Beach Weddings

Many couples dream of a beach wedding. To walk hand-in-hand on soft sand, looking at the sparkle in your lover's eyes, that is a fantasy that can so easily be made true.

When most couples think of a beach wedding, they usually think of warm climates that would be great for their nuptials. After living in Maui for eight years, I was surprised when we visited Key West and drove up U.S. 1 towards Florida about just how flat all of those islands are in that area. Everywhere we went all the way up into Florida, it was just so flat. There were no hills, no rocky outcroppings to break up the horizon like there are here in Hawaii. If I lived on the mainland and wanted to get married on the beach, I would certainly choose somewhere more exotic than the Keys or Florida. Not that they are bad, but in my mind, they just don't compare to Hawaii.

I've heard that many other well known islands don't have any sandy beaches at all. Jamaica is one that comes to mind; I understand that what few beaches they have with sand are man-made with sand being trucked in. The Big Island of Hawaii is similar in that it has very few sandy beaches. Certainly, whatever island you choose for your beach wedding, you want it to have lots of sand and also lots of character.

Now, of course I'm prejudiced, because I live on what has to be one of the most perfect islands in the world, but it seems to me that the best beaches for getting married are right here in the Aloha State. If you want "romantic", that's what we've got. Even if you live on the east coast, I think you will find that Hawaii offers so much more value for your money than going anywhere in the Caribbean.

I've talked to crew members from cruise ships who have been all over the world and they tell me that they enjoy Hawaii the best. We have no poverty here. The crime is very low. And you won't be hit up on the beaches by pandhanders trying to sell you worthless beads or tourist trinkets. And, unlike the Caribbean which was unusually hard hit last year, we seldom have life threatening storms blow through (our last major storm was in 1993, and there was only one death).

In short, Hawaii -- and Maui in particular -- is the perfect place for your beach wedding. If you would like to see the beaches that we use all of the time and which we think offer the perfect spot for your wedding, just click here: http://www.maui-me.com/sites-beaches.html

Free Wedding Planner

When it comes to wedding planners, is there really anything free under the sun? Probably not.

A good wedding planner can actually save you money. A wedding planner worth her salt knows how to book wedding sites and ministers and musicians for less than what clients will often have to pay if they go directly to the service providers. In reality, if a planner saves you money, AND does all sorts of work for you which you don't have to do on your wedding day -- they just might be BETTER than free.

Here on Maui there are many wedding companies who give a "come-on" wedding special offer to do your wedding for just $300. Basically that includes $200 for the minister and $100 for coordinating. By the "coordinating" they mean setting up your license appointment and calling to book a minister -- two phone calls. They won't actually show up at your wedding, so they are actually charging you $50 each for two phone calls -- nice savings! We do make those two calls for free when people book minister-only weddings with us for $200.

We've shot photography for some of these couples who booked thes "discount" packages, and when they add up what they spent on all the different things they wanted, they actually paid much more than if they had just booked our small "Aloha Package". And what they don't get -- which we always include in our regular packages -- is onsite coordinating to make sure everything goes as planned. But these couples are usually happy, because they assumed they had gotten "a really good deal."

Remember that old adage, "you get what you pay for." It's so true. When you try to save money by cutting out the middle man, in the end, you might have less service and bargained for. The best way to get a "free wedding planner", of course, is to do all the planning yourself. Our experience with people who are trying to do this is not good. (Usually they call to pick our brains, but then don't book with us). We also see weddings border on self-destruction when couples try to coordinate a large destination wedding using this do-it-yourself approach.

For example, last year I was hired by a mother to coordinate her daughter's wedding. She had done a lot of browsing on the web and it was immediately evident that she would be very heavy handed in her choices of vendors, and that she wanted me and everyone else to work for less than our normal rates. She seemed to be a control freak and was very quick to criticize anything I did that didn't meet her standards. After working many hours on her behalf, providing many of my professional connections to her (that she lacked), she rudely fired me. Apparently she had convinced herself that she no longer needed my help -- and figured it would be no difficult task to coordinate all the details of the wedding by herself once she arrived.

Although I did not attend the wedding, I did receive feedback about how things went because I had hired several different vendors for her (the photographer, musicians, the DJ). Everyone who had a part in this wedding had been "worked over" by this woman in an attempt to get lower prices. Most vendors might be willing to work for less compensation, but when you are also berated, it can end up leaving a bad taste in everyone's mouth. It really didn't surprise me to hear how badly things went on the day of the wedding, all due to this woman's heavy hand.

For starters, the mother had all of the coordinating information with her about what was supposed to happen at the wedding site and she ended up getting stuck in traffic (behind an accident); she was 45 minutes late. The bride showed up and left her underwear on the bus, which left before she could retrieve it. She didn't know the name of the company to call and get them to return with her undergarments and she also had no dress to wear, because -- you guessed it -- Mom had it with her! They finally managed to reach the Mom in traffic and she gave them the name of the bus company so that they could call and get the bus to come back!

There were not enough chairs for the guests (to save costs) and no one would sit down because there was no coordinator performing crowd control. The photographer finally had to take charge and herd everyone to the chairs so that she could get her shots. Her photography package had been cut to the bone by Mom, and with so many guests, there would simply not be enough photos to cover such a large wedding. All of the delays caused by such poor planning meant that the wedding was very late. That meant they were in danger of not having enough time for the sunset photography. So in the end the mother had to belated authorize the photographer to shoot whatever extra rolls were necessary to make certain that she got the required pictures.

This is the kind of stuff that often happens (usually on a smaller scale) to people who "hire" a "free wedding planner." So beware of "free", especially on your wedding day.

Maui Wedding Packages

If you are coming to Hawaii to get married, you will probably want to book one of the Maui wedding packages that are available. Most companies offer discounts if you purchase a package. We have designed each of our Maui wedding packages to include things that we know our couples are interested in receiving.

What we suggest for our couples is that they select the largest Maui wedding package that nothing they don't want, and then add in any additional services that they like. This is usually better than selecting a package that has services you do not want and which must be subtracted. So let's take a quick look at what's in our Maui wedding packages:

1) Maui Wedding Package -- the Aloha -- Contains the services of our minister (with your choice of ceremonies), 24 photos in a wedding album (35mm, 4 x 6" prints), a sparkling apple cider toast at your wedding site (with a small table presentation), two leis for a lei exchange, a souvenir wedding certificate, your wedding license appointment, setting up your wedding license appointment, and coordinating both in our office and at your wedding site. (NOTE: Be aware that many companies do not send their own on-site coordinator to their weddings, relying upon the minister and the photographer to assist the couple).

2) Maui Wedding Package -- the Mahalo -- This includes everything above, but a larger photography package of 30 prints and one enlargement, a small bouquet for the bride and a boutonnière for the groom, a six inch cake and a larger table presentation of it, engraved glasses for your sparkling apple cider toast, and hair and make-up for the bride in your condo or hotel room.

3) Maui Wedding Package -- the Ohana -- This includes everything in the Mahalo, but also a larger photography package of 48 prints and two enlargements, a "B" video (see our website for more details), a Hawaiian musician, and a larger cascading bouquet for the bride.

4) Maui Wedding Package -- the Kula -- This includes everything in the Ohan Package, but also an upgrade to our "C" video, a deluxe cascading bouquet for the bride, two musicians (instead of one), four hours of limousine service, and a three-course dinner on the beach for two.

All the prices for our Maui wedding packages can be found at http://www.maui-me.com/MauiWeddingPackages.html

Weddings In Hawaii

Because we have a chain of four major islands, there are many places to have weddings in Hawaii. Let me take a few moments and review the four major islands and what each has to offer.

Hawaii -- is the least most popular destination for weddings in Hawaii. Affectionately known as "the big island", the reason it is not popular for Hawaiian island weddings is probably because of the fact that it has almost no sandy beaches. (The few that exist are always very crowded). Most couples coming from the mainland want to walk hand-in-hand on the beach at sunset, Hawaii is therefore a poor choice for a beach wedding. You'll find that there are very few wedding companies working on the big island, because there is simply no demand for weddings. (Some friends of ours moved to Hawaii to do weddings and came back to Maui soon afterwards because they just couldn't make a living there).

Kauai -- is the third most popular destination for weddings in Hawaii. Known as the "garden isle", it certainly has its share of weddings. Kauai is a lovely island and there are many places to get married. But it's biggest problem is that the best beaches for weddings are located on the eastern side of the island where it tends to be more windy. That also means, if you get married there, you might be able to have a great sunrise, but you won't see much at a sunset (as the sun will be setting on the far side of of the island). For this reason, Kauai is only the third in tourist wedding popularity.

Oahu -- is the second most popular destination for weddings in Hawaii. It is the home of Honolulu, the state capitol. Honolulu is Hawaii's largest city and it has freeways and traffic congestion that rival many mainland cities. The island is heavily populated with over a million people, and although there is a lot to see and do, the sheer number of people (and cars) on the island makes transportation a little bit of a hassle. Oahu certainly does its share of tourist weddings, and is ranks number two within the islands.

Maui -- is the most popular location for weddings in Hawaii. Almost half of all tourist weddings take place on this island that has consistently been dubbed "the world's best island." So why is Maui such a popular destination for weddings in Hawaii?

Probably the most important reason is that there are so many great sandy beaches on the west and south sides of Maui. These beaches face right into the setting sun, and so this makes having a beautiful sunset wedding so easy. There are many Maui wedding companies here (probably too many) because weddings are such an important part of the island's economy.

Maui also offers great recreational opportunities, varied accommodations, and a less crowded environment. There are only about 150,000 people on Maui (and about 40,000 tourists on any given day) as compared with Oahu's million-plus tourists. I have written an entire web page on the benefits of coming to Maui which you can find if you click here: http://www.maui-me.com/MauiFunBenefits.html

So if you're thinking of having a wedding in Hawaii, you don't want to miss what coming to Maui can offer you.

Maui Wedding Cakes

Many of our couples who get married on Maui, come by themselves with no family or friends. So they often think: "we don't need a cake; we just want to keep this simple." But because a cake is so traditional to weddings, many do decide to go ahead and order one.

Let me tell you about the first couple that ordered a cake from us at one of our first weddings here on Maui, eight years ago. I was new at coordinating and we purchased our cake from Saveway Market. What a mistake. The cake had strawberry filling and being so fresh it imploded, splitting into three pieces inside its box while I was driving. John was already on his way to the wedding site and I called to let him know of my dilemma. Then I asked a friend if she could recommend a nearby bakery. I called the owner and told him, "I need a wedding cake in 15 minutes. Can you do it?" He replied, "Give me 20 and I can do it."

This baker had a cake already baked that he frosted for me quickly. It was a beautiful job; very professional looking. And because our couple only wanted the cake for their pictures, and wouldn't be taking it with them, I knew I was safe. But then they fed it to each other, and they both went, "Mmm, this is good! On second thought, we'll take this with us."

I still use that baker to this day and I believe he's one of the best on Maui. Josie has a PhD in French pastries from Paris, and he provides a quality product. We almost always have rave reactions whenever our couples taste of their cake, no matter what the flavor.

So what are some of the flavors available? Cake flavors include: white, chocolate, carrot, banana or coconut. Filling choices are lilikoi (our favorite), macadamia nut, raspberry, strawberry, pineapple, lemon, chocolate, mocha, and cream cheese. Icing choices are white butter cream, chocolate, or white chocolate.

The cake size included in our top three packages is the 6-inch cake, which is suitable for feeding up to eight people. If you have more than eight guests, you may want to upgrade the size of your cake. The 8-inch will feed between 12 and 14 people. For a more elegant look, you may want to have a two-tiered cake. The cake includes an 8-inched bottom and a 6-inch top. This size cake will feed up to 22 people.

Susan

Wedding Planner Online

In looking over the Internet, I find so many sites that offer generic Wedding Planner Online services. While this might give couples some great ideas about how to plan their weddings -- especially weddings on the mainland -- you will find that destination weddings are a horse of a different color needing a whole different mindset.

With a destination wedding, you will usually not able to afford to visit or see the actual wedding site (except in pictures). You are usually not able to get everything you want locally, unless you ship it in. For example, many brides have the impression that they can make last minute flower changes thinking that our florist can get whatever flowers they desire. While that may be true on the mainland, especially in larger cities, it is not true here. Our florist has her flowers shipped in from all over the world (particularly Holland and South America). While she still gets many flowers on-island, she must plan ahead, because the truth is: there is limited availability of everything on an island. Almost everything that's here has been shipped in.

What works on the mainland doesn't always work here. For example, on the mainland, you send out instructions to your guests and tell them the address of the church or chapel or wedding site where the ceremony will take place. This is pretty straightforward. But so many of our weddings on Maui are out of doors on an unmarked beach or at a waterfall or in a garden, and finding those locations (even with maps) can be difficult. In our experience, the larger the party, the more likely someone will get lost. Remember, everyone is new to the area and its easy to get confused and turned around. That's why we take all sorts of precautions to avoid losing people (like having them follow us in a train of rental cars to one of our secluded Maui beach sites).

So, why Wedding Planner Online services are good places to obtain ideas, they cannot possibly tell you the specific things that you will need to know at your destination wedding. It is so important that you talk to a local wedding coordinator to get all of the important details so that you won't encounter problems later. And you will want to choose a coordinator who has experience, because that experience can save you problems later. This is every important when the wedding is outside (with weather and logistics considerations thrown in) and it is extremely important if you have a larger wedding.

One of our couples recently told us that they met another couple who had just gotten married with another coordinator. They suggested to our couple: "You must be stressed" (which our couple was not). Then the proceeded to share their own wedding story. Their coordinator told them that the wedding site she had booked for them had suddenly become unavailable. (Wasn't there a deposit? Wasn't there a guarantee?) So the coordinator moved their wedding for about 60 people into a friend's backyard in a residential neighborhood (we would NEVER do this), which was totally unsuitable for that many people. The coordinator had not given the song list to the musicians in advance (how can they practice the songs this way?) and so she had to leave and return to her own home to retrieve it.

But the worst problem they encountered, was that the neighbors in this residential neighborhood were upset with the noise and called the police! (All of the sites we use have specific noise restrictions and we know where we can and cannot have a band). You can imagine how it must have added stress to the evening to have the Maui police arrive at their reception. (No wonder they were stressed). Because they had no right to do a wedding in this neighborhood, the police made them shut down the reception at 9:00 p.m.

The bigger your wedding, the more certain you must be of your coordinator's expertise. It is wise to check out your company thoroughly, first by looking at their website (where you should be able to get a good feeling about who they are and what they do. If you can't get names and addresses from the website, I would start to worry). Then talk to them to the phone (If they don't answer their phone very often, they may have a day job and do weddings "on the side." Do they respond quickly? Are they personable? How do they treat you? Are they knowledgeable? Then check to see if they are members of the Better Business Bureau. (There are lots of companies on Maui that will NEVER be able to become BBB members because they have so many unhappy clients. It's important that you know this before you book with them). If you have any doubts, ask for references from other couples who are willing to describe how their wedding came off.

We are certainly a Wedding Planner Online Service. You can use our website to find out a world of information and details about all aspect of Maui Weddings. But unlike the websites which are just in business just to give you ideas, our advice and our services are designed to be specifically practical for actual weddings for our specific destination wedding location of Maui.

Hawaiian Wedding Leis

Hawaiian wedding leis are a long tradition in the islands and one which most Maui wedding couples like to honor. Leis are made out of fresh flowers that are strung on a string so that they can be placed around your neck. But there is also haku lei, worn by brides, which fits around the top of her head, just above the forehead and to the back of her head. And there are also ankle leis usually worn around just one ankle.

Leis are fragrant and fragile. They symbolize the fragile nature of a relationship and how it must be nurtured and protected. When given with aloha, they are a romantic way to say "I love you." We include a lei exchange in all of our ceremonies and ask our couples, when giving the lei, to kiss the recipient on both cheeks as a loving symbol of their aloha.

Leis add to the wedding celebration and also enhance the photography. John will use those leis in many different way in his pictures, sometimes placing them on the table presentation, or in a heart he creates at the ocean's edge where he writes "Just Maui'd" in the sand.

Males receive either the regular flower leis or what we call a leafy maile lei, which is an open lei composed of more greenery and which hangs down the groom's chest. We also have another lei which is closed that is composed of braided greenery using ti leaves, which are often given to men. Unless it is an open lei draped down the front, we generally encourage the leis to be worn have in front (at the bodice line) and half on the recipient's back. This gives a better, more balanced look for our Maui wedding photography.

Leis come with many different colors depending upon the flowers. We encourage our couples to select either vibrant colors or pastels (which are usually much whiter), depending upon the colors they prefer or the clothes they are wearing. We usually choose the flowers based upon the colors you desire. Plumeria and tuberose are very fragrant. Orchids, crown flowers, and elima (for orange colors) are other flowers that we often use. We have many pictures of leis on our website and a page just for flowers. (Click the title of this article above to go to that page).

If you are coming to Maui, you will want Hawaiian wedding leis on your special day. They are just what you think of when you picture a paradise dream wedding.

Maui Wedding Ceremony

When you're thinking of a Maui wedding, you definitely want to put some thought into the ceremony you will have at your wedding. Good relationships begin with strong commitments. Maui Me has a wide variety of Maui wedding ceremonies to offer you, beginning with our owner, John Souter (my husband).

Now John, of course, is our "default minister." He performs most of our weddings because he doesn't do weddings for other companies, is a "real" minister, he has several great ceremonies from which you can choose, and he works very well with our couples. John has performed about 1200 weddings over the last seven years.

By a "real" minister, I mean that he is not just an "officiant." That's the term used to describe most of those who perform weddings here on Maui. These are men and women who often have little religious or church background, but who have obtained their licenses to perform weddings here in Hawaii. John is different than most of these others because he has been performing weddings for over 30 years as a pastor and church planter on the mainland. And he is a true licensed Christian minister.

You will find three of John's ceremonies right on our website so you can see exactly what is in each. He has a Christian Ceremony for those with a church background, his Contempory Ceremony is a romantic civil ceremony that doesn't mention God, and his Spiritual Ceremony is half way between the Christian and the Contemporary for couples who want a little of both.

His Maui wedding ceremonies are practical, and you won't find him to be so ethereal that you cannot understand what he's saying. As a true pastor, he encourages his couples to treat each other with respect, giving 90 percent while taking only 10. And when John is the minister, you can be sure that he will be with you for the entire evening, unlike other ministers who often have to run off to their next wedding.

John will also allow our couples to write their own vows, which many of the other ministers will not. Although there is a charge for his time if you decide to change one of his wedding ceremonies, he is certainly willing to give you that option, knowing that you must feel right about your Maui wedding ceremony.

In addition to John, we have a wide variety of Hawaiian ministers which are available for your wedding. Most of these ministers have one basic ceremony which they do, but they are good at what they do. We only use the best officiants for our couples.

Maui Wedding Planners Success Story

It's always fun getting feedback from the couples with whom we do weddings. Just today I received feedback from the father of a wedding we did way back in October. He was very kind in his comments, and I decided to share it with you in its entirety.

Rich and Carrie arrived on Maui from a cruise ship. There wedding was situation on the lawn a the Renaissance in Wailea and they had a wedding harpist, photography and a video. But I'll let the father speak for how things went:

"As you know, we talked to several firms about coordinating Carrie and Rich's Maui wedding.

"You were chosen for several reasons including: your ease of access via phone and email (you are one of the few to actually answer the phone when we called); your experience as both a wedding planner, photographer and minister; the way we were treated during each and every contact; and the professional affiliations you maintain (just so happens to coincide with the information on the home page of your web site, but these were the actual qualities we started out looking for).

"As we have discussed, it is a very difficult choice to make when we are so far apart in that you are entrusting somebody you have never met to completely plan your wedding without ever having met them.

"This was a decision that turned out to not only be the right one, but by far the best choice we could have made! I would like to commend both you and your husband for the professional manner in which all dealings have been handled.

"As you know, this was not your usual wedding to plan. Your main contact was not the bride or the groom as the bride and groom decided to have me (the father of the bride) handle contact with you. That is, the decisions were not being made by the person with whom you had direct contact. While we both had some reservations in the beginning, this arrangement never was an issue and all came together for a perfect wedding.

"The ease of doing business with you was evident at all times. As you are aware, the majority of the wedding party arrived in Maui via cruise ship. This was not an issue and all arrangements were as planned. The firms you choose to do business with are as top notch as your own firm is and all should be commended.

"Not one problem, concern or glitch.

"All met or exceeded our expectations! Carrie & Rich would both like to thank you for all of your input (from site selection to the package and minor package changes to the arrangements to the actual ceremony), planning (from the details to the ceremony to the travel arrangements for Rich's family from Michigan to Hawaii and back after a wonderful 5 day stay on Maui), care and concern (making sure that no detail was overlooked) and your willingness to accommodate special requests (the flowers were exactly what Carrie wanted).

"The Renaissance (Wailea) is a perfect location for a wedding and offers all aspects of a Hawaiian wedding in one location (garden, water falls and a beach for wonderful sunset photos).

"It is very obvious that this is more than just a job/occupation/career for both you and your husband. It would appear to be your passion and it definitely shows in the final product, which in this case was Carrie and Rich's wedding! Their wedding greatly exceeded their expectations.

"We would highly recommend your services to anyone considering getting married in Maui.

"Sorry to be so long winded, but wanted to make sure to cover what has been relayed to me about your services (as well as your choices in providing the services of others). Both Carrie and Rich are aware of what is included in this email and have agreed to its content!!

"If we can provide anything further, please let us know. Would be happy to provide references to future clients if this would be of assistance. Thanks, Bruce "

A Maui Wedding Where East Meets West

A lot of couples from different cultures have discovered Maui as the perfect place to get married simply based upon logistics. It is not so far for parents to come from either the East or the West.
We’ve had many couples come to us where the groom was from the mainland and the bride was from Japan or the Philippines or Tawain. In fact, just yesterday we performed such a wedding. While the bride and groom meet in college in Ohio, their families come from different sides of the globe.

We always like to ask how couples met. As it turns out Stephen immediately noticed Yu Chin in his statistics class. When it was time to break up into small groups, he made certain that the attractive girl from China was in his group. Because Stephen is not the mathmatician that Yu Chin is, he asked her for a little tutoring. He enjoyed the times she spent tutoring him on the subject, and the rest -- as they say -- is history.

The couple will be making their home in Ohio.

A Maui wedding was the perfect location for this east meets west union. Half of the guests came from Taiwan and the other half came from Ohio. Interestingly, both groups had 10 hour flights. Maui just seems to be the melting pot for the Pacific. Maui is a great place for couples from different cultures because there is such a diversity of cultures and races here on the island.

Maui definitely is the perfect destination for a wedding like this.