Aloha! This is a bit overdue!
First, a little bit about us and our wedding planning. I’m
from New Jersey and my husband is from Adelaide, Australia. We live in Los
Angeles and had guests coming in from all parts of the world.
We got engaged in August 2012, took a little recon mission
to Maui in October 2012 and got married in August 2013.
Why Hawaii? My husband’s friend suggested it and we thought
it was a great idea. Neither of us were holding on to some childhood image of
what our wedding day was supposed to look like. We just wanted our friends and
family to feel taken care of on our big day, enjoy the celebration and know
they are loved by us. Not to mention,
its beautiful!
We picked Maui bc we thought Oahu was a bit too touristy/
crowded and bc we thought the flights to OGG were easier than the other
islands.
It was an AMAZING week, one we will treasure forever thanks
to the help of the people listed below.
If you’re just starting to plan, don’t get overwhelmed. I
did a bit, at first, but once we booked the venue and the caterer, I knew we
were in good hands.
Congrats, have fun and enjoy the ride – it will be magical!
VENUE: SUGARMAN ESTATE (HONUA KAI LANI)
On our planning visit, we checked out a variety of places
–hotels and stand alone homes. Being outside was a priority. We looked at quite
a few hotels that offered an outdoor ceremony and then a ballroom for the
reception and decided that wasn’t what we were going for. (I will say we loved
the Four Seasons but our budget did not! My husband thought the grass was the
nicest he’d seen along the ocean!)
Based on reviews on the Knot and a few other places, we
decided to look at Olowalu Plantation and Sugarman Estate. Olowalu was
beautiful but we ultimately decided on Sugarman because we liked the area of
the island better. (It also worked better with the hotel as we were settling on
a room block at the Marriot.) We felt there was
more to do in the Wailea area for our guests and we could keep all our
activities centralized around that portion of the island.
WEDDING PLANNER – Tina @ Food for the Soul
I read a lot of reviews online (it’s a theme) and talked to
quite a few wedding planners. First, I was astonished that some charged 20% of
the final bill plus a day-of fee to show up for the wedding! That concept was
crazy to me. My husband and I are both doers and really wanted to be involved
in the process and make decisions on vendors, design, food, etc.
Enter Tina!!!! Tina gets great reviews for a GREAT reason!
She was AMAZING to work with. We met in person when we visited Maui in October
and just felt so at ease. Immediately,
she had great advice for us and answered all of our questions.
Throughout the planning process, Tina booked whatever we
asked for her help with but also suggested different vendors for us to
research. She also encouraged us to
research others, outside of her suggestions. For example, Tina booked the
transportation from the hotel for our guests – we had zero to do with getting
bids—but, she gave us a list of suggested officiants to research and
ultimately, we chose one of the people on her list. Other times, like when we
found the photographers, we didn’t ask for suggestions and found them on our
own.
Tina confirmed all the details ahead of time with each
vendor and was so thorough and calm during the planning. If we were having a
difficult time making a decision, she’d offer the pros and cons of both sides
but never pushed us one way or the other. It was important to her that this was
our day.
On the day of the wedding, Tina made everything run SUPER
smoothly. Her team was professional and everything looked beautiful! would highly recommend working with Tina!
CATERING – Food for the Soul
Food for the Soul is the catering ompany that Tina and her husband
have. At the same time we decided to work with Tina, we decided Food for the
Soul was the caterer for us! The prices were reasonable and the food got great
reviews.
We didn’t do a tasting beforehand and on the night of the
wedding, we weren’t disappointed! It was delicious. Everything was so fresh and
the whole menu had an authentic Hawaiian twist to it. (If the menu is the same,
it’s the first option on the catering list)
We went with a buffet bc it was more economical for us and
our guests were really happy. Tina really worked with us to keep the cost per
head under control and we moved things around—taking items from the dinner
buffet (like the fresh fruit) and making it an appetizer for cocktail hour.
ALCOHOL-- Tina
brought the bar staff and gave us a list of
bottles to buy.
We bought the alcohol at Costco near the airport. I would
say the wine selection was smaller than what I was used to on the mainland but
totally sufficient. We had a little bit of difficulty in finding a midpriced
champagne and ended up getting a less expensive brand for welcome cocktails and
mixed champagne drinks, and we saved Moet for the toasts and I think our guests
really enjoyed it!!! I know I did.
Now that I think about it, this was another big reason we
chose not to have our reception at a hotel. The bar tab would have been out of
control -- our guests sure do like a
glass of vino. Being able to purchase it
ourselves was a massive help to the pocketbook .
As for alcohol, we got married in August so the afternoon
started out hot. Gin was more popular than I thought and so was lighter beer.
Surprisingly, guests still really enjoyed a good deal of red wine.
FLOWERS – FLOWERS BY VALERIE
Tina suggested Valerie. We initially went to her because her
prices were great and she was super laid back and easy to work with. I didn’t
see anything on her website that I fell in love with but I sent her tons of
photos and we talked through what we liked, didn’t like. Actually, that’s a
better way to describe how we approached flowers- I knew what I didn’t like and
Valerie was able to decipher what would work! And work it did . . . the flowers
were so beautiful! I wish I could have taken them all home with us! Her prices were substantially lower than Dellables, which I also looked at.
DJ/ MUSICIAN—WILMONT KAHAIALII
Tina suggested Wilmont and we loved him! He played the
guitar and sang during our ceremony which was so personal! I had asked a friend
of mine to sing rather than give a reading and he came to the hotel a few days
before the wedding to rehearse with her. It was beautiful!
He also dj’d the wedding which was a blast. Our guests
didn’t’ stop dancing the whole night. Well, I should say I didn’t stop dancing
the whole night and I’m not sure what our guests were doing!! I asked him to play my father daughter dance
song acoustically which he did, in the middle of his dj set. It was perfect!
It was windy on our wedding day which is pretty standard for
Maui. It made the ceremony a little hard
to hear for our guests. Im not sure if there was something wrong with the sound
system but I think that was more due to the weather than anything else.
PHOTOGRAPHER –MAUI CREATIVE PHOTOGRAPHY
We did a lot of googling on our hunt for solid
photographers. We’d look at the photos and then check out their prices. Generally,
there was a $$$$$/ quality relationship that wasn’t favoring us! That was until
we found Madelynne and Matt at Maui Creative!!! We LOVED working with them-
easy to work with, great prices and beautiful work! Just cool- with a definite
style.
A bonus—we got an hour session of photos so that we could
get to know each other when we arrived on island. Now we have a whole album of
photos taken a week before our wedding day. It was such a fun experience.
OFFICIANT- PIA ALULI
My husband and I took Tina’s suggestions and researched 3
different officiants. We emailed with Pia and I spoke to him briefly on the
phone. I asked for some YouTube clips but he didn’t have any, so we read his
ceremony options on his website. He outlines the ceremony and we read through
all the different readings, chants and prayers.
We picked the tone of the ceremony we wanted and wrote our
own vows and added a sand ceremony. Pia did a great conch shell blowing and
spoke a lot about the beautiful nature we were surrounded by.
HOTEL –
Almost all of our guests stayed at the Marriott Spa and
Resort in Wailea. It was beautiful, our guests LOVED it. So did my husband and
I! The rooms, the infinity pool, the GREAT ocean front location right near the
shops at Wailea—it was almost too perfect. The key to our enjoyment was Cindy
Pestana who worked with us on our room block. She was wonderful!!!
CONDOS—
There are a few condo resorts near the Marriot- We worked
with Destination Resorts to reserve units near the hotel. The closest were
Grand Champions (on one of the Wailea golf courses and very economical) and
Wailea Elua (immediately next door to the hotel, ocean front) You can also have
your guests rent through owners directly. Some of ours did that, too.
REHEARSAL DINNER—
We didn’t do one. Instead, we had our 100 guests head to
Mulligans on the Blue for a 430p-630p open bar / happy hour that we called a
Welcome Reception. Mike and Julie were fantastic to work with and created a
menu of a few apps that our guests enjoyed while mingling with each other and
sharing some cocktails.
It was the perfect location- relaxed vibe and beautiful
sunset. It’s also close to the Marriott and the guys played golf in the morning
on the Blue Course and ended right at Mulligans. Perfect!
OTHER INFO . . . We signed up for Hawaiian Airlines Wedding
Wings and had great success. Our guests got a 5% discount and we got an upgrade
to First Class on the way to Maui . . . Also, we had gift bags for our guests
at the hotel. We got personalized water bottles on the mainland and then added
Maui Chips and Honolulu Cookies (ordered from the 800 # and picked up at a shop
in Maui to save on shipping) to put inside . . Let me know what other info you
might be interested in knowing!
GOOD LUCK!!!