Our Aruba Wedding

Site Visit – Manchebo Pavilion

May 15, 2009

Our expectation: Somehow I was not expecting to like this venue. I had seen several pictures of different types of set-ups done in this area. They just didn’t excite me.

After our disappointing Bucuti site visit we went to meet and independent wedding planner at the Manchebo and are glad to say she was absolutely wonderful! We received the warmest greeting from her and her assistant even though we were late. (She told us not to worry – that we were on “Aruba Time”.)

The first property she showed us was the Manchebo Pavilion and we have to say that we were impressed. While I wasn’t excited by what I had seen in photos but in person we could see its charm and potential. We could see ourselves having the ceremony on their beach, moving back a little for a sunset cocktail hour on the beach near the palapas and finally having dinner and dancing in the pavilion. We liked that the pavilion is open air but will offer shelter in the case of rain. And we just happened to be there during sunset which was stunning!

One drawback for us were that we expected to book our rooms at one of the high-rise hotels and we weren’t sure we wanted the hassle of figuring out how to get guests back and forth. Another is we were unsure of how good the food was going to be since the planner hadn’t had their food in over a year.

Conclusion: We will keep this ‘on the list’. It is a beautiful site that definitely feels tropical! It will need some decoration but we have a lot of options. Still, we are not sure we want to have to transport guests and need to know the food will be exceptional.