risa1818

Hi! I got married at the Manchebo on 6/11/11. I have tons of info and pictures to share with you! PM me!!

Everything was beautiful! Love your dress! Congrats

Everything looks fabulous date twin

You looked absolutely stunning on your wedding day! The dress looked amazing on you! Your pictures are beautiful too....congrats!

Everything looks wonderful! Love the invites!! Make You Feel My Love was our wedding song

Thanks!! I bought the shells, place cards and table numbers from etsy seller dazzle0604. She did a great job with everything and was really nice to work with! Very well priced too

Aww Thanks!! Makeup held up really well, she used all professional Mac cosmetics and I think since it was in the early evening it wasn't as hot as the day would have been.

Hi and congrats!! Do you want to do an all inclusive? If so, then a travel agent would be great to work with, but if not, then you don't neccesarrilly need one. When we switched to Aruba, I had already knew most of the resorts and hotels and knew that I did not want an all inclusive, so I didn't really need them to help. Good luck!

Sorry for all the typos, I kinda rushed when posting this! The dress is called Bright Coral, not Bring Coral!

Everything looked great! Love your dress! Congrats!

Your dress looked gorgeous on you! Congrats!

Well this is after the fact, but I enjoyed reading these planning threads so much I just had to do one too! This site was a HUGE lifesaver for me!! I was able to get so many wonderful ideas here! I truly enjoyed planning my wedding and I could not have done it without this amazing site! About Us: Kevin and I met in March of 2008. We dated until August when I decided to break it off because of his crazy work schedule at the time. It was a hard decision and I was upset over it, but at the time it seemed like we never saw one another. That entire month Kevin sent me text messages every day asking for a second chance, telling me he would quit his job and even going as far as trying to get the help of one of my close friends to get me back. It was beyond sweet, and after a few weeks I knew I had made a mistake. We got back together and Kevin had left his job and decided to give me a promise ring since he knew eventually he wanted to marry me. Now here we are today Proposal: Kevin proposed on December 24th 2009. We were visiting my family for Christmas and before we headed out for dinner, he decided to propose in the living room at my Dad's house in front of my family. It was beautiful and was the best Christmas gift ever! My engagement ring is a platinum art deco style, vintage ring. I always wanted a vintage ring and he picked out the perfect one!! Wedding Bands: I decided to purchase a smaller eternity band to fit with my ring. I feel that it compliments it very well and doesn't overpower it. Kevin's ring is a Tungsten. They are both from DePrisco Jewelers in Wellsley, MA. My E-ring with band Kevin's wedding band looks similar to this: Location: We decided on the beautiful island of Aruba! I had been to a wedding there before so I already knew the place we wanted to have it. Our wedding ceremony and reception were at the Manchebo Beach Resort on Eagle Beach. We did the ceremony right on the beach, and then we had our reception under the open air pavilion. It was perfect! Our wedding was on June 11, 2011. Manchebo Beach: Reception in the pavilion: Invites: As much as I wanted passport invites, we just couldn't spend the money on those and I am not very good at DIY! So I heard that Zazzle.com was having a sale and I picked out a nice set of invites with matching RSVP cards. They were 50% off so in total I only spend about $130.00 for everything! I loved the Tiffany Blue color and that I could come up with the wording myself. Our Invites: RSVP cards: Attire: We had originally planned on having a wedding here in MA, so I had bought a dress at Running of the Brides in Boston. Once we decided on a DW, I knew that the dress I had purchased didn't seem right for that setting. I originally was just going to do some alterations to it, but then came across a dress I fell in love with! I tried it on and knew I had to have it! My dress was a Maggie Sottero RD1044. It fit me perfectly and looked absolutely beautiful in the pics! I loved it!! Here is when I first tried it on: Here is on my wedding day: Hair flower: I purchased my hair flower from etsy seller EnchandtlyYours. It was steal at $10.99!! Shoes: I brought 2 pairs. One were flip flops for the beach ceremony, the others were small heels for the reception. I LOVED my flip flops and thought they went great with the dress! They were Audrey Brooke Hella Sandal from DSW: For the groom, he wanted an all white linen suit. We found one on Amazon.com for a great price! It is a Bianco Brioni. Groom's Attire: The shirt he wore underneath was from Island Importers. We also had the GMs buy their shirts from there also. Kevin had a blue shirt and the GMs we had wear a turquoise color. GMs shirts: On the guys: The color looks a little off in this photo, but it is in fact the same shirt and color. They wore these with white linen/cotton blend pants from Old Navy. Bridesmaids: I loved the dresses they wore! I went with a J. Crew Taryn dress in the color Bring Coral. I had them purchase them when they were on sale. BM dress: I also gave them orchid necklaces that I purchased from etsy seller morganprather. I decided to get all of them the 3 across style, but for my maid of honor I got her a 3 down style: BM Necklace : MOH necklace: Rehearsal dinner dress: I got this beautiful strapless dress at Ann Taylor. It was one of the first ones I tried on and I loved it! I can't find it on the website but here is a pic of me arriving at our rehersal dinner in it. It was all white with tulle flower print all over. Those are our OOT bags that I am holding in the pic Hair and Makeup: I was extremely lucky that one of my good friends has a very talented and amazing make up artist sister! I was so excited when she told me she would come! She ended up doing all the hair and makeup for the wedding party and one MOB, so in total she did 8 women in one day! It was crazy but she did such a fabulous job! Makeup trial pic: Hair trial pic: We decided to make a few adjustments the day of. Mainly to move the placement of the hair flower. I loved how it all turned out! Day of Hair and Make Up: OOT bags: I had a lot of fun deciding what to put in these. We ended up buying 12 of the Oriental Trading Company's Hibiscus bags for the couples, then 12 solid color drawstring bags for the singles. This worked out well since we had quite a few single guys come and I figured they did not want to carry around a flower print bag. Bag contents: Bath & Body Works hand sanitizers -B&BW Personalized mini SPF bottles- Fellow BDW bride on here! Band aids - Target Pepto Bismal - Target Tylenol - Staples Chapstick - Ocean State Job Lot Granola bars - Target Welcome brochure -Vistaprint Photoshare cards - Vistaprint Map of Aruba - Aruba tourism bureau Mini bottles of Aloe - Ocean State Job Lot 20oz plasic cups with lids- These went over so well! Everyone used them to make drinks. We purchased these from ebay seller Some pics: These labels were bought from a BDW bride! Bought from a BDW bride on here also! Decor: I purchased turquoise table runners and sashes from efavormart.com. They were great quality and very inexpensive! I think they added some beautiful color to the space! Centerpiece with table runner and rum bottle favors we had made for us on the island. The centerpieces are wedding planner did for us: Table numbers and place cards: I got these from etsy seller dazzle0604. I loved the idea of all the different shells to hold the names and when I told her my colors, she was able to do the fonts and table numbers to match! I think these looked great and she was a pleasure to work with! Unfortunately the Aruba wind did not allow these to stand up for long on their own Guest Book: We did a postcard guest book. I framed a sign that I actually got the wording from here. I bought a small box at Michael's to put all the postcards in. The postcards we bought when we got on the island. Sand Ceremony Set: I bought this from an ebay seller. It came three in a set and we etched the main one to say: Marisa & Kevin Unity Until Eternity June 11, 2011. The smaller ones had our names etched on them I think that is everything!! If you have any questions about anything, just let me know! Hope you ladies enjoy it and happy planning

Thanks!!! We flew Jetblue so we were able to check one bag each for free, then we had to check one additional one too. It ended up only costing $30 or $40 to check that bag, so not too bad. I didn't want to risk shipping anything, since I was afraid things would get broken in transit and possibly lost. On the way home, we had way less stuff, so it was just a matter of condensing things. When is your wedding?!

Hi Mmack! I have not done the Kukukunbu bus but I heard it is a blast! I think it would be tons of fun for your bachelorette! I would definitely book that early if you want to do it though because I hear it is pretty popular. As far as dancing goes, there is Senor Frog's on Palm Beach which is always busy and very safe. I think we also went to a little bar on the street that had dancing and played music called SBC. Another club that I know of is called Confessions and that is also on Palm Beach. Pretty much everywhere on the high rise and low rise areas is safe so don't worry about that. In reference to your photographer and The Renaissance, I have not used him or been to a wedding there but I hear it's beautiful. It can sometimes be frustrating to get responses from anyone on the island in a timely manner since they are definitely on "island time" alot there. Just be patient, and trust me..they do tons of weddings and know what they are doing, so it may seem frustrating now but once you get there everything will be amazing! For centerpieces, my wedding planner made me fish bowls filled with sand and shells and a little tea light candle in the middle. This worked because we had the reception under a covered pavilion. If yours will be out in the open, I would definitely go with LED lights since the wind will most likely not keep candles lit. Hope this helps!!

Don't worry I am not leaving anytime soon! Plus I definitely want to hear all about your big day!! Right near and behind The Renaissance there are tons of little shops with souvenirs and things, so we bought some shirts, mugs, magnets etc for some of our friends. We also bought these beautiful oil paintings of different scenes of Aruba to hang in our bathroom. My husband also had to have this HUGE Balashi beer mug ( that is the local beer on the island) to take home. I think he got some type of hot sauce too. It is definitely touristy over there, but you can find some cute things to take home.

Don't worry! You will get it all done...I know you feel, because I felt super overwhelmed at times too, especially around the 2 month mark kinda where you are at, but you will see it will all fall into place Here are some answers for you: We ended up buying the aloe here in the states because we bought mini bottles for our OOT bags and they were only a $1.00 a piece here. I did see some Aloe vendors in Aruba, but it seemed a little pricey. All the items for the OOT bags were bought here before we got there, just because I knew it would be more expensive there and I didn't know what I could get there. We did buy lots of souvenirs and stuff for our house there after the wedding. We got married at 6:30pm, and it wasn't too hot by then. It's very windy in Aruba, so you constantly have those winds coming thru to cool you off. They did not have any shade for the ceremony since it was right on the beach, but they ceremony was only 15 mins long, so it wasn't a long time for anyone to be outside, plus the sun was going down so it wasn't right on anyone. We didn't do fans or anything like that, and everyone seemed just fine. What time is your ceremony? If it is more in the daytime, I would probably recommend a little bit of shade if you think it will run a little long. Believe it or not, I miss all the planning! It was stressful at times, but so much fun! I had such a great time doing everything and I can't believe it is all over. I kinda don't know what to do with myself now...haha! Need any help with your wedding? Oh btw, we stayed at The Westin our 1st night there and it was great! Some of our guests stayed there too. Very nice pool and not as crowded on the beach there.

Thank you so much Tracey!! Your big day is coming up soon too!! What do you have left to do?

Hi Ang, Thank you for the nice comments! Here are my answers to your questions: Did you get married in May or June? How was the weather? - In June, and the weather was pretty hot, but since we had the ceremony and reception at night it had cooled off a bit and had some winds coming through. No rain at all, and I thought it was perfect Did you get ready in the standard rooms? If so, was it tight? - We had a timeshare at La Cabana, but I did reserve the highest level room at The Manchebo for the wedding day/night. It was a beautiful oceanview room and was not too small. We had about 15 people in there at one time and it wasn't overly cramped. I was very happy with the room! Who did your nails, makeup, hair? - Nails I had done before I left for Aruba, hair and make up I brought a friend's sister who is a make up artist and does lots of weddings and photo shoots. She was AMAZING and I am so happy I had her! I do know of a few brides who used some people or spas on the island though. Did you do buffet style and how did the food taste? We did the Cuadarebo Buffet and it was pretty good. It had flank steak, fish and jerk chicken. It also had some different salads and sides and included some desserts as well. It was a ton of food for our group, and overall I was happy with it. I love your wedding favors, where did you get them? The rum bottles are from Palmera Rum factory located on the island. I worked with Ethan who made the label for us and then delivered everything to our hotel. I would be happy to give you his contact info. Did you have a back up plan for inclement weather? The weather is pretty much awesome 99% of the time in Aruba, so I didn't plan for a back up, but we did have the covered pavilion, so if worse came to worse we could have used that for the ceremony too. I was set on getting married on the beach though, so I probably would have made everyone wait until the weather cleared up! How was your DJ? DJ was awesome!! We had DJ Tino who is the owner of the company and I thought he was great! I sent him a playlist ahead of time, and he played pretty much everything we wanted. He was very pleasant and professional. Everyone danced the entire time and it was fabulous! I highly recommend The Manchebo. They were so professional, excellent service and I loved the venue. The beach was beautiful and private, and everyone loved the pavilion. Are you working with Lissy Lampe at all? Have you contacted any other wedding planners? Let me know what else you need and happy planning!! Marisa

Hi Ladies!! We are back from our AMAZING wedding!! Everything was perfect and I could not be happier! I know how stressful and hard it is planning a destination wedding and waiting for days, sometimes weeks to hear anything back, but honestly I would have not done it any other way! We had 30 guests and everyone had a wonderful time. The Manchebo was excellent...the service was amazing, the pavilion was perfect and our wedding planner Lissy Lampe could not have done a better job. We were so thrilled with everything and couldn't stop talking about how happy we were with everything. The weather was HOT but we loved it and spent so much time on the beach. Friday a bunch of us went on a snorkeling cruise for the day called Mi Dushi and it was awesome! I would highly recommend it. I will do a full review for you ladies, but for now here are some of my fav pics: Hope you ladies like them and if you have any questions, please ask away!!

Ahh, so many to choose from but I think this one probably:

Hi ladies! I leave in exactly 9 days!! Just tying up some loose ends and finishing up some stuff. I am so beyond excited!!! I plan to post a planning journal soon so everyone can see what I have done and bringing so far, then when we get back I will definitely do a review. Just heard from another Manchebo bride Seana that her wedding went fantastic so now I feel even more excited Can't wait to be on the beach with all our friends and family!! YAY for our wedding day coming up so soon!!

Everything looked wonderful! Love your BM dresses and all the DIY that you did! Congrats!

When is your wedding? I will have turquoise chair sashes and table runners plus some other decorations after June 18th. I can send pics of what I have if you want to check them out.