Aruba Marriott Wedding / Reception Site: Pool Deck
February 24, 2010You may already know that we chose to have our reception on the pool deck, with dinner on the lawn. Its really hard to get a good picture of the pool deck. Its much larger than it looks. Here are a few:
Here I am walking from the La Vista Restaurant to the pool. This day they happened to be setting up a tent on the lawn for a corporate event (that wasn’t the tent we used). While this photo really just looks like a crowded mess, you get an idea of how big the pool deck is. Looking center to right, you see rows and rows of chairs. Continue on and there is the tent on the lawn and beyond that is the beach which you can’t really see.
I’m still standing on La Vista’s patio, now looking toward the hotel. As you can see, there is plenty of room on this section of the deck too. You could maybe have dinner tables here or a ‘lounge’ and the party space / dance floor on the rear deck shown in the first photo.
Another side deck / rear deck shot. And these photos show you one of my complaints about the Marriott. They put WAY too many chairs around it. It just look crowded – not nearly as inviting as it could be. They would be better off if they removed 30-40% of those chairs and brought more out as they needed them. We never saw even 20% of the chairs in use.
Here is the view from our room on our wedding day! They’ve started setting up our canopy on the lawn and started to clear the pool deck so they can set up the bar and dance floor. One of the things that makes Aruba Marriott’s pool deck great is that it is lush and green. And the pool lights up at night.
I’m standing back by the pool. This is the ‘view’. Not as much water as you see from the patio / terrace site, but we’re only going to be here after the sun goes down! And load up the grass with tiki torches and you have instant ‘island ambiance’.
Another photo trying to show the depth of the pool deck.
Turning to the right just a little, there’s the pool! Swim up bar is to my right, lawn and beach are to my left.
And here is our wedding setup starting to come together! Canopy is on its way up. To the right you see the white and rattan chairs making it way to our ‘lounge space’. Where you see the long tables to the left of the dance floor is where the bar will be, along with some cocktail tables. Toward the bottom of the photo where you see the row of brown lounge chairs closer to the dance floor is where our DJ will set up and on its way still is plenty of lighting. And our ‘Four Corners’ Buffet is going to take up nearly the whole lawn space on the other side of the canopy. Its quite the impressive spread with one station dedicated just to the deserts. (Following are a couple of my favorite pics.)

Its really tough to visualize the space before you get there. Supposedly there is some ‘event management’ software they have that will sketch out a layout for you, but they do not have the pool deck available in it. When we first met with them I was under the impression we were going to see some sort of CAD drawing or something that would show us our set-up but now I understand its nothing like that. If you have one of these drawings you’d be willing to share, I’d really appreciate it. I have yet to see one. Still, when it comes down to it, you meet with your wedding planner(s) and ‘walk the space’. They’ll give you recommendations of what they think works the best, yet are willing to do pretty much whatever you want.
As far as our set-up / layout, there is one thing we would do different. We surprised our guests with the sliced cake and an ice cream sundae station halfway through the night. They set it up on the other side of the tent where the food had been set up. Well the music was so good that people didn’t want to step away! While some enjoyed the cake and ice cream, I think it would have been enjoyed much more if we had brought it out closer to the dance floor, or maybe better yet, next to the bar.
So, the best advice I can give is to try to not stress out too much about where exactly everything will be. You’ll get there, walk the space, and will know what ‘feels right’.






















We were a little early so we decided to go have lunch by the pool which was quite nice. The resort is “U” shaped with the pool nestled in the middle courtyard. While the pool isn’t terribly large, the pool area is lush with palms and tropical plants providing shade an a real tropical feel that you come to a resort for! And I was pleased to see a swim-up bar. We ordered a grouper sandwich that was great and a couple of fruity cocktails. We really enjoyed being there and had fun watching the iguanas. The only downside I saw to their pool area is that they put WAY TOO MANY lounge chairs around it. The pool wasn’t at all crowded with people and it seems they could have done just as well with half the chairs.

















