katie2012

Nicole, Congratulations on your engagement! I had a great experience with our photographer in Aruba, Crooze Photography. PM me if you want to chat about it. Katie

We met on chemistry.com. I was trying to cancel my membership because I was tired of meeting guys that weren't true to their profile. He emailed me the day after I thought I had cancelled it, and I decided to give this one last guy a try. On our first real date I had decided to relocate to 2 hrs away for work. He helped me move, and kept coming to visit. Four years later (one year ago) he proposed. We're now happy newlyweds!

20 people is a great size wedding! And you'll be so happy with not skimping on your photographer. If everyone gets along and its likely you will be eating other meals as large groups, you might be okay skipping the rehearsal dinner. If your side or his side is likely to split off an do their own thing, or get into fights about how to split a bill, you might be better of having that other time where everyone is together and you don't have to decide who you are going to split off with. I found that my parents were ready to go off an do their own thing and I had to remind them that my brother might want to eat with them since his girlfriend wasn't there. Or my brother came with us when we ate with my husband's dad's side of the family. Or one night we ate out with all the parents (his parents are divorced).

The actual cost of my wedding... Legal and Beach ceremony with Celebrations and Ceremonies (Lissy Lampe) on Eagle Beach $3314 Reception at Passions on the beach (20 people) $2207 Photographer (8 hrs including TTD + all images on a DVD) $2850 Printing photo books (Mypublisher.com) $500 Wedding favors (Rum Palmera) $105 Wedding attire (950 my dresses + 120 alterations + 500 jewelry + 300 his attire) $1870 Rings $1500 Rehearsal dinner at Pinchos $1695 Sunset cruise with Red Sail sports (16 people) $900 Hotel (Amsterdam Manor) 1 bedroom suite for 10 nights $2346 Air (round trip first class) $2226 NO AHR due to too much stress trying to plan a second event! So we splurged on a few things (rings, jewelry air, photographer) and you could certainly have a very nice wedding for less than $19,533.... we were very fortunate to start out with a budget goal (not including rehearsal dinner, sunset cruise, air or hotel) of 15k, which we were under. We had a great time.

Jenny Yoo Talia #110B On the model and me on my wedding day(with my dad) and during our TTD shoot (with my husband). (IMHO the model is too skinny. Thanks to Crooze photography for the photos of me.)

I wore this jcrew dress (Macie, style #65118) at my legal ceremony. I wound up wearing flat sandals with it because I broke a toe and couldn't bear wearing heels. I loved having two different dresses, and my husband had two different shirts/ties for our two ceremonies (legal & beach).

Hi Donna, Congratulations on your engagement. We've now been to Aruba twice (once on vacation, once to get married). If you want the fully island experience we had a great all day jeep tour with ABC Tours http://abc-aruba.com/. We also enjoyed snorkeling with the jolly pirates and sailing with red sail sports. I don't know if you've ridden the busses on the island before, but they're not air conditioned. And most of them from the resorts stop at a bus depot downtown. It's a good half mile hike from there to the town house unless you transfer busses. We waited over half an hour for a bus a few times too. I dare say that on your wedding day you might want to take a cab ($10-15) there and if you're really dedicated to riding the bus, taking it home. We worked with Cassandra and Marc Crooze as our photographers and couldn't have been happier with their work. http://www.croozephotography.com/ The only pitfall I can think of is that it took over 2 months to receive our actual marriage certificate (it gets translated and an aposophille) so I'm constantly explaining to people why my name hasn't changed. I'm still waiting for social security to send me a new card... Katie

I bought this without reading the "white" part from ruelala earlier this year and did not wind up wearing it for my wedding, since my gown was ivory. Paid $70 (expensive mistake on my part), just looking to make some of it back. I didn't wear it so these photos are the designer's.

Congratulations on your engagement! We got married at Amsterdam Manor last month and we had a great time! We haven't stayed at the RIU or Occidental, but you might be able to hear about some other brides on the arbua.com forum. On another note, we were legally married in Aruba and we really enjoyed that part of the day. Good luck and happy planning! Katie

Sorry to hear about your experience with Jason. He seems to dominate the aruba.com forum. I hope you had fun in Aruba anyways! For any future brides reading this, we worked with Cassandra and Marc Crooze and found them to be very professional. So far we're happy with the facebook pics (it has only been 4 days since our wedding so we only have a few teasers). We used Lissy Lampe as our coordinator and everyone was early/on time for their services (bus, car, hair/makeup, etc.) besides the officiant at "town hall."

Congratulations on your engagement! We started by narrowing down the time frame we were looking to get married. Then I started looking into how much work it would take to get married in different locations, weather, and ease of travel. Are you looking for a beach? Or city? Or nature? Thinking about how you want to experience your day should help to narrow down what you're looking for! Good luck! (We picked Aruba because we wanted beach, there are plenty of direct flights for most of our family to pick from, and our time frame was during hurricane season for the Caribbean)