Since this board really helped me plan a surprise proposal/vow renewal for my bride of 30 years I thought I would provide feedback on our experience as it may help others. I will try to keep it short and to the point.

I proposed to her on the beach and that evening walked over on the beach to the Costa Linda Beach Resort to "have dinner." Actually I walked her there to a waiting ceremony complete with flowered arch, our two sons (my best men) and friends. We had the ceremony there, which was perfect, and dinner right on the beach--feet from the water. It was great!

___ Wedding Planner ___
I used Aida Perez from Aruba Weddings for You as the planner. She was incredible; exceeded expectations. As this was a surprise I needed to spend as little time settling the details. I figured just the venue (sunset on the beach) would be enough to make it special and I'd "settle" for whatever Aida could do above that. Aida is a great lady, and delivered an extremely tasteful and classy setup, complete with silverware, crystal, etc. No skimping at all. Aida also arranged the photographer for us (Maiky Wernet) who took some very nice photos, included ones of the two of us from between two crystal champagne flutes that came out great!

I highly recommend her for anyone thinking of something like this.

___ Ceremony Officiator ___
Thanks to postings on this board I heard about and requested the Reverend Robert Gibson. Wow... very good choice! Obviously he did not know us, and we didn't meet until the ceremony, but you would never know if from his words. He really has a great way of making the ceremony seem very personal and special, and his choice of words was perfect. Again, you can't go wrong with Reverend Gibson!

___ Sunset Dinner ___
We own at the Costa Linda, so it's special to us. But the efforts of Shanella Paulina (manager of the restaurants at the Costa Linda) were awesome. She set up the table complete with linens, torches and flowers right next to the water and had two food servers (it's a very long walk from the restaurant to the water) assigned to us. The service was fabulous, the mean wonderful and the location/view incredible! You can't go wrong with Shanella!

If anyone would like additional information or have questions, feel free to e-mail me and I will try to help any way I can.