The search continues… We are looking for ways to make the dinner area more intimate. At the moment we are planning dinner on the lawn between the beach and the pool. (Wedding on beach, dinner on lawn and dancing poolside.) What we do not want is to feel so ‘exposed’ sitting there on the lawn… We do not want to feel like we are having an expensive picnic. There is a walkway surrounding the area that hotel guests will continue to use. While we know we will not get privacy we want the space to somehow be more personal. Our favorite idea so far is to have a bamboo and fabric canopy placed over our two long dining tables.

Unfortunately the Marriott does not have anything like this available and our quest has us talking to three different independent wedding / event planners. The first is the one we met in Aruba during our site visit but she does not have this available. Another is a planner the Marriott suggested since they recently did a similar set up but its been over a week now and I do yet have any sort of quote. The third is someone recommended to us on the Aruba.com message boards but he may not be able to service our date. That contact was also over a week ago and I do not yet know about the date or the price. Initially the quote the Marriott gave us on behalf of an ‘outside vendor’ was more than our dinner would cost which is hard to justify. Even if the cost is lower working directly with the vendor it will likely be significant and affect the rest of our planning. I’m just getting a little anxious to know whether this is something that should remain ‘on the list’ or we should move on to other ideas.

If only Yvonne Design, who’s canopy is pictured, serviced Aruba!