Our Aruba Wedding

You 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’.

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.

A couple of great real wedding reviews have just been posted to the Aruba.com forum!

• Renaissance Island, October 2009 – Though this  couple brought their own photographer from North Carolina, the bride raves about working with Juney. They also decided to do the civil ceremony at home in NYC – like us they considered that ceremony a ‘formality’.
• Aruba Marriott, November 2009 – Serena raves about several of the same people we did: Desireé (of course! she’s awesome), DJ Mark Benson, Tico the Steel Pan, Dufy (sp?) the bartender, the Marriott’s food! (they had filet mignon & lobster), Bully the Taxi Driver, and Reverend Gibson. She also bride raves about her hair and make-up experience with Knipoog: www.knipoogaruba.com, 297-583-0221. Sure wish I would have known about them! (Here is her Knipoog review.) And she loved her photographer, Victor Winklaar – (I’ve mentioned before when it comes to island photographers, I’ve felt Victor’s work is the best. The photo, right, is uploaded to the post on the forum and links back to that original review.)

Well we went in circles for the rest of the trip trying to figure out what option is the best for us and finally it comes down to the Westin Aruba or the Aruba Marriott. For us this decision is incredibly difficult. Really, we want the wedding and reception at the Westin and want to stay at the Marriott but that’s not practical because the hotels are on opposite ends of Palm Beach. Also, we felt like we’d be able to negotiate a better deal if we kept all of our business in one place.

For the wedding itself, we felt like both resorts were pretty even. The Marriott is the hotel furthest north on Palm Beach and the Westin is almost the last one on the south Palm Beach so we didn’t feel crowds would be a problem on either. Our October date is also considered off season. Neither seemed to be a bad location (or better than the other) in terms of things to do and restaurants, though the Westin would be a little closer to the low-rise area and downtown.

For the reception, we had a lot more confidence in the Westin. We loved, loved, loved their coordinator and were excited about the food. We liked the primary reception space (the terrace) and loved the back-up space, (the ‘gallery’). Unfortunately though the Westin is nice, we didn’t really want to stay there. We wanted the brighter, better decorated rooms and lush pool with the swim-up bar.

We try to ask ourselves, which is more important – the quality of the stay of the guests or our 4 hour party? So many people told us ‘this is about you’, your wedding… guests will just be happy to be there and you need to pick what you want. Well we want our family and friends to get as much enjoyment as possible from the trip. We respect the fact that many of them don’t get to travel much and will be making sacrifices to be able to come to our wedding. And finally we asked ourselves, if we were to go back to Aruba just for vacation, where would we want to stay? That answer was the Aruba Marriott.

So, we moved on to contract negotiations. Would one present a deal that’s so much better the decision will get easier? The Westin was quick to offer a really nice package – they would give our guest all ocean view rooms with breakfast for 2 at a good price.

Initial negotiations with the Marriott were a bit slow. At first their best room price was more than the Westin, didn’t include breakfast and they couldn’t offer ocean view rooms. The difference amounted to around $60 per night. Given that we are paying all expenses for probably a dozen people, that would really add up. Finally, a destination wedding travel agent got involved (this woman is awesome!) She got them to match the breakfast for two and lower the room price to within $10 of the Westin. Room type could not be guaranteed though. We would be offered island, garden or ocean view. Guests would be offered the ‘best available upon checkin’. Given that its off-season in October the manager insisted our guests would be very happy with their rooms.

Sealing the deal was still difficult though. We were still torn between the two. Finally we asked ourselves, if it weren’t for the sales coordinator we met at the Westin – if she weren’t there anymore – would the Westin still be a contender? That answer was finally no. That it was this fantastic woman we were attached to, not the property. There was also the nagging concern about the Westin being at the windiest part of the beach. The independent wedding planner strongly advised against their beach for the ceremony telling us we’d be much happier with an Eagle Beach wedding ceremony. Honestly, I don’t remember it being any windier than anywhere else, but know that’s a complaint I’ve read other places as well. Since we weren’t planning on having videography we just dismissed this during our visit but wondered again about it later.

And don’t get me wrong – the reception locations at the Marriott aren’t BAD. The property is beautiful and they have several options – the beach, a paved patio, the lawn, poolside, the sandy volleyball area… We just wanted something a little more intimate – semi-private. And it was just dinner we were worried about. We liked the beach ceremony area we’d also use for cocktail hour and loved the idea of dancing poolside but wanted dinner to be a bit cozier. Hopefully we can accomplish this with the canopy we have in mind.

Expectation: We were expecting to really like but not fall in love with this property but it sounds like they will work really hard to make us happy.

In our initial research we had ruled out the Aruba Marriott. We had exchanged some emails with them, received their wedding packet and then wanted to schedule and appointment for a Saturday site visit. We were shocked when we were told their office is closed on the weekend! That there wouldn’t be anyone that could meet with us. We figured how can they be effective at running our weekend wedding when they can’t even arrange to have someone show us the place on the weekend?

Well along the way, though an acquaintance, we were referred to a destination wedding planner. This is an organization that specializes in helping you select a resort and arranging your travel. I was skeptical at first but the woman we met through the phone and via email was outstanding! She was eager to help and never applied any pressure. I told her our plan and she insisted that we reconsider the Marriott. She promised the property is gorgeous and everyone she has worked with has been wonderful. After making a call for us, she helped set up an appointment with a manager that was glad to come in and meet with us on her day off. We were really encouraged, enough so that we arranged to spend the second night of our visit on their property.

The Aruba Marriott has just finished a $50 million renovation that is fabulous! Our first impress was that we loved it – the lobby was large and open and very contemporary with a nice bar. The check-in staff was helpful and friendly. We were impressed with our room – theirs are the biggest on the island and ALL rooms have large 100sq ft balconies. They have nice beds, beautiful modern decor, flat panel TVs and brand new bathrooms with double sinks. The biggest downside to the room was that the door to the balcony is a heavy solid glass door that swings out. There isn’t a slider so that you can keep the door open letting fresh air in. On the other hand, the lack of the screen door is probably the reason their room seemed to be the brightest of any of the rooms that we saw.

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.

The woman we met with was right on time and didn’t rush us at all as we were still finishing our lunch. She pulled up a seat and told us to take our time. Then she showed us around the property. The beach was nice and didn’t seem overly crowded. (The fact that the Marriott is the northernmost hotel probably helps.) All in all, we LOVED the resort.

Unfortunately we didn’t love the reception options. You can have the reception on the beach, on the lawn, on a new outdoor ‘patio / terrace’, by the pool or in a ballroom. While the outdoor areas were nice, when we saw photos of how they are typically done up for a reception, we weren’t impressed. They looked so bland. We liked the lawn area but not the way they just stick tables on the lawn and call it good. We wanted something more intimate vs feeling like we’re having an expensive picnic on the lawn. Not only that, but for the back-up location there are ballrooms. Sounds good but we REALLY didn’t like them. They’re pretty ordinary… no windows, no terrace / balcony in front… So now the challenge is how do we personalize the space if we want to be at this resort? Of course they say they can ‘do anything’ but it will cost and the pressure is on us to be creative or hire a good decorator. (They do allow outside vendors for most things other than food and beverage.) And I cringe at that ballroom as my back-up location.

This is going to be an extremely difficult decision. We love the Westin for the wedding but aren’t feeling like we want to stay there. We love the Hyatt for the wedding but they don’t have our preferred date and may be prohibitively expensive for some of our guests. We love the Marriott as a resort but aren’t excited about their reception options…

Conclusion: We really liked the hotel! We like the lobby, pool area and love the rooms. It’s priced in between the Westin and the Hyatt. Unfortunately we are not excited about the reception site options. We especially dislike having only ballrooms as our back-up location in the case of rain. Our last appointment is back at the Renaissance to see their private island – maybe after that visit this will all be more clear.