Our Aruba Wedding

One of our favorite tips involved figuring out where to buy (and not to buy) Aruba Aloe products. We were surprised to find that the Aruba Aloe Factory and retail locations were the most expensive places we saw Aruba Aloe Products.

We learned that this is because these are sales intended for tourists! Weeks ago I had emailed the Aruba Aloe Factory directly since I knew they would deliver to the hotel. I asked for a price on 30 4oz tubes of Aruba Aloe After Sun cream that would be purchased and consumed in Aruba and was told they would be $13.75 USD each! At first I thought they were being opportunistic and trying to scam me but then I found out there is a big difference between ‘tourist’ and ‘local’ pricing and the factory will offer you the ‘tourist’ prices.

When we got to Aruba, one of the first things we did was take a trip to the grocery store. I believe it was Super Food where they had the After Sun priced at $8.54 USD each. I breathed a sigh of relief – there was hope that I would still be able to include this in the welcome bags. Luckily I thought I could do even better because I had found the product on Ling & Sons‘ website for $7.10. We went there and sure enough it was $7.10 USD. (When price shopping, always make sure items are priced in US dollars, or at least that you’re comparing the same currencies.)

We went to make our purchase at Ling & Sons to find out that they didn’t have enough in stock. Would you believe that they were then kind enough to call their distributor for us to see if they had enough in stock. They did and priced out that same After Sun product at around $5 each! Not only that, we were welcome to go purchase from this distributor directly! (Our other option was to go to the difference grocery stores to collect enough but that it would be worth our drive to the agency.)

This wholesaler is: Oduber Agencies, Wayaca 33-B, Oranjestad, Aruba. They sold all of the Aruba Aloe products we were interested in, though of course minimum quantities applied. What was that minimum quantity? THREE! We could buy as little as 3 at a time. So, we purchased 24 of the Aruba Aloe After Sun, 6 of the Aruba Aloe Gel Burn Aid, and 3 of the regular green Aloe Vera Gel. Minimum quantities for lip balm are higher (24 or 36 I think), however they happened to have an open case in the office that they allowed us to buy 12 from. I think they may accept cash only – at least we paid cash. They have a walk up window – not a showroom or retail display, but if you know what you want, they could save you a lot of money! And the ladies there were really sweet! Probably 6 of them came out to look at my henna’d hands.

Here is an Aruba Aloe After Sun display we saw in an Aruba Aloe store the following day, priced at $15.25 USD! That’s nearly 3 times what we paid.

Here is the store in the Renaissance Mall, downtown where the above photo was taken:

Oduber is a little tricky to get to and I seem to remember it being out of the way – maybe near the airport?

If you can’t make it there, check out the grocery stores. There are 3 or 4 of them in the same area on your way to the hotels. You’ll see Super Food easily from the street. We liked Ling & Sons the best (its behind the others – you can’t see it from the main drag) – it seemed the newest and brightest and more like where we are used to shopping at home, but a couple of people have said the others may have better prices. In general, we did not find the prices at the grocery store to be too crazy. I’d think of it as shopping downtown in a big city like Chicago. And the bottled water we thought we’d go to Pricesmart for is less than $1 each at the supermarket so we didn’t bother with Pricesmart, a trip we would have had to coordinate with our wedding planner. (Pricesmart is a members only shopping club like Costco.)

One thing I have found really helpful is to join wedding websites that have great photo galleries. Many will let you create a free account. Then when you are browsing photo galleries and see photos you love, add it to ‘your photos’. I had nights where I would spend hours looking at photos, flowers, hair, jewelry, etc. After a while it all blurs together. Then I would go back a week or two later and look just at ‘my photos’. Photos that I remember ‘liking’ were suddenly photos I loved! That’s where my flower inspiration photos came from. My ProjectWedding saved photos. (Here are over 1600 beach wedding photos.) While ProjectWedding has been my favorite I also love StyleMePretty, and I’ve used theKnot. I’m sure there are tons of sites that offer this, in particular, bridal magazine websites.

Just another reminder that the Aruba.com forum has been without a doubt, the most helpful resource to me. In particular, the Weddings and Honeymoons thread. You can learn about hotels, restaurants, vendors, activities, etc. You get the benefit of talking to people that live there as well as regular visitors and couple that have had their wedding or are planning their wedding in Aruba. Another benefit is getting to see questions that you might not even have thought to ask yet! The moderators work hard to see to it that the information on there is as fair and accurate as it can be. Even now as I enter the last days of prep there are people from the forum that continue to provide support.

When selecting a hotel I found TripAdvisor.com to be very helpful! When reading any sort of review, I have a tendency to kind of give less weight to reviews that are extreme, whether it be too angry or too glowing. And be sure to look at reviews for the time of year you plan to be there. Of course there may be things that have changed in a year, like the hotel has been renovated which was true in our case. Doing your homework on a site like TripAdvisor will give you a heads up for concerns you should discuss with the hotel sales person.

Reading through TripAdvisor I did see posts from users that were bothered by late night noise in the Marriott lobby. Others complained about smoke. The hotel is smoke free but the casino isn’t and visitors with rooms above the casino thought that smoke traveled up through the vents. While I don’t know if these are real issues, I’ll tell my guests they may want to request a room away from the lobby and casino.

The other resource that has been a tremendous help is the Aruba.com forum. There you can find out just about anything you want – info on vendors, activities, restaurants, hotels…. There is even an entire section dedicated to Weddings and Honeymoons. You will also find reviews of vendors and even be able to talk to other couples getting married in Aruba. While there are a few people on there that rub me the wrong way most of the people are quite gracious and happy to help. The moderators do a great job and are quick to correct inaccurate posts. You’ll be able to learn about vendors available, though in my opinion the better vendors do not post. They hang back and let their work speak for itself though happy couples. I do have to say the “one post wonders” have a little less credibility for me though… people that never posted a thing until they suddenly decided to “review” their wedding and vendors. Take your time in selecting vendors because the best vendors may not be obvious.

I just stumbled across a tip from a make-up artist about getting married in hot climates – consider an IcyBag! I’m afraid these aren’t glamorous or sexy but am glad I found out about this sooner rather than later! Imagine a 90º wedding ceremony – you’re ok because of the Aruban wind – but you go to re-apply your lipstick only to find that its melted! I’ve actually had this happen before and don’t know why I didn’t think of it til today. An IcyBag is an insulated cosmetic pouch that has freezer pack inserts that will keep your cosmetics cool. I’m so glad I didn’t purchase my wedding purse yet because now I’ll be sure to find one that’s just bigger than my IcyBag. Here is a write-up that was in USA Today, July 23, 2007:

Cool makeup for a hot day. Sweltering temps melting your makeup and firing you up? Chill your temper and your products with an IcyBag, a fully insulated makeup bag with a compartment for two freezable gel packs that last up to four hours. The $14.99 bag sells online at IcyBag.com.

Creator Kathy Cohen came up with the idea five years ago after a makeup meltdown during her outdoor wedding. “I went to reapply my makeup and everything had melted,” she says. ‘” said ‘I can’t be the only one who has gone through this”.

And for those who need more than fresh makeup to perk themselves up at a long outdoor wedding, the bags can also keep mini-liquor bottles refreshingly cool.

Here are a few of my wedding photography tips that I’ve collected from various places…

• Have your make-up professionally done! Make-up that is going to look great in photos is tough to do. I has to be heavier to stay on all day. So many brides have make-up that’s washed out or try to put heavier make-up on by themselves and end up looking clownish.
• CLEAN YOUR ROOM! I’ve read that it drives photographers crazy when they come to take you’re getting ready photos and you have junk splayed from one end of the room to the other. As expected, brides are often in a frenzy trying to get everything done and can easily overlook what a mess the room is. Of course they realize this later when they get the photos back. So, have house-keeping come and make the bed and if necessary just hove the extra stuff in drawers or the closet so its out of your photos. Before reading this tip, I could have been the girl getting ready with diet coke cans (my signature!) and my pajamas in the background!
• Bring a nice hanger - we’ve all seen beautiful pictures of the dress hanging up before its put on, however who wants to see a wire dry cleaning hanger? Take a moment and put the dress on a nice hanger before leaving home. Hopefully the hotel will have a nice one, however some hotels have those hangers you can’t remove from the rod.

Here is something I never thought to ask my resort: “Do you have any construction projects planned during the week of our event?”. Just last week our wedding travel agent forwarded me the following email. Imagine if you are a couple getting married at this Marriott in September.

“The pool area at our Resort will receive a facelift starting August 18th until the end of September, 2009. During this time we will be resurfacing the pool. In addition, the surrounding rock formations will be part of a beautification project. Therefore our pool facilities will be closed for an estimated six weeks.

All guests staying at our Resort from August 18th until the end of September can enjoy the pool facilities at Marriott’s Ocean Club, adjacent to our hotel. This freeform pool features a spacious pool deck, several secluded swimming areas with a very comfortable swim up bar. To snuggle up after your swim, deck chairs are provided for a perfect lounge moment with your favorite book, or to get an afternoon snooze.”

While I have heard that the neighboring pool is fantastic, imagine if you had your heart set on a poolside reception like we are planning? Our reception isn’t until 4 weeks after this renovation is expected to be completed, however I can’t imagine what will happen if the project is delayed and the pool is unavailable during our wedding weekend. (Photo from Marriott website)

I found the Knot Guide to Destination Weddings helpful. While most of the information is stuff you can find on their website, I found it nice to be able to just chill out and flip through this book. After hours and hours of forum posts and other research I didn’t feel like I was getting anywhere. A quick read through this helped me focus, though I have to admit it doesn’t talk about Aruba specifically.

I just learned what may be a good tip. There is a chance we could be using several outside vendors. By “outside” I mean vendors hired directly vs through the hotel. We expect we may have several outside vendors – possibly floral, entertainment and decorating… I’m told that there are a lot of vendors that don’t accept credit cards. Also, they won’t be able to accept your check! Chances are they can’t cash it on the island since it is another country. So, check with any and all vendors ahead of time to find out if you will need to pay them in cash (or maybe traveler’s checks?).