Our Aruba Wedding

For our wedding dinner we chose the Marriott’s “International Four Corners Buffet“, the corners being the “Asian Wok”, “Mexican Fiesta”, “Caribbean Warmth” and “Middle Eastern Oasis”. We liked the idea of offering different types of food and loved that they would be willing to swap out one of the corners for Indian food. We chose to swap the Middle Eastern Oasis for the Indian food. They do not have any Indian food on their catering menu but told us they sometimes do Indian weddings and can cook it when they need to. We were a bit skeptical but figured at least there would be three other ‘corners’ if it didn’t turn out great. Ordering something not on the menu seemed like we would be asking for trouble.

Our menu would have Indian, Asian, Mexican and Caribbean. Then a week or two before the wedding, I’m taking another look and realizing there will be several people I know that may not eat any of the food on the menu! (There aren’t many adventurous eaters in my family.) So, at practically the last minute, we asked if we can swap one more corner for what we expected would be a boring but safe “American Corner”. They were very accommodating giving us two entrees, three salads, mashed potatoes and two deserts! (I think they were generous with the American Corner because the Indian corner would be all vegetarian and relatively inexpensive for them to prepare.)

We didn’t get to taste any of the food before the reception so we were just hoping for the best. Does anyone expect great food at a wedding reception anyway? We’ve had few (if any) remarkable meals at receptions, but were expecting the Marriott catering would be above average. We thought it might even be “good” (the menu sounded really different and pretty good). We weren’t prepared for the food to be outstanding! I just left a couple of friends who are still talking about the food saying it was among the best meals they’ve ever had!

My husband and I started with the Indian food and were blown away! It was so good! He had emailed them the list of what he would like to see on the menu and they did a fantastic job. We were afraid they would be too conservative on the spices but they packed some heat into it! We had a couple of people tell us it was some of the best Indian food they had ever had. We both also had some of the red snapper and plantains from the Caribbean Warmth and again – oh my god - so good. We have a 13 year old that ‘doesn’t like fish’ who went back for two servings! And those plantains are amazing. I can’t even describe them but had two helpings!

The “American Corner” ended up being anything but boring as it featured a Beef Tenderloin Carving Station with Chimichurri and Bernaise sauces. I have one guest in particular who’s favorite food is beef tenderloin but he’s super fussy about how it’s prepared and isn’t shy about telling you if its not right. Well I visited with him tonight and he was going on and on about that tenderloin! And this guy – another person that ‘doesn’t eat fish’ actually tried and raved about the red snapper too!

The Four Corners Buffet is surprisingly well priced for the amount of food you get. (I believe it was $60 per person as of October 2009.) Each ‘corner’ comes with salads and / or appetizers, an entree, at least one side and one or more deserts. There is so much food its almost embarrassing. The deserts alone were an impressive display that I wish I had a picture of – all kinds of cute little desert ‘bites’ and ’shots’. The only bad part is that I have yet to talk to anyone that really even got to the deserts because they were so stuffed by the food! As you can see in the picture, there are 6 tables of food set-up. The next morning when my husband and I woke up we were both just wishing we could get our leftovers! I believe the chef’s name is “Francisco” but I’ll have to check on that. (By the way – the lighting is one of our touches – I don’t believe the buffet comes with the lighting under the tables. This lighting was something my husband wanted. I thought might be kind of tacky, but I ended up loving it!)

Like the deserts, I also didn’t hear much on the cake – many people were just too full. They did a beautiful job with the decorating of the cake and we did get that one bite we fed each other when we cut it. The bottom tier was white cake with strawberry filling, the midde was chocolate with chocolate filling and the top tier was carrot cake with cream cheese filling. We had a bite of the bottom tier (white / strawberry) which was ‘ok’. I remember thinking it was a little dry and typical of many wedding cakes I’ve had. Someone did tell me the chocolate tier was really good and I never got around to trying the carrot cake which is what I really wanted. We also had way more cake than we needed so they were going to box up slices of left-over cake for the guests to take with them (would you believe they don’t charge for that?). Well they forgot about that and we also forgot. We had just talked about it but it was never listed in the “BEO” (banquet event order). Three days later we mentioned we wished we had tried the cake and they told us they still had the cake if we wanted it – that they always take the extra cake and put it in the freezer. We said no thanks, but now I do wish we had them get us a couple of pieces so I could know how good the other tiers were. I also wish we had thought to have a slice of each tier sent to our room to enjoy later (though they did have a really tasty surprise waiting for us in the room). 

Cocktail Hour and Drinks: We were so glad we kept the cocktail hour simple offering only drinks and some fruit and cheese. Initially we had planned on also passing three chilled hors d’oeuvres and had considered the crab claw display. At that time we had no idea how generous the buffet would be. We had scaled back purely for budget reasons. We also limited the cocktail hour bar to two ’signature cocktails’, beer, wine and non-alcoholic beverages to control cost and to help keep the party from getting too ‘colorful’ too early. I also hadn’t gotten around to picking out those signature cocktails so the Marriott improvised choosing one orange signature cocktail and one pink – our wedding colors.

The bar at the poolside for dinner and dancing was a full premium bar. And by the way – I’ve also received great comments from the guests about the staff – they loved the bartender and said the servers did a fantastic job, even cheering the the guests on when they were on the dance floor.

Reception Menu: Below is our menu. I’ve put an * by and bolded our favorite items, though hate to say that there are so many courses we didn’t even get to try (like the Mexican food) and most of the salads! I had printed menus which I mounted to bright pink card stock and had given these to the wedding planner. They coordinated with the rest of our materials, featuring the same pink and orange paisley border. The were placed at each guest seat and would help get the guests’ appetites going while they waited for us to make it to the reception (and do our dance, and cut the cake). 

There is only one thing we would change knowing what we know now. We had the dancing poolside, the buffet set-up on the lawn and the dinner tent in between. Two hours into dancing we wanted to surprise our guests with an ice cream sundae station which would have been perfect because it was so hot! Only thing is they set it up over where the rest of the buffet set-up was. We discussed this in the meeting and all thought that was the most logical place for it. Well, DJ Randolph was just doing too good a job rockin’ the party that people didn’t want to leave the dance floor, my husband and I included! At that point I would have loved an ice cream sundae but couldn’t tear myself away. So, if we were to do it again, the surprise ice cream sundae station would still come out at 9:30pm but it would be placed next to the bar! There, I know it would have been ravaged!

Buffet Menu: Below is our menu. I’ve put an * by and bolded our favorite items, though hate to say that there are so many courses we didn’t even get to try (like the Mexican food) and most of the salads! I had printed menus which I mounted to bright pink card stock and had given these to the wedding planner. They coordinated with the rest of our materials, featuring the same pink and orange paisley border. The were placed at each guest seat and would help get the guests’ appetites going while they waited for us to make it to the reception (and do our dance, and cut the cake).

International Four Corners Buffet

A taste of around the World

The American Corner
Potato Salad, Pineapple Cole Slaw Pasta Salad tossed with ranch dressing
USDA Beef Tenderloin* with chimichurri & sauce bernaice
Fried Chicken with Mashed Potato
Chocolate cake bites
Apple pie bites

Caribbean Warmth
Sweet potato & plantain salad with local basil & chili* (this was so good!)
Seafood ceviche marinated in fresh lime with sweet potato & crisp corn
Grilled fresh red snapper* served mango & papaya relish on fragrant couscous & salsa verde Caribbean fried plantains*
Avocado crème Brule with a Key lime & apple salsa
Freshly brewed coffee & specialty teas

Mexican Fiesta
Marinated Jicamica salad with cilantro & roast corn 
Avocado & shrimp ancho chili dressing
Sliced marinated chicken fajitas with sautéed peppers & onions
Soft flour tortillas
Traditional Mexican Toppings Bar Including Shredded Lettuce, Diced Tomatoes, Black Olives, Sour Cream, Shredded Cheese, Fresh Homemade Salsa, & Guacamole
Chocolate jalapeño tort with caramelized banana crisp

Indian Buffet
Appetizer: Pakoras*
Dal Makhani* (Lentil made in rich butter sauce)
Mattar Paneer (Peas and Cottage cheese curry)
Accompanied by Nans (plain and garlic) & Pulao Rice
Gulab Jamun
Freshly brewed coffee & specialty teas

We chose to have our Welcome Party at Marriott’s La Vista restaurant. We had briefly considered Moomba Beach Bar, down the beach as well as renting out one of the Marriott’s “Governor’s Suites”, but La Vista won. Moomba is still a little bit of a walk and while the catering menu is less expensive, it didn’t look very interesting. They also only have outdoor facilities – no indoor back-up. The Governor’s suite just isn’t large enough or properly equipped for a party. It has the same tiny fridge as the rest of the rooms and a small sink, but no other kitchenette amenities. There also isn’t enough seating for 20, let alone 40+. One other location we considered is the Marriott’s Atrium Terrace, an outdoor space outside the lobby bar, but were warned that area can get really hot. Also, if we used the Atrium Terrace we’d have had to pay set-up fees. In the end we decided we’d rather save our money for food and drinks!

We had a couple of conference calls with Desireé, the Marriott’s wedding planner, and Eveline, the manager of La Vista. I’ve mentioned before that I had a lot of fun talking to these ladies! They both have really cute personalities and genuinely seem so happy to help. They make it fun. Given they are both planning weddings I felt like I could relate to them and that they ‘got’ where I was coming from.

Eveline worked with her crew to help us create an appetizer menu which included items that are not on their regular menu. She seemed to enjoy the challenge. One of our favorite items was a Tamarind Margarita as well as a colorful non-alcoholic mango margarita. She also worked with us help figure out how to best use our budget.

The Tasting – Drinks: When we arrived Wednesday, we did a tasting with Eveline, Desireé, the bartender and Corrine, a trainee who is visiting from the Netherlands. The bartender (who we’re told happens to be one of the best on the island – I’ll get his name), started off by offering us the tamarind margarita which was beautifully garnished with this little yellow fruit (can’t remember the name of it) and a lime and served in a martini glass which we loved. As far as I am concerned, the first one was perfect! Nice and tart like a margarita should be. The bartender then suggested trying it a little sweeter which my husband-to-be liked even better! We thought those might go down a little too good though, so we finally settled on one that was in the middle. The mango margarita we loved as is and it was so pretty with its swirl of raspberry puree.

The Tasting – Food: After drinks we moved on to food. The Tandoori Chicken Kabobs with a tangy chili sauce were amazing and made just for us. We think they need to add these to their catering menu! We could have made a meal of them – tender and juicy and the sauce was yummy! And we both really liked the Curried Pumpkin Seed Crusted Shrimp with papaya relish. The Spinach Puffs were not my favorite but he was really happy with them and we’re told they are really popular at Indian functions. They were good but just didn’t have the “wow” the others had. (I have a feeling the marinated vegetable skewers they were going to make special for us would have been better. The chicken kabobs that weren’t on the menu ended up being our favorite item!) The Seared Beef Medallions with pineapple relish and red thai curry were good but we decided instead to switch to the Mini Thai Marinated Beef Kebabs with teriyaki sauce which ended up being a huge hit!

Party Planning: Finally we moved on to planning the party itself. We would be taking over the La Vista bar and were offered the lounge as well. Eveline showed us some great candles she could bring out to add ambiance and asked us if we would like furniture moved. Aside from adding tables for the fruit and cheese displays, we thought the La Vista bar was perfect as is. And while I normally don’t like ‘flameless candles’ the ones Eveline has are beautiful.

Mehndi: The big round table in the corner was great for the henna artist to work. They brought in some extra lighting that let her work comfortable without being intrusive. People were able to gather around that table and sit with Dipti as she was working. Our guests loved Dipti and her henna artistry. Almost everyone got in on the action, even my uncle who had a ‘henna ring’ drawn around his finger and one of my other male friends who had his girlfriends name ‘tatooed’ on is shoulder. Dipti was a real delight and her husband was also a huge help. You could tell he is so proud of her talent.

Running Late: Unfortunately, we were running really late but Eveline kept the party moving. She played the bhangra music we had given her, and not so subtly – the music was really rockin’ when we arrived! She would call to confirm it was ok to move on to serving drinks, starting the music, sending out the food.. We had been delayed because we were assembling the welcome bags that we didn’t get to put together the night before. We wanted the bags waiting in our guests rooms when they returned from the party. (Too many times my husband-to-be was pulled away to attend to his family – he’d run down to do one errand and then get pull in different directions. And the bellman that needed to pick up the bags arrived on ‘Aruba time’.) Luckily, when we arrived everyone seemed to be in really good spirits and having fun! And we think the delay was worth it because they loved the bags!

Things to do differently? The only thing I’m unsure of is the Welcome Party timing. We had planned it from 8:00-10:00pm. We figured guests would have had very little sleep and would be wanting a nap when they got there. We knew they would arrive at the hotel between 3:00-4:00pm. We also weren’t prepared to offer a full meal and wanted them to have time for dinner. Because of the late time a few retired before we were able to get there. Probably 80% hung in til the end though. Should we have had it earlier – 7:00-9:00pm? Maybe. Also, we had ordered personalized chocolate bars for the party and forgot to give them to Eveline when we gave her the bangles and bindis that would be passed out. That wasn’t all bad because we later caught up with guests to give them the bars in person, however some guests were missed. We also ordered extra bars to pass out at work and to send home with his parents so they could pass them out to friends in India.

Why choose La Vista Restaurant for your Welcome Party or Rehearsal Dinner?

1. The people! Eveline and her crew do an outstanding job. They really listen to you and want to make it your party!
2. The food is outstanding! If you want something that isn’t on their menu, just ask – I think you’ll be surprised at what they are willing and able to do.
3. The space – we love the contemporary decor and the vibe of the space. While it is a bar, its non-smoking and has ambience without being too dark and doesn’t need ‘decorating’
4. Cost control - since there are little (if any) set-up charges and no decorating necessary, you get to spend your money on food and drinks!  You determine your budget and decide what you want to serve, yet there is a full bar still available for those that want to order food or drinks on their own tab. We chose to offer a pre-determined amount of margaritas (alcoholic and non), 4 different appetizers, a fruit display, cheese montage and some veggies. Also, the left-over fruit, cheese and veggies were packaged up and held for us to take on our sailing excursion the next day.

Thank you so much to Eveline and the La Vista crew for getting our event off to a great start!

Photos to follow, probably in a separate post…