A Surprise Maui Wedding

Coming up soon we have another "surprise wedding." I love these. We don't get to do them often, but there's something special and romantic about a bride or a groom planning a wedding for their significant other and surprising them with it. Now I know, a lot of couples (and their parents) would be horrified about not having a say in their wedding, about just being surprised. But these are usually weddings with couples who have been together for a long time where one has been suggesting or asking the other to get married, and has met resistance.

That's why it is so much fun when the resisting half of the couple suddenly decides to tie the knot, and decides to do it as a secret.

So we have a bride to be who is coming here to Maui to get married next week, and her groom doesn't know. He keeps asking, and she's put him off saying, "maybe we could go to Vegas later." But all the time she's been putting together all of the details to do it when they arrive in Maui.

For any couple, the secret will be "out" when they arrived at their Maui wedding license. Unfortunately, you can't just walk out on the beach and tie the knot without first getting a license. So in this case, we have scheduled the wedding license as late in the day as possible, so they can go right to the Maui wedding site after they have their paperwork.

Over the years, we've had brides surprise their men and grooms surprise their women. And usually, its the half of the couple who has held out the longest, so that the other half is ecstatic at the wedding. We love that. It's just one more reason we love doing weddings in Maui.

Maui Babysitter for Couples

Our daughter Rebecca is now working full time as a Maui Nanny and Maui babysitter.

The other night we performed a wedding where the kids were running around out of control, and I thought to myself, I sure wish those parents had realized that Maui Nanny could tame their kids and give them all a little more peace of mind.

Young kids simply do not enjoy the same kind of activities that we do, and it is so nice to be able to give them their own mini-vacation by allowing the Maui Nanny to come in and take care of them while we go off and get a little "alone time" together. Rebecca comes right to her client's condo and takes care of the kids in their familiar surroundings.

What is neat, is that she brings all kinds of crafts and games and fun activities with her. She very seldom just sits with them while they watch a video. This makes the kids so glad to see her. They start jumping up and down when they know she's coming back. Many of the parents are absolutely amazed at the reaction of their kids and how much they look forward to her visits.

And that's great for parents, because then you don't feel "guilty" for hiring a Maui Babysitter. We all know how difficult it can be to spend 100 percent of your time with you kids on vacation, to the point where we just don't have as much patience. That's why having babysitting of your kids is such a good idea. Believe me, they won't miss you (and be crying when you leave) after a time or two with our very own Maui Nanny.

Give her Maui babysitter Maui nanny website a look see at Maui Nanny.

Maui Wedding Tipping?

Should you tip at your Maui wedding? That's a question a lot of our couples will ask us about our different wedding vendors.

Tipping is always appropriate to those who perform your wedding. Whenever you receive great service, it is always a nice gesture to tip those who are serving you. I've talked to our wedding venders and believe me, they always appreciate it when they are complimented for their service to you with a tip. We all try to do a good job and receiving a tip after your services certainly leaves you with good feelings towards your couples.

Today, everyone expects to tip the bell hop, the taxi or limo driver, the man who parks your car, and the food server. You probably tip your barber and your hair stylist. These are all fairly personal services done for you. But most people simply don't think about it at their wedding, probably because no one reminds them that it shows good form when you communicate how much you loved the service you received at your wedding.

If you tip someone who parks your car or carries your bags for a few feet at the airport, how much more should you think about tipping those who make the most important moment of your life more meaningful? Think about the level of service that they will be giving you. Your Maui wedding providers will probably carry all sorts of supplies and equipment to your Maui wedding site. They'll bring their own video equipment (and tripods), photography equipment, musical instruments, tables and chairs, flowers, etc. to your ceremony.

Keep in mind, if your wedding is on the beach, they are risking the exposure to rain, the sun, the sand, and the ocean (and believe me these are VERY real risks for them. John has had waves splash his cameras and cause damage, and of course little grains of sand have a way of getting everywhere into our expensive electronic equipment).

When your wedding providers are outside at a wedding, the sun will often beat down upon them. Skin cancer from prolonged exposure to the sun is a very real hazard of being exposed to that sun. Photographers and videographers often accidentally kick rocks, back up for a photo shot and fall over partially buried rocks, or step into holes on the beach and fall down with their expensive equipment in hand. It really involves a lot of work and a lot of risk for any of the Maui wedding providers. A lot more than it takes for someone to park your car at one of the resorts.

We've found that the reality is only about one couple in ten (if that) who tips their wedding providers. It seems that the older a couple is, the more likely they will tip, while younger couples are much more likely to be oblivious about gratuities. Every wedding vendor I know has stories to tell about serving their couples at a large and extravagant wedding with lots of extras (beyond the normal work load), and they have to bend over backwards to solve problems that the couples or their guests have created, and then they walk away at the end with nothing but a "thank you," if that, for all of the extra stress the couple put them through.

So how much should you tip? Couples often ask us how much they should tip our vendors. At a restaurant, I've heard it said that at least 20 percent of your food order is "appropriate." When you're already paying a lot for your wedding, that might seem a bit high to you. But when you consider the amount of work and service that you will be receiving, such a figure is certainly not inappropriate. Dropping someone a five dollar bill would probably be seen as an insult, considering the extent of service you are receiving from them. Make the tip appropriate to the amount of time and the service you receive.

Because many young couples offend without meaning to when they give, let me make some suggestions about how NOT to tip. Don't tip one wedding service provider in front of another servant, letting them see you do this, unless you are also planning to tip the second service provider as well. This is rude to the vendor you are not tipping -- its like a slap in the face.

Don't ask a vendor if they have change for a large bill, so that you can tip another vendor (and then not give anything to the person who gave you change). Believe it or not, I've seen this done. Again, it is an insult to the one who is not tipped, because you've it is made so obvious that you are tipping then. Don't ask anyone for change, it puts everyone in a difficult situation.

I believe that giving a gratuity can and should be an art. Some people just know how to do it so that you feel very good; while others make you feel small and insignificant. So what's the best way to do it?

Planning ahead is best. You don't want to have to reach into your wallet and thumb through all your cash, as if you are mentally computing the amount you should give. Many of our grooms have a number of bills in their pocket which they can pull out at the appropriate moment without needing to check what denomination they've got. Believe me, this makes them look and few much more gracious and thoughtful. It is best to give your gratuity simply, without making a lavish show by it. Your goal is to compliment, not to make anyone uncomfortable. It's nice when the groom shakes someone's hand and he has his tip in it, saying something like, "Here's a little something for you. Thanks for your making our Maui wedding so special."

Many couples will put their gratuities in envelops with the names of the different vendors on them (i.e., "Maui photographer", "Maui minister", "Maui wedding coordinator", "Maui limo driver", "Maui musician", "Maui hair dresser", etc.). This makes everything nice and neat. No one is forgotten and no one is embarrassed.

If you do receive bad or rude service, then simply withhold the gratuity from the offending wedding service provider. By having envelops, you don't have to fumble with a wallet or purse. Some couples will put a note in the envelop, thanking the different Maui wedding service providers. This way, you can give the gratuity graciously, without fanfare.

Believe me, your Maui wedding service providers will appreciate your thoughtful attention to detail. Most of our Maui wedding service providers will graciously accept a gratuity and simply put it immediately in their pocket. The last thing that they will do is to look at it. They will say thank you, and wish you the best as they leave.

When should you give it? At the end of their service. Many of the wedding services providers will say "good bye" to their couples, in essence announcing their departure, giving the couple an opportunity to provide a gratuity. At some larger weddings, the couples might assign a best man, or one of the fathers to make certain that everyone receives their gratuity.

If you forget to give one of your gratuities, you can always give it to your coordinator to pass along. But again, be absolutely certain if you do this that you have also tipped your Maui wedding coordinator. Nothing is more rude than to be called upon to dispense tips to other vendors when you are not receiving one yourself.

Finally, you don't have to give. Giving should be just that, a gift. If you must give (as is expected in so many places), then it is not really a gift, but an added expense. We never say to our couples that they must give, but we know that so many of the wedding vendors do definitely appreciate those tokens of your appreciation.

Maui Wedding Digital Photography

With all of the Maui weddings that we've been performing over the last couple of months, John has shot a lot of digital. We both enjoy the fact that we can shoot so many shots and double check to see how we're doing after on the flash card. It gives you a great feeling of security.

But one of the reasons we've been so busy is because it takes so much time to edit and work on shots after we come back from doing our Maui weddings. John has become extremely backed up with digital editing. We sat down and discussed this situation, and despite both of our liking the results so much, we both agreed that he is killing himself for exactly the same amount of money. With the in mind, we've decided to return to film and do most of our weddings in film unless the couple specifically wants to upgrade to the digital price list.

Digital simply has to be more expensive, because it takes more time. And what is nice is that John can do a lot of editing. From soft focus, to adding black and white, sepia tones, taking away color except in just one spot, and on-and-on. He is really quite good with his digital editing.

But our prices are just too low to support all of this extra work, so we have simply had to raise them up in order to make it worth all of the extra time it takes to edit and send them to the lab. So if you want digital, and all of this fun editing done to your wedding images, please ask me about our digital prices.

Maui Weddings Galore

Wow, I've been so busy working with my husband John on all our our Maui weddings I just haven't had time to blog for the last 10 days. That's a long time. We've had a very busy month of May, and June is no different. Lots of Maui weddings on the horizon.

But I thought I would just take a few moments and put up a couple of quick blogs to keep our couples informed about what's going on.

The weather is finally starting to get more consistently "summer like" here. Where we live (in Haiku) it rains just about every day. So we're used to seeing overcast skies throughout the day. But down in the Wailea-Makena areas of the island where we do most of our weddings, it is typically sunny. That is the south side of the island and so there is very little rain there on a normal day. We seem to be through most of the rainy weather we've had of late and that's good news to our couples.

I should point out that in all of our weddings this year, we didn't have to postpone any because of weather. On one occasion we did pull out our canopy which is big enough for the couple, the minister and the videographer to all stand under without getting wet. It is also high enough that we don't get any of it in our photographs or videos. But, fortunately, we only pulled it out once, and then I'm not sure it was really needed as only the guests stood under it while the couple stood on the beach in a fine mist during their ceremony.

Maui Airport Expansion

Will, construction has finally started on Maui's airport expansion. We saw it first-hand when we drove from Costco down to the Hana Highway on the way home the other night. Construction is moving ahead.

Back in 1998, the State Legislature approved $180 million to strengthen the existing runway and add another 2,800 feet to it. That plan received a lot of opposition from local residents who didn't want the airport to be elevated to "international status", because it would bring too many visitors to the island. So the State's plan was amended to drop the extension.

But Maui is already the second busiest airport in Hawaii (after Honolulu), in a State where tourism is our number one form of income. I firmly believe that it is only a matter of time before the airport runway is lengthened to accommodate the larger planes. In a recent article by Maui Weekly it was revealed that the airport will probably be forced into growing into the "big city" style airport that so many wanted to avoid. The Kalului Airport is receiving a $2.3 million "face-lift."

Maui is just too popular to hold down people's interest and desire to come here. Maui really is the best of the Hawaiian islands. I do not believe that it is only a matter of time before the full-on expansion of the runway takes place. Certainly, a lot of work needs to be done on Maui's inadequate road system that has its own traffic jams.

Monday night was a classic case for us. An accident on Piilani Highway in Kihei closed the road and forced all of the north-south traffic down to Kihei Road. John was on his way to our evening wedding, but ended up losing an hour to bumper-to-bumper traffic congestion caused by the accident. Kihei needs more roads running north-south to avoid similar road congestion.

Fortunately for us, our limo driver was picking up our couple, and they had no problems getting to the wedding site. And because I was in a separate car, I was able to get everything ready for the wedding until John was able to arrive. As a company, we always strive to keep things organized. So we keep in contact back and forth with all of our vendors on our cell phones, keeping each other aware of road conditions, weather and how crowded our wedding beach is.

Digital Photography for your Maui Wedding?

John has gotten pretty good at digital photography, and I must say that I really like the results. Film is great, but I really like the color and subtleness of digital better. I'm usually the one who selects which of John's photos go into the album for our couples (they can substitute out any of the pictures I did not select), and I can tell you that often times it is very hard for me to choose which shots make the final cut. There are just so many good ones.

I'm also John's assistant during the wedding, at Maui weddings where he is performing the ceremony, and I find that I can take many more shots than I can when we're shooting film. I've certainly noticed the quality of my part of the photography package going up. At last night's wedding we shot over 200 photographs, which is easy when you know that you don't have to process all those prints. In the end, when I edit down the number of shots that John and I have taken, I find that our quality goes way up, simply because I have more to choose from.

But there is also the fact that we can take a lot of impulse shots that we would normally not shoot, that are more like Photo-journalistic style shots. For example, at last night's wedding, the bride's brother had a cute little girl who was the "official bouquet handler" during the ceremony. When the bride passed off her bouquet, so that she could have her hands free for the ring exchange, this little girl took it and joined the wedding party. That makes such a cute shot.

Of course, that kind of shot certainly isn't on my "shot list" when we're shooting film! But when you are not worrying about burning film, both John and I can click away. If you choose digital for your Maui wedding, I'm certain that you will be very happy with the look of your photos.

I also like the fact that I have more control over how the finished images are going to look. I can edit them before they go to the lab, so that I do not have to depend upon them so much. All-in-all, I am really enjoying shooting digital more than I do film. And our couples certainly seem happy with the results.

Maui Wedding Package Price Increases

We've had to raise two of our Maui wedding package prices because of price increases from many of our vendors. Our Maui wedding videos have gone up. Our Maui wedding limo prices have gone up. Our Maui dinner on the beach prices have gone up. Our Maui wedding cake prices have gone up.

If we have to pay more, we have to pass that along, or our profitability goes down. Fortunately, we are one of the lower priced Maui wedding companies. If you compare the prices of almost any other Maui wedding coordinator, our prices are usually the better. One of our competitors compares his prices with two of his competitors, and of course his prices are lower. But he leaves us off his list, because our prices are lower than his.

To help us in better serving our clients, John has put up a brand new Maui Wedding Store page. We've eliminated the shopping cart which we had in favor of a big lisiting of many (but not all) of our Maui wedding prices. You can get a good idea about how much it costs for things like butterflies, white wedding doves, digital photography and different sized bouquets will run.

I invite you to take a look at that page, which is located at:
http://maui-me.com/MauiMeWeddingStore.html

Hawaii Cruises and Maui Weddings

Last night we coordinated a Maui wedding for a couple who were on a cruise. The couple and their two young children and his parents are all on the cruise ship, Pride of America which docks in Kahului here on Maui for two days as part of its Hawaiian Islands itinerary.

Recently we've performed a number of weddings for couples who come arrive on the cruise ship. They can get their Hawaii wedding license on an earlier stop if they choose, or we now have a wedding license officiant near the port so that they can get it soon after leaving the cruise ship.

In the past we've performed a lot of weddings for couples coming in at Lahaina. In fact, you can see a picture of a couple we married at Baby Beach in Lahaina. On that page we actually were able to take a picture of their cruise ship in the background with them standing on the beach where we performed their Maui wedding ceremony. You can see it at Maui Beach Weddings.

Most couples will rent a car so they can get to the Maui wedding site location. Because they are hear such a short period of time, we cannot have their pictures for them before they leave. But we seem to be doing more and more Maui weddings for cruise ship passengers.Robert and Rosemary are from upstate New York and to say that the weather and ambiance are quite different, I'm sure, is an understatement.

The couple visited the Big Island of Hawaii on Sunday. Yesterday, they steamed into Maui early in the morning, and Robert remarked to John that as they came within sight of the incredible vista of Maui and saw the green slopes of Mount Haleakala, Maui's 10,000 foot high volcano, it hit him how awesome Hawaii really is. I imagine that Maui would be quite a site early in the morning with the waves crashing on the northern coastline.

Maui Weddings in May

I haven't blogged much this month because we've been so busy with coordinating our Maui weddings in the month of May. This has to be our busiest month of the year. This week it seems I have a wedding every night, sometimes two.

My husband John Souter, who is our main Maui wedding Photographer is concentrating now on shooting more digital photography. We both love the results and so do our Maui wedding couples. It is fun not to have to hold down the number of shots you do, which we had to do when we were shooting film exclusively. Now John is able to shoot so many of the artsy style shots, like close-ups of the cake or "Just Maui'ed" writing in the sand, or a particular part of the bride's dress, or whatever grabs his creative eye. And if we take too many, we can always eliminate the extra shots before we take them into the lab.

But we both especially love the color we're getting with digital. I must say, it spoils you to be able to see right now what you're getting so that you can make camera adjustments, if necessary and shoot another shot if you like. We also find that the couples get into seeing a few of the shots we've taken, while on the beach or at their wedding site, knowing how good they're coming out. With so many Maui weddings now in May, it is so very much more fun to shoot digital.

We just did a fun Maui wedding for a couple the other night at the Sea Watch Restaurant. Rika, the bride was from Japan, and her family came from the east. The groom was from Wisconsin and brought his family from the U.S. mainland. Maui makes the perfect spot for couples coming from those two extreme distances for their wedding.

Maui Wedding Planner: Why You Need One

Many Maui Wedding Planners are offering small, inexpensive weddings at bargain prices. But usually, those weddings don't come with on-site coordinating. You are left to find the Maui wedding site yourself, where you'll typically meet the minister (who will have a couple of leis). And in some cases, your Maui wedding photographer will also show up at the wedding site (depending upon what you've ordered.

The problem is what happens when something goes wrong? In our 8 years of planner and coordinating Maui weddings, we have seen just about everything go wrong. We had one minister a few years ago who was normally very reliable, then he simply did not show up. We have had cakes implode on us. Florists have forgotten to give us boutenaires (actually, that happened again, just last night). Couples have gotten lost and gone to the wrong beaches. We've seen videographers come to the Maui wedding (not our company's wedding) and there only camcorder was not working. We've had a downpouring of rain several times. We've had the road closed so that our couple couldn't get to the wedding site on time. I've seen tables upended by a gust of wind and the glasses broken.

I could go on and on . . . because we've been doing Maui weddings for so long. The interesting thing is that most of the problems we've seen have happened when we have been hired by other companies. We always have a back-up plan on everything we do. For example, we don't want to be caught with an equipment failure, so my husband always has a back-up camera just in case his regular goes down. That's just the way we do business.

We usually don't put the glasses out on the table anymore before the wedding (because of past experience). But we alway have back-up glasses and tableware . . . just in case. We check and double-check everything. And in the event that something got missed, we have a back-up plan to solve the problem (like when the florist forget to give us the groom's bout last night -- we immediately called her and returned for it).

In so many cases, we've had problems which we've solved and the couple never even knew that anything was wrong. That's the way you want it to be, so that all you have to do is concentrate on each other and getting married.

Because problems inevitably do happen, and all the more if you're trying to coordinate your own wedding to save money. A Maui wedding couple is just plan smart to make certain that they hird a Maui Wedding Planner to make everything happens just the way its supposed to. But, of course, you do want to make certain that your Maui wedding coordinator knows how to have a back ups in case there are any problems. That way, you don't have to worry and fret if everything is going to go okay.

With the 1200 plus Maui weddings we've planned, it is truly nice knowing that the vast majority of them have come off without a hitch. You deserve to have that kind of Maui Wedding Planner.