As we are nearing the end of our Aruba visit, I thought I’d take a moment to tell you how awesome our wedding and reception were. Our original estimate of 20 people grew to 43 which included people coming from as far away as India! (In the picture, right, my dad is walking me down the aisle.)

While there were a few bumps along the way, the final outcome exceeded our expectations. From the minute we got here the Marriott went above and beyond for us.

While I will elaborate in more detail later, for the moment I just want to acknowledge the people that helped us so much. Desiree and Chela were in the lobby to greet us the moment we arrived. We were given a gorgeous suite and were incredibly grateful for the extra space. They have both been awesome to us throughout the process.

Desiree and Eveline helped us throw a wonderful welcome party complete with bhangra music and the best tamarind margaritas. The food was great and they even packaged up and held the extra fruit and cheese for us to take on the sailing excursion the next day.

We privately chartered Mi Dushi for our guests on Friday and everyone has a really great time! The crew was fun without being ‘in our faces’.

The wedding itself was awesome! Luckily we weren’t too bothered the tourists and laughed off the speedos that seemed to try to get in the portrait photos.

The reception was outstanding! No one could believe how good the food was! It far exceeded our expectations! Among other things, the indian food they made for us (something that isn’t on their menu) blew us away!

Edwina did an awesome job with our decor which included a tent she invested in on our behalf. She and has crew worked SO hard for us.

Mark Benson and DJ Randolph did a phenomenal job with the music. Our group was dancing until the end!

The only let down was the Mandara Spa. They were very very nice, but getting hair and makeup right was a challenge. Luckily I had the photographers blessing to wipe a lot of the make-up off and reworked my eyes myself. I think the stylist is a very sweet lady but found it hard to work with someone that didn’t speak English…

Yesterday we did a trash the dress shoot at the ruins and at Eagle Beach which was a lot of fun!

Weather has been perfect the whole time and I think out guests had the time of their lives. Now we have 2 more days to relax and enjoy Aruba!

Thanks to everyone here on the forum for your help and support!