Welcome bbq, activities advice;)

SunshinyLees

Hi ladies,

Hope you're all having an amazing week so far! My Mom and I just had a discussion about what activities we should plan for the week we'll be in Maui and am looking for a little advice from past and future brides!

Our wedding is on a wednesday with the rehearsal on tuesday and most of our guests are arriving the sat and sunday before and staying one week. My parents would like to host a welcome bbq, my fiance and I would like to set up a guys golf day and a girls beach or some type of activity day as well we would like to all go to a luah.

A couple of questions. Do we invite all 55 guests to the welcome bbq or do most people have the bbq for family and bridal party only? I know when you have a local wedding, I believe the night before wedding dinner is for bridal party, family and out of towners, just wondering what protocol is for a destination wedding.

Any suggestions for a girls activity day out in Maui? We are all staying in Kaanapali. I was thinking a low key beach day, maybe we could rent a couple of paddleboards too but did anyone do anything different like a boat or sailing trip? Any ideas? There will be all ages attending, from 20's & 30's and our parents ages.

Any recommendations for Luah's? I heard the Old Lahaina one was the best?

I appreciate any suggestions!! Thanks so much!!

Ps For all you fellow Canadians out there...Go Lions Go!!!;))) ( Our Vancouver football team just won the Grey Cup- equivalent to the US Super Bowl!!) Yahoo!!

Lees

kaesha

My family are Rough Rider fans - it's been a depressing few years for them.

We invited everyone to the Welcome BBQ. It's a great way to break the ice and get people to meet each other and I think, since everyone travelled, it's a good thing to host them more than once.

As for activities for the girls, do a kayak/snokel tour! We did one post-wedding with our guests and it was SO much fun. We went with Maui Eco Tours - they're really great. They get in the water with you and give you an ecology lesson as you go. It's great to have someone explain to you exactly what you're seeing!

kimmykupcakes

We are having a welcome BBQ the first night and everyone's invited.  Since it's a dinner to welcome your guests, everyone should be included.  It's also a great way for everyone to connect and get to know each other. Before the BBQ guests are invited to join us as the beach.

The next day we are going out with our friends only for a c*ck n hen party.  We are doing a sunset dinner cruise and then hitting South Shore Tiki Lounge for drinks.
 
The day before the wedding, I'm having a wahine party with all of the ladies.  We are going to get our nails done so they will all be pretty for the wedding at out to lunch.  FI might do something with the guys during this time, but didn't want to plan anything officially.  That night we are having our rehearsal dinner with our families and wedding party only.

The day of the wedding, we are having the ceremony, cocktail hour and reception.  After the reception we are going to the Old Lahina Luau.  It is the best on the island!

twie3230

Hey Sunshiny,

We're having a welcome BBQ on the Saturday for all of our guests and forgoing any rehersal party/dinner. We wanted a really low-key event that everyone could meet and mingle before the wedding, and this gave us more time to spend with our guests who have all travelled 10h+ to get there. I'm guessing that the wedding day will be such a blur, so the more time I have to catch up with everyone and spend time with them, the better. We were initially going to use the BBQ area at our hotel, but since our numbers have blown out, we've now rented a penthouse and organise simple catering for pick-up and hit up CostCo for alcohol. I think I'm more excited about the trip then I am about the wedding day itself. I just keep thinking of cocktails by the pool with all my friends and family will make all the conversations about lighting/rentals/catering/table seating (ack!) seem totally worth it. 

-Tan

rmontpas

Hi Sunshiny,
Can I come to your welcome bbq?  Just kidding but I will be in Maui as our wedding is the day before yours.
We are eloping so no parties but I think that everyone should be invited to the welcome bbq.
On another note, I finally found my shoes.  They are from Zappos.com,  Here is a link.  Hopefully it works.  I have never done this before.  http://www.zappos.com/j-renee-whirl-silver.
Kimmy - are you having a daytime wedding?  I am curious because I wanted to go to the Old Lahina Luau after our wedding instead of going to a restaurant for our wedding dinner but thought it started too early.  Is there a later seating?

memegrace

Hi Ladies!  fellow Canadian here!  From Edmonton though, riders fans in this house, but I do love BC!  Im so glad you asked this b/c I have been trying to firgure out what to do in this regard!  We are having a "Meet and Greet" the evening prior to our wedding with all guests invited to come.  We are having a HUGE turnout compared to what we had thought at 65-70 guests.  Our plan was to pay for appitezers at a restaurant as there are too many guests for our condo resort to order in.  But with so many guests we are having trouble finding a place to casually hold so many guests w/o additional booking costs.  We were hoping for Bistro 808 or Matteo's for pizza.  still working on it.  Where is the penthouse you are renting twie??!!  Could you post details pls!!!  I was almost thinking to order pizza and have everyone meet under the Banyan tree in Lahaina..haha  I am also forgoing any bridal showers/stagettes at home and instead having a girls day with all my closests girls-spa, hair/make-up-(trial for me) hair gift for them and getting pro photo's done (vintage theme) [no bridal party day of]...then all join averyone at meet and greet...wherever that is!   As for Old Lahiana Luau-went in sept-LOVED it.  Planning a snorkling tour during week after wedding for all who want to join. 

kimmykupcakes

We are having a morning wedding and lunch reception. It's cheaper, cooler and we can go to the luau at night. There's only one luau show per night. At least at OLL. Not sure about the other ones.

SunshinyLees

Kaesha, Memegrace, my fiance is from Regina and if it wasn't for the fact that I bought the tickets, he would have worn green and not orange to the game lol!!

Kaesha-thanks for the tip for Maui Eco tours,sounds fun, Im going to pass the snorkel/kayak idea by my girlfriends!

Memegrace- yay another Canadian! When are you getting married?  Wow 65-70 people, thats a great turnout! We originally thought we would have 40 guests, but now were up to 55!;)

Montpass- for some reason I thought you were getting married on Oahu! And I didnt know you were eloping, aww thats awesome! Where are you staying in Maui? Ps congrats on finding your shoes, love them!!

I really appreciate everyone's feedback! We will definitely take your advice and invite everyone to the welcome bbq...now we just have to figure out the location eek!

Lees xx

noreenchiu

SunshinyLees: I'm from Vancouver as well!

My wedding is going to be in Oahu, so I'm not much help with activities in Maui.  But at this point, I don't know if all our guests will arrive at around the same time, so it makes it kind of difficult to plan a big welcome thing.  We talked about planning a few casual things (dinner, bar, beach day) and just letting our guests know when and where we will be, and they are welcome to come join us at any point.

I was wondering if everyone is doing a rehearsal dinner?

rmontpas

Wow, there are a lot of us Canadians on here!
We are renting a condo the first week and staying at the Westin Ka'aplani the second week in Maui and then we are going to the Big Island and staying at the Kona Coast Resort.
We own timeshares so have traded into Hawaii for the last 2 weeks.
I love the shoes but when I went to order them from Zappos I found out they don't ship to Canada anymore so I have to order them from Amazon at a higher price because that was the only place I could find them that will ship to Canada  .I found one company called 6pm that was half the price as everyone else but again no shipping to Canada.  I was beginning to feel discriminated against!

AKWinterBride

We had a welcome BBQ the day before our wedding and invited all of our guests to it.  We bought food from Da Kitchen (so cheap and sooooo good) and grilled a bit as well.  We decided to skip the formal rehearsal dinner cause we didn't want to exclude anyone and our rehearsal dinner would have been our immediate family and my BFF and her boyfriend.  So basically it would have been one of our normal family dinners and since we had so many other people fly all the way there we didn't want to exclude anyone. 

kimmykupcakes

We are doing a rehersal dinner. We wanted to invite everyone, but FI's family was having a cow over it.  Even if there are only 21 of us, in all. It's the only thing they are paying for and I'm glad for that.

memegrace

We are getting married on March 25th~our 13 year anniversary at Olowalu, so excited!!  How about you?

SunshinyLees

Noreechiu yay another Canadian!! What part of Vancouver do you live in? We leave near Main and Broadway!

Memegrace, we're getting married at Olowalu too!! Feb 8th!

So with our wedding on the wednesday, I think we're going to do the welcomg bbq on the Monday night. Tuesday day is the rehearsal and tuesday evening is my fiance's sister's bday so we may just have a family dinner and skip the rehearsal dinner. Do you all think its necessary to have both a welcome party as well as a rehearsal dinner? Is there a protocol around this?

Thanks again for all your help!

Lees

kaesha

We did both a welcome bbq and a rehearsal dinner - but the latter one was really low key. We rehearsed right before dinner time, then grilled up some meat and ate cake and that was the end of that. We only had the wedding party at the rehearsal dinner too, to make things easier on ourselves. Ultimately, it's up to you how you want to spend that time, you know?

twie3230

Hey Memegrace,

The penthouse we are renting is at the Honua Kai Resort (North Kaanapali) where all of our guests are staying. We chose this resort as all the rooms come equipped with full kitchens and washer/dryers, etc. I like the idea of being able to make your own breakfast or have your friends over for a simple dinner instead of spending heaps of money at the hotel restaurants. We, too, ended up with way more guests than we thought we'd get (we thought 40 and have hit the 80mark), so a restaurant was proving a bit of a challenge. Also my fiance was adament that we pay for drinks (not only expensive, but I don't like the idea of open bar the night before the wedding), so our compromise was to rent a penthouse (it's a 3-bedroom with a big living room/dining room area and a wrap around 900sq ft lanai), premix some cocktails, put out a few cases of Coronas and bring in some catering from Da Kitchen/or equivalent. This keeps it really low key and casual and turned out to be cheaper than a restaurant.

Congrats on your upcoming wedding at Olowalu. Ours will be there in 2 months. It's coming so quickly!

noreenchiu

Lees: I'm really close by, we're at Granville and Broadway!

SunshinyLees

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/local-wedding-boards_hawaii_welcome-bbq-activities-advice?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Local Wedding BoardsForum:73Discussion:e32a9f77-857b-4635-82ad-cfbb57aa99aaPost:8dd896fb-468a-4e05-b551-3ac11897b13d">Re: Welcome bbq, activities advice;)</a>:
[QUOTE]Lees: I'm really close by, we're at Granville and Broadway!
Posted by noreenchiu[/QUOTE]

Omg we're neighbours!!

jeks

Hi guys, another Vancouverite here (live downtown) just wondering WHERE exactly do we hold these welcome bbqs without having to rent out a house for a minimum of 5 nights?  I don't really want to do the beach thing because it's too risky there will be many people there.  I was hoping for a condo where the wedding party is residing, there would be about 30 people I think.
Thx.

nuelie

Hello!! I'm so happy I found this thread.

I have two main questions:

1. For those of you who had welcome BBQs, where did you have them at?  We're having a tough time finding a spot.  We have ~45 people coming.

2. For those of you who got married at Olowalu, how was it?? any words of wisdom or advice for us?  Ours is coming up.