Aruba Wedding testimonials
Our 11/12 /09 Marriott Wedding...we had a blast!!!!
On November 12th we got married at the Aruba Marriott and Stellaris Casino. We had a blast It far exceeded our expectations.!!!!! It was more than we could of ever imagined.. First I have to start by thanking the wedding planner Desiree Bikker and her associates Helen and Corinne..They made it happen.... everything went so smoothly . I worked with Desiree for 6 months over the phone and through email. I sent her fabric swatches for the color of the runner and pictures of how I wanted the table set with lanterns and the flowers.. She got every detail down perfect... She knew exactly what I wanted. She was a pleasure to work with as well as Corinne and Helen.. I trusted Desiree from the DJ to the florist, steel drum, etc......
First I used Knipoog for my hair and makeup.. They did an excellent job.. Rubia (hair )and Elene (make up )came to the room . They were so sweet and had great energy... As soon as I showed them pictures they knew exactly what I wanted... They were done in an hour an only charge 150.00 I was so happy with the way it turned out.
We had Reverend Gibson who was very moving, everyone loved the ceremony.... Victor Winklaar was our photographer he was so nice and he gave us the pictures before we left with the cd.. I loved his modern flair to them.
We held the ceremony and reception on the beach we had 22 guests and one long table...It made it feel very cozy and dancing in the sand was a lot of fun.... The food was superb we had a sit down dinner with filet mignon and lobster tail. The lobster was like butter.. At the cocktail hour I have never seen such big shrimp...they were delicious. The DJ Marc Benson and Steel drum Tico and were excellent. All the staff was wonderful. We had excellent service and the bartender Dufy was so much fun!!!We had such a good time dancing that I went into the water at the end wedding dress and all. And to top it off so did the 22 guests.. The memories are priceless. If any brides are on the fence about a destination wedding I would say go for it you will make wonderful memories that will last a lifetime....
I can have a very type A personality but once I arrived in Aruba and handed out the gift bags it was free sailing... I was so relaxed and enjoyed every minute before during and after the wedding...when do you get the chance to enjoy some many close friends and family .And one last thank you you to Desiree and the staff for doing and Amazing job!!!
Serena & Jaime
Our October 31st Aruba Marriott Wedding
As we are nearing the end of our Aruba visit, I thought I'd take a moment to tell you how awesome our wedding and reception were. Our original estimate of 20 people grew to 43 which included people coming from as far away as India!
While there were a few bumps along the way, the final outcome exceeded our expectations. From the minute we got here the Marriott went above and beyond for us. While I will elaborate in more detail later on the blog, for the moment I just want to acknowledge the people that helped us so much. Desiree and Chela were in the lobby to greet us the moment we arrived. We were given a gorgeous suite and were incredibly grateful for the extra space. They have both been awesome to us throughout the process.
Desiree and Eveline helped us throw a wonderful welcome party complete with bhangra music and the best tamarind margaritas. The food was great and they even packaged up and held the extra fruit and cheese for us to take on the sailing excursion the next day.
We privately chartered Mi Dushi for our guests on Friday and everyone has a really great time! The crew was fun without being 'in our faces'.
The wedding itself was awesome! Luckily we weren't too bothered the tourists and laughed off the Speedos that seemed to try to get in the portrait photos. The reception was outstanding! No one could believe how good the food was! It far exceeded our expectations! Among other things, the Indian food they made for us (something that isn't on their menu) blew us away!
Edwina did an awesome job with our decor which included a tent she invested in on our behalf. She and has crew worked SO hard for us. Mark Benson and DJ Randolph did a phenomenal job with the music. Our group was dancing until the end! Yesterday we did a trash the dress shoot at the ruins and at Eagle Beach which was a lot of fun! Weather has been perfect the whole time and I think out guests had the time of their lives. Now we have 2 more days to relax and enjoy Aruba!
Thanks to everyone here on the forum for your help and support!
Christine
Our event planner, Desiree Bikker was exceptionally helpful and sweet, with her kindness and help Sal & I had a beautiful wedding..She is TOP NOTCH!!! We also had a very nice time with Ms. Hermina Whyte at the towel & Palapa hut..She was nice to us and always made sure that we were having a great time..
Elizabeth
Perfect wedding at the Aruba Marriott
"We had our wedding for 55 people at the Marriott in July 2009, and it was wonderful. The wedding coordination team was great. I would recommend the hotel to anyone interested in a no-fuss beach wedding!
For vacation, it was definitely a typical big-hotel experience, which is not necessarily our style, but it was so easy for our guests. No problems. Plus, the Marriott is the last hotel on Palm Beach so not alot of random crowds."
Debra
Hi everyone!
"We got married at sunset on May 11th on the beach in front of the Marriott Stellaris Casino & Resort and it was amazing! Our reception was there as well on the La Vista patio on the beach. Our 39 guests are still talking about it and everyone had such an awesome time! We are so grateful for everyone who had a part in making our special day and evening perfect for us in Aruba. We have nothing but wonderful things to tell you about all of them and really wanted to share this with you. :-)
Here are some details....Our wedding coordinator was Desiree Bikker at the Marriott and she did an excellent job satisfying all our expectations and going above and beyond for us overall. The ceremony & reception set up was perfect for us and everyone's feedback has been nothing but positive of course! As part of our ceremony we had a sand mixing ceremony, cut our cake on the beach, and did the signing of the certificates. My long bouquet of calla lillies for myself and my 2 bridesmaids were exactly what I pictured & always hoped for. The cake we cut on the beach was decorated with the lillies too...so beautiful. For our reception, we had a cocktail hour with butlered hors d'oeuvres. After cocktail hour, we did our introductions, first dances, and toasts. For our dinner, we had heavy hors d'oeuvres on cocktail tables and a few long tables so people could eat and dance continuously. We had slices of cheesecake and slices of pineapple cake delivered to each seat after dinner for dessert. Our wedding cake we cut on the beach was brought up to our room after we cut it, but it was much bigger than we thought so we were able to share it with our guests the rest of the week! We thought all the food we selected worked out great...it was all delicious!! Doing heavy hors d'oeuvres made it a little more difficult to figure out how much food we needed so I think we had a lot that was not eaten. I am glad we decided on doing it this way though... we are just sorry that we didn't take all of our left over food with us after the reception.
Victor Winklaar was our photographer and he did a wonderful job. He is so professional and such a nice guy. He just went with the flow and was very flexible with his time with us as well. We are currently in the process of picking our photos from the proofs he sent us and it is quite a challenge since he took so many great ones. We had him take pictures 2 hours before the wedding as well so we didn't have to take so many after the ceremony, and we could head to our cocktail party soon after. I strongly recommend this if you don't mind seeing your bride or groom before the wedding. It provided us with many more pictures. Us, our parents, and our wedding party even were able to hang out at the bar in La Vista for 30 minutes when we were finished with the pre-wedding pictures, & we all relaxed before the ceremony. One thing we did forget to do is make a list of picture requests for our photographer. I was so focused on other things that I forgot to do this and overlooked it. I would recommend doing this if you have specific pictures that you want.
Reverend Robert Gibson was superb! Our guests couldn't stop saying how great of a job he did and how it was the most beautiful ceremony they have ever attended. He is such a great guy and we are so happy that he could perform our wedding ceremony.
George Jacobs was our videographer and we are thrilled that we hired him. Before we left the island, he brought over our finished video so we were able to take it home with us. We gave him a cd with 5 songs on it and he set it to those. It was great because after we returned home from our honeymoon in Ireland, we had an At Home Reception in our town in Virginia and we showed the video for all our friends. Everyone loved it!! He did a really good job.
We went through the Marriott for the steel pan drummer and he was awesome! Very pleased. We were so excited to have him play at our ceremony and for our cocktail hour. I'm not sure what his name is but can definitely get it for you if you need it.
Also, we thought the DJ that Desiree had selected for us was awesome & all of our guests thought so as well! He worked for DJ Cool Pro. He played most of our songs on our list, and the songs he played were so our style. He knew just what kind of songs we loved and since most of our guests were in our 30's, we danced and partied all night long. Even the hotel guests were dancing on their balconies! There were 2 guys there DJing...and I apologize for not having their names on hand, but if you are interested, I can always ask Desiree. :-)
Our bartender Dufi was a big hit at our wedding reception. He was so much fun and provided fantastic service to us and our guests! All of the staff that worked the wedding and cleared our plates for us were so pleasant and so friendly! What can we say...the Marriott did a fantastic job!!
A few things in addition, we had our Welcome Reception the night before at Moomba's and they did an awesome job!! We also did a Post-Wedding Brunch at La Vista. Their brunch buffet is delicious!! Also, the Mandara spa at the Marriott did a fantastic job with my updo & manicure and we got our dresses and men's outfits steamed by Arlette (she has her own company, which I can get you info about through the Marriott). The night after the wedding, we all did the Kukoo Kunuko Party Bus....a must!! Needless to say, we had a blast with all of our wedding events and would do it all over again if we could!!
We do have one bit of advice that we wish we would have been more mindful of during the planning and which we would love to pass on to you. We booked some of our services directly, instead of through our resort...which still worked out fine. However, most can only accept cash when you arrive on the island. The credit card doesn't go through in time and they can't cash checks. Our advice is to either take care of it through pay pal before you leave, or bring lots and lots of cash. We wish we would have had this taken care of before we arrived."
George and Lisa
On November 12th we got married at the Aruba Marriott and Stellaris Casino. We had a blast It far exceeded our expectations.!!!!! It was more than we could of ever imagined.. First I have to start by thanking the wedding planner Desiree Bikker and her associates Helen and Corinne..They made it happen.... everything went so smoothly . I worked with Desiree for 6 months over the phone and through email. I sent her fabric swatches for the color of the runner and pictures of how I wanted the table set with lanterns and the flowers.. She got every detail down perfect... She knew exactly what I wanted. She was a pleasure to work with as well as Corinne and Helen.. I trusted Desiree from the DJ to the florist, steel drum, etc......
First I used Knipoog for my hair and makeup.. They did an excellent job.. Rubia (hair )and Elene (make up )came to the room . They were so sweet and had great energy... As soon as I showed them pictures they knew exactly what I wanted... They were done in an hour an only charge 150.00 I was so happy with the way it turned out.
We had Reverend Gibson who was very moving, everyone loved the ceremony.... Victor Winklaar was our photographer he was so nice and he gave us the pictures before we left with the cd.. I loved his modern flair to them.
We held the ceremony and reception on the beach we had 22 guests and one long table...It made it feel very cozy and dancing in the sand was a lot of fun.... The food was superb we had a sit down dinner with filet mignon and lobster tail. The lobster was like butter.. At the cocktail hour I have never seen such big shrimp...they were delicious. The DJ Marc Benson and Steel drum Tico and were excellent. All the staff was wonderful. We had excellent service and the bartender Dufy was so much fun!!!We had such a good time dancing that I went into the water at the end wedding dress and all. And to top it off so did the 22 guests.. The memories are priceless. If any brides are on the fence about a destination wedding I would say go for it you will make wonderful memories that will last a lifetime....
I can have a very type A personality but once I arrived in Aruba and handed out the gift bags it was free sailing... I was so relaxed and enjoyed every minute before during and after the wedding...when do you get the chance to enjoy some many close friends and family .And one last thank you you to Desiree and the staff for doing and Amazing job!!!
Serena & Jaime
Our October 31st Aruba Marriott Wedding
As we are nearing the end of our Aruba visit, I thought I'd take a moment to tell you how awesome our wedding and reception were. Our original estimate of 20 people grew to 43 which included people coming from as far away as India!
While there were a few bumps along the way, the final outcome exceeded our expectations. From the minute we got here the Marriott went above and beyond for us. While I will elaborate in more detail later on the blog, for the moment I just want to acknowledge the people that helped us so much. Desiree and Chela were in the lobby to greet us the moment we arrived. We were given a gorgeous suite and were incredibly grateful for the extra space. They have both been awesome to us throughout the process.
Desiree and Eveline helped us throw a wonderful welcome party complete with bhangra music and the best tamarind margaritas. The food was great and they even packaged up and held the extra fruit and cheese for us to take on the sailing excursion the next day.
We privately chartered Mi Dushi for our guests on Friday and everyone has a really great time! The crew was fun without being 'in our faces'.
The wedding itself was awesome! Luckily we weren't too bothered the tourists and laughed off the Speedos that seemed to try to get in the portrait photos. The reception was outstanding! No one could believe how good the food was! It far exceeded our expectations! Among other things, the Indian food they made for us (something that isn't on their menu) blew us away!
Edwina did an awesome job with our decor which included a tent she invested in on our behalf. She and has crew worked SO hard for us. Mark Benson and DJ Randolph did a phenomenal job with the music. Our group was dancing until the end! Yesterday we did a trash the dress shoot at the ruins and at Eagle Beach which was a lot of fun! Weather has been perfect the whole time and I think out guests had the time of their lives. Now we have 2 more days to relax and enjoy Aruba!
Thanks to everyone here on the forum for your help and support!
Christine
Our event planner, Desiree Bikker was exceptionally helpful and sweet, with her kindness and help Sal & I had a beautiful wedding..She is TOP NOTCH!!! We also had a very nice time with Ms. Hermina Whyte at the towel & Palapa hut..She was nice to us and always made sure that we were having a great time..
Elizabeth
Perfect wedding at the Aruba Marriott
"We had our wedding for 55 people at the Marriott in July 2009, and it was wonderful. The wedding coordination team was great. I would recommend the hotel to anyone interested in a no-fuss beach wedding!
For vacation, it was definitely a typical big-hotel experience, which is not necessarily our style, but it was so easy for our guests. No problems. Plus, the Marriott is the last hotel on Palm Beach so not alot of random crowds."
Debra
Hi everyone!
"We got married at sunset on May 11th on the beach in front of the Marriott Stellaris Casino & Resort and it was amazing! Our reception was there as well on the La Vista patio on the beach. Our 39 guests are still talking about it and everyone had such an awesome time! We are so grateful for everyone who had a part in making our special day and evening perfect for us in Aruba. We have nothing but wonderful things to tell you about all of them and really wanted to share this with you. :-)
Here are some details....Our wedding coordinator was Desiree Bikker at the Marriott and she did an excellent job satisfying all our expectations and going above and beyond for us overall. The ceremony & reception set up was perfect for us and everyone's feedback has been nothing but positive of course! As part of our ceremony we had a sand mixing ceremony, cut our cake on the beach, and did the signing of the certificates. My long bouquet of calla lillies for myself and my 2 bridesmaids were exactly what I pictured & always hoped for. The cake we cut on the beach was decorated with the lillies too...so beautiful. For our reception, we had a cocktail hour with butlered hors d'oeuvres. After cocktail hour, we did our introductions, first dances, and toasts. For our dinner, we had heavy hors d'oeuvres on cocktail tables and a few long tables so people could eat and dance continuously. We had slices of cheesecake and slices of pineapple cake delivered to each seat after dinner for dessert. Our wedding cake we cut on the beach was brought up to our room after we cut it, but it was much bigger than we thought so we were able to share it with our guests the rest of the week! We thought all the food we selected worked out great...it was all delicious!! Doing heavy hors d'oeuvres made it a little more difficult to figure out how much food we needed so I think we had a lot that was not eaten. I am glad we decided on doing it this way though... we are just sorry that we didn't take all of our left over food with us after the reception.
Victor Winklaar was our photographer and he did a wonderful job. He is so professional and such a nice guy. He just went with the flow and was very flexible with his time with us as well. We are currently in the process of picking our photos from the proofs he sent us and it is quite a challenge since he took so many great ones. We had him take pictures 2 hours before the wedding as well so we didn't have to take so many after the ceremony, and we could head to our cocktail party soon after. I strongly recommend this if you don't mind seeing your bride or groom before the wedding. It provided us with many more pictures. Us, our parents, and our wedding party even were able to hang out at the bar in La Vista for 30 minutes when we were finished with the pre-wedding pictures, & we all relaxed before the ceremony. One thing we did forget to do is make a list of picture requests for our photographer. I was so focused on other things that I forgot to do this and overlooked it. I would recommend doing this if you have specific pictures that you want.
Reverend Robert Gibson was superb! Our guests couldn't stop saying how great of a job he did and how it was the most beautiful ceremony they have ever attended. He is such a great guy and we are so happy that he could perform our wedding ceremony.
George Jacobs was our videographer and we are thrilled that we hired him. Before we left the island, he brought over our finished video so we were able to take it home with us. We gave him a cd with 5 songs on it and he set it to those. It was great because after we returned home from our honeymoon in Ireland, we had an At Home Reception in our town in Virginia and we showed the video for all our friends. Everyone loved it!! He did a really good job.
We went through the Marriott for the steel pan drummer and he was awesome! Very pleased. We were so excited to have him play at our ceremony and for our cocktail hour. I'm not sure what his name is but can definitely get it for you if you need it.
Also, we thought the DJ that Desiree had selected for us was awesome & all of our guests thought so as well! He worked for DJ Cool Pro. He played most of our songs on our list, and the songs he played were so our style. He knew just what kind of songs we loved and since most of our guests were in our 30's, we danced and partied all night long. Even the hotel guests were dancing on their balconies! There were 2 guys there DJing...and I apologize for not having their names on hand, but if you are interested, I can always ask Desiree. :-)
Our bartender Dufi was a big hit at our wedding reception. He was so much fun and provided fantastic service to us and our guests! All of the staff that worked the wedding and cleared our plates for us were so pleasant and so friendly! What can we say...the Marriott did a fantastic job!!
A few things in addition, we had our Welcome Reception the night before at Moomba's and they did an awesome job!! We also did a Post-Wedding Brunch at La Vista. Their brunch buffet is delicious!! Also, the Mandara spa at the Marriott did a fantastic job with my updo & manicure and we got our dresses and men's outfits steamed by Arlette (she has her own company, which I can get you info about through the Marriott). The night after the wedding, we all did the Kukoo Kunuko Party Bus....a must!! Needless to say, we had a blast with all of our wedding events and would do it all over again if we could!!
We do have one bit of advice that we wish we would have been more mindful of during the planning and which we would love to pass on to you. We booked some of our services directly, instead of through our resort...which still worked out fine. However, most can only accept cash when you arrive on the island. The credit card doesn't go through in time and they can't cash checks. Our advice is to either take care of it through pay pal before you leave, or bring lots and lots of cash. We wish we would have had this taken care of before we arrived."
George and Lisa