risa1818

Brand new, never worn San Patrick A-line gown with a tulle & lace overlay. Size 14 but street size would be 8/10. Cris cross sweetheart neckline. Style is called Portal. Back comes into a beautiful V. It has a detachable cathedral length train, which I did remove but can be reattached. I bought this dress last year at the Running of the Brides here in Boston, but decided to go with a more beachy dress when we changed to a destination wedding. This truly is a beautiful, vintage and classic looking gown. Retails for $1500, selling it for $500 or b/o. Thanks for looking!

Our resort has a wonderful wedding planner who runs an independent company but is the preferred wedding coordinator of some of the resorts. My friend had used her for her wedding and she is really is great! She is very responsive, on top of everything...I love her! She also handles booking everything for you: photographer, flowers, DJ etc. We definitely have a budget and she is great with working with that. Private message me for her information...she is really great! Also, our resort The Manchebo is also great if you are on a budget. Let me know if you want me to send you information. As far as getting a time share, we have one for the week and I think it is definitely worth it. Ours is at La Cabana. If you visit Aruba.com they have a forum there where you can search time shares to rent from the owners for great prices. They may be the best route if you are looking for one. Anything I can help you with just let me know!!

Hi! I am also from MA ...we are getting married at The Manchebo on June 11th. You will love Aruba...it is beautiful and everyone is so nice! Just to let you know, most of the all inclusives are very expensive and depending on if you rent a time share for your honeymoon, they are not worth it in my opinion. There are so many amazing restaurants on the island, and you can easily go to the grocery store and buy snacks, or mixers. I personally would not pay the money for an all inclusive there. Let me know if your TA doesn't work out, because I used a great one who was very helpful with our planning process. Any additional info. on Aruba you need just let me know! Happy planning

My resort is also adding pretty much the same fee on to everything. I also have a wedding planner and she adds 18% to everything as well. I think it is pretty standard with all the resorts and planners down there. I was also wondering about tipping...I feel like my planner who is organizing and booking everything too ( photog, music, flowers, etc) probably has something worked out with those vendors about tipping since we have to pay the service charge on EVERYTHING but I don't really know. I'm not sure if we should tip all these people, even though we already are paying a good amount and what if we are paying more for them since they are being booked by her? Not sure how to handle this either..... AnnCam, any advice on tipping?

Aww thanks!! We are really excited we are just under the 2 month mark so we are getting close! It looks like we will be having around 30 people, all staying in different areas. We have a time share to use for the week but the wedding night we are most likely staying at The Bucuti.

Love the dress your mom made for you!! Everything looks excellent! Where did you get your ceremony flip flops? I definitely need a pair like that for my ceremony!

Love all your cute little touches! Everything looks wonderful!

Tracey I just where your wedding is...sorry, guess I didn't read that throughly! Are you excited? How many guests are you expecting?

Thank you AnnCam for all the great advice! I am happy to see this thread is picking up again...I feel like barely anyone posted on here earlier! Tracey- When and where is your wedding? Mine is June 11th at The Manchebo. So far I am trying to book a place for our welcome/rehearsal dinner and have gotten some quotes from Pinchos, Matthew's and Yemanja Grill. Right now we are thinking of sticking with Matthew's but still not sure as of yet... I have been to Aruba once before for a wedding, so please let me know if I can give you any advice or suggestions! Beautiful pics mmcst! I am glad you loved Aruba

Gorgeous wedding dress!!! Excellent planning thread!

Love this planning thread! Everything looked amazing!

Excellent planning thread!! I love all the cute little touches...the coloring books for the kids are adorable!

I loved all of your cute details! Lovely planning thread and congratulations!!

It sounds like you have things on track...do you need to set up any appts. for when you are there for nails, hair, make up etc? Otherwise, enjoy this planning stage and soon your wedding day will be here!!!

Everything looked amazing!! LOVE your E-ring and wedding band!! I am getting married in Aruba on June 11th and am so excited!

I am an Aruba bride. Getting married on June 11th at the Manchebo Beach Resort. I found it to be great for our budget and love the location! I have pics of the resort and reception pavilion if anyone wants to see them, please PM me

I am interested in the chair sashes! Please let me know if they are available still

Hi Angie its risa1818 from the destination weddings board on the knot I love all of your details! We have the same color scheme too I know your wedding was amazing and can't wait to hear all about it when you get back!! Congrats MRS.!!

Hi Ladies! I have not posted on here for quite some time because I was going through some major issues with my family and the wedding. Basically, my Dad and a few others expressed deep concerns with going to Mexico. I understand this is silly, but they were really pushing it on me to re-think everything. I know what most of you are thinking, this YOUR wedding..which I agree with, but to not be sure if my father would be there and some of my closest friends was really difficult for me to handle. I didn't sleep for a few days, was super stressed out and just really freaking out about everything since we had some people booked, we were booked, photographer booked, etc. It took a while but we finally decided to change the location. This was a very difficult decision but it was really due to people dropping out and my worries that my own father would not be there. It's not always in my favor, but I am the type of person that likes to make othere people happy. I had already had some guilt with knowing that planning a destination wedding meant people who wanted to be there would spend a lot to go and then others would not be able to. I knew that I definitely still wanted to do a destination wedding, so we finally sat down and felt it was in everyone's best interest if we just changed everything to Aruba. I have a lot of mixed feelings. I am sad that we will not be going to The Royal anymore because we were definitely looking forward to it, but I am happy about the new location. I found a great wedding planner who did my friend's wedding there and a beautiful location for the wedding. It is costing a little bit more than what we budgeted for Mexico but we knew that would happen. I am hoping that Kevin and I can go to the Royal PDC for our 1st. aniversary. I just wanted to say that I still stalk this board! I have gotten so many wonderful ideas from you ladies and I love seeing all of your beautiful pictures and amazing details leading up to your wedding. I know all of you will have a gorgeous wedding there! I'm sad that I am not part of the Royal PDC bride family anymore Even though I will still pop on here to see what all of you are up to, good luck with everything to all of you. This is a really wonderful group of ladies and I am so happy I could be a part of it. With many happy marriage blessings, Marisa

Everything looks amazing!!! I love the table numbers and everything!!

Hi! I am also a Manchebo bride! I am getting married on June 11th. Are you using Lissy Lampe as your wedding planner? I had attended a wedding there previously and loved it so I am very excited to go back! Any information you got while you were there would be great! ~Marisa

Hi! While I am not a RIU bride, I am getting married at the Manchebo on June 11, 2011. I am super excited and LOVED Aruba when I first went there and can not wait to go back! My wedding planner is Lissy Lampe who has been planning weddings on the island for years. A close friend of mine used her for her wedding a few years back, and I have a friend who is also using her for her August wedding. So far she has been great! She is arranging basically everything for us...DJ, photographer, flowers, cake etc. I am happy to see a semi recent post on here since I was a Mexico bride for a few months before we made the switch to Aruba and they have so many boards for weddings there but not much for Aruba! Good luck with your planning!

Hello! It seems like it has been some time since anyone has posted on here but I thought I would say hi. I was previously booked to have my wedding in Mexico but due to some family concerns about traveling there we decided to move it to Aruba! It was very stressful to organize everything all over again in a new location but I am confident everyone will love it there. I am getting married at the Manchebo on June 11, 2011. I have been to Aruba once for a wedding and I loved it. It truly is a beautiful island and you definitely feel safe going out and about there. My wedding planner/coordinator is Lissy Lampe who comes highly recommended by 2 of my friends who have used here there. So far she has been excellent with communication and being very specific about what everything. I think we may stay at the Hyatt for a few nights, but not sure if we will be moving to another hotel/resort from there. I also want to try to stay at the Bucuti or Manchebo the night before the wedding so that it is easy for me to get ready from there and then walk down when it is time for the ceremony. I am so excited and can't wait to get some inspiration from this board! Marisa