How Andreas & Michelle met:  We met in High School, Plano East Senior High. We both went to different colleges, Dre went to Baylor and I went to TCU, but we stayed together the entire time.

The Wedding Day
Wedding date: December 16, 2016
Number of guests: 46
Wedding colours: Blush, champagne, ivory & a mix of greys
Advice to others: Having a good support group of friends and family is helpful.  Having a great team behind you is even more helpful. At the end of the day, it’s your wedding day.  Don’t sweat the small things, because your guests probably won’t even notice.  Enjoy it.. because it goes by so fast.

Wedding Details
Ceremony location: Renaissance Island – Flamingo Beach
Reception location: Renaissance Island – Iguana Beach
Why did you choose this location for your wedding? I always wanted to be married on the beach, something about your toes in the sand with the blue water behind you. I originally wanted Hawaii, but with half of our guests coming from Sweden, that would have been a 22 hour flight. So the Caribbean was the next obvious choice. When it came down to costs and resort options, Aruba was the winner. There is always a chance of bystanders with an outdoor wedding and I didn’t particularly love that thought. The Renaissance was able to offer the privacy and intimacy I was after, it was a no brainer once we saw the island.
Michelle’s gown: Martina Liana
Andreas’ outfit: Men’s Warehouse
Bridesmaids dresses: A mix & match in our wedding colour scheme
Groomsmen attire: Men’s Warehouse
Wedding song:  From the Ground Up by Dan + Shay
Signature drink: Island Rum Punch
Music: DJ for the reception, and a special performance by Andreas’ family band during cocktail hour
Flowers: A mix of blush, ivory and champagne flowers and greenery for the loose garden style bouquets, completed with long ribbons in our wedding colours! For the head table we added some greenery, we want to keep everything very romantic and natural looking.
Photographer: Our photographer was Tracy Enoch, and stylist was Meggie Francisco
Hair: JenniVe
Makeup: JenniVe
Stationery/Invitations: The Crisp Petals suite by Wedding Paper Divas
Catering: Renaissance Aruba Resort and Casino

Is there anything else that helps tell the story of the day?  If I had to do it all over again, I would still choose destination.  Doing a destination wedding was no doubt the best choice.  Every single guest loved it and a few have even told us they were planning on taking another vacation to Aruba!

How great is this series of bouquet toss photos?!

Tell us about your experience working with LUXE:  You will quickly learn that planning a destination wedding is extremely frustrating when dealing with “island time”. Coming from the states and being extremely type A, it was difficult to wait for a response. Emily was able to step in and calm my nerves immediately. Even if she didn’t have an answer for me, she would respond letting me know she was on it. Having some form of communication is better than no reply at all. Emily was very considerate and kept me within my budget and letting me know where I could splurge or where she thought I should cut back. Emily has such a great eye and it was easy to imagine what she envisioned for me. I loved her input and suggestions. By the time I arrived at the destination, there wasn’t much to do except to do a walk through. The wedding was, by far, better than what I could have ever imagined.

Here are a couple of bonus shots from Andreas & Michelle’s engagement and Trash the Dress photo shoots with the extremely talented Tracy Enoch for you to enjoy!