Our Aruba Wedding

I just received an email from a bride that is considering a Spring 2010 Renaissance Island wedding. Since my experience with Renaissance Island is limited, does anyone out there have any advice or photos you’d like to share with her?

I was able to point her to this Renaissance Wedding Review, and this link to our site visit write-ups, but expect there may be followers with better Ren Island information to share. Have you had or are you planning a Ren Island wedding? Or if you looked into Ren Island and ruled it out, can you tell us why? You can reply as a comment to this post or send me an email. (While posting a comment does require an email address, your email address will not be public.) Either way your privacy will be protected unless you’d like me to pass along your email to her since you two may have plenty to talk about!

In short, we ruled Ren Island out because 1) I am paranoid about mosquitos (though I don’t know how big of a problem this is or if its a problem at all), 2) I didn’t want to be in the sand all night – I needed solid ground for my Jimmy Choos! 3) We didn’t want to stay at their hotels which we felt were dated. 4) I wanted nice clean bathrooms available as well as the ability to be able to sneak back to my room.

That said we definitely recognized what we saw as advantages to a Renaissance Island wedding, number 1) being PRIVACY! Luckily we weren’t bothered by the ‘tourists in the background’ but we’re surprised at how many there were given we were at the northernmost resort on Palm Beach and it was off-season! The music and set-up also drew spectators. Many pictures of us saying our vows have a spectator floating on a raft in the background (luckily I have much experience with Photoshop!). Really I felt kind of flattered by the attention and was able to laugh off the speedos that seemed to be trying to get into our wedding photos. 2) We felt the catering prices were among the most reasonable. And since the Marriott and Renaissance are owned by the same company, I would expect their food is probably really good since the Marriott’s was outstanding! 3) The downtown location is close to more affordable restaurants and plenty of nightlife (though we did feel like that nightlife would best be enjoyed by a ‘younger crowd’) 4) Just the idea of being able to invite everyone to your wedding on a ‘private island’ sounds so romantic and glamorous and will be a ‘once in a lifetime’ experience! Heck – you’re probably heard the superstar Timbaland got married there! (His song, The Way I Are, happens to be one of my favorites!)

I’ve really enjoyed sharing our experiences here on this blog. I continue to receive questions which I still delight in answering. It makes me feel good to think others might be helped by what we went through while planning our Aruba wedding. So, I’d like to dedicate a category of this blog to Questions and Answers. That may mean that you might find your question and answer posted here (in addition to the direct response to your email), though I will of course protect your privacy (your name, wedding date, etc). Of course there will be questions I will be unable to answer, so if you are a local or someone with more extensive knowledge of Aruba and would be willing to field some questions, please let me know. I’d like to have a few trusted, objective sources that can answer questions and share tips that I can not. Emails can be sent to: info@ourarubawedding.com.

Please note that I’m not looking for vendors that want to self-promote. It is of utmost important to protect the integrity of the blog. In many cases I think some of the most valuable information can come from vendors and welcome your tips, though in most cases I do not intend to publish vendor email addresses or websites unless I see something I think really stands out and warrants sharing. Thank you for understanding.