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.)

I arrived back home today to have my 50 can koozies waiting for me; both the custom and plain ones. How cute are the custom ones all packages up and tied with a ribbon?!? And Stacey really got these put together and in the mail fast! They are pink and orange and an assortment of patterns. My photo is bad since its just an iPhone photo.

So now the question though – is my need for better insulating foam koozies going to haunt me? Should I have purchased flat? (I don’t think so.) Or should I have purchased them down there? Maybe… we’ll see. For now I’m really happy with them because they are SO cute! As it is now, I think what you see on the table will fit in the one duffel. At least I hope… I should found out soon. And it shouldn’t be too heavy.

I also finally unpacked the box of lanterns I have. Luckily none are broken. Pictured is 10 of the 25 we will be bringing with us. If all goes well, the hubby can pack those.

As you may have read, I’m nearing the end of what I can bring from home for the welcome bags. “Extra Baggage” and “Overweight Baggage” charges are so outrageous that I don’t want to take any chances – its just not worth it. So, now I have to again think through want I can buy down there.

At the moment the items I plan to include for sure are:

• Freshly baked Dutch cookies (our wedding planner is going to get these for us from someone who will have made them fresh that day)
• Postcards: We’re going to include 1 or 2 postcards guests can send home as well as another postcard stamped and addressed to us with a note asking them to please jot down their favorite memory from the weekend and drop it in the mail. We will later include these in a scrapbook of the wedding
• Bottled Water: Planning to include 2 bottles of water (Awa) per person
• Beer / Wine / Liquor: I plan to include some sort of ‘libation’ for my closest friends that love to party!

I thought there were a couple more items on the above list so I’ll update this post when I remember them! I want to make sure I have some sweet and some salty snacks and am hoping to figure that out at PriceSmart. Its the worst when you are in the room late at night, hungry and confronted by that minibar!

Items that are on the “maybe” list:

• Cheese and Crackers: I’m hoping to maybe find some mini cheeses and crackers from the grocery store – one big benefit of the Marriott is that there are refrigerators in all the rooms
• Aruba Aloe: I actually have a decent amount of money budgeted to purchase some Aruba Aloe products. The plan is a full size After Sun lotion in each bag (30) and probably some lip balm with SPF. (I had purchase some lip balm from Drugstore.com but our guest list has since grown.) I was also planning to buy maybe 6-8 assorted ‘burn’ products like their Aloe Gel since I can already name like 4 or 5 people that I know are going to get sunburned! I was going to place my order though the factory store and have them deliver it to the hotel but am having second thoughts so stay tuned on that one.
• Cigars: thinking about maybe including some cigars for some of my boys since I have other extras for the ladies

One thing I wondered is if Aruba has a Costco. (My fiancé and I are Costco junkies!) Well they don’t have Costco but they do have something similar called PriceSmart. I had looked into it months ago and read something that said non-members could shop there but would pay like 10% more. I just revisited the site though and it is saying you have to be a member. OR – be with a member! Yet another benefit to having a local wedding planner or be friends with a local. If you don’t have either, membership is only $31 though I do not know if you need to be a resident to get a membership. Like Costco they have things like electronics but they also have some food items. Here is their current flyer (that is current as of the date of this post). I have a feeling we’ll be buying the Oreo’s for the welcome bags!

Well, I didn’t get the CDs done today. I was out running around all day and would you believe I forgot to buy CDs? (Or maybe it was subconscious procrastination.) BUT, I did do one thing I think is important! I started thinking through packing for Aruba. I laid out some of the goodies I intend to bring with me. Talk about a wake-up call!

My initial plan: 2 checked bags (large duffels), one for welcome bag items and one for my clothes etc – enough for a week! Then there is the carry-on bag and the personal item. The personal item is (hopefully) going to be my dress and then in the carry-on will be my purse, computer, bridal accessories, shoes, make-up and the most important clothing like my welcome party outfit. We also have 25 small lanterns for the tables that will take up much of my fiancé’s checked bag space, so I’m not really going to be able to count on him for my overflow. So, now I’m trying to take inventory and figure out how practical this plan is and see if I need to do any ‘editing’. (At the moment, the charge for a third bag is $200!)

The Welcome Bags – all along I’ve been planning that I’ll bring some of the items for the welcome bags with me and purchase other items in Aruba. We make it to Aruba only 24 hours before our guests so I figure the more I can bring with me the better. Also, there’s that neurotic part of me that want to know exactly what I’m getting — I want to see it, touch it… Well, it looks like I may just have to let go of some more control. While its amazing how much you can stuff into those big duffels, you have to be mindful of weight (go over 50 by even 1lb and pay and additional $150!).

Here’s what I have so far:

• The bags themselves - 30 totes; they are pretty small but 30 does add up
• 27 packable straw visors for the ladies
• 40 CD cases (though they don’t have CDs in them yet and could take up more space if I decide to embellish them)

As you can see in the picture I’m sure my duffel is at least half full by now. And there are still a few of things I want to add:

• Paper Items - luckily this stuff shouldn’t take up too much space: favor labels, welcome bag hang tags, welcome letters, itinerary
• Can koozies – In total I’ll have around 50 koozies. I just recieved an email today that the custom koozies are on their way. Also, I expect to receive the plain ones early this week. Thing is, I wanted the foam koozies that aren’t going to fold up. I just don’t like those folding ones. They seem cheap to me and don’t insulate as well. In the picture is one – multiply that by 50!
• Fudge – one thing I want to bring is a treat from Michigan since there will be people coming from all over and what’s more perfect than Mackinac Island Fudge?! Also, this is a favorite treat of one of my finacé’s sons, so its kind of like adding something that’s ‘from him’. And I just found out that fudge doesn’t melt! I didn’t know that! The plan was around 1/2 lb per bag, (1/4 lb each of two different flavors), but that means 15 lbs. So, its really important that I get to packing to find out if I need to scale back the quantity. I plan to purchase fresh fudge the day before we leave but am going out their next weekend to see the packaging and figure out how much space I’ll really need.

At the moment, it looks like I should be able to pack what I have so far but I have to be really careful with any add-ons. Like I’m thinking bridesmaid gifts may have to be gift certificates or spa treatments! I don’t have much time to make my Aruba purchases, but that’s another advantage to having the help of a wedding planner! They can help collect items for you and have them ready and waiting.

I once went to a seminar (Dale Carnegie I think it was), that gave the advice, “swallow the big frogs first”. By that she meant tackle the tasks you’re dreading the most. The rest will seem easier without the dreaded task(s) looming. Good advice I thought, but can’t say I’m good about following it. I am a major procrastinator! (Like last night I spent hours just looking for Trash the Dress inspiration even though there are much more important things I should have been working on.) So what looming tasks am I dreading?

Well one will be the making of the wedding CDs! I still love the idea and have a nice little collection of music going. I need to pick the songs that will go on the CD and still am wishing I had some more Aruba inspired music. The DJ gave me a few ideas that will hopefully help. I have this memory of walking downtown and there was all this fun fun music pouring out of the clubs! Reggaetone and other latin and blended music. You just wanted to start dancing! And I’m wondering what kind of music they play on the sailing excursion. The Mi Dushi sells a CD (called Mi Dushi I think). I would have loved to have been able to get a copy of the CD or even the list of songs, but don’t think that’s going to happen. I may ask one more time for the list, but really, I need to get to work on this (I asked for a list last weekend). All I reallly want is maybe 2 songs that will take people back to that sail! And what is the ‘Aruba Carnival’ music like? Maybe there’s some samba? Where would I even begin without being there.

Once the songs are selected, I need to do some more work on the CD label. What I have will work if I need it to, but I still think I can do better. And then there is designing the CD case. I found some cute plain white cardboard CD sleeves for like 40¢ each. Its one of those things that could be a fun project but getting started is hard. I’m just not terribly creative. (There’s a very good reason my career transitioned from graphic design to web development!)

Finally, along with the CD cases, I should go ahead and do the favor tags and stickers. Another one of those things that should be easy but like almost everything else, I make it more complicated than it needs to be!

Another thing I really need to get done is selecting my fruity ’signature cocktails’. Unfortunately we didn’t get to party in Aruba so I didn’t get to find out of there are any great local drinks. So, I just need to focus on finding something fruity and tropical (and not too heavy on the booze). If you have ideas, please share! They will be served for our cocktail hour on the beach.

– Oh, and that reminds me! One thing we are bummed out about for the reception — all glasses have to be PLASTIC! Even your champagne toast is done in a plastic glass. How tacky is that? But I guess it does make sense — guests walk around there barefoot. If something breaks they’d have a heck of a time getting all the pieces. And if the party is good enough you can pretty much bet at least one glass will get broken. So yes, I totally understand, but what a bummer. I don’t know yet if these are super cheap disposble plastic glasses or at least nicer reusable acrylic picnic glasses.

Anyway – I’m going to head out and buy the CDs as well as a couple of other errands. Shout out to the new brides I met this week! In particular the one who has not yet decided on Aruba (but hopefully will after visiting in January). Don’t let anything in my rants scare you off — please know that I’m super fussy and a little high strung and a bit of a control freak. As I said – I make everything harder than it has to be – just my personality. And my guy even KNOWS about this tendency! Anyway — my best advice is to try to just relax and have fun with it. Pick good vendors and then trust them to do a good job for you. And try to not get caught up in what you can’t have because there is plenty that you can have! I know I have a couple of emails to get to and promise to do so after I swallow at least one frog!

I’m glad to say that the custom koozies I wanted for the welcome bags has survived the latest round of ‘budget review’. We did have to make a compromise though. Since our guest list has grown from 30-35 to what may now be 50, we decided on custom koozies for the ladies and the guys will just get a plain foam koozie – sorry guys. They also have custom sippy cups so I’m getting the little girls sippy cups that will match their mom’s koozie. (I wish I had it in the budget to do some of these monogrammed zebra koozies for me and the bridesmaids – how cute are they!?! I hope they don’t mind me using their picture, left.)

Stacey of Pink Gasoline, has been wonderful at accommodating us at this late date! I contacted her over the weekend, finally ready to move forward and she already has the koozies ready to ship! We’ll be getting an assortment of patterns that fit with our orange and pink theme.

I wish I had more money to spend right now because they also have some other really cute items that would make great bridesmaid gifts. Check out this super cute black and white damask bag with pink lining and this fun colorful beach tote.

They made it! Our Ailana Kai Lauhala Totes are here! I sent in the order on Tuesday, October 6th. Wednesday they verified the order and sent me the delivery confirmation number. They were shipped USPS Priority and are here this morning, all the way from Honolulu! If you can get past the fact that the website is dated and doesn’t take online payment, they are great to work with.

Here is my first pass at creating a CD label for the CDs I plan to put in the guests’ welcome bags. My idea is to include music that will help them remember the trip. In particular it will include some bhangra music many won’t be familiar with. I’m also hoping to include some “Island” music. I’m still waiting for the DJ to get me a list of music he’s likely to play – music the guests are not likely to hear on the radio at home. I’m looking for some latin / caribbean / reggaetone, etc. (He did send me one list, but it was mostly typical Top 40 we’re hearing on the radio right now.) If I am unable to get a list from the DJ, I know the Mi Dushi has a CD they sell. Maybe I’ll be able to get a list of songs from it. Too bad I don’t have time to have the CD mailed to me, because that might be even better – memories of the reception and memories of the sail.

For the moment, I’m using the famous divi divi tree and our wedding color – pink. I also found a starfish to overlay. Really, I’m thinking I should have some sort of Indian element on there but I’m not sure what it should be. The text right now is just ‘lorum ipsum’ since I’m still working on the design. Not sure its what I want yet, but at least its ’something’! I have a tendency to want to come up with the ‘perfect’ design and end up with nothing, so at least I have a start.

I am breathing a sigh of relief as Ailana Kai has just gotten in more of my Lauhala Palm Leaf Tote Bags! Yesterday I was able to place my order. I want to tell you that if you think you might be interested in ordering these bags, don’t put it off like I did! I tried to place my order 6 weeks out only to find out they were sold out and on backorder with no ETA. Now, three weeks before we leave they are on their way.

Why did I want these bags so bad!?! Well, for one they fit the ‘island’ them so well with the woven palm leaves. Second, I think they are sophisticated and really well made – sturdier than I expected. When you fill them they will stand up nicely for you and they ship flat so they’re easy to bring with you to Aruba. And best of all, they are CHEAP, like $3.75 each! On the downside, they are a little smaller than I wanted – they are 10″x12″x4″. That’s not all bad though, because it means less items needed to fill them and I can put in fewer, nicer items instead of a bunch of junk. I wasn’t planning on putting in anything big anyway – no t-shirts or beach towels. When I am ready to actually assemble the bags, I’ll try to take pictures and list the contents so you have an idea of how much they can hold.

You may have seen similar bags on Bliss Weddings Market website – I was first planning on purchasing these but they have been out of stock for months (backordered til 2010): Palm Shoulder Bags. It was when I was trying to find a replacement for those that I happened upon Ailana Kai. The Bliss bags cost nearly twice as much as the ones I purchased ($6.99 vs $3.75) and I’ve talked to two different brides who had placed orders for the bliss bags only to return them and order the Ailana Kai bags instead. Both said the Ailana Kai bags were much better quality. (Here’s a thread on bestdestinationwedding.com, IrieBride08 bought and returned them. There also used to be a similar thread on Aruba.com by “Gigi” which seems to be gone now. Also gone seems to be her review of her wedding in which she said she was very disappointed in her wedding planner and her wedding venue. Somehow her positive review of her photographer seems to have remained though. Gigi is also now listed as “banned” so I cannot contact her. Maybe she was banned and her reviews were removed for a good reason. There was someone causing trouble on the forum – someone unfairly slandering those she worked with. I hate to think she was behind the trouble but the moderators have ways of figuring out when people are up to no good.

Anyway — sorry to digress. I do have to admit that ordering from Ailana Kai is a bit of a hassle. They do not have online payment which is disappointing and the old iframe website set-up is not very user friendly. They have a crude online HTML form you can fill out and then print and fax, or you can call them. And they are in Hawaii so there is a significant time zone change. Had I not have read the other reviews I wouldn’t have bothered since the website doesn’t scream ‘professional’. Email communications with them can be a little slow but nice (love the whole “Aloha” and “Mahalo”), but the bags are worth it and even though they come from Hawaii they get here pretty fast. Shipping can add up though – for 30 bags I’ll pay about $30 (still keeps my bags under $5 each), and they’re sent USPS Priority so they should be here in about 3 days.

I do believe there are plenty of totes you can purchase in Aruba and think they are even pretty affordable. Those may even make a nicer ‘keepsake’ and/or beach bag, especially if they are decorated. For me though, the bags was something I just needed to have in my hand… I like that I can start stuffing them here, maybe add decorative personal touches and have a better idea of just how many additional items I should plan to purchase in Aruba. I want to be sure I don’t go overboard and buy too much, as well as make sure the bag contents aren’t skimpy.

(Note: though I read bad reviews about the Bliss Palm Shoulder Bags, I did order and receive cardboard CD sleeves from Bliss and love them! I’m making CDs for all of my guests and wanted plain white sleeves I could decorate myself.)

Ad: Discount wedding favors from Ann's Bridal Bargains. Shop online now.

Seems like I’m getting bad news after bad news lately. The latest, today I went to order my palm leaf welcome bags and they are out of stock! I’m still waiting to hear when they’re expected to be in again. So now what? How long to I wait for these to come back in stock? Wedding is in just over 6 weeks! What is so special about these bags? They great quality, ship flat, will stay standing when we fill them and they’re cheap!

Then a little good news / bad news… Yesterday our invitations came – YAY! They are super cute. Only she didn’t confirm whether I wanted boxes and / or padded envelopes for them before shipping them. (I had been trying to decide which way to go – they have shells glued to them so I need more than the regular envelope.) I also had her address them, but had expected she would addressed the outer package. Well she runs the envelopes through the laser printer – that’s it. No addressing of boxes or padded envelopes. So now I have addressed regular envelopes that do me no good and am waiting for boxes. Also I now have another task I thought was going to be done for me. (Yes, I know its bad etiquette to have addresses printed, but as you can see, I’m totally out of time for calligraphy and have really horrible handwriting – just when I think my handwriting can’t get worse I manage to outdo myself.)

I have to admit that I was NOT organized on the invitations so I can’t whine too much. It took us weeks to get her the count since we’ve had other problems here at home. And, I should have made a decision earlier about boxes / envelopes but was kind of expecting the designer to have a strong opinion and just tell me what I should do. Oh well — its not like its a surprise – the wedding website has been up since January and its not like a paper invitation is going to help people decide whether or not they want to fly thousands of miles to be part of our wedding.