AnnCam2011

I would for sure use LED. If you are having your reception on Ren Island it will be breezy and regular tea lights will go out (as did ours, wish I got LEDs). Any questions let me know. Juney is awesome and can pull anything together for you. We drank "aruba-ribes", not color-coordinated but damn tasty
 

Originally Posted by Mmack 

Has anyone recently gotten maaried at the Renaiisance? I am having my wedding there and was looking for some tips or things that you may have forgotten. Has anyone worked with George the photographer. I've seen his work and while our coordinator says he's good...he doesn't respond in a timely way at all!!! Should I be worried...help!!

Originally Posted by Mmack 

What are you guys thinking of for centerpeices especially with the wins in Aruba?? I would love candles...I think LED lights??

 

Yes, we did our own centerpieces. Just brought small 5" glass vases from the craft store. My goal was to buy roses at the grocery store and keep it simple (Ren island is so pretty at night, No need to over do the centerpieces). The grocery store was closed because it was Carnivale Monday and everything was closed. My 2 girlfriends filled the vases (a total of 5) with sand on the bottom, put little shells in them and some pink flowers from the shrubs by the pool. They were so cute and happy how they turned out. They were perfect for what we needed to accomplish and the price was right too None of the guests will remember the centerpieces anyway, they will remember what an amazing trip they've had and a fun night celebrating on vacation with you!!

That was pretty much it for what we brought with. I brought chair sashes with but they were included in the package, so I am selling those. We brought a ton of snacks for us for the week and I HIGHLY recommend bringing a soft sided small cooler with. Buy your booze at the grocery store, or better yet, at the airport when you land since it is all duty free (SO CHEAP!).

Originally Posted by Mmack 

Hi AnnCam,

 

Do you have to bring your own centerpieces? What else do you have to bring with you?? Thanks for all the great advice. Btw, your pics were lovely!

 

My mistake is your benefit!

40 brand new aqua chair sashes for sale. I purchased these for my DW in March, packed them with me to Aruba, only to find out sashes were included with our wedding package (lucky me, lucky YOU!). These are still in their original package, 10 in each pack. Will not split up. Asking $40 total OBO.

Photo is of sample sash I also ordered and will throw this in for free.

PM me and we can arrange payment/shipping

This site provided me with a lot of information and help from other previous brides - why not pass it along? I keep thinking I am going to stop logging on but it is fun to see what you other ladies are planning for your own wedding!

Glad I can help - Aruba is amazing, you are all making a wise decision
 

Originally Posted by traceysteve 

AnnCam...I love that you are now officially married, and still take part in this forum..I'm sure everyone else will agree, we love your feedback and you are always super honest! I hope you stick around until I get through mine!!

Hi! A lot has been added since our stuff. www.vickphotography.com > go under "highlights" and choose "destination". We should be the first one on there.

To answer your other questions: we got legally married here before hand (see prior posts for more info). We met with Juney on Friday, wedding was Monday. We did our own centerpieces, brought down small glass vases from Michaels and some of my friends took charge and filled them with sand and flowers from shrubs that are near the pool. They were really cute and mostly free I had candles, but it was breezy, most went out. I almost did the LED candles but got lazy before the trip. I think they were an after thought since the island was so beautiful with the palm trees lit up. You really wont need much. Dance floor was a good size, I am sure Juney could tell you the exact size. There were 32 of us and plenty of room. We opted for buffet for dinner. There was SO MUCH FOOD. Having the food plated for us really wasnt a priority and the buffet option is cheaper. PM me your email and I can send you candids of the wedding that I have on an online album. It will show you a little more of set up, etc.
 

Originally Posted by Mmack 

Hi...I couldn't view it!! help!!

kfady - yes, they are a little slow responding. They are all on island time, no worries they arent ignoring. It is cultural! Nothing there is rushed. Plus Juney (the WC at the Ren) is a busy guy. Once you book and the date gets close, he is very good at emailing, etc. I kept calling/emailing trying to get a confirm on our date. Took a while since they had to send the cc number to their accounting dept and it sat there for a while. I felt bad bugging them, but I was under a timeclock to get invites out! Anywhere you book in Aruba you will need to have patience with the response as we learned!

Are you looking for price info for the Ren? I think I still have mine that I could email you...
 

Originally Posted by kfady529 

Thank you ladies all these post are so helpful AnnCam congrats on your resent wedding and to the rest congrats and happy planning.I am getting married 4/12 and was looking in to the Divi phenox any feed back for those who have been? I just started looking into other ones as well and the Renaissance was one of them I emailed them a week ago and haven't hared back is that like them?

Bright: Sunshine

Hi - yes we got married on the beach (see my post above). Have you looked into the Hayatt? It is another hotel I liked but we went with the Ren because it came so highly recommended to us (and lived up to our expectations!). We walked thru the Hayatt on our way to one of our snorkel trips. Lobby and pool area were nice. Right on the beach which could be good and bad. Have you looked into the Renaissance at all? We liked the fact it was more private, etc. and the island was heaven. just sayin'

Thought I would also mention: I have 40 aqua blue chair sashes I need to get rid of. They are brand new, still in the package. I bought them not knowing sashes were included in our wedding package. Der. So, I would like to sell them. If you want picts I can email you. Looking for $40 for all.

Hi All -

We got legally married here in MN 2 weeks before we went to Aruba. We decided to do it here because it was 1) cheaper - didnt want to pay to have it translated to English. I hear it is in Dutch and 2) convienience. We didnt want to waste time going to the town hall to get married in Aruba since we had an afternoon planned going around the island with the photographer. We also got married on Carnivale Monday - meaning everything (EVERYTHING!) was closed. We didnt want to mess around with getting the marriage recognized here in the States, so we just took the easy route. My advice - go the easy route and don't make yourself crazy! DW's are supposed to be fun, easy, and stress free. Why add more to it than necessary?

We got the marriage lic here at home and just had to set up a time to meet the judge. We got legally married on a Thursday after work, and it literally took 10 minutes. Easy-peasy. Our wedding coordinator said he needed a copy of our marriage certificate, but in the end he never asked for it. May have just forgot, seeing he became a new Dad 2 days prior! In the end, it worked out. We didnt care what our parents thought - my mom was irked she "wasnt included" in our legal wedding, but there was nothing to it. We didnt say anything to each other, just had to swear in front of the judge and have her sign the paper with our witnesses. Our anniversary date is the day we got married in Aruba, not when we got paperwork done at home.

Good Luck! Hope this helps

Nevermind - here's one better: Our photographer just posted our preview. www.vickphotography.com wedding date 3/7/11. View the slideshow - it's better

I have picts on my Facebook page. If you want to see, PM me and we can figure something out.

Hi Gina!

Good thing you are in AZ - it snowed here last night - arg. Most of our guests flew from MSP. There are no direct flights to Oranjestad. We flew thru NC, some went thru TX, some thru Chicago. If you have your dates, I'd recommend looking for flights. We paid around $600 each but some of our friends were lucky and found deals for $400. Just hit or miss but keep checking back, and delete the cookies on your computer before you search. Places like priceline.com have something on their site that remembers you from previous searches. That is why prices seem to go up within 20 mins. Just a tip

Where are you getting married at? So exciting! I was a lazy bride and left everything up to the WC. Do the same and your experience will be better. Dont worry about gift bags, candles, chair sashes. Blah. Aruba is so beautiful, your guests will just be glad to be there. The rest is fluff

Originally Posted by Gina42212 

Hi AnnCam!  I'd like to hear more about your experience, and also I just saw that you are from St. Paul, MN...I'm from Eden Prairie, MN, but I live in Phoenix, AZ now All of my friends and family will be traveling from MN, so your feedback on flights (length, cost, anything! ) would be much appreciated!

I am so looking forward to getting married in Aruba; mostly because it's beautiful looking (never been, but heard great things), and also because I'm excited to do a DW so that I don't have to do so much planning and work!  It's overwhelming at the very beginning, but I'm starting to get more excited as I get closer to booking.

 

Thank you so much in advance for your input!

 

Gina

Yes! Just got married March 7. We stayed at the Renaissance Aruba Resort and couldn't have been happier with our decision. It was perfect. Look back a few pages in this forum - I posted something right when we got back. Loved every bit of it, no issues with the service and the WC was awesome!

Originally Posted by kfady529 

@ Ann it is really very exciting and we can't wait, looking @ pictures and everyone's comments is deff making us feel like we made the right decision. Did you just have your wedding? Congrats if so We are getting married April 2012. What hotel did you go with?

Welcome and remember to ENJOY your planning process! It goes by fast - in my opinion planning a DW was so I wouldn't stress out over details and it worked out great! We had never been to Aruba before either and also couldn't afford to do a test-run (really, people do this?). You can't go wrong - Aruba is lovely and I can't wait to go back. Friendly people, everyone speaks English, they use US $.

When are you getting married?? SO EXCITING!
 

Originally Posted by kfady529 

I am just starting the  wedding planning and I have to say I am very overwhelmed. I am working with an agent through destinationweddings.com and so far so good although I looked up some reviews 50/50 from great to horrific!! I was looking to work with weddings by Bonny and have the wedding and also stay my first week @ the Divi Phoenix! and then my last week  I would like to stay at an all inclusive for the "honeymoon" ! I am looking for reviews of ppl who may have also done there wedding or are doing there wedding in Aruba. I live in MA and cant afforded to go and do a trial run so I have to base all my info on ppl's reviews and the Internet. 

 

I thank you for your comments in advance!!

The tip for WC was included with our package, but this reminds me I was going to mail him something as a thank you anyway. We did open bar and our friends did a great job tipping the bartender/servers all night. My hubby also left a good chunk of cash in the jar at the end of the night as well. We had 30 people and the waitstaff did an amazing job making sure everyone had what they needed all night and their work was appreciated and rewarded.

I wouldn't get too worried about tipping/ etc. I noticed the service charges were really high at the hotel we were at also, which I am sure goes to pay their staff members. Leave what you think is fair for the job they did, and it will all work out.

No prob! Just let me know if you have any other questions. I started to panic about a week before we left because I felt like I was forgetting to do something. But the reason we chose a DW is so we wouldnt have to worry about details, etc. I feel the same way about this being a blessing/curse. Some girls just go way overboard with wedding stuff in general. Keep it simple, your friends and family will have a blast whether there is candles on the table or not. Trust me

Totally serious on the booze. Wish we would have thought of it when we landed to just buy it at the airport. Way better deal! You may even consider packing a bottle of something in with your luggage too. Soft sided cooler would have been helpful too. I was thinking way too much about the wedding than actually going on vacation. Didnt research things to do, places to eat - luckily our friends all looked into it!

Where/when are you getting married??

sugar : baking

The one thing I wanted to buy - is a knock off Coach wristlet. We found a cart/stand across the road from Sopranos piano bar. When we went back to the cart after dinner, it was closed and didnt get a chance to get back up there. If you come across it, pick me up one haha

We went snorkeling twice - once with Red Sail and once with ...? Ill have to look and let you know. Both were good. I preferred Red Sail.

Places to eat:

Gasporitos (sp?) - local Aruban food.

Madame Jeanette's - must go here. Fantastic food, great atmosphere. We ate here twice.

Flying Fishbone - also great food, great place. Tables on the beach.

Buy your booze when you get to Aruba in the airport. It is duty free and a TON cheaper than the liquor store/grocery store. Mix your own drinks in your room. Wish we thought of it sooner. Buy your own beer too. Bring a soft sided cooler (again, wish we'd known).

We hiked up the Hooiberg "mountain" one day. 20 mins up - great view. FREE!

We had access to a rental car so took one day to drive around. Couldnt find Baby Beach, but found the prison haha.

Gosh, what else? It was wonderful. Loved every minute. Bring lots of sunscreen, expensive to buy down there. We ran out!

Always felt safe with the exception of walking around downtown after the Carnival parade. Watched a guy totally wreck his motorcycle and thought we'd just watched someone die. He got up and hopped back on. No issues with language or money. They take US$ so dont bother exchanging it. Ahh! I want to go back!

Tons of tips now that I know what to expect there What are you looking for in particular? When/where are you getting married? Wish I could go back. MN winter is killin' me this year!

Originally Posted by traceysteve 

Congrats AnnCam2011!!

 

Please share more of your tips as they come to mind! Love the idea of the Thank You present...shoot, wish I thought of that!

wedding projects = stress

We left music up to our friends. It was a nice way for them to be involved with the wedding plans and gave us one less thing to think/ worry about. My sister in law mixed the cocktail hour/dinner music and a friend mixed dance music. Everything was on iPod and back up with a burned CD copy. The only thing I wish I would have mentioned to my friend about dance music, to mix in a few slow songs in the middle of all the fast paced high energy music. We needed to take a break! If she also would have mixed in more classic songs for the parents, that also would have been nice. Things to consider!

MMack -

Our wedding was wonderful - you won't have any regrets booking with the Ren. We ventured up by the highrise area a few nights and walked around that area during the day and were so glad we didnt book up there. Also walked by/saw a few other hotels I had looked into and was SO GLAD we chose the Renaissance. The Ren is more laid back/ private - the highrise area seemed like obnoxious-spring-break - nice place to check out but wouldnt want to spend any more time up there than we needed to. Ren is so private and you can't beat that island. GREAT PLACE. We can't wait to go back. Service for the wedding was fantastic - Juney was outstanding and available when I called with questions/changes/etc. and waitstaff was constantly asking what else they could do for us during the reception. Food was yummy and didnt have anything to worry about. It really was a special day and wouldnt have changed a thing (well, maybe a few small things!). I really feel lucky that I did have a perfect wedding - how many people can say that nothing went wrong on their wedding day? I can! Right down to the good luck 2 minute sprinkle in the AM and an absolutely perfect sunset post-wedding.

I booked my initial hair appt at Maggy's which is in the marketplace mall (2 min walk from the Ocean Suites). They had my appt down wrong so I ended up booking 2 days before the wedding with Gladys at the hotel spa. She did a great job and my up do was able to withstand the Aruba breeze and crawling thru/around/on all sorts of crazy stuff our photographer made us do (PS cant wait for the prof pictures!). Go to her for your hair - you won't be disappointed. We got married last Monday which as it turns out was Aruba's "Carnival Monday" meaning everything was closed. That is their National day of rest since Sunday was Carnival (another whole experience there!). The hotel spa was able to accommodate me no problems and I expressed my gratitude to them for being open!

We booked our room at the Marina hotel (5 min walk from the Ocean suite just across the road) and were kindly upgraded to an ocean front room at the Ocean Suites upon check in. I say "ocean front" since our room faced the ocean - I could have thrown something into the water, we were that close. A lot of the suites are "ocean view" and that is a little convoluted, more like "pool view" or "ocean and parking lot view". We spent 9 nights in an awesome room and were feeling really lucky they upgraded us as well as they did. Made our vacation more special. And you can't beat that island - did I say that already?

I have recommendations for you on places to eat as well. Food everywhere we went was awesome.

No rehearsal dinner - my hubby's (heehee) parent's hosted cocktail hour by the pool on Sunday. Happy hour 4:30 - 6pm (2 for 1's!). They brought some little snacks and ordered apps from the bar. It was low key but perfect for us. Good way for all our friends to meet each other and meet our families as well. No welcome bags, rather we are going to do "thank you" gifts here soon. Our dear friend and photographer tooks picts of each couple on the beach at sunset post-wedding and we are going to order copies to send out with a nice frame. Thought that would have more meaning for them than some bag of candy and a water bottle. Our friends will have a nice memory from their vacation they can enjoy for a lot longer than candy or a bag.

Oh my gosh, what else? Everything was just fantastic and seems like a dream it is already over. We have been together for 12 years and for so long this seemed like it was out of reach. Now it is over and done and couldnt be happier we waited. Had we gotten engaged 7-8 years ago, this would have never taken place as it has. LOVED IT. Can we do it again??

Great ideas, everyone! I did finally call her back and just said that I think it would be best if she found something else. Told her since I've been waiting for 12 years to marry her son, I should be the only one who gets to wear white that day. Surprisingly, she took it rather well and agreed with me. She knew the answer before she asked, but asked anyway so if I had said it was fine, she could tell people "the bride said it was OK" if anyone had questioned her choice. Put the faux pas back on me

So I get a phone call last night from my soon to be mother in law. She wanted to know if I was OK if she wears a white linen dress to our wedding in 2 weeks. ACK *sputter* what?! A white dress, really? First of all, why would you even ask when you know my answer will probably be no? Secondly, if I tell her no, she will be completely put off and I will be the b!tch. Thirdly, how do I tell  her no when she gets put off by something so easily? She wants me to be up front with her, but whenever she asks for an "opinion" (from anyone at all), & she already knows what the answer will be, and doesn't like it and doesn't want to hear it.

Anyone else run into this? Have times changed and is it OK for a guest (particularly, the Mother of the Groom, for Heaven's sake) to wear white to a destination wedding?

I don't want her to wear white - it's my day (sorry, but it is) to wear white. I want her to come up with the right choice on her own, but if I tell her no, I am the bad guy.

Help!