Maui wedding on a budget

motomwed

Hi ladies,
I am in need of knowing what is an ideal budget for a Maui wedding?

 I have an estimated 50 guests. I am using a travel agent to figure out where the best part of the island to get married on, plus she is trying to find me the best deals in having a wedding, reception, honeymoon and guests stay all at the resorts of our choice. I have had a few friends that have had destination weddings and they all have done it the resort way on a budget of about 5-6K and around 75 people.

Although I would like to know if any of you who are planning your weddings in Maui have any better ideas to save and stick with a low budget? My budget right now is 5,000-6,000 for the whole wedding. I am also looking to have the cermony on the beach and reception inside with food and dancing! So any ideas are greatly appreciated!

Thank you all,
Monique

FSForever

Welcome! 

Is your budget for just the actual wedding? 

We are marrying on Po'olenalena Beach with our reception at Gannon's just up the hill. 

Susan has been great to work with and it fit for us wanting to be on the beach but not have to worry about a set up on a private estate. 

I have heard Merriman's is also a good place to wed on the beach and have a reception/dancing. 

We have a very tight budget. $15K total but that was to include everything. Our Wedding, the 5 days before, airfare, the HM and our At Home Reception. We will end up being close to $16K when it is all said and done. I added up just the wedding items, officiant, license, photography, brunch reception, TTD shoot, evening luau, welcome bbq, gifts for guests, attire, and invites, and it came to $6550 for 9 guests. Photography is probably the biggest expense and we are bringing our photographer with us to maximize the time he will be working.

Best advice I received on this site is to ask for a better deal. The worst someone can say is that it doesn't work for them. Pick and choose your splurges because they can really add up. Mine is two hair appts. the day of the wedding. For the price of a high end stylist for one visit I was able to work a deal for lower than they were charging and I am getting my two sessions. Are you a DIYer? We did all of our table decor, invites and guest gift bags. 

 I enjoy researching and booking my own travel so I don't use travel agents. We booked each of the wedding week condos through VRBO. I asked a few of the owners if they would give us a price break and about 90% came back with a better deal than they had posted. We booked our HM package through Costco. It gave us a lot of extras and we were able to make monthly payments. We are also using Costco for our Alcohol, Welcome BBQ and flowers. 

There are brides on this thread who have done their weddings in HI on a tight budget. It can be done but just make sure you do your research. 

Good luck and let us know how things are going. 

knockout7075

I'm sure you are already aware but prices in Hawaii are very high compared to the mainland. Be prepared to spend a little extra on things. Lots of people have sticker shock when they get here! I would say Oahu is a little less expensive than Maui so if that's an option you may want to look in to it. There are some parts of Oahu that aren't as crowded.

I would suggest trying to do as much as you can yourself. I don't really think a travel agent or wedding coordinator are absolutely necessary. Most travel deals you can find online as well as reviews. These boards are a great resource for you and many brides have written some great vendor reviews for Maui.  Check this site out that is linked at the top of this board: http://mauiweddingplanning.weebly.com/index.html also use tripadvisor and yelp for reviews.

I would stick to the Leeward (West) side of Maui where it tends to be drier or the Southern part. These two areas are where most of the action is. The official Hawaii website has some great information so check that out http://www.gohawaii.com/maui/experiences/wedding

Good luck and let us know if we can help in any way!

Ringer101

I think it really depends on what you want for your wedding.

For me, I want to have "good" videography and photography for 4 hours, which adds up to cost me $5000 already... I say "good" because those I really love would end up cost me much more than $6000 and it's just videography and photography... Also, I want our guests to have great food and enjoy their drinks (at least, they won't feel the food is not enough for them), which will cost me around $6k...

My wedding will have less than 50 guests and we'll probably spend around $20k for just the wedding itself.

DazzlingDeb23

If you are looking to do a simple beach wedding, I think it is definitely doable! But like the other brides said, be aware that EVERYTHING costs more when you put the word wedding next to it, and if you combine that with Maui, prices tend to add up.  You really just have to create a list of your must haves, and then work around that. 

marriedonmaui

FSForever, you are my exact wedding twin! How did it take me so long to notice this? AND you're getting married one day after our anniversary!

FSForever

Lol Brea, When I first joined the HI brides we were supposed to get married in June, but I never noticed either. Kind of freaking out as I am hearing it is an extreamly popular date. 

motomwed

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_hawaii_maui-wedding-on-a-budget?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:73Discussion:d2633b8b-ac09-49e3-8b73-8f954da87168Post:1ff19a92-ff4a-4ee1-b17b-9ec27aaeb221">Re: Maui wedding on a budget</a>:
[QUOTE]Welcome!  Is your budget for just the actual wedding?  We are marrying on Po'olenalena Beach with our reception at Gannon's just up the hill.  Susan has been great to work with and it fit for us wanting to be on the beach but not have to worry about a set up on a private estate.  I have heard Merriman's is also a good place to wed on the beach and have a reception/dancing.  We have a very tight budget. $15K total but that was to include everything. Our Wedding, the 5 days before, airfare, the HM and our At Home Reception. We will end up being close to $16K when it is all said and done. I added up just the wedding items, officiant, license, photography, brunch reception, TTD shoot, evening luau, welcome bbq, gifts for guests, attire, and invites, and it came to $6550 for 9 guests. Photography is probably the biggest expense and we are bringing our photographer with us to maximize the time he will be working. Best advice I received on this site is to ask for a better deal. The worst someone can say is that it doesn't work for them. Pick and choose your splurges because they can really add up. Mine is two hair appts. the day of the wedding. For the price of a high end stylist for one visit I was able to work a deal for lower than they were charging and I am getting my two sessions. Are you a DIYer? We did all of our table decor, invites and guest gift bags.   I enjoy researching and booking my own travel so I don't use travel agents. We booked each of the wedding week condos through VRBO. I asked a few of the owners if they would give us a price break and about 90% came back with a better deal than they had posted. We booked our HM package through Costco. It gave us a lot of extras and we were able to make monthly payments. We are also using Costco for our Alcohol, Welcome BBQ and flowers.  There are brides on this thread who have done their weddings in HI on a tight budget. It can be done but just make sure you do your research.  Good luck and let us know how things are going. 
Posted by FSForever[/QUOTE]

Thank you for breaking it down for me and giving me detail of what all it takes, gives me a good idea on the budget. The only reason I started seeking a travel agent is to figure out the best spots on the Island since i am unfamilar with them and there's so many different opinions on the web, plus I work and attend school. Thanks again <img src="http://cdn.cl9.vanillaforums.com/downloaded/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-smile.gif" border="0" alt="Smile" title="Smile" />

motomwed

Thank you ladies for all your input it really helps!

UnderTheEiffel

I am also looking on a $5000 budget. Im gettin discouraged...and having to rethink my list of must haves. But Im not giving up yet!