Hello from Amsterdam

[Jeremy_Gilliam]

Welcome to the forum, My wife grew up in Amsterdam, we love it there! Our best friends honeymooned in Aruba and they said it was beautiful! The BDW travel agents (click banner at top of site) may be able to help you with an independent wedding planner that specializes on Aruba. Good luck to you!

[Cassie]

Congrats and welcome to the forum!

[BlakleyBrideToBe]

Congrats and Welcome!

[SDSteph]

Congrats and welcome. This is such a helpful site. Hope to see you around the forum.

[Sascha Gluck Photography]

Hi, welcome to the Forum and good luck with everything....

[*Karla*]

Congrats and Welcome to the Forum! Happy Planning

[shellk]

hi,

happy dw planning

[~Nicole~]

Congrats and to the forum! Good luck and happy planning!

[cjaruba]

Hi there and Welcome! I am getting married in Aruba this fall. We will be working a lot with the hotel's in-house wedding coordinator but may having an independent planner do our decorating. We went for a site visit in May 2009 and met an independent planner who seems wonderful. I've communicated with two other independent event planners that have disappointed me. When it came to negotiating our hotel contract though, I struggled. There wasn't any room for negotiation on the food and beverage but I was hoping to lock in a great room rate. On my own I didn't have much luck but met up with a 'Travel wedding planner' who intervened and got us a much better deal on our rooms.

 

So, it sounds absurd that we may be working with three 'wedding planners', but really there are different types that do different things. Hotel planner is great for organizing things the hotel can provide. There is often no fee or the fees are nominal. Independent decorator is great for picking up where the hotel leaves off. They can often save you the cost of their fees by saving you money with vendors. Travel wedding planner can give you inside scoop on resorts and relay their experiences with different hotels and may be able to negotiate the best deal for you. The one I work with was purely commission based - they saved my guests a lot of money and cost me nothing.

 

If you're considering Aruba and would like to know the planner that we really like and hope to work with, just send me a private message. I don't really want to give names on the forum.

 

Good luck!

[pieke]

Thanks for all the welcomes.

 

CJAruba, thanks for all the details, I will send you a PM for the names.