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New knottie with some questions..

heaabakeheaabake
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in Hawaii
Hello Ladies,
I am recently engaged and new to the knot. I have found it very helpful reading your posts and all of the great things this site has to offer but i have a few questions/concerns. My fiance and I are sure we want a destination wedding and our #1 place would be Hawaii. Is Hawaii usually more expensive than other destinations, like in the Caribbean? Also, i have found websites (like destinationweddings.com for example) that offer a wedding planner to take care of every detail of your wedding for you. But some of these websites require a deposit before you can use their services. How do i know i can trust these businesses before i pay anything? Has anyone ever used these wedding planners or is it better to go ahead and decide on a resort and use their on site planner? Hope you all can help me out!
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Re: New knottie with some questions..

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    AKWinterBrideAKWinterBride member
    First Anniversary Combo Breaker First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Hi Heaabake, welcome to the boards!

    It really depends on how  large your wedding is going to be.  I think that they do tend to be a little cheaper at the all-inclusive resorts in the Carribean then they are in Hawaii. 

    We are having 50-60 people at our DW in Maui and are spending about 20K.  This is because we are having our wedding a private estate in which we had to bring all services in.  Each service has fees for setup/takedown, gratuity, etc., so it adds up quickly.  But, we are having the wedding of our dreams with the people who we wanted to be there so we are very happy. 

    We are working with Cherise Schulman of Perfect Weddings Maui and she has been great.  I am literally DONE with wedding planning for our July '11 weding, and I am so happy.  While I love the planning, it was starting to get to me and I couldn't think of anything but wedding.  Now we are just waiting for our date to get here!  I am totally confident in all of our vendors and I just know our day is going to be fabulous!   I was in the same boat as you when it came to picking a coordinator - I didn't know anyone there and I didn't want to just pick a stranger and hope they were good. 

    Initially I spoke with my photographer to see if she could point  me in anyone's direction and the girls she referred me to were great, but way more expensive than Cherise.  I met Cherise through another Maui DW bride who was super happy with her, and I have been 100% happy with her as well. 

    Good luck, I hope you share your plans with us as you make them, and Congratulations!!
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    heaabakeheaabake
    First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Thanks!  I know its gonna be pretty small.. probably about 15 guests so that will cut down some costs at least. Cherise is a wedding planner there and not affiliated with any resort right? I wondered if that would be better but if i wanted it at a resort i didn't know if they allowed that.
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    charitybeyercharitybeyer member
    First Anniversary First Comment
    edited December 2011
    Hey there, If you're having a really small wedding check out the Plantation Estate in Ka'a'wa. I'm getting married there next may, and it sleeps 21 people and has it's own chapel on the property so you can have the wedding and reception all in one place and it can also serve as the accommodation for you and your guests. It's got a little house separate for the bride and groom to have privacy, anyhow its on Oahu so maybe check it out:

    http://www.hawaiialohaweddings.com/estate.html

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