Our Destination Wedding in Aruba
Soooo where do I begin?? We had our wedding in July of 2024 at the Aruba Renaissance Wind Creek Resort. Now that things have finally settled down and we are leaving for our honeymoon next week, I wanted to share about our destination wedding, how we planned it, overall tips and tricks for getting married in Aruba, and PRICES! Feel free to forward this to any brides and grooms that are considering a destination wedding! Also, I actually am not making any money off the links in this article, this is solely a hobby of mine, but maybe one day I will figure out how to monetize things and I will update when that happens lol.
Pre-Aruba
Engagement
After scheming for months with my best friend, Noah proposed to me in the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens in October of 2022. We traveled to NYC to visit my bestie and MOH because they said we were going to the city for her mother’s housewarming party. We had a fantastic lunch at Rezdora in Flatiron (which I still dream about), and took a subway/uber to get to the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. After a romantic stroll through the park, Noah got down on one knee and the rest is history!
Why we picked Aruba
My parents had a dreamy destination wedding at the Westin in St. John, U.S.V.I. and being their children, St. John has become an important place for our family growing up. When we were kids, our parents took us back to the spot where they were married, and it was just the most special experience. I really wanted to have our wedding there originally, but the Westin ended up changing their property type to a timeshare, which would have made logistical details for all our guests a nightmare. Flights to the U.S.V.I. were also super expensive, and getting to St. John is a little tricky with the ferry situation.
Aruba had a ton of direct flights from the major airports our guests would be traveling from, and the flight costs were not astronomical. During a super high peak travel week, the majority of our guests were able to book their tickets around $500 USD per person round trip. We also set up Google Flight alerts from the airports our guests were coming from at various dates that would work with our wedding. Whenever the prices were good, I sent a text to the person at that airport and they were able to book cheaper flights than normal.
Aruba itself is just a joy and a half to visit and we wanted to have our wedding somewhere people would WANT to come to. Boy were we right though, because we ended up having 100 guests travel to Aruba for us and most everyone had a blast and a half. It really is “One Happy Island”. I can’t wait to go back already, and one day take our children and show them where we got married. If you need help planning a trip to Aruba, planning a wedding there gave me the opportunity to do tons of research on the island, so check out my Aruba Itinerary Guide.
Why we picked the Renaissance
We picked the Renaissance Wind Creek Aruba Resort specifically because of the privacy it offered us for our wedding. Every other resort venue on the island was on a beach where other hotel guests would have the opportunity to gawk at us while we got married. No offense, but I really did not want a soggy Karen in the back of all our wedding photos and videos while we got married. Having stayed at other properties on the island on Palm Beach, if I was just traveling to the island for vacation, I would stay on that side as the beach is much nicer. The way the Renaissance stands apart as a wedding venue is that you literally get an entire ISLAND off the coast of Aruba to yourself. Having our guests whisked away via boat to our wedding was the coolest thing ever to me. It truly was a dream come true and everything I could have dreamed of and more.
Something that was not important to me was the fact that there are flamingos wandering the island. This might be important to you, because pictures with them turn out fantastic, but to me I did not prioritize this as a reason to book this venue. It is quite literally paradise on Earth and does not even need the flamingos to be special.
Planning
Check out my guide on how to plan a destination wedding for everything we did to prepare for our wedding in Aruba. Although planning our wedding was TONS of work, it was worth every second of planning, and will hopefully be for you too!
One of the most helpful tools was joining the “Aruba Brides” Facebook Group. They literally had recommendations for everything, answered so many of my questions, and showed up in force for anything a fellow bride-sister needed!
Pre-Wedding Visit
We made a trip to Aruba about a year and a half before our wedding date and doubled it as a birthday trip for me. We were able to meet with our wedding coordinator, Zulaika, in person and tour the venue together. She did a fabulous job of selling us on the property (even though we were already sold) and after our tour and meeting with her, we were so excited.
By visiting the venue, it allowed us to envision the wedding day, an opportunity to inspect the facilities, taste the food, and discuss any specific requirements or customizations with the venue staff. Zulaika did a fabulous job coordinating this all for us, so we were able to book all our vendors with her and do our tasting all in one. Because we did this on my birthday, she got sparklers for the wedding cakes we were tasting and it made me even more confident in our decision to get married at the Renaissance.
Save the Dates and Invitations
I didn’t design our invitation suite, but I did find templates online that I liked for both. I ordered a million free samples from different places and took a family poll on Thanksgiving. The invitations we chose were Noah’s favorite and I think they went perfectly with everything in our detail shots. We got our wedding invitations, liners, and insert cards from The Knot’s print shop. We chose the style ‘Gilded Tropics’ in forest green with gold foil. It came to around $800, which hurt my soul.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Welcome Bags
We wanted to have something for our guests when they arrived on the island! I have been seeing a lot of weddings that have welcome bags, so I opted to create some of my own for our guests. Inside our welcome bags, I included a ‘Welcome Booklet’ that included the schedule for the wedding and any additional activities we planned. I also added sunscreen, advil, a custom koozie, flamingo pool drink floaties, and some other toiletries. Let me know if you want my template on Canva!
My matron of honor is a fabulous artist, so I asked her to draw our wedding venue and she did not disappoint! We printed her drawing on all of the bags through some vendor on AliExpress.
Packing for the Wedding
Packing for our wedding required careful planning and coordination. We started by creating an insane list of everything we needed, then compiling enough suitcases to take with us, and figuring out what needed to be shipped to the island. We labeled and organized all of our wedding supplies ahead of time. We were so happy we did this, because it made things easier for us when we arrived in Aruba. One thing we did was for items we did not need on the first day, we had a guest check an extra bag for us because they were flying first class. This saved us some money and we were so thankful to my cousins for doing that for us.
Lastly, the most annoying thing for me was mailing our welcome signs, and seating charts. International shipping is no joke and we spent a fortune on this, only for it to get to customs in Aruba and our wedding coordinator had to pay even more to retrieve it.
Getting to Aruba & our Wedding Week
Flying…First Class (*read in Fergie’s voice*)
We splurged on flights for our wedding and booked first class! It ended up being roughly $1,500 a ticket for nonstop roundtrip flights from Dulles. With our ticket came two free checked bags up to 80 lbs. This was extremely helpful as we were able to STUFF these to the max and take advantage of my parents’ extra checked bags too. I ended up having EIGHT checked bags on the way there because…well, I am insane…. Thankfully my family was super helpful in lugging these all to and from Aruba.
Our flight experience was awesome, and I was so excited to be on our way to Aruba with my future husband and parents. The flight attendants and pilot were fantastic. The pilot saw us in our annoyingly extra matching outfits and let us go into the cockpit while economy boarded. BUCKET LIST item for me! (Now let’s see if the pilot on Emirates A380 will let us do the same….) The United team gave us tons of presents, freebies, and WINGS! Totally epic flight, and I was so thankful to our flight crew for making it extra special!
Our Room & Rena’s 2-Sides
The Renaissance has two resorts in one and they are across the street from one another. The Marina side is adults-only and the rooms are more updated. The Ocean Suites is a family-friendly resort and has better pools and amenities. Some of the rooms aren’t as up-to-date and there are timeshares there. The wedding was on the resort’s private island, so regardless of where our guests chose to stay, transportation was available to and from the wedding from either hotel.
When we did our site visit, we stayed on the adults-only Marina side. We liked this side, but realized that the pools on the other side were better. We wanted to be with family, so we stayed on the Ocean Suites side. Our room was amazing and because it was our wedding, they upgraded us!
Bridesmaid Airbnb
As soon as I found out we were having a wedding in Aruba, I started scheming on how I would convince all my closest friends and family to make it to the island for our wedding. I knew going into a destination wedding that a bunch of people would not be able to make it, so I prepared myself for the disappointment of missing some of my favorite people. Having gone into wedding planning with this mentally helped a lot, and I was able to find special ways to celebrate with these people stateside.
I asked my bridesmaids if they wanted to stay in an Airbnb next to the resort for a much cheaper price than our nightly resort rate. Some people chose to stay at the resort, but for the couples that stayed at the Airbnb, I think they paid $800 a couple for nine days. Which is WILD and way cheaper than our room rate. I hope this helped them be able to come and if this is something you are able to coordinate for friends and family, I highly recommend it. If you are getting married at the Renaissance, here is the Airbnb we booked. It is about a 7-minute walk to the resort and also has its own website.
Kukoo Kunuku Sparkle Night
Some may say we had too many themes for our wedding week. Looking back on it, I’d agree, but I certainly do not regret it. Our first theme night was ‘Kristin Sparkles’ night (an ode to my late Instagram handle that I got bullied into changing).
We booked out the Kukoo Kunuku party bus for the guests who were in town already for our wedding week and asked them to come dressed in their sparkliest garb. For a night of silly fun and a little partying, book a bar-hopping tour with Kukoo Kunuku. This iconic bus blowing an obnoxious horn with people hanging out of its windows with maracas has been in business for over 25 years. They offer several different tours that can cater to exactly how you want to experience Kukoo Kunuku.
We were sponsoring quite a few other activities and our budget was thinning, so I asked our guests to pay for half their ticket on the RSVP link by venmoing me. It wasn’t too expensive, but I still wish we could have just paid for everyone on this one. We had so much fun on Kukoo Kunuku and our guests were all raving about the experience. I highly recommend doing this with your group because we were so rowdy and everyone had a ball.
Jolly Pirates Joint Bachelor/Bachelorette
Okay, I might have been more excited for our second ‘themed event’ than our wedding day, but that’s beside the point. We decided that instead of asking our besties to travel to a different location and do a bachelor/bachelorette trip, that we would just have it a couple days before our wedding in Aruba. In that, my dream of having an ugly pirate themed party came to life.
For our bach/bach party we rented out the Jolly Pirates pirate ship for a sunset cruise. We paid $2,800.00 to have the entire boat to ourselves and ended up inviting the maximum number of people (65) onto the boat with us including our wedding photographers and DJ–more on how awesome those guys are in the following paragraphs. The sunset sail option came with an open bar for all our guests and a rope swing. They also let us hook up to the aux and play our favorite sea shanties. The amazing Jolly Pirates staff let us take their mic for an ad hoc pirate wedding with ChatGPT pirate vows. I think I peed my pants from laughing so hard and it was the best day ever.
Photo by the lovely ARTN Photography
Welcome ‘White’ Party
After our pirate party, I accidentally stayed up all night bar hopping…argggghhhhh. I have regrets, because I was tired all day Thursday. It’s okay though, because our Welcome Party was a great time and I was able to go to bed right after.
For our welcome party, we rented out the restaurant/bar Lucy’s Retired Surfers Bar which is directly across the street from the Marina side of the Renaissance. Because Noah’s last name is White, you guessed it…another theme! We had a ‘White Party’ with an open bar (up to a certain amount), which we VERY quickly drained, and a taco bar.
It was a great time, and we had the biggest turn out of our events here because it was the Thursday before our wedding and the majority of our friends and family were in town for the wedding.
Renting Cabanas on Flamingo Island
Okay, this was ironically the most annoyingly complex part of planning our wedding week at the Renaissance. I do not know if I would do it again looking back on it, but our guests who rented their own cabanas had a good time!
On the Renaissance private island, there are a certain number of cabanas for rent on Flamingo and Iguana beach. These sell out super quickly and are astronomically pricey–talking $500 a cabana. Our wedding coordinator mentioned that sometimes brides rent all the cabanas on a beach and have a beach party. This sparked the idea that it had to happen, but I did not realize the logistics behind planning it all.
Here are the things that annoyed me/stressed me out about this:
$500 a cabana is a lot of money and I had to convince several of our friends and family to purchase one, because although we wanted to pay for a lot of things for our guests, we could not swing this for everyone.
Because these things sell out almost immediately, I not only had to convince our family members to do this, I had to have them do it on a certain day when the booking became open. I really felt bad about this, and ‘Bridezilla’esque.
Because we booked our wedding party at the Airbnb, they were not technically staying at the Renaissance, so we had to purchase ‘day passes’ to get on the island. The Sunday before, the resort opens up the bookings for day passes. This was not something that could have been arranged ahead of time, and they sell out super quickly. Sooooo low and behold, only half of our group was able to score day passes.
This led into another item of stress. All week my bridesmaids were stressed about how we were going to scrounge up enough wristbands from family members who had extras for their significant others. I wish I coordinated this ahead of time with Zulaika, because she was super accommodating and allowed us to purchase discounted rate day passes the day of–even though they were sold out online.
Number one wedding stressor was that Noah’s video game friend showed up to Aruba unannounced (well Noah knew and withheld said information knowing I’d lose it). Zulaika was again a queen and added him to our tab. While in the cabanas, I had to redo our entire seating chart and this man kept floating back and forth in front of me. People kept coming up to hang out and I ended up having a Bridezilla moment and unintentionally hurting my bridesmaids and friends’ feelings. Sorry guys 🙁
After all the stress, I would definitely not have done this again. In theory, a fantastic idea. Unfortunately, a logistical nightmare. Pick your poison if this is something you want to do.
Rehearsal Dinner at Barefoot
When we visited Aruba to plan our wedding ahead of time, we had the absolute best dinner of our trip at Barefoot Restaurant. While dining, we spoke to a manager about the potential for hosting our rehearsal dinner there. They were so sweet and provided us an email to correspond with them on the plans. Our amazing in-laws paid for this event for us and the planning process was super simple. They gave us a pre-fixe menu to choose from and priced by person. They set up tables on the beach for us and gave us excellent service throughout the planning and delivery.
The night itself was magical as the sun dipped below the horizon, guests enjoyed a delicious meal of fresh seafood and fun drinks. The relaxed atmosphere and beautiful setting created a perfect opportunity for loved ones to gather, share stories, and celebrate the upcoming nuptials.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Our Wedding Day
Our Vendors <3
The funniest thing to me is that all the Aruban wedding vendors are besties. They all rotate working with each other based on what each couple picks for their own wedding/availability. When we were at our pre-wedding meeting, it was so cute to see how they addressed Zulaika like family with cheek kisses and each other with hugs. I cannot express how passionately I feel that if you are planning a wedding in Aruba, just book Aruban vendors! I literally love them all and they were so perfect–each and every one of them. Straight up no complaints from me on any of our vendors. I only have glowing reviews for each of them.
We booked all our vendors through Zulaika and the Renaissance with the exception of Marta and Sebastian. There was an outside vendor fee of $500 for Little Island Stories/Sebastian. She took care of everything else and we paid through a Marriott website link. Okay, I stress this way more in my ‘How to Plan a Destination Wedding’ guide, but THIS IS THE BEST PART. We put everything on a Marriott credit card, and got 17x the points for each dollar we spent because the charges come in from Marriott. Our grand total bill from Marriott/The Renaissance came to around $50,000. This included the venue, food, an open bar, the photography, the DJ, a 360-photo booth, all the flowers, transportation to and from the island, and probably more that I can’t think of right now.
Yes, it is hella expensive, but it was for 100 people on a private island in Aruba??? You truly get what you pay for with this one. Oh, AND did I mention we got 17x the points per dollar spent? Do the math bby. We are about to go on a $50,000 honeymoon ALLL on points.
Getting Ready | Marta Colell Makeup
We only booked two vendors outside of the Renaissance: our videographer and hair & makeup. Based on the fantastic recommendations of ‘Aruba Brides’ on Facebook, I was pointed to Marta Colell and her team for hair and makeup. Marta herself is a famous Spanish makeup artist living in Aruba. I told her she was famous and she laughed at me lol, but she really is killing the influencer game! I need to take a page out of her book for the PTO Pal’s insta, but alas, I am lazy and work a 9-5. She has 50k followers on Insta and over 65k subscribers on her makeup tutorial YouTube channel. I wish I spoke Spanish or Papiamento, because I want to learn from her videos LOL. She is the GOAT and I have never felt more beautiful than on my wedding day after she did my makeup. Her team rolled up to our Airbnb in force and they brought four or five people and suitcases on suitcases of products. They set up in the dining room of our Airbnb and it was good because there was more room for them to work than in a typical hotel room. Marta and her team took their time, and they were able to add one of my bridesmaids to the list on the day of–-totally my bad, because I miscounted. Either way, they were SO accommodating. Marta also uses the good ‘ish, like Dior makeup. Every other wedding I have been a bridesmaid has used like Elf products/that price range.
They were SO fun and kept laughing hysterically and yelling in Spanish (maybe at us?) the whole time. Our group was wild too, so it was a good (and loud) mix. Also, it was the girl doing my hair’s birthday! A great day for all! We LOVED Marta and her team!
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Wedding Fit!!
Here are my outfit details for our wedding! I absolutely LOVED my dress and ended up randomly ordering online from Anthro’s clearance section final sale for $300. Talk about risky lol, but it ended up fitting like a glove and being my favorite dress of all the ones I tried on (and least expensive), go me!
Wedding Dress: Watters Design
Wedding Shoes: Loeffler Randall
Engagement Ring: Midtown Jewelers
Wedding Band: Midtown Jewelers
Earrings: Gorjana
Necklace: Gorjana
Tennis Bracelet: Wedding gift from the new hubs!
Reception Dress: Anthropologie
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Photography | ARTN Photography
Our photo and video team arrived at the Airbnb and it was time to get this party started! We were incredibly fortunate to have ARTN Photography capture our special day. Artyon and Sharity are an *almost* husband/wife duo that take the BEST pictures ever. I am super picky about the style of how I wanted our pictures to look, and they were our #1 choice for photography services, so I am so happy they were available on our date. Their keen eye for detail and artistic vision brought our wedding dreams to life. Their professionalism and creativity were evident in every photograph, and we are eternally grateful for the beautiful memories they preserved.
We invited them to join us on Jolly Pirates before our wedding and by the time we got to our wedding, we already decided they were more like friends than hired vendors. When we got our pictures back, we were so surprised that Art and Sharity had given us pictures of our Jolly Pirates event for free. We did not expect that at all, and it just shows how kind and special of people they are.
Art has been a photographer since he was a teenager, so he is SUPER experienced. From the first phone call we had with him, he had ideas on everything we were trying to bring to life in our wedding photos. Sharity is the sweetest person ever, and she ensured my hair, outfit, and everything was perfect for photos throughout the entire wedding day. She was also our second shooter and some of my favorite photos were from her shots. Sharity also kept soooo calm when we were running behind on our schedule and her calm demeanor relaxed me so much and I wanted to hug her. I am SOOOO happy for them on their upcoming wedding and I loved having them as our wedding photographers. When we got our pictures back, I actually cried because I love them so much. All my friends commented on how fantastic they turned out and I cannot be more satisfied with them and ARTN Photo. I could go on and on about my positive experience with these two. I love these guys! There are several other amazing photographers on the island, but if you can, please try to book ARTN Photo asap, because they book up quickly!
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Videography | Little Island Stories
Sebastian was actually the first vendor we booked, because I was obsessed with the idea of having a wedding video. My parents never did one and I wish they did!!! I am so excited to get ours back, because I know it is going to be good. Sebastian’s work online speaks for himself and I loved his style. He truly is talented at what he does. On top of that, he is super personable, professional, and organized. All my friends loved him and talked about how adorable he was all night.
Watch our wedding video here:
Private Vows on the Island
Before the grand ceremony, we exchanged private vows in a secluded area of the island, surrounded by lush greenery and the gentle crashing of waves behind us. This intimate moment allowed us to express our deepest emotions and promises to each other without the pressure of a large audience. The heartfelt words we shared strengthened our bond and created a lasting memory of our love. As we stood hand-in-hand, we felt a sense of peace and anticipation for the beautiful journey that lay ahead. I surprised Noah with a puppy and he got me a diamond tennis bracelet for our wedding gifts. Shhh I don’t want to hear it–he won. Sorry Pippa…
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Waiting to get married
Here are my tips for the ‘day of’ when you get on Renaissance Island!
Sit under the roof of the boat and ask them to drive SUPER slow so you don’t get wet. Zulaika ensured this was the case, but you are on a boat, so some of y’all will get wet. My dad and bridesmaids outside of the roof got a little soggy. They were all good sports about it though and it made the experience more fun.
Bring a curling iron!! This was literally the best thing ever? Thank you to my angel bridesmaid Mia who ended up bringing one. With this, we were able to touch up all of our curls right before the ceremony in the little air conditioned gym room they put you in.
Ask your family (if you want pics with extended members) to come early on the public resort guest boats to the island. This helps you not have to hire a catamaran if you go over on people (they only give you up to a certain amount of boats). Also, having lost some family near and dear to me at a young age, these pictures will mean everything to you one day. Def do this if you have time in your schedule!
Just take your photos in front of the little green bushes outside the gym. This makes interchanging your people for photos quite easy and everyone can be in air-conditioning in between. The lighting is great and all your other photos will be in front of the beach/ocean so why not switch it up? If there are photos you really want with your wedding party in front of the ocean, do it after the ceremony.
By doing all your photos before the ceremony, it allows for you to get more photos one-on-one with your new spouse after the ceremony and your wedding party to be dismissed immediately to cocktail hour. We even made it to the end of cocktail hour which was a great joy. Once we got to cocktail hour, we made our rounds to say hello to each and every guest as a new couple. I am super glad we did this at this time because the rest of the night was quite packed.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Our Ceremony
A couple months before our wedding, we asked Noah’s dad to officiate our wedding. Having him officiate our wedding was a truly special touch and he took his job VERY seriously. He has always been a kind and wise figure in Noah’s life and now mine, and we were honored to have him lead our ceremony. His heartfelt words, infused with personal anecdotes and blessings, made our special day even more meaningful. It was a heartwarming moment to see him standing at the altar, sharing his love and support for us. His presence added a unique and personal touch to our wedding, creating a lasting memory for us and our guests. Super big thank you to our friends Will & Andrew for recording this on my camcorder. Watch it on YouTube here.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Ceremony & Reception Decor | Shars Flowers
Shars Flowers did our flowers for the wedding and I was OBSESSED! The bridal bouquet was a breathtaking masterpiece, crafted with stunning colorful tropical flowers that really popped against the champagne color we chose for our wedding. The bridesmaids' bouquets were smaller versions of the bridal bouquet, showcasing a similar color palette and floral choices. Each bouquet was a work of art, adding a touch of beauty and a pop of color to the wedding day.
The tropical flowers for our arch, the centerpieces, and our sweetheart table added a vibrant and exotic touch to the decor. We were able to reuse the arch flowers for the sweetheart table, which was apparently the norm at the Renaissance. The vibrant colors and fragrant blooms created a stunning visual display, transporting guests to a tropical paradise. Our guests loved how the centerpieces were high up and open so they could freely talk through the tables.
For our seating chart, I tried to be crafty and do a postcard situation, but this again proved too technically and logistically difficult for me. I pre-made everything and prestrung everything, but when I tried to put it up on the gold arch I bought, it immediately blew away in the Aruba windiness. I also forgot to put the Aruba postage stamps on the postcards…even though I took a trip to the post office and spent $100 on postage. This was a failure, but somehow the amazing Renaissance team resurrected it and it looked great on our wedding day, albeit without stamps to actually mail the postcards.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Dinner & Drinks
I personally think we picked great options for our wedding. I really am a bad judge of this part though, because I am a vegetarian and Noah picked all the options with fish/meat. The culinary experience at our wedding was a delightful affair. Our guests complimented the food, so I think everyone enjoyed it. I LOVED my butternut squash ravioli, and Noah devoured his steak. The open bar offered a wide selection of premium spirits, fine wines, and handcrafted cocktails. I wish I knew the head of the catering’s name, because he is a rockstar! When planning your tips out, make sure to include a separate tip for the head caterer. He refused to take the tip we gave for the food & drink team, so when we go back to Aruba for our anniversary trip, he will be getting what he deserves! He was amazing.
One thing about the Renaissance wedding open bar is that they ~allow~ the ordering of shots. I was super sober by the time dancing started, so whoever’s idea it was to start ordering green tea shots for everyone, thank you? Once people started ordering shots from the bar, it was game over for everyone and things got out of control pretty quickly…in the best way, because it was time to start dancing anyway.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Island Dance Party/Rave | DJ Ruuben
Okay, Ruuben deserves his own blog post or maybe a book about him? He is SUCH a character and truly a gem of a human being. He was literally born to be a wedding DJ and to work with people. One of my bridesmaids swears she is flying Ruuben to Colorado whenever she decides to get married one day. There is also a photo of Art (our photographer) and Ruuben when they are like teenagers and that just goes to show that all the vendors are besties and they have been working together forever. Ruuben also joined us on the pirate party boat and I was so glad he was able to join us, because our friends got to know him before the wedding. All our guests loved him and he was so fun and funny all wedding week. He kept everyone on the dancefloor all night and met our vibes to a perfect ‘T’. Some things about booking the beloved DJ Ruuben:
He books up FAST!
He allows you to buy gobies before the wedding, which are little attachments for his lights that can project special messages or logos on the sand/trees throughout the wedding. This looked SO cool on all the palm trees and was definitely a good investment.
BUY the sparklers! Okay, tbh I don’t even remember selecting these for our wedding package and I thought they were only going to go off like once while we did our first dance, but NO. These babies shot off alllllllll night. The pictures turned out so cool with them. Also, our guests are insane because they kept running and jumping over the fire from the sparklers? Too many green tea shots?
You do not need the extra dancefloor! This is a cost that can be cut out if you are looking for ways to save money. They just sweep off the concrete under the sand and it is a dance floor in itself.
Ruuben streams all his weddings live to YouTube. This is extra funny to watch back upon and he ended up making and posting a ton of amazing Instagram reels of our wedding to his account.
Loves Disney. Get Ruuben a Disney-themed thank you gift or card haha.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
What a night
At some point after several green tea shots, Ruuben allowed me to make an announcement to the entire wedding that everyone needed to jump into the “sea”. After the last dance, we all jumped into the ocean and it was the greatest thing ever. In hindsight, this prevented a lot of my wedding party from continuing on the night at the casino because they were all wet.
After the wedding, the Renaissance team packaged up all our crap in RECORD time, and we boarded the boat back to the resort. This was so fun and chaotic because everyone was a little toasty and we were bouncing up and down in the waves.
We went on to the casino and I definitely should have just went to bed, because the casino manager tried to kick me out like three times for being too loud in the bathroom. It was messy… We also forgot to put our free breakfast note on the door in time when we got back.
Going home…big sad
The next day we woke up super late, received no free breakfast, and got a text from United that our flight was delayed. Honestly, whoopdeedoo we had the best night of our lives. After requesting a late checkout, we laid in bed all day. The excitement and joy of the previous day lingered in the air, but the reality of returning home soon set in. As we packed our suitcases and prepared to leave our house for the week, we couldn't help but feel sad. We cherished the memories of our special day and looked forward to reliving them through the beautiful photographs and videos. Despite the sadness of saying goodbye, we were grateful for the love and support of our family and friends, and we couldn't wait to embark on our new life together.
While we were packing, we got ANOTHER text from United that we were delayed even more, but also that US Customs was closing at 4:00 pm. We had to book it to the airport and we made it to customs in time.
Because my bouquet was so beautiful, I decided I should smuggle it back to the United States. My mother being the very rule-following angel that she is, made me declare it at customs. When I went up to customs, they were so nice and let me bring my bouquet home without even opening my suitcase. Had I known I would have been allowed to bring it home, I would have booked a preservation service already. Ultimately it was too late to do so, but it was nice that I got to enjoy my stunning bouquet on my kitchen counter for the week after the wedding.
We were soooo delayed, but it was okay, because I had all my friends and family flying back to Dulles with me and there was a wine bar in the airport. Despite the lounge and all the other shops closing, homeboy at the wine bar stayed open for us and made us Aperol Spritzes all evening.
We finally made it home in the middle of the night and I was so glad to kiss my sweet baby Butters after a week apart. It was truly the best trip and experience ever and I felt and still feel so blessed.
Photo © 2024 by Ayrton Tromp. All rights reserved.
Looking Back on Our Wedding
Reminiscing on our destination wedding in Aruba, we are filled with gratitude for the love, laughter, and unforgettable memories that were created. The crystal-clear waters, pristine beaches, and vibrant culture created the perfect backdrop for our special day. I literally have no regrets about our wedding. We went wayyy over budget, as I did not expect as many people to come as they did, and it was unreal. Now with all the money we spent, we are so excited to enjoy our honeymoon on the credit card points…the Maldives here we come!
