Haiku Mill - please enlighten me? (a little long)

jwheatie12

So here's an excerpt of the blurb I got from Haiku Mill re:  site fees, etc.:

"We provide all coordination services in house with our own staff and vendors.   We are pleased to offer you our wide selection of unique and interesting wedding services and wonderful amenities, including specialty linens, flowers, custom bar services, the best photographers available and more... We charge a 20% coordination fee to put on a flawless and stress-free event for you and your guests.  Your coordination willl help organize every aspect of your wedding from caterers to linens to music and wedding cake."

This is very strange to me.  Anyone know what the dealio is? 

Do you have to use them to coordinate (and thus charge the 20% fee on all your vendors?)?  That just puts a really bad taste in my mouth.

When I asked the woman (Sylvia I think) on the phone about it, she really squirmed, and said something to the effect of "we don't want vendors who don't know the site, etc...."  But she didn't actually come right out and say no you can't hire your own vendors.

Anyway, it all sounds really fishy and shifty to me, and I hate to say that as, like many, I think the site looks beautiful.

Haven't written it off yet, but I need someone to convince me not to!

Olowalu is starting to look really good to me right now...

carrieoz_76

MiniWheats just got married there - maybe she'll have some good advice for you.

fabutan

Hmmm....that does sound fishy.  My guess is that hiring your own vendors, or at least your own coordinator is actually allowed.  I don't have direct experience with this site, but I know MiniWheats used her own coordinator on-site.

I also HATE the 20% coordination fee tacked onto vendors!  Is it me, or does it make no sense when a bride actually does the leg-work and research for hiring a vendor and a coordinator just gets the 20% anyway?  Plus, I don't understand why it's a percentage and not a flat fee for each additional vendor.  Sorry this is becoming a bit of a rant, hehe  

kaesha

Aaaaand that's one of the reasons I didn't hire a coordinator.

jwheatie12

I sent an email to Allie, the coordinator there, and was pretty direct in my questioning about this.  I tried to be polite too, but sometimes you just have to cut to the chase. 

I'll let you know what I find out.

I think the thing is I just don't like their hard-sell, strongarm approach to making you think you have to hire them to do the coordinating.  It really seems so greedy to me, and I'm not sure I want to get married, or give my business to a place that has that kind of vibe...(sigh).

pueo

This was the main reason I didn't end up choosing this venue.  There was a lot of "fishiness" in all of my communication with them.  I was left with a bad taste in my mouth.  I believe they will let you use an outside coordinator, but they don't want to come out and say that because they prefer to get the 20% coordination fee themselves. If you really want to use the venue, I would find a coordinator that charges a flat fee and have them book it for you.

MiniWheats

I just got married there last week and used Lori Lawrence to coordinate.  I also brought many vendors that weren't on the Mill's list including Frank Amodo from Oahu and Cloud Nine Creative from Vancouver.  I would NOT use the Mills coordination services for many reasons.  PM me if you want more info on why, I am always confused as to what we are allowed to write about bad vendors on here.

monnnster

I thought it was me!
We visited the Mill in March and had a similar experience. 
My impression was that Slyvia, the owner, really loves her place, and really wants to share it with her guests, while Allie is the WC and more busisness. I loved the site and felt very comfortable with them.
Then I received the same email.  It really did disapoint me, as I really don't want to afford a WC in my budget.  Another weird thing:  when I was first talking to Sylvia about using the mill for our wedding, her first question was, "are you local?"  oooh, so frustrating!
Olomalu was beautiful, but there was a big puddle in the middle of the lawn and the woman did not come out to see us or give a wave even though she knew we were coming to just look around and we could physically see her in the house. weird!

MiniWheats

Oh I forgot to say that on top of the rental fee (which is $4500) and the 20% coordination, they also charge $200 to rent the bridal suite, $300 to use their ipod dock and $200 to have an onsite person as a representative.  In our case the "onsite representative"  was Sylvia who is a very lovely lady but sat with my guests at my reception and talked about her love life. Very unprofessional in my eyes.  

Our day was amazing and I wouldn't change it now but it was very expensive and very stressful to work with them.

jwheatie12

That's so funny, when I first saw the photos of the site, I said to my FI "What's the catch?"  I guess now we know...  No venue is perfect, not even in paradise.

Just from speaking with Sylvia for 10 minutes, I can totally picture her sitting at one of your guest tables chattin' up the peeps. LOL.

But you did it!  And it was beautiful wedding, with a beautiful couple!  : )   Yay!

Congrats again.

jwheatie12

So I haven't heard back from the Mill yet, but I spoke with a maui wc (probably better if i don't mention who) who said she thinks they may decide in the (near?) future to not allow outside wc's to be used in conjunction with the site.  I guess currently they do allow a select few to be used currently (I know that Lori of TMW is one).  In that case they apparently do not charge the 20% coordination fee.  But again, that may change at some future date.

As an aside, the wc I spoke with thinks that the site, while beautiful, is pretty high-maintainence.  I guess because of the higher possibility of rain, things get more complicated, and more complicated means more $$...

Hope this helps.