We're baaack and Maui'd!!! 2/8/12 wedding review with pics;)

SunshinyLees

Hi ladies, well we’re back from the most amazing 10 days in Maui and the wedding of our dreams!! We are so happy how everything turned out, it was  the most magical blue sky perfect day!! We even had whales breaching in the background!! All our vendors were fabulous as you will see by my reviews below! I had one issue with an Etsy seller but other than that, everyone we worked with along the way was amazing and exceeded our expectations!! I know this review is super long but I wanted to take the time to review each and every vendor properly. I hope this helps some of you future brides-to-be as other bride's reviews helped me during our planning process! I'm still in awe how everything just came together so wonderfully, I'm just so darn happy;)
Wedding planner: C herise @ T he P erfect W edding  A+++ I cant say enough amazing things about Cherise and the wonderful work she does! I considered myself a pretty laid back bride, actually the only vendor I spoke to personally and booked myself besides Cherise was our photographer Shawn Starr. Many of the reasons we decided on a destination wedding was to keep the stress out of the planning and so we were quite happy going with all Cherise’s vendor recommendations!I  We planned our wedding for 8 months mainly through emails and I never waited more than a couple of days for a reply from Cherise. The times we did speak on the phone she was sweet and so lovely, I always knew we were in good hands!!   The day before our wedding, Maui received the most amount of rain they had seen in years and a boat had washed up on the road closing the highway from Lahaina to Olowalu. After my mini heart attack, I called Cherise and she took care of re-scheduling our wedding license appointment and rehearsal until the highway re-opened.  Cherise remained calm, rescheduled everything and spent extra time at our rehearsal  going over weather back up plans and taking us through all the details for the big day. She is patient, calm and is absolutely beautiful on the inside and out! We couldn’t have asked for a better wedding and I could have not planned our wedding without her!! She is amazing and worth every penny!! I Catering: Tina @ F ood f or t he S oul A++My Mom mostly communicated with Tina from Food for the Soul.  There is a reason why Cherise recommended Tina and her team. The food was AMAZING!!With no taste tests like you would have at a wedding at home, we just prayed and hoped that the food would be great! We were blown away and Food for the Soul exceeded our expectations! Everyone is still raving about the food!!  All the appies were to die for ( beef satays, tuna wontons, baked brie, stuffed mushrooms), as were our mains ( the macadamia crusted mahi mahi and teriyaki chicken and sides). The red velvet cheesecake was delicious and our guests loved that we handed out chocolate covered strawberries during dancing!!

 
DJ: Jay @ DJ  B oomshot  A++Cherise highly recommended Jay and I’m not surprised why. He was so awesome to work with, super friendly, upbeat and fun and played all our requested songs including his own pics!! He was just perfect for us and kept the party hopping!!Musician: J osh K ahula A++Loved Josh!! We booked him for our ceremony and cocktail hour and I only wish we had more time in between photos to sit back and listen to his songs as all our guests commented that he was just amazing!! We got so many comments from our guests how much they loved his voice and his song selections, he truly added to the ambience and I’m so glad we booked him for as long as we did. 





F lowers: D ellables  BI never spoke to Della personally, all my questions went through Cherise. I sent Cherise photos of what I liked for bouquets and centerpieces and I really didn’t know exactly how it was going to turn until the wedding, but we absolutely loved the finished product! I was expecting a bigger flower centerpiece and more candles considering what our per table budget was for the flowers and votives, but in the end its a wedding and everythings expensive and we're happy how they looked! Although my bouquet wasn’t exactly the same as the pictures I sent Cherise I still loved it especially after seeing the photos now, the colours are beautiful!

 


 


 
Officiant: P ia A luhi  A++ We wanted a non denominational wedding and so Cherise recommended Pia. My Dad really wanted input into the officiant and wanted to make sure he was a good fit so he spoke with him on the phone. Once we got the ok from my dad Cherise booked Pia and we are so glad we did. He was the sweetest warmest loveliest man and we are so happy we chose him! 







 
 
 
 
 
Hair: R egina C ampisi A++ Originally I was going to book Dan Sanchez as per everyone’s recommendations, but I just couldn’t get over how expensive his price is! Cherise said that although Dan does a great job, she has never noticed a difference in quality from him to a less expensive stylist so she suggested Regina.  Had she thought there was a difference in quality I would have ultimately booked Dan, but instead I booked Regina and she did all my bridesmaids hair including mine. I had planned on bringing photos of examples of hair I liked but totally forgot to bring them along with me in the mad rush to get to Olowalu in the morning! I described to Regina exactly what I wanted- long loose curls with a flower on the side and she delivered perfectly!! I was so happy with the result and she is super sweet, I would recommend her to any bride!!Makeup: J essica W aite A++Jessica is AMAZING and the sweetest, I just loved her!!! I hardly slept a wink the night before the wedding stressing about the weather so when I woke up I was worried about puffy eyes from the lack of sleep. She did her magic with her air brush makeup and lashes and I have never felt more beautiful!! I am so glad that I listened to everyone’s reviews and booked her. BOOK HER, you will not regret it!!!Accomodations: H yatt K aanapali A++The Hyatt is stunning!! When we were looking to book a hotel  for our guests I called every hotel on the Kaanapali strip for rates. The Hyatt was theONLY hotel that didn’t make us sign a minimum 10 room block contract yet gave us a significant discount regardless of how many rooms were booked. In the end roughly half our guests stayed at the Hyatt and we all absolutely loved it! The grounds are breathtakingly beautiful , they even have swans, flamingos and yes penguins! The pool is gorgeous and we all loved the Grotto cave pool bar, so fun!! Rob and I were upgraded to an ocean front room, as well we were given a lot of goodies at check in as bride and groom. Nice touch.

 
Venue: O lowalu P lantation House  A++GORGEOUS in  every way!!! The pictures do not do this place justice!! Everyone told us that if we could stretch the budget, to have our wedding here and I’m soooo glad we did!!! It doesn’t come cheap though and the costs add up fast.  We originally thought we would have 30-40 guests and ended up in the low 50’s. I guess we could have cut back and saved some money, but  all the little extras were so worth it to us! Going in, we all definitely questioned the costs of everything at times, but now that its all said and done, everyone agrees it was so worth all the money!!  If you really want a wedding at Olowalu but need to keeps costs down, my suggestion to cut costs are to rent a white tent instead of a clear top, skip the wedding arch, the petal aisle, guitarist, chocolate covered strawberries, guest leis, expensive favour boxes, offer one less appie, no open bar etc but when I imagined my dream wedding I couldn’t live without any of that lol!! 

 
 


 
 Etsy vendors:I used three vendors from Etsy and had a great experience with two which I highly recommend and a not so good experiene with one.-Poloroid guestbook: Heather @ Creatively kept  A+This is definitely not the cheapest option for a guestbook but I wanted something fun and different than your typical guestbook. I bought the poloroid with wide film on Amazon and started searching for poloroid guestbooks online. Although there are many options out there, no book compared to the quality of what Heather makes. The book is absolutely amazing and was a huge hit at our wedding! Now our book is filled with photos and messages from all our guests that attended our wedding! Love it!

 
 -Table numbers: Malia @ Miss Malia design A+ Malia's little Etsy shop specializes in destination wedding invites, menu cards, place name holders etc.  I wanted table numbers with pineaples and she delivered perfectly. She was super sweet to work with, I highly recommend you check out her site! -Guestbook table decor: Morgann Hill @ Braggingbags DI ordered a heart shaped black wedding chalkboard, a chalkboard pen as well as a 8x10 tiffany blue chalkboard frame for our guestbook table. The  tiffany blue chalkboard arrived splashed with some pink paint dots and the heart shape chalkboards quality was just terrible. I messaged Morgann that I was disappointed in my purchase and wanted to return my products and she agreed to issue a refund plus cover shipping. Its been a month now since she received my returned products and after 10 emails I am still waiting to get all my money back. Final thoughts: We have all agreed that although we had the wedding of our dreams the only thing we regret and would have done differently was to hire a videographer. We hoped and knew our wedding would be great but I don’t think any of us could have guessed that it would be that amazing of a day!! We were just all so blown away with everything, Olowalu, the weather, the vendors, the speeches, our amazing group of friends and family, the surprise dance by my dad and his South African buddies, our bridal party and it would have been so wonderful to have had all these memories documented on video. If we could do it all over again we would have had a videographer in a heartbeat!These are all the photos I have for now taken by friends. When I get back more from Shawn our photographer ( his tat is three month ugh) I will post his professional pics!! Until then, Aloha! Lees xx

WinstonsGirl

So glad ou had a great time Lees!!  Congratulations, and I can't wait to see more pictures

breaness

You looked so beautiful! Definitely share Shawn's photos when you get them

Congratulations!

jessj336

Congrats! Great reviews!! It looks like it was a beautiful day!!! Can't wait to see more pics!!

motoLyn

Thanks Lees for the reviews!  They are so helpful since most of the are vendors that i am using as well.  I do have to ask your opinion.  Is the tent worth renting?

FSForever

Congratulations! Great reviews and as always very helpful. You looked amazing and really like the tables. 

kimmykupcakes

Great reviews! Can't wait to see more pictures. So glad to hear everything turned out perfect!

jtoly

Glad you had an awesome wedding. Can't wait to see the rest of your pics! Great reviews!

SunshinyLees

Thanks everyone, really appreciate the comments!!:)
MotoLyn, I defintely think the tent was worth renting, we actually had two, one over the dining tables and one over the dance floor and they looked so beautiful!! With your wedding in summer you have less of a chance of rain and if money is tight I dont think you need to spend the money on both tents ( they were $650 each), but we did all agree having the additional tent over the dance floor really balanced the look. Even if we had had a summer wedding we still would have had the tents, they just looked sooo gorgeous in the evening with the white strung lanterns!!

Tanq&Tonic

Lees!  Welcome back and WOW!!  Everything looks so pretty!  Thanks for sharing    CONGRATS!  Can't wait to see more from Shawn.

SunshinyLees

Thanks so much Tanq! Just added a couple more pics to my review, they're all slowly coming in from friends and family! Can't wait to see Shawn's pics either, the three month countdown is on!
Lees xx

LaurenM2013

Congratulations!! Love the pictures!

danaconn

You sound like my soul sister.. and trying to plan a wedding from Canada doing basically what you did.. would you be able to private message me so I can ask you a few questions? Thank you soooooo much!

SunshinyLees

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_hawaii_were-baaaack-and-mauid-2812-wedding-review-with-pics?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:73Discussion:5432d47a-ac52-4c9b-88d2-70d194fda272Post:d772308e-77c1-4153-bca2-d2943e4b7265">Re: We're baaack and Maui'd!!! 2/8/12 wedding review with pics;)</a>:
[QUOTE]You sound like my soul sister.. and trying to plan a wedding from Canada doing basically what you did.. would you be able to private message me so I can ask you a few questions? Thank you soooooo much!
Posted by danaconn[/QUOTE]

Lol no problem, glad to help!;)
Lees xx

rmontpas

Everything looks great Lees!  I am glad you had such a wonderful day.  Our was good too even though it was it was during the wonderful storm you talked about!

SunshinyLees

Rmontpass, thank you so much!! How are you doing, are you back from Maui? I thought of you all day on the 7th wondering how you were coping with all that crazy weather!!!! How was your wedding? Did you have to reschedule your ceremony? I hope everything turned out wonderfully!!
Congrats to you;)
Lees xx

latinagyrl_2001

wow! your wedding sounded super fun! congrats! im glad you had your wedding of your dreams!!!