Officiant

mauidandy

My next step on the "to do" list is to choose and book an officiant. I know there are different kinds...Hawaiian, non-Hawaiian, religious, non-religious....I think Hawaiian is a must, I want the conch shell beginning to the ceremony. But we can't decide on everything else. We're religious but want a short ceremony without a lot of long prayers. If we choose "Hawaiian religious" does that mean they pray in Hawaiian? My WC says someone named Laki is her favorite. Who did you girls book and why?

ringobubblegirl

We had Pastor Vance Rosete.  He did the Hawaiian religious (I think), but it was short and sweet.  Maybe 15 minutes and that included our ukelele player singing the Hawaiian Wedding Song.  He had this beautiful Hawaiian chant in the beginning.  He was funny, laid back, had a wonderful voice and was super nice.

M&M's_Maui

We had Rev. Pia Aluli and we loved him!  We wanted someone who was Hawaiian but not someone who was in a robe & stole, someone who would be ok if we added a Filipino tradition to the ceremony and someone who would be flexible with me adding a reading and adding a few religious touches to our ceremony.  He was great and had so much enthusiasm during our ceremony.  He read through our ceremony beautifully!  I would highly recommend him!  His ceremony verbiage is on his website, www.piaaluli.com under the services tab.  I've got a review in my bio too (but it pretty much just says what i just said, hahaha!)  GL!

ETweet

Laki is who my WC suggested as well. Eventhough we aren't going for a religious ceremony, FI and I probably going with him just because we found some great things about him on the net that I think say a lot about his character and what a great guy he is. For instance, he's adopted 16 children, I think, and often welcomes the homeless into his own home. I posted on here a couple of weeks ago to see if anyone has heard anything about him and nobody had so I am crossing my fingers.