friends who have been there for their honeymoons and loved it. What was important to us is that people are able to come. We're in May so it's not considered the high season so our rate is probably a little lower, but at $340 per room per night all inclusive we couldn't pass that up. Plus the wedding coordinator I'm working with is fantastic! Good luck!

Congrats! I'm getting married in Aruba in May 2010. There are more and more Aruba brides lately.

Congratulations! I am getting married in Aruba in May at the Divi. I've been to Aruba and love the island! Good luck with your planning and feel free to get in touch with any questions you may have!

We're getting married in Aruba and looking for another island that we can get to from there for our honeymoon. We're considering Curacao or St. Martin/St. Maarten. I haven't been to either of these places...any help would be greatly appreciated!

Congratulations! I am an Aruba bride as well. Due to budgets and what we were looking for we are getting married at the Divi in May 2010. Feel free to contact me with any questions...I'm no expert but I've done a lot of research and I'm happy to help!

We just recently sent out our STD...we did a magnet and included a pre-RSVP card. In a week we've already received a bunch back. We have actually been suprised to find some friends we thought would definitely come cannot and those who we had in our mind as maybes are actually attending. At first I felt really odd about sending a pre-RSVP, but I just included language that said, "To get a general estimate of the number of people joining us in Aruba we kindly request that you return this postcard to us by November 1, 2009". On the forum I found cute language for the Yes and No (Yes, Save me a Beach Chair; No, I burn too easily). We did them as postcards to cut down on postage and actually got some great comments about how cute they were. My sister even told me that she's not sending it back b/c it's too cute. I know we won't get all the cards back, so we plan to follow up with those friends and family via email. I'm also pushing that fact that flights are cheap to book now...hopefully that gets people to respond to me.

I love the t-shirts! I want to order them for my guests as well, I"m thinking of getting iron on block lettering and putting titles on the back (maid of honor, bridesmaid, best man, mother of the bride, father of the bride....etc).

I haven't worked with a travel agent as I feel that I can get everything done myself. I'm organized and like to negotiate and plan a lot of group travel trips each year. I'm also an event planner so it's in my instinct to do these things myself. Cynthia at the Divi/Tamarijn has been great. Emails right away and gave me great prices that I really didn't need to negotiate as they were so much lower than everyone else. The most difficult part for us has been deciding between the Divi and the Tam. They both have pros and cons.

My FI and I spent three weeks in Costa Rica two years ago. We flew into San Jose, rented a car and drove to Arenal and Monteverde and then spent two weeks surfing on the Nicoya Pennisula driving from Playa Grande to Mal Pai. It was amazing! I would say Tamarindo is the most crowded. It was a great place for beginners, but if you're looking for more secluded areas with bigger surf go to Playa Granda or Avellanas. I would recommend renting a car. The roads are not the best to drive on, but if you get an SUV you'll be fine. There are signs all over the place pointing to the next town. Happy to help, PM if you want more information. Suzanne

We were in the same situation that you are in trying to save our guests some money while still having a beautiful beach wedding. After discussions with our friends and family we've opted for the Divi Divi. It's a beach resort and we've had a bunch of friends stay there for their honeymoon. Our friends and family agreed with our decision. The Divi also gave me a group rate that I couldn't pass up, and Lorriane the WC has been amazing! We decided to spend the money in other places (reception, activities for our guests, honeymoon). When is your wedding? We're booked for May 7th. Good luck! Suzanne

So I'm trying to figure out what to do exactly about my save the dates and invitations. We're having a small DW and we were not planning to invite all friends and family to come. However we were planning a larger AHR for when we return. My question is what have others done in terms of invitations and save the dates? Do I create two STD and two invitations? Do I have to invite everyong to both? Advice would be appreciated!