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Hawaiian Destination Weddings

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Adrienne

Shiny_Rock
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I didn''t want to hijack Lanee''s thread, so here''s a new topic to answer your question, SimplyDevine!
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There are about a zillion websites of people who do Hawaiian weddings. I spent a couple weeks visiting site after site - but everything seemed kinda cheesey and "cookie cutter". One of my friends tells a story about going to get their wedding license in Hawaii and seeing a group of people brought in by a local hotel, they all had notebooks provided by the hotel and it didn''t seem very special.

Anyway - I found this website - InHeavenWeddings.com - that I kept coming back to. They are located on Oahu, and consists of a photographer and a minister-type woman. The website wasn''t as cheesey as the rest, and I fell in love with the pictures... most of the wedding people had horrible pictures, and I really wanted good pictures. The photographer at InHeavenWeddings has a lot of published pictures, and seems to be awesome.

I emailed them and got a reference... the reference just raved about how wonderful and special (and "magical") the experience was, and that her pictures are amazing and tell the story of the ceremony. She couldn''t say enough good things about her experience.

The wedding people also have two rental properties that they rent out - we are staying at the little cottage with the outdoor shower!
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I really wanted a beach wedding, but I didn''t want a lot of strangers running around in their bathing suits. They recommended a sunrise wedding, since the lighting would be pretty nifty and there aren''t likely to be many people around. I cringed at the thought - but realized that it will be a few hours later on my time, so that''s perfect! And the night-time temperature for October is in the mid-70''s so I''ll think it''s pretty warm.

Yeah, this was a long post and probably told you more than you wanted to know... but let me know if you have any other questions and I''ll try to help!

-Adrienne
 

Mara

Super_Ideal_Rock
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We are also considering a Hawaiian destination wedding. I didn't see the original post or question...so I don't know what the question was...but we are considering this pretty seriously.

Our plan would be to rent a property..chances are a large plantation or many cottages for our family and friends. The island we are considering is Kauai as it is the most lush and most quiet island. We have found a few places, I am not into hotel weddings nor the beach thing really. So we are looking at renting an entire property or most of one that has acres of land for both the wedding ceremony and the reception.

The amazing thing is that the pricing is not bad at all. It would be a smaller party because we can't expect 100 people to fly over to Hawaii, esp in a potential continued downturn economy. But from the feelers we have put out, we can expect our families and closest friends, which is really what is most important anyway. So we'd be looking at around 30-35 people most likely.

The cost for one of these places ends up being pretty reasonable if you have everyone stay with you. If you are a very close family, you can rent a huge house for the immediate family and the bride/groom, but if you don't relish the idea of sleeping in the room next to your future MIL, there are places that have small cottages you can rent. One we are considering is the Waimea Cottages, there are something like 15 little cottages (1 bedroom, 2 bedroom and a few 3 bedroom) for people to rent on their own, then you just have the run of the property. Most of these are beach front too which is amazing.

Anyway we started thinking of the idea because we were looking into a Hawaii trip with some friends later and realized that to rent a property for a week, it is the same cost or only slightly more than an event and ceremony fee at a place local here for one day. Hmmm tough decision!
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My main concern would be...would I regret not having a local wedding with all fam and friends? Or will the Hawaii thing be so amazing that it really wouldnt matter. From the pictures I have seen, it is just gorgeous. You don't have to worry about as much, I wouldn't be AS interested in flowers or the cake or the nitty gritty was I would be here...as it's just the beauty and fun of the island that would make the memories.

One thing that did concern me was the photographer. I am really picky about photographs and alot of the wedding coordinators (throw a stone in Hawaii and you'll hit 10...they are all very reasonably priced) have photographers that just did not impress me. Not to mention the whole interview process and finding out if you click, hard to do that over the phone for something so important. So we may actually fly over our photographer that we were going to work with if the wedding was local. He offered to split the expenses with us, and if we only put him up for one night, it really is not a bad deal. Plus he'd be more apt to want to work for us, and give us little freebies if we bring him to Hawaii with us!
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Not to mention he has never shot there and he would love the opportunity to continue to build his portfolio.

Other concern is that we won't be able to get over to HI until later this year to see any of the places we are considering. We may just have to make a decision blindly and see where it takes us. Luckily many of these places have amazingly detailed websites with tons of pictures...so you don't feel like you are just shutting your eyes and choosing. Also the party will be small so it isn't as though we would be coordinating a 100 person wedding from CA.

Anyway as you can see we are giving it alot of thought. Since we have a while (1 year exactly!) to figure things out, no huge rush. My parents are balking as they somewhat wanted a local traditional gig...but we aren't super traditional people nor are we young'uns dictated to by family. We are both close to our fams and think the week in paradise would be a great way to spend it with our closest loved ones. Needless to say, Greg loves the idea as he is a typical guy who could care less about big gowns and churches and all that. Wedding and vacation combination? He's there.

Oh and lastly, because the party would be smaller and things are actually very reasonably priced in HI (compared to the SF Bayarea anyway), we could probably even afford to go somewhere for a honeymoon AFTER Hawaii and still be within our original budget. That would be really great.

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Interested in hearing from any other potential Hawaii brides. Also want to say that theknot.com has a great HI board where people post about destination questions...everyone is super helpful.
 

Adrienne

Shiny_Rock
Joined
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Wow Mara - you and I are going for totally different weddings!
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My fiance and I are going for a very intimate wedding - I'm hoping it's just me and my fiance for the wedding. My sister was planning to go, but she's in the middle of law school so probably can't make in the middle of her semester.
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That's okay, though, because in my ideal world it's just my fiance and I standing on the beach at sunrise...

And then we come back home and have a large reception at a local ballroom, with all our friends and family dancing the night away.

It's kinda neat to read your wedding thoughts as compared to mine, thanks for posting
it!
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Oh - and if anyone has any romantic suggestions for something to do on a Sunday morning/afternoon in October on Oahu, please let me know. Right now we are scheduled for a small reception right after the ceremony - but I would like to do something really romantic with my honey after that... but am not sure what would be good.

So romantic morning/afternoon suggestions for Oahu would be appreciated!!!!

Thanks y'all!

-Adrienne
 

Mara

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
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Woo Hoo I have managed to finagle a 'scouting' trip to Kauai in August of this year..we'll see how things pan out.
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Lanee

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jan 29, 2003
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Ladies,

Wow!

Adrienne, I would have been okay if you hijacked the thread, at least it would have been getting noticed then.

Mara, I started a thread "Where should we get married?" and Adrienne was kind enough to give me ideas. My poor thread is pathetic. I had to bump it a few times myself and really didn't get responses.

I'm right between the two of you. I want something intimate - ideally just the two of us but he wants some guests-so if we're going to do guests I want less than 50 so that's why I want to be away from Chicago.

Mara, again I find us along the same path.

Adrienne and Mara, I have curly hair (not thick, heavy or tight curly) so humidity is a major issue for my wedding day. I tried posting a pic but as I have mentioned before, I find it impossible to post pics here. I do hear Hawaii is gorgeous and let me know how it goes. Mara, is your hair curly? I can't remember where I saw a pic of you, I'll have to look again. Adrienne, how about you?

However, I would consider Hawaii if there's no humidity issue. Someone at work got married in Hawaii and said it was perfect. I might ask her to see her pictures.

I will be looking for Mara's review in August and when is your wedding Adrienne?

We're looking at 18-24 months, but I called a couple of places and they said they are already booking 2005 so we should call when we have a definite date. Since we're pretty flexible and such a small party, I'm not so worried but I was surprised other people are planning now too. The coordinator who took my call said she thinks I'll be okay datewise because not too many people book the small rooms.
 

Mara

Super_Ideal_Rock
Joined
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Lanee I actually have curly hair but it's straightened, so any pix you find will show me with straight hair! However, heavy humidity may be an issue though I will most likely wear my hair up so with it pulled back we can probably control it with oodles of hair products..hee hee.

Hawaii has different temperates at different times of the year. I have heard that May and October are great months to go. Supposedly also March, April and May are slightly warmer than the Dec/Jan months but not so hot as to be humid and unbearable.

The two venues we are looking at said that May is a better month for warmth than April and I think the storms come in Nov and December so those are not the months to go.

I'd be interested in anyone from Hawaii chiming in!

I also found a great Hawaii page on about.com. I think it was something like gohawaii.com and it had information on the best times to go and all of that jazz.

August will be warm when we go, maybe too warm for me..as I live in CA so am used to a steady, dry heat...but we are not really going to judge the weather but rather the feel of the island (Kauai), and the places we are considering for rental as well as meet coordinators, etc. I'll just have to keep in mind that it will be cooler and more temperate the months we are considering!

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Adrienne

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Feb 15, 2003
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I think the main reason we are doing an intimate wedding is because we have both been married before - I've done the big white dress and the formal stuff, this time I want something a little different. My dress, while white, is going to be a little different - and I'm very excited about it!

We are going for the beach because that seems very romantic - and it seems that all the sentimental things have been at the beach somewhere. On our first date we walked along a beach, the first time "I love you" came up was at a beach, the proposal was on a camping trip at the ocean... a beach just seemed appropriate!

Congratulations on getting a scouting trip Mara - I'm looking forward to any ideas you get from it!
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How fun for you to be able to check it out, and probably quite a relief to be able to visualize the people and places that you are considering!

My wedding is in October, so afterwards I'll let y'all know of anything useful that I come up with
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I hadn't considered the humidity. Hmmm.... well, I am from Seattle so I'm probably used to a little moisture in the air, but it's definitely something to consider. Drat! My thick straight hair likes to frizz and curl in the rain and humidity.
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I'll check out GoHawaii - thanks for the suggestion!`
 

Lanee

Brilliant_Rock
Joined
Jan 29, 2003
Messages
534
Adrienne, I hope you return to the forum to let us know how things went for the wedding. A lot of people never return after the engagement or wedding.

I talked to FH last night and he's into Hawaii. He even called his sister and asked her if she would go to Hawaii and would there be any problem with us moving the date as her daughter's birthday (coming out/coming of age party) falls on the weekend we initially picked as our wedding date. We may be getting hitched next fall so it's great that Adrienne is going this October.

We have narrowed our locations down to Galveston, TX, Hawaii or a glass chapel in Kansas.
 

Adrienne

Shiny_Rock
Joined
Feb 15, 2003
Messages
120
Ooohhh - Lanee, I wanna hear about the glass chapel!!!
 

jackieblue

Rough_Rock
Joined
Jan 21, 2003
Messages
69
Mara, if you are really bummed about not having something local you can do what we plan to do. My FH really wants to celebrate with his local friends, so we are going to have a pig roast when we return from our wedding and honeymoon. People can be as casual as they want and we don't have to drop a ton of money like we would on a more traditional large reception. This way, we can invite anyone we want without worrying. We are getting the smaller, more intimate wedding we want while we still get to celebrate later with our friends. It seems like a reasonable compromise. I am even starting to come up with fun ideas, like having wedding photos there and serving monogrammed cupcakes for dessert. Ok, the monogram was Martha Stewart's idea, but the cupcakes seem fun. I am having the cake I want at the wedding dinner.
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Anyway, don't be sad becuase you can still find ways to celebrate with your friends who can't make it!
 
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