For destination wedding couple Carla and Tad, it was all the little romantic touches at the Bucuti Beach Resort in Aruba that made their trip so memorable. Carla says, “Breakfast was included in our package and was excellent way to start the morning. Upon arrival we had a champagne toast. In our room was a welcome/congratulation basket, including chocolates, champagne, cheese and other various gifts.” Their ground room floor was just a few feet from the ocean, with a spectacular view. 

They thought the beach front location was perfect and found the staff friendly and helpful. Carla says it was “well worth the money.”

She adds, “We would recommend this honeymoon to others because, the food was excellent, the sunsets gorgeous, the beach was very peaceful. The Bucuti staff goes above and beyond to make your stay the best it can be.” 

A huge thank you to Carla and Tad for sharing their story and photos. They’re a stunning couple who look like they had a perfect intimate wedding in the Caribbean. Carla says, “It was to date the best vacation experience we have had. We can’t wait to go back.” I hope for them that they make an anniversary trip soon!

Carla and Tad didn’t jump back on the plane to Oklahoma immediately after their gorgeous April beach front wedding. They took a few long days for honeymoon romance and relaxation. Carla says, “We spent a majority of our time relaxing on the beautiful Bucuti Resort beach. We took walks down the beach and watched the sunset most evenings.”

They did a little exploring outside the resort, “We took an all island tour and visited the local landmarks. We really enjoyed seeing the island. We also shopped at the local open air market. Which was a great place to buy souvenirs. Downtown had some great shopping as well.”

A few evenings they took one of the local shuttle buses from Eagle Beach where the resort is located to nearby Palm Beach, which has a lot of the bigger hotels and tons of shops and dining options.

She adds, “We had a great sunset meal at a downtown restaurant called Pelican’s Nest on Pelican Pier. Our table was on the water. We watched the fish surface looking for food. It was a great experience and the seafood was amazing.”

They also loved Pizza Bob’s right near Bucuti Beach Resort. She says, “It was a great little pizza shack located within walking distance of the Bucuti. They had great pizza and was a great place to have a cocktail. Some nights they even had live music.”

Immediately following their beach ceremony, Carla and Tad’s romantic destination wedding continued with an intimate dinner for two on Bucuti Beach Resort’s oceanfront.

Carla says the evening was perfect, “We danced on the beach with music from a private saxophonist. And enjoyed a beautiful romantic private sunset dinner.”

The resort will cater a reception tailored for each wedding they host. Waiters serve meals to guests at tables set up in the sand. They can easily accommodate a reception for 30 guests. Though most often their destination weddings are just the happy couple themselves, enjoying champagne and their first meal as a married couple.

There’s really no question for Carla and Tad about the best part of their trip to Bucuti Beach Resort in Aruba. She says, “Our most romantic moment was our wedding ceremony held on the beach at sunset.”

The staff of the resort helps to coordinate all the wedding details, including arranging for the ceremony officiant. Carla adds that they “loved the beautiful, peaceful setting” and thought Bucuti had the “perfect beach front location.”

I love how happy they look exchanging rings. Check back tomorrow to see the sweet reception they had immediately following the ceremony.

When Tad & Carla Bohlen decided to tie the knot in an intimate destination wedding, they started to do a lot of research. He’s a director of manufacturing and she’s a personal trainer
 in Owasso, OK. At first they considered Antigua and Mexico for their beach wedding. But after what Carla calls “extensive research on island weddings,” they discovered Bucuti Beach Resort on Eagle Beach in Aruba.

This small resort – with 140 guest rooms – is a couples-only destination that caters to romantic travel and on-site weddings. They’ve been consistently rated one of the Caribbean’s most romantic spots by bridal magazines and site like TripAdvisor. Their on-site wedding coordinator Nashette Wouters helps couples plan all of the details of their wedding.

Carla and Tad absolutely loved their sunset ceremony and the stay at Bucuti. The gorgeous destination and the attentive staff helped create a memorable trip. Carla says that Nashette, “made every detail of our wedding perfect. She went above and beyond our expectations.”

We’ll wrap up this week’s review of Bucuti Beach Resort in Aruba with a peak into some of their best outdoor spots. One of the cutest little details that the resort staff told me about was the photos they take for guests on their beautiful beach. They had seen so many guests trying to take pictures of themselves that they now offer to set up a time during check-in to meet the couple on the beach – sunset is popular – to snap a few images of the happy couples together.

Because the resort wanted to dedicate as much of their property to the beach as possible (they’ve got one of the biggest areas of white sand along Eagle Beach) so they kept their pool small. Ample beds and lounge chairs line patio. Just a few steps away are the pool and the bar.

The Sand Bar is the resort’s open-air spot for cocktails. The outdoor tables are also a great spot for meals from The Pirate’s Nest restaurant. My visit to Bucuti was wrapping up just as happy hour was starting (great timing, I know) so my tour guide Nashette Wouters invited me to stay for a drink.

The incredibly charming bartender whipped me up something delicious with pineapple, strawberries and rum. (My job was to swirl the glass while he poured.) Many, many thanks to Nashette and the rest of the staff for showing me around this gorgeous, couples-only resort.

Stay tuned next week when we meet a real life couple – Carla and Tad – who share their own wedding and honeymoon experience at Bucuti.

As I mentioned earlier this week, Bucuti Beach Resort’s on-site wedding coordinator Nashette Wouters does an amazing job at helping couples pull together the perfect romantic destination wedding. She works with local vendors to get a perfect cake – or cup cakes – for the intimate receptions.

Above are images of bouquets and boutineers from real weddings held at Bucuti. In addition, Nashette always gives her couples the option to mix in Aruban wedding traditions to their ceremony or reception. This could mean adding local foods to the dinner menu, dancing the first dance to a traditional Aruba waltz played by a classical trio, or serving a traditional Aruban groom’s cake (small bite of fruit cake soaked in rum).

Some couples come to Aruba for a destination wedding with no guests. Just bride, groom and the sunset. Those couples usually follow their ceremony with photos and then a quiet, romantic dinner for two in the sand. Other couples come with up to 50 guests and are treated to a reception at tables on the beach with waiter service all evening.

Bucuti Beach Resort in Aruba isn’t a huge place, which helps make the stay more intimate. Their 140 rooms range from basic-but-nice to the more extravagant penthouse suites, which have balconies like the one above. The outdoors space give great views of the beach, ocean and the Pirate’s Nest restaurant with the masts of the ship visible on the right. A full breakfast buffet at the restaurant is included for all rooms.

The penthouse suites also have amazing bathrooms with beautiful soaking tubs, perfect for a romantic honeymoon evening.

Even the most basic rooms at Bucuti are welcoming and comforatble. Most rooms feature a king bed and a private balcony.

Guest are often welcomed with a bottle of wine or bubbly in the room. Honeymooners each get a glass of champagne during check-in (talk about starting the trip off right!) and are encouraged to sit down and relax right away. Nashette usually greets the couples and welcomes them personally. The hotel staff escorts them to their rooms and they’re greeted with treats like chocolate or cheese and crackers.

All of the balconies at Bucuti face either the beach and Caribbean Sea or the peaceful and quiet landscaped garden.

Since I started this site in Fall 2009, I had been hearing about Bucuti Beach Resort and how it was the most romantic spot in the Caribbean. Being familiar with Aruba, I knew the place and the strip of gorgeous Eagle Beach on which it’s located. But what was all the fuss about? Why is this the place for a destination wedding? One visit with wedding coordinator Nashette Wouters made it clear.

Nashette, pictured above, greeted with the warm, friendly attitude most Arubans share. But her calm vibe shouldn’t fool you, she means business when it comes to helping couples plan a dream wedding in the Caribbean. She walked me through the many details she oversees to make wedding planning a breeze and let the to-be-weds focus on each other.

Nashette works with the couples via phone, email and Skype to help make arrangements with local recommended vendors in Aruba. She tries to custom tailor each wedding to the couple’s wishes. I can imagine that for a bride-to-be it’s a huge relief to know you’ve got someone so reliable and thorough on the ground overseeing things while you’re thousands of miles away. If you want an intimate ceremony for two or a festive reception with candle-lit tables in the sand, Nashette can whip it up for you.

Nashette also helps arrange important practical details like booking accommodations for guests and obtaining proper certificates. A couple’s guests often stay at Bucuti, but Nashette is happy to help find rooms at other nearby hotels as well, especially for those with children since the resort is a couples’ only location. (The kiddos are of course invited to the ceremonies and receptions.)

Some couples get legally married at home and have just a symbolic ceremony in Aruba. But for those who want their destination wedding to be the real deal, Nashette arranges for all the documents to be sent to Aruba about a month prior. On the big day, she personally escorts the happy couple to City Hall in Oranjestad for their marriage license.

Check back the rest of the week to learn about the little, thoughtful touches the Bucuti adds to a destination wedding or honeymoon to make the trip truly memorable and seriously romantic.