Hello hello! I know this post is long overdue and hope it will be still be helpful to someone. I’ve finally found our personal photos from our wedding trip to Aruba. I have lots of photos to share and it will take a while to go through them, but here are a few. I’ve chatted with a couple of brides that are struggling to decide which reception site to choose at the Aruba Marriott. The leading contenders for most are the Patio / Terrace and the Pool Deck. (They also use the lawn, the sandy area by the volleyball nets and have the “Atrium Terrace” which is just outside the lobby bar.)

A lot of these photos will seem redundant, but you never know what small detail might catch someone’s eye.

Here I am standing on La Vista Restaurant’s patio, looking out toward the beach. Between the sand and the patio is the terrace / patio that is used for receptions.

I’ve taken a step down onto the patio, and turned to my right to take a picture of the patio itself. To the right is a little low greenery to separate La Vista’s patio from this one. I really wished they had done something to ‘dress up’ the patio. Like maybe some nice potted plants to make it a little lush and more inviting.

Now I’m turned back toward the beach again. To my left is the walkway that takes you to the hotel and the pool. To my right is more of the terrace.

Now I’ve turned 180º and am looking back at La Vista, where I just came from.

Now I’m standing near the middle of the terrace. La Vista is on my left, pool straight ahead and beach to the right. You can kind of see the walkway that guests will use but they will not walk through your space. However you will have people eating dinner next to you on La Vista’s patio.

This is just my ‘postcard shot’ that I included for fun. On this morning there happened to be rain rolling in. There were some really cool clouds and waves at the beach – something you don’t usually see here.

I’m standing now at the edge of the terrace looking at what had been our wedding site. The like to set you up just to the left of that ‘boat rental’ palapa.

I’m sitting and having my breakfast at La Vista. You can’t really see the reception patio because it is two steps down. But, you see there isn’t really that much to separate you from diners. And there really isn’t that much of a ‘view’. Its more than a view than you get off the pool deck, but does it really matter once the sun goes down? We had our ceremony, then guests enjoyed a sunset cocktail hour on the beach before joining us at the reception site. By that time it was dark, so for us, seeing the water from the dinner table was suddenly not important.

Another photo of the ‘wedding site’ between the two sets of palapas. Really, its a lot better than it looks. There is plenty of open space up there.