Here it is!

I wasn't going to do a bio, but seeing as I've received so much help and inspiration from all the wonderful bios that other knotties created, I felt it was my civic duty to do the same.  Afterall, the Hawaii Boards are only as good as the knotties who are part of it!  I already know I won't be as diligent as other people in uploading my inspiration, but I'll try to add everything I do complete as I cross it off my list. 

Date: 9.12.09

VENUE: Lanikuhonua, Phase I

SCOUTING TRIP

I am fortunate that my parents still live in Hawaii, so I had them do a lot of scouting.  Here are the places we had them look at and why we did not pick them.  I didn't ever see most of these places in person, so for the people who did get married here, I am just going by the feedback from my parents after their scouting trip.  Also, I'm sure any of these places are fine since they obviously do a lot of weddings, but it just wasn't for us.

REQUIREMENTS:  Outdoors, or at least had a ballroom with big windows that faced the ocean or some sort of nature.

TURTLE BAY:  I love their chapel and always pictured myself getting married here.  Love the horse drawn carriage to the chapel and all of it.  It really came down to budget and it just being too far away for people to travel.  We were worried our older in-town guests wouldn't want to make the drive all the way out there.  But the lady who helped my parents was very helpful and was giving tips on how to keep cost down. 

ANELA GARDENS:  Looks great on the website, but my parents didn't like it in person.  Flowers in the chapel were not real and the place definitely caters to Japanese Tourists.  Also, my mom didn't like how the staff let my parents walk all around the property while there was a wedding going on. The plus is that there is a house you can do the reception in and looks like some nice 'getting ready' shots.

HAIKU GARDENS: Parents nixed this one for the hill you have to walk up between the ceremony and reception, and also that it was too close to residential homes.  Also, not clear if you can have a night time reception at the restaurant there.

LUANA HILLS: I think this place is so gorgeous and everyone's pictures look so amazing with the mountains in the background.  That has always been my favorite side of the island because of the mountains.  I still love going through the tunnel and coming out with all the rain eroded mountain sides hugging the road, and this was a real contender in my mind.  The only thing is that it is pretty hard to find, so there is a lot of potential for people to get lost.

KO'OLAU GOLF CLUB: Also near Luana Hills.  My mom just felt it seemed too big and didn't look as nice in person as it does on their website.  She said you can tell they get a lot of rain and the place felt very grey to her.  Not a big deal for me as I thought Luana Hills was much prettier.  But their menus seemed pretty reasonably priced and it came with a lot of stuff.

THE FINALISTS:

HALE KOA LUAU GARDENS:  

NOTE:  You must be military or have a military sponsor to have an event here.

Hale Koa is an INCREDIBLE deal AND the food is so delicious.  I am usually weary of hotel food at weddings since it is so hard to make it good in large quantities, but Hale Koa is always delcious.  My FI is pretty critical of food also and was surprised with how they were able to serve things like fish without it getting overdone in the chafing dishes.   Definitely budget friendly, buffet is around $30/pp and it's nice that it is in Wakiki, so we could have done the ceremony at St. Augustine and shuttled everyone over.  There are so many pluses, but we didn't end up choosing it because at the end of the day, we really wanted Lanikuhonua and liked the creative freedom Lanikuhonua offered.

LANIKUHONUA:  Even though we knew it would be much more work, we just thought this was so perfect for both our in-town guests (most people never even heard of it before) and our out of town guests (get them out of Waikiki!).

LION DANCE: LUNG KONG ASSOCIATION

Okay, so I know it seems a little odd that the Lion Dance was the second thing booked, but my mom is very on top of everything and secured this right away.  Don't have any feedback on them, but they are very reasonable for two lions.

VIDEOGRAPHER: Video Dreams Hawaii

This was the vendor I knew I had to have.  He did my friend's wedding this past September, and I had to watch her ceremony highlights like 5 times before I could watch it without crying.  From the business side, be prepared that he is not the most organized person, but his work totally makes up for it.  He is amazing at the slow motion stuff and using lighting to enhance the mood.  So happy to have to have him.

SAVE THE DATES: Snapfish

 



 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

We made our STDs on snapfish.  This is one of their Christmas card designs.  Using a coupon I got in my email for a set of 20 cards for a penny to offset some of the cost, I ended up getting 100 STDs for $45. 

The envelopes are pretty flimsy, so to dress it up, I added an envelope liner.  I just used premium wrapping paper and glued only the top part to the envelope.  

I think we are going to have some starfish embellishments, so I bought a couple starfish stamps at Jo-Ann Fabrics and just stamped the front next to the address and I used a smaller starfish stamp to stamp the back.  I tried embossing, but it looked a little too cutesy as opposed to elegant, so I just did green ink for both the front and back.

Totally happy with how it turned out and the liner makes it look so much nicer.  
 

OTHER IDEA: I fell in-love with the boarding pass idea and thought it was so cute.  I even made a boarding pass STD, but I don't have photoshop and like one of the other knotties, I used Paint and Powerpoint, which was fine, but hard to work with.  Then I found all the great templates from other knotties, but by then I was kind of over it.  Mostly because I wanted STD's that would cost around $0.50 and by the time I bought all the cutters, I was spending more than I wanted.  Here is my attempt, which is pretty pathetic compared to other knotties.

PHOTOGRAPHER: Frank Amodo

Picking a photog was such a tough decision.  We went with Frank even though he was the most expensive out of all the photogs were were considering.  We love Franks style - love the vintage look he gets in some of his photos, love the black and whites, and love the 'moments' he seems to capture.

Others considered:  Paul Hayashi and Rachel Robertson

HAIR & MAKE-UP: Beauty by May

May is reasonable and does airbrush make up which seems neat.  Mainly chose her because TT&MOMO and I were able to split travel fees.  Hopefully my trial goes well!

Others considered:  Bev Kaneshige - She is great and I highly recommend her.  She did our make-up for my friend's wedding and the bride looked gorgeous and all of our H&M stayed all night long.  She was more pricey with kind of high travel fees and we wouldn't be able to split fees because she would have to do a wedding in between ours back in Waikiki, so May was the winner.

FAVOR TAGS: Talented cousin with Photoshop

Catering/most rentals/DOC: Poke Stop

Bridesmaid Dress: Ebay

Invitation: DIY

And that's all I've got right now - more to come...