I’ve been asked recently if we are going to have a ‘legal’ wedding in Aruba. We looked into it and finally decided against it. There is extra cost and hassle and you HAVE to get married in their “Civil Town House”. After the town house wedding, you can then later have a religious wedding or blessing on the beach. We want a Saturday wedding and the town house is only available in the late morning and has an additional charge. So, not only is there more hassle than we want to go through, but I don’t really want to get married in the morning and then wait around for my evening / sunset reception.

So what we are doing is a private civil ceremony in the states and then a ‘renewal of vows’ type of ceremony on the beach in Aruba. As far as guests will know, that will be the official wedding. It will also allow them to spend most of the day enjoying the island instead of having our activities consume so much of it. We decided we wanted to keep things as simple as possible and have more money to spend on the party!

If you do want the legal wedding, everything I’ve read has said that the Civil Town House is really adorable. Very charming and quaint. Having a wedding in the morning and a reception in the evening also makes it easier to justify a ‘wedding dress’ and ‘reception dress’. =)

Here you can find Aruba’s legal marriage requirements»