**bruce & ivy**

A.a.A.

Hi! I saw on your bio that you had your reception at HiSAM. How did you like it? I was considering it but wasn't sure about how it worked out - was it cost effective? I know there's the site fee, and then everything you need to find on your own to rent. Also we are probably inviting 180ish people. Probably not everyone will come, but I saw that the 2nd floor courtyard option only allowed 150 people for a seated reception. Any way to cheat that if you're a little bit over? TIA!

bruce & ivy

Hi Aubrey! We LOVED having our reception at HiSAM! Our guests absolutely loved the location. Many of them didn't even know it existed even though it's in the heart of downtown Honolulu. Until today, our friends still tell us how beautiful the location was. It was also an amazing place to take all of our wedding pics. So many differnt places throughout the grounds and the galleries...our photographer told us that he was so excited to take pics there. That being said... it did take A LOT of planning and coordinating. As far as it being cost effective... we probably would've spent about the same if we had just had it at one of the hotels. But we really wanted to do something different and felt that the work to plan it would be worth it...and it totally was. We also saved a lot by coordinating it all on our own. We also wanted to invite about 180 people, but were forced to cut our guest list to 150. Unfortunately, the museum is pretty strict about adhering to the rules. At one point we entertained the idea of just doing food stations and setting up a bunch of cocktail tables and chairs around the courtyard, but we decided to just stick with doing a seated reception. We had 15 - 60" round tables and it was very comfortable. To be honest, I actually think that it would've been possible to have a couple of more tables, but you wouldn't have too much room to move around and/or have an area for a dance floor. I'll try to post a few pics below to give you an idea of what the courtyard looked like with the 15 tables. Please feel free to email me if you have any questions or need any recommendations for vendors that have experience working at HiSAM. The two companies that we used... caterer and valet service were outstanding. HTH!

bruce & ivy

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bruce & ivy

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bruce & ivy

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