Aruba Destination Wedding – Sunset Ceremony and a Wrapor Shrug

Want a wedding with a totally tropical taste? Well today’s real wedding fits the bill perfectly. Relaxed, intimate, a sunset ceremony on a white sandy beach-take me now! Not only that but a wedding that came in under budget! Yes there really is such a thing.  So over to the lovely Leigh to tell us all about her tropical budget busting day. 

 

What was important to you when initially planning wedding?

I wanted a no fuss and relaxed wedding. I had a £5,000 budget which included everything including, wedding package dress, paperwork, the honeymoon and lots of little extras.   (Not the rings)  I knew that i wanted the wedding would be abroad but had no confirmed idea of where.  My husband liked the look of Aruba (small Caribbean island off Venezuela, South America) so it was his choice!

 

What did you use to plan your wedding? Ie blogs, magazines, wedding shows, friends, TV? 

 I came across an online forum  called Aruba.com/forum and I found a ‘wedding thread’ so joined that. It had so many tips on there regarding getting married in a hot county and also about the two ceremonies (official one at town hall and then blessing on the beach)  it was a lifeline. We went with Thomson travel agents but  I had to sort out all the paperwork so I was glad when I started talking to someone called Kerry from Aberdeen who was also getting married on the island in the same week!  We helped each other with the paperwork and the deadlines that they had to be back in by. I was so glad of her support. She invited me to her wedding (which was up the road from our hotel) and I asked  her and her now husband if they would be our witnesses as it was only me and Dennis going. They agreed and it all went perfectly.  We went to their wedding two days after we arrived and they flew home the day after our wedding. I had no bridesmaids, just the witnesses and a couple of holiday maker ‘gatecrashers’ that we met and were happy to have there and very glad we did! 

 

What was your wedding theme/colour scheme

I just emailed the wedding planner asking for ‘tropical’ with a bit of orange. 

 

How did you choose your suppliers?

The wedding company were called Aruba Weddings for You. We had no choice over this as we had booked with Thomson and it’s the company they use for our hotel the  Tamarijn Aruba. Everything was done by email, the planners sent me photos and suggestions, I went with their advice on a lot of things as they were the experts.  The  package included the town hall official ceremony, limousine there and back, beach ceremony with flowered archway and decorated chairs, cake, drinks, flowers, buttonhole, 3 course meal on the beach. The wedding planner stayed with me throughout the day and her office was based in our hotel. 

 

Flowers

I had tropical flowers and a bird of paradise for Den’s buttonhole.

 

Photographer 

Crooze photography –  A local photographer recommended by the hotel ( they recommended about 4 and I liked his website/style.

Cake

The hotel chef baked our cake. I was asked what flavour sponge and what flavour cream filling, they’re we’re various choices suggested or I could choose my own, The wedding planners sent me lots of pics and i went with Lemon sponge and a coconut filling. I asked for an orange ribbon around it and a bird of paradise flower on it.  Afterwards, We gave the cake to the hotel staff as we couldn’t eat it all.  After the beach blessing a limousine took us to a beach restaurant on the island, this was included in the wedding package. 

 

Where did you find your dress? 

In my local wedding shop Special occasions in Poole.

 

How did you know you had found the one?

The price was right !!!  it was a sample in the sale £120 and they treated me as if it was £1200.  I knew I would only have this on for a few hours so for me, it was more about the whole day. 

 

What accessories did you choose and why?

 I had a small pearl tiara, pearl earrings  and I had orange/cream pearl beads that went over my big toe, in a thong style that tied with an orange ribbon I found this on eBay.  I can honestly say that the star of the piece was my Wrapor Shrug .. What a find !! I have tattoos from a misspent youth and it hid these perfectly. I still think about that and how lucky I was to find it, i was struggling to find something and feeling very down about it, as some wraps were too sheer, some didn’t match the colour of my dress, others kept falling off my arms , I am serious when I say that, when I got this in the post it was perfect and all of my anxieties went.

 

How did your budget change from first planning to the wedding day?

It didn’t, I think that I was under!

 

Your favourite wedding purchase

Wrapor Shrug, without a doubt.  It saved the day.

 

Best wedding bargain

Dress

 

Most extravagant part of wedding

An Upgrade to first class on the flights which my mother bought as a wedding present other than that it was a simple day.

Thoughts on wedding day

It was perfect, in fact it was better than we expected. I’m so glad we did it this way, it was relaxed, we had no pressure,  and the last week was our honeymoon…. Just us : )

I walked down the beach to Always and Forever by Heatwave because I just loved the words. Have a listen!  We walked away from the archway to Love will find a way, by Dennis Brown,  listen to this one as well ! this was chosen by my husband.  I can still smell the beach every time those records are played.

 

Favourite part of the day

The beach ceremony, the sun was shining, the minister read out some lovely words and he gave us a printed copy of them and for the sand ceremony after, this is where you both pour sand together into a vase, it was then sealed and we brought it home as a keepsake.

 

 

Thankyou so much to Leigh and Den for sharing their beautiful relaxed Aruba wedding. If you would like us to feature your wedding on the blog please get in touch. We’d love to have you. Bye for now, Jenny.

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