Today we are sharing about our Aruba vow renewal. When we first got married we vowed to go on a yearly “honeymoon” to celebrate our anniversary. We felt this would be a great way to prioritize our relationship, celebrate the year we’ve spent together, and create wonderful new memories. We went to Bora Bora for our honeymoon, Costa Rica for our 1st anniversary, and Colombia for our 2nd anniversary. We were planning to celebrate our 3rd anniversary in France, Spain, and Iceland, but unfortunately had to cancel the epic trip due to a family emergency. We’ve been no stranger to family emergencies and have had many difficult experiences during our 3 years of marriage. Many of which have overshadowed a joyful event, for example, my mom passed away two weeks after our wedding and the day after my birthday. Watching our wedding video that first year or looking at photos of our wedding was more about reminiscing about my mom rather than reliving our special day. Also, I’m still working on being able to separate my birthday from the anniversary of my mom’s passing and that has caused us to have less than enjoyable experiences together each year on my birthday.

Beyond that, we’ve also just had a lot of demands on our time from our family that have often interfered with things we’ve wanted to do for ourselves. We’ve been working really hard over the past few months to learn to prioritize our twosome no matter what else is happening around us and we didn’t want our 3rd year anniversary to be another milestone in our relationship that was overlooked because of something else we had to attend to.

Our trip to Aruba to renew our vows wasn’t supposed to be for our anniversary, it was actually planned for 3 months after our anniversary and just a wonderful experience we were going to get the opportunity to participate in. The timeline ended up working out perfectly as it was the first chance we really had to be able to breathe and take a few days to spend with each other with no one else needing us. We decided what a perfect way to belated celebrate our anniversary than by renewing our vows on the beach in Aruba. It was truly a magical experience and one we really needed. It’s amazing how the universe sometimes knows exactly what you need and brings it into your path.

We wanted to share our special Aruba vow renewal experience with you, as well as answer all the questions we received about the Aruba vow renewal and why we were renewing our vows just 3 years in. Read on for all the details!

Our Aruba Vow Renewal Experience

Thank you to Aruba Tourism Authority for inviting us to say #ArubaIDo and experience the Caribbean’s largest beach vow renewal

What is the Aruba vow renewal?

Aruba is a beautiful Caribbean island off the coast of Venezuela. The romantic island attracts many honeymooners and couples looking for a romantic getaway. Many couples renew their vows on the island year around. Beginning in 2017, the island began hosting the Caribbean’s largest group vow renewal. The vow renewal is held in August on Eagle Beach, which was voted the #4 beach in the world by TripAdvisor. We can see why its #4, with the unbelievably soft sandy shores and sparkling clear blue water. The sunsets on Eagle Beach absolutely blew us away. We can’t imagine a more beautiful location to say “I do – again”.

The vow renewal is non denominational and open to any and all couples. There were couples participating who had only been married 2 days and couples who had been married over 60 years! It was so inspiring to see hundreds of different people with one thing in common – their commitment to their marriage.

The event is complimentary and includes: a welcome gift, transportation to and from the ceremony, participation in the ceremony, refreshments, and entertainment. Reservations are strongly encouraged, but not required. There were several couples who happened to be passing by and joined in spontaneously. Many hotels in Aruba offer special vow renewal packages.

You can get more information about the vow renewal and RSVP for the next one HERE

Did it feel intimate even though it was a group renewal?

Surprisingly, yes! I wasn’t sure if it would feel intimate and worried it might be a bit impersonal, but it didn’t feel that way at all. The vow renewal leader gave a very moving speech that really seemed to resonate with the hundreds of couples there. He also lead the group in romantic vows that we each said to our partners and he gave a few seconds at the end in case we wanted to add anything else to our partner. The couples kissed their partners at the end and were then proclaimed: still married! This got a bit of a laugh from the group, but it was nice to have a little but of humor in the middle of such an intense and deeply sentimental moment.

This is a bit cheesy, but it kind of felt like all the love that was surrounding us just intensified the experience even more. We were in one huge love bubble and for a few hours, it felt like love was strong enough to do anything. As soon as we all said our vows, dancers came out and kicked off the party and everyone cheered, danced, and celebrated. I kind of felt like I was high on love! It was an unreal experience and kind of hard to describe. Definitely something we encourage you to experience for yourself!

Something really nice about a group renewal is the scale of it. If we had our own personal renewal it would be really simple and while there is beauty in simplicity, this kind of felt like a mini wedding! The event took up a large part of the island, there were dancers and a band, passed appetizers, champagne, and the most incredible sunset. That’s not something we could’ve planned on our own. It was so amazing to kick off the romantic and intimate portion of saying our vows with a dance party on the beach, set to a background of the most incredible sunset we’ve ever experienced. A once in a lifetime opportunity!

To really enhance how intimate it feels, make sure to take some time on your own. At one point in the night we grabbed glasses of champagne and snuck away from the group to enjoy a private moment. That was really important for us and helped make it extra intimate and romantic. We also said a few of our own vows to each other at this time.

Why renew your vows?

I personally really love the idea of a vow renewal. I think it’s such a great way of celebrating your commitment to each other and reaffirming your vows to one another. Everyday life can get really busy and we often don’t tell our loved ones enough how much we appreciate them and honor our relationship with them. A vow renewal is such a great way of prioritizing the relationship, setting aside sacred time for it, and engaging in a special event to really honor the relationship.

A vow renewal can be done for a specific occasion, like maybe an anniversary. It can be done after a particularly difficult event or season in a relationship. It can also just be done anytime! There doesn’t need to be a reason to tell your partner how much you still value them and how committed you are to your marriage. It’s so incredibly romantic to say to someone, I’ve seen the best and the worst of you, and I still do. Saying “I do” after having walked through difficult parts of life together is even more romantic and intimate in my eyes than saying “I do” when you’re still in the butterfly stages of love.

While a vow renewal can be meaningful for anyone, I think it can be particularly meaningful for those whose love languages are words of affirmation or quality time. {Learn about love languages here}

This quote says it perfectly: “I didn’t fall in love with you. I walked into love with you, with my eyes wide open, choosing to take every step along the way. I do believe in fate and destiny, but I also believe we are only fated to do the things that we’d choose anyway. And I’d choose you; in a hundred lifetimes, in a hundred worlds, in any version of reality, I’d find you and I’d choose you.” ~Kiersten White, The Chaos of Stars

Why renew your vows after only 3 years of marriage?

I always thought I’d want to renew our vows every 10 years or so. I never thought we’d renew our vows so early in our marriage and Bassam and I both felt a bit embarrassed to tell people we were renewing our vows after just 3 years. That being said, I now realize there is a lot of value in renewing your vows even early on in your marriage. Even though we’ve been together for over 15 years, being married really challenged us. We are really different people and it can be easy to let those differences separate us. We’ve done a lot of work to figure out how to use those differences to make us better, rather than tear us apart. We still have a long way to go, but I’m proud of what we’ve learned so far.

We’ve gone through A LOT together in the past 3 years, including one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to go through in my life. I knew when we were married that we’ve go through hard times together but I didn’t REALLY know what that meant until it happened. I didn’t really understand just how much it would challenge us and how much it would push us and our relationship until we went through it.

I married Bassam 3 years ago knowing that I loved him more than anyone in the world and knowing that I wanted to live my life with him. I renewed my vows to him understanding what unconditional love means and knowing how hard it actually can be. I said “I do – again” with a full understanding of what I was saying “I do” to. The good, the bad, the frustrating, the magical, all of it. Marriage is an intense experience. Pledging your life to someone else, through the good and the bad, is a huge commitment. And learning how to merge two very different lives together is difficult. 100% magical and worth it, but also more difficult than anyone ever tells you!

Every year I learn more about myself, our relationship, and marriage. Every year I learn more of what the words in our vows really mean. Every year those vows become more of an action and not just words. Because of that, I’m no longer embarrassed to admit we renewed our vows 3 years in, because it’s not “only” 3 years, it’s 3 years of so much growth and so much of putting our vows into action. I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished together in those 3 years and that’s worthy of renewing our vows for.

For our 3 year anniversary, we asked 36 couples ranging from married 3-48 years to share their best marriage advice. You can read that HERE

Would you do it again?

100% yes! Bassam and I contemplated making it a part of our annual anniversary and renewing our vows on every “honeymoon” trip! It was such a beautiful way to boost our bond and prioritize our relationship. We would LOVE to be able to make it back to Aruba to participate in their annual vow renewal again someday! Such a beautiful and magical experience!

Have you ever renewed your vows? Where would you want to renew your vows?

Read more about planning an Aruba honeymoon HERE

Visit the official Aruba vow renewal website HERE

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