Polynesian Wedding Entertainment

brazeneye · May 2011

Hi there,

I am having a small wedding of 30 people, but we're trying our best to "spoil" our guests, as we all will be flying in from Canada to my wedding in Oahu next year. We have invitied all our guests to a Luau for the rehearsal dinner the day before the wedding. I have just sent my fiancee pictures of a wedding that was held at the estate we will be holding our own wedding at. They had hired a Fire Dancer and Hula dance troop, and was thinking we need something as well instead of eating dinner and waiting around to dance to an ipod. Do you think it would be overkill to have a Luau (which our guests will be paying for on their own if they would like to come) the night before and have the similar entertainment at the wedding? We wanted to sort of keep with a Hawaiian theme, but not sure what what to do!

Help!

Brazeneye

fabutan · May 2011

That's a good point.

I don't think it would be "too much" to do both. Most likely, they would be different performers and different groups have different styles anyway. Also, a luau is "public" and catered towards a large group, whereas wedding entertainment is "private". We also did a luau for our rehearsal dinner and some polynesian entertainment for our wedding reception (in lieu of open dancing). Up until the day, I was also wondering whether it would be overkill. In the end, it had the effect we wanted, which was our guests feeling entertained. Some guests didn't attend the rehearsal luau the night before, so it was a first experience for them. Plus, I don't think a fire knife dancer ever gets boring.

Hope this helps!

maui2011 · May 2011

We will be going to the OLL for our rehearsal dinner...open to everyone...and we'll have a fire dancer and drummer at our wedding...mainly because i think it is really cool to do and will be totally unexpected plus the OLL does not have a fire dancer so this will be something different for them. I guess it really depends on how much of a show you want to provide. HTH! J. :-)

Tanq&Tonic · May 2011

I really think it is a matter of personal preference. The two pps have a similar idea, so you're definitely not alone. If you wanted to go in a slightly different direction you could instead have Hawaiian musicians play during dinner, or lead the group in a 'group hula lesson'...something a little more interactive but still Hawaiian and different from the night before? You could also wait a bit and see how many guests plan to go to the luau before deciding. That way, you will know how many would be seeing the same thing again. We made a 6 minute slideshow and love story video which we showed during dinner. That, plus speeches (2 dads, bm, moh) felt about right to get through dinner. We visited tables while they ate, too, but since we splurged on food we wanted to be sure people had time to eat instead of watching things and letting the food get cold.