Wedding in Hawaii

kicou

Hey everyone, I'm considering getting wedding on, Oahu in Hawaii to be specific. I've been googling Hawaii wedding and I have no idea where to start or what to do. Here are a couple of questions I can think of: -Is it better to rent vaca houses vs going to a hotel? (guests) -What if we married in court in another state, but decided to do the religious wedding in HI. Do we need to get a HI license? What would be the procedure? -Is there a beach wedding license? -We want a simple but beautiful wedding -We want an outdoor wedding. Any ideas, suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I'm totally lost. Thanks in advance

brian&shelli

Hi, welcome. I was originally getting married in Hawaii, and I've actually lived there for years... I can answer some of your questions, and I know there are a few Hawaii brides to be here that can help you even more!! You may also want to check out the new "Oahu" board as well. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I've learned from others that it is less expensive to rent a vacation house than to book a hotel if you have a large group of people from OOT attending the ceremony. If you were to be married in another state, you would have just a "symbolic" wedding in Hawaii and you would not need to get a Hawaiian license to wed. The majority of the beaches in Hawaii are public, so naturally it's "first come first serve" sorta thing... and in doing so, please know that the State no longer allows any decorations at all on the beaches. No flowers, no chairs, no arches, etc. There are some resorts that have "private" beaches which is their discretion as to how much decoration you can have. As I mentioned above, there are several other DW Knotties here who will have a lot more insight!! I hope this helps a little! And good luck with your planning!!

brian&shelli

Here's the link to the new "Oahu" board I referred to: [url]http://oahu.weddings.com[/url] And here's their Message Board link: [url]http://oahu.weddings.com/boards/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=73[/url]

kicou

Thank you so much for your reply, yes it does help. I was thinking about renting a vacation house with a beachfront and do the wedding there. I know that there are a couple of villas that can accomodate 20 people, I think that i'll have to check whether or not they allow weddings. Is there a specific reason why they no longer accept decoration of the beaches?

brian&shelli

Environmental reasons

carrieoz_76

Ditto Shelli - check out the Hawaii message boards.  The girls there are really helpful. I'm not sure why you'd need to marry in a court in another state.  Since HI is a U.S. state, one of the benefits of getting married there is that you don't have to get married at home first for it to be legal (like you might in other countries).  It's really easy to get married in HI - no waiting period, no blood test, you just pay for a license. You will need a beach wedding permit.  You get them from the state Department of Land and Natural Resources.  Also, all of your vendors need to be licensed.  This is not a big deal - the regular wedding vendors all have permits and if you have a wedding coordinator and go through that person for vendors they'll cover them (the WC will set you up with the permit for the wedding and the license, actually).  It just means that you can't hire any ole person off craigslist without making sure you get a permit for that person. No stuff is allowed on the beach for weddings - no arches, chairs (although most WC's will set up one or two for anyone who's elderly or disabled), tents, etc.  It's because they've decided to preserve their beaches and they don't want junk left on the beaches.  Beaches in HI are public, so this applies everywhere.  Some hotels have grassy areas right above the beach where they'll let you set stuff up, though (as do private homes, and parks).Have fun planning!