Alternative to High Rises for Weddings

[gaby]

I was wondering if anyone can give me their review on other options in the high rise area for a destination wedding. my beautiful stepdaughter is thinking of aruba and i want to help her out as much as possible. if anyone can give me some off forum advice (i don't want to take up too much here although others might be interested), please pm me. for instance, she wants the ceremony on the beach and the wedding on the beach, not in a private room. also, ideas on approximate costs. i told her it would be alot cheaper than getting married here in NJ at a place. they don't want a big wedding, maybe 30 or 40 people. this will be my 2nd year in aruba so i am far from an expert. the Riu is out based on some comments I read. How about the Hyatt or Radisson or Occidental. I'm not sure what else is there...

[gaby]

one other thing, if you did get married at the Renaissance Island, do you have to stay there? She wants to stay in the high rise area, they're young and they want all the hustle & bustle of that area and the fact you can walk around there and there's alot happening. we could always worry about transportation for that one day but I wasn't sure if you needed to stay there, which they don't want to do...

[LanSas_UK]

Originally Posted by gaby

one other thing, if you did get married at the Renaissance Island, do you have to stay there? She wants to stay in the high rise area, they're young and they want all the hustle & bustle of that area and the fact you can walk around there and there's alot happening. we could always worry about transportation for that one day but I wasn't sure if you needed to stay there, which they don't want to do...

Hello! In retrospect, you don't have to stay at the Renaissance to get married there. We stayed there, and we could have stayed at the Westin, which I think is a nicer hotel. But there is no doubt in mind, the most beautiful place to get married in Aruba is on Renaissance Island at the Flamingo Beach.

The two most important emails you'll need for your destination wedding in Aruba are, rjones@arubarenaissance.com and info@jasonmargarita.com, and Jason can put you in contact with a local stylist and make-up artist called, Alan and he's the best! For transportation De Palm Tours or another company called Fofoti. And I'll PM you the pricing's we got from different hotels.

Sas.

[gaby]

thank you, i appreciate that

[Arubalisa]

Rather than piggybacking, we'll give this its own thread

http://www.aruba.com/specialvacation...oneymoons.aspx

Wedding Planners

Wedding Brochure

For a private wedding Renaissance Island
http://www.aruba.com/forum/tags/wedd...naissance.html

Info here on Low rise alternatives
http://www.aruba.com/forum/tags/wedd...m%20manor.html

http://www.aruba.com/forum/tags/wedding%20bucuti.html

http://www.aruba.com/forum/tags/wedding%20divi.html

Most all resorts offer wedding packages of some sort or other

I would get a map with the names of each resort, with the area south of Palm beach, beginning at the Amsterdam Manor, and do an internet search for specific wedding info at each resort. It is a lot of work but hopefully your research will pay off and you will see all available options, other than just those suggested here.

Some low rise resorts offering weddings off the top of my head:
Amsterdam Manor Beach Resort
Bucuti Beach Resort Aruba & Tara Beach Suites
Manchebo Beach Resort & Spa
Renaissance Aruba Resort & Casino

One available map
http://www.aruba.com/traveltoaruba/maps.aspx

Click on the map and then select accommodations
Use the + sign to enlarge the map
Your cursor will appear as a hand, use the hand to navigate to specific areas on the map
Each resort is denoted by the initials "AC"

[sam5711]

I just returned from my wedding at Manchebo Beach. It is in the low rises so Im not sure if that is something your interested in hearing about. I loved the privacy of the low rise hotels though. Our guests really enjoyed in because we could take over the entire beach all day and not have to fight fot huts or worry about distracting others then at night we would take the bus down to the high rises. PM me if you have any questions!

[Angela Munzenhofer]

Hello and congrats, I understand your stepdaughters request for high rise. You have chosen two resorts that are very good, My favorite is Radisson Resort, My sister in law was married there, I was married there and about 500 of my brides in the last 4 years. The beach is sensational, I should one of the best... Lisa Dammerman the coordinator is top of the line at what she does best (creating your dream wedding) and the lush gardens, waterfalls and friendly staff make it impossible to say no to it. Great prices on blocked rooms.
Renaissance is a very nice place to have a wedding but if you are staying at high rise why pay for a bus to transport your guests. You have to take a boat ride 15 minutes and now you are off the budget...
Occidental has a new coordinator so cannot comment and RIU is way out of control when it comes to an elegant wedding because they marry the couples in the mid day, sweaty and hot and tons of people all around, Gorgeous place but not for a wedding and thats the truth...

[Andrea J.]

welcome back angela.
we haven't seen your posts in eons!
hope all is well :-)

[Jason_Margarita]

Hello Ms. Munzenhofer, I'd like to update you of the following...

Renaissance provides charted transport for your whole wedding party upon request at no extra charge to transport your wedding party to the marina, and the 15 minutes boat ride does not cost anything, and the average cost of a wedding on Renaissance Island is the same as any other hotel on the Island. And fyi. the boat ride is exhilarating and fun, and makes for amazing cinematography and photography, and the privacy achieved on the Island cannot be found anywhere else.

RIU Palace, has modified a lot of their wedding services, and at the principal gazebo or the beach arch/gazebo everyone close and around of the wedding is graciously asked to move, a pathway is cleared for the wedding party and the beach area is swept, cleaned and prepared, and all weddings are booked for 5:00, 5:30 or 6:00pm, which gives you a perfect sunset beach wedding. Not only that, Abi who coordinates weddings at RIU is present for the whole ceremony, and stops all traffic on the pathway in front and behind the ceremony, so in principle a perfect destination wedding location like any other high rise in Aruba.

The Occidental indeed has a new coordinator, who is doing a wonderful job, and they work in liaison with Letz Aruba, for JP, beach setup/decorations and civil ceremonies, which in many ways guarantees amazing weddings, and results when doing a destination wedding. So to be honest it sets them as a very good pick for any wedding in Aruba.

Andrea mentioned you haven't posted for a while so maybe you were not aware of all these changes...

Greetings!
__________________________________________________
For all your Wedding Photography, Cinematography & Planning
http://www.everafteraruba.com | http://www.jasonmargarita.com

[Melllowtones]

Hi, we are marrying at the Riu on the 30th of June at 6pm