Aruba wedding location

[knb1223]

Hi everyone! I am new to this and newly engaged.  We are planning on having a destination wedding in Fall 2014 and have decided on Aruba.  My fiance has been there before and said it was great, but I have not yet been there so I am trying to plan through reviews, pictures, and emails.  Based on my research so far we have narrowed it down to the Renaissance, the Westin, or the Marriott Stellaris Resort.  Has anyone recently had a wedding at any of these locations or have any advice on deciding between locations? We will probably have approximately 60-80 people and are trying to keep everything within our budget.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

[brownsugarbride]

Originally Posted by knb1223 

 

Hi everyone! I am new to this and newly engaged.  We are planning on having a destination wedding in Fall 2014 and have decided on Aruba.  My fiance has been there before and said it was great, but I have not yet been there so I am trying to plan through reviews, pictures, and emails.  Based on my research so far we have narrowed it down to the Renaissance, the Westin, or the Marriott Stellaris Resort.  Has anyone recently had a wedding at any of these locations or have any advice on deciding between locations? We will probably have approximately 60-80 people and are trying to keep everything within our budget.  Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

Congratulations to you and your intended, knb!  I have never visited Aruba, but from what my FI tells me, Aruba is a beautiful place. (We are having our event in Riviera Maya.)  Have you checked out some of the reviews yet?  The Westin seems to get good marks from brides, as does the Renaissance.  Something that is really helpful is to chat with a good travel agent, who can give you insights into the different resorts you're looking at.  Lastly, check out the threads for Aruba on the wedding and honeymoon boards---there are likely a few more brides honeymooning in Aruba than having their wedding there.  I hope this helps, and welcome!

[Aruba2014]

I am getting married in Aruba May 2014 at the Marriott.  I did some research on the Renaissance and some on the Hyatt before signing with the Marriott.  I wanted a private beach ceremony because we stayed at the Ocean club this past April and the beach seemed busy, but the Renaissance reviews didn't sit well with me especially with the mosquito's everyone was talking about. (never saw a mosquito on my vacation). The Hyatt was very nice with the oversized Palapa but fell in love once I saw a wedding at the Marriott and their H2Oasis pool. Suddenly, I didn't care if people were going to watch, they can photoshop them out of our pictures. We decided on one of the packages they offered, signed the contract and made the deposit. Today I changed our package as we thought of new ideas, and they were more than happy to change everything for us. I hope more people comment on this thread to see what people have to say.
 

[JnI05]

Congrats to all the Aruba brides!! I'm getting married at the Hyatt in April 2014. My fiance and I visited Aruba last summer and it was beautiful. I did some research before going and we set up appointments with hotels and different venues that I was interested in. We dedicated our second day of vacation visiting these locations. We had about 5 appointments that day starting with Marriott Stellaris Resort (where we were staying). Marriott Stellaris is beautiful. The rooms were very modern and spacious. Our room was located a few steps from their beautiful adult pool, so it was very convenient for us to take a quick dip. We met with the wedding coordinator and was very pleased. We loved that they offered other options for ceremony locations, instead of the beach there was an area on the grass (we originally wanted to stay away from the sand bc it was too messy so we loved this idea). Unfortunately she didn't provide any informational booklets for us to keep. Our next stop was the Hyatt. Walking up to the hotel and standing in their open air lobby left us speechless. This hotel definitely took our breath away. We met with Rosy, the wedding coordinator. She was absolutely professional and well organized. She showed us pictures of recent weddings held at the Hyatt and provided us with three different quotes (for 30, 40 & 50 guests)!! The only thing is that we had to settle for having the ceremony on the beach as this was their only option, but we didn't mind too much. After leaving we knew this was the place for us, so we decided to cancel all other appointments we had for the day. Hyatt is a bit expensive but what you're really paying for is their excellent service. I originally wanted an AI resort to make it more affordable for my guests but my fiance had his mind all made up about Aruba and The Hyatt. Picking a place is the hardest part. I've never been to the Renaissance or Westin, but I can say Marriot Stellaris is a beautiful hotel. Good Luck!!

[trbutler]

Which resorts did you skip?