Sherry

Dear FSIL: Please stop sending us emails every two weeks to give us more reasons why it's not convenient for you to come to our wedding. Quite frankly, I think we'll somehow manage to have a wonderful day without you. I know it's very difficult for you to imagine how a wedding could possibly be complete without you, since of course, everything is about you. I really think we'll be fine though. More than fine. Better off without you whining the whole time about how much it cost you to get there (even though you're loaded), how you really didn't have the holiday time for it (even though you've now booked another holiday later in the year), how your kids will be scarred for life after having to take such a long flight (even though they've done it before and a number of other parents are somehow managing to bring their children to our wedding) and/or how you cannot stand to be away from your kids for even one minute. We will be fine. It would be really nice if you would just shut up about it though. Our wedding is not about you. Unbelievable, I know. Sherry PS - If you'd just tell us the truth, that you have major issues about leaving your kids, even if your husband, their father, will be home with them, it would really help. It's pretty sad that your husband had to tell us that behind your back. Honesty really would have been the best policy, and a lot less insulting than a bunch of clearly untrue excuses. PPS - you have only one sibling, and you're missing his wedding. That is your decision. I reiterate: please just shut up about it now and for once in your life, let something be about someone other than you.

Quote: Originally Posted by Amy&Andy She curled it all with a smaller curling iron, spraying aerogel on it, then finished with the Bumble & Bumble new hairspray, which I have and it is fabulous. I also thought you had to have dirty hair for the curl to stay, but she had me wash it and blowdry as well. Tri Aerogel Styling Spray Hairspray Aero Gel - Sale / Hot Deals Bb.Spray de Mode I use BB Spray de Mode too, and I love it. Has to be the best hairspray I've ever used.

Your pictures are gorgeous! Can't wait to see the rest.

Love the Melissa Sweet dresses!!

Well, actually, the mother of the flower girl found it! It's so perfect, and it was so nice of her to find it for me. It was nice to have something just totally taken care of for me like that. Here it is: The wedding colours are pink and white, so it couldn't be more perfect. The bridesmaids are wearing tan coloured dresses, pink shoes and carrying pink flowers and my bouquet is white flowers. How adorable will this dress be?? Yay!

Definitely not crazy to have bought your dress 8 months before the wedding. The more important question is, why haven't you posted any pictures for us? Or did I miss them?

and here's pics of the flowers they're using for the bridesmaids' bouquets: pink cymbidium orchids: pink plumeria: pink ginger florets:

So I took a little hiatus from planning the last few months. All the big things were done ages ago, and then we bought a house, and I got distracted. Now suddenly I woke up one day last week and realized that it was 2 and a half months until the wedding, and I had left some things (like flowers!) until a little later than I had originally planned I had my heart set on plumeria (all white for my bouquet and all pink for the girls). However, I had never bothered to ask our WC whether they were actually in season in October in Hawaii. I finally got around to that today, at barely more than 2 months until the wedding, and it turns out that they are at the very end of their growing season by the end of September/beginning of October, and the florist says they can't do full bouquets of plumeria. I have been a pretty laid back bride to date, maybe too laid back. It never occurred to me that the flowers I loved might not even be available! This led to me being awake at 3:00am tonight (i.e right now!), WORRYING for the first time since we started planning the wedding. It all turned out great though, because our WC had actually written me back with suggestions for the bouquets, and I LOVE them!!! We're going to do white cymbidium orchids, white dendrodium orchids and white tuberose for my bouquet and pink plumeria, pink cymbidiums and pink ginger florets for the bridesmaids. After I looked up pics of all those flowers (ha ha), I found that I love these bouquets even more than I thought I would love all plumeria. I'm also really happy that we're still getting the colours I wanted and having all local flowers, which was really important to me. Yay!!! For those who are as uninformed as I am when it comes to flowers, here's pics of the flowers they're using for my bouquet: white cymbidium orchids: white dendrodium orchids: white tuberose:

We also didn't want to have 2 weddings. I couldn't believe how many people just assumed that we'd throw a full-on second reception when we got home. We initially weren't going to do anything at all, but we've decided to just have a party at our house a week after we get back. It's not going to be a reception, just a party, and we're really stressing that to everyone. At first we were thinking maybe a hamburger and hotdog sort of thing, but now we've decided not to even go that far. It's just going to be a house party with chips and pretzels. VERY low key - not a wedding reception, just a party to celebrate.

I have finally settled on my hairstyle for the wedding. I was originally thinking the Emmy Rossum style that I posted earlier on this thread. Then, for the past little while, I started thinking that I wanted it down and curly/wavy. Anyway, I went to my normal stylist for a trim the other day, and she offered to do a few sample looks for me at no charge. I've been going to her for years, and it was like she read my mind. I seriously was close to tears I was so happy. I didn't even cry when I found the dress! The style she did was very similar to the front and back pics attached. I'm going for a trim a few days before we leave for the wedding, and I'm going to ask her to do it again, and this time I'm going to make sure to take some pictures. The Maui stylist I've booked for the wedding is supposed to be amazing, and I'm sure he'd do a great job based on the pics below, but I feel so much better knowing that I'll have pics of the style I want done by the hairstylist who knows me so well.

Congratulations Maura! That's so exciting. You looked so pretty - I love that dress on you.

I booked the Seawatch on my own, because we had already selected it, and since we knew what we wanted, there didn't seem much point in adding 20% or whatever it is in fees for the WC to book it. For the actual ceremony though, we're using A Dream Wedding: Maui Style as WC's. I went with them because a friend of mine at work used them for her wedding. She has great taste and raved about what a great job they did, so that was good enough for me. I felt better going with a referral than with a completely unknown vendor.

Great pics! Looks like it was an absolutely gorgeous wedding!!!

I think it totally depends on how important the pictures are to you. If pictures are really high on your priority list, you should probably think about getting a pro. When my FI and I were working out our budget, we cut down on some other things to allow more for a really good photographer and videographer. We figured that aside from being married (obviously the most important thing), the only tangible thing you have to really look back on that day are the pictures, so we wanted to make sure they were good. We were also really paranoid about this particular issue, because a few of our friends had compromised on the photographer, and now admit that they really regret it. My FI's sister and her husband actually ended up getting all of their wedding photos redone about 3 months after the wedding, because they had gotten a friend who was a "great" amateur photographer (who'd never before done a wedding) as their wedding photographer, and my FI's sister was in tears when they got the pictures back. Hearing that was enough for me to allot a good portion of our budget to the photographer and videographer. That said, the pics are really, really important to me and my FI. If they're lower on your list of priorities, then it's different. I'm sure you'll make the decision that's right for you!

So far, I think we're going to do the following as optional group events, for any of the guests who want to attend: 1. Drive to Hana (most of our guests are renting cars while on the island, so we would just do this as a "drive out with us in your car if you want" type of thing, which would avoid the whole carsick issue with a van/bus). 2. Group beach day with a sandcastle building contest (I'm guessing the contest thing will probably get abandoned, but we thought it would be fun to have a day when everyone could hang out at the beach, plus it would be a less expensive thing for people to do if they were wanting to keep the budget down). 3. Feast at Lele the night before the wedding. My FIL's have very graciously offered to pay for this! 4. Group brunch the morning after the wedding. My parents have offered to pay for this. We haven't decided on the location yet, so I'd love to hear any ideas. FI is thinking about doing a "guys' day" before the wedding, for which he's thinking about organizing some kind of a fishing trip. I'm thinking about doing a spa day with the ladies that day. We're leaving after brunch the morning after the wedding, and are heading off to Kauaii and then the Big Island for our honeymoon (I'm also working on my FI for a couple of days in Honolulu, mainly to do some shopping!). We have 10 days after the wedding, and we haven't even started thinking about what we want to do on Kauaii and the Big Island yet, other than rent a tandem kayak at some point, and go out to see the Volcano on the Big Island.

Quote: Originally Posted by dcnetworks Sherry: We are looking for hair/makeup too. What is your cost for either the bride or the bridesmaids? Thank you for sharing. The prices Jessica Waite quoted me were $95 for the bride (which includes airbrush) and for bridesmaids, it's $75 for regular makeup application or $95 if they want airbrush. With Dan Sanchez, it of course depends on what services you want to order, but updos are $95/person. I'm also having him do manicures & pedicures for everyone for $85/person. Both Jessica and Dan charge a travel fee, depending on where you are. I think they're both charging $50 each to travel to Wailea, although it might be $75 for Jessica, I can't quite remember.

Quote: Originally Posted by Chiquita Oooh thanks. I'm doing boarding pass invitations but need a bunch of Hawaiian scrapbooking stuff.. and this seems like a pretty appropriate website for that Make sure you post a pic of your invitations! I'll make sure to post a pic of my invitations. I'm dying for them to arrive!!

I posted this on the Hawaii forum, but thought that it might be helpful for anyone planning a beach/tropical wedding, so am also posting here. A co-worker of mine recommended Island Paperie to me for invitations. She used them for the invitations for her Maui wedding a couple of years ago and was so happy with them. I checked out their website, and was so impressed! World's largest selection of hawaiian & tropical scrapbook supplies & invitations We've ordered the "plumeria galore" invitations: plumeria galore * islandpaperie.com I'm having white plumeria for my bouquet and pink plumeria for my BMs' bouquets, so these invitations were perfect. They do the proofs online, and I'll receive the proof by Monday (it takes a little longer when you order on the weekend. If you order on a weekday, you get the proof emailed to you within 24 hours). Anyway, I'll write a review when we've received the actual invitations, but I've seen the ones my friend ordered from Island Paperie, and they were GORGEOUS.

A co-worker of mine recommended Island Paperie to me for invitations. She used them for the invitations for her Maui wedding a couple of years ago and was so happy with them. I checked out their website, and was so impressed! World's largest selection of hawaiian & tropical scrapbook supplies & invitations We've ordered the "plumeria galore" invitations: plumeria galore * islandpaperie.com I'm having white plumeria for my bouquet and pink plumeria for my BMs' bouquets, so these invitations were perfect. They do the proofs online, and I'll receive the proof by Monday (it takes a little longer when you order on the weekend. If you order on a weekday, you get the proof emailed to you within 24 hours). Anyway, I'll write a review when we've received the actual invitations, but I've seen the ones my friend ordered from Island Paperie, and they were GORGEOUS. We weren't even going to do formal invitations, with our wedding being so small, but our Moms and my sister, not to mention a few of my close girlfriends, were a little disappointed not to have an invitation as a keepsake. Then I started thinking that it would be a nice keepsake for us too, so here we are, invitations ordered! Anyway, hope you guys find this post helpful!

Thanks so much for posting. This list will come in very handy!

PS - you really can't go wrong. They're both gorgeous dresses, and they look amazing on you!

I love the first one on you. As was mentioned by a number of others, it looks like it was made for you!

Rachel, I love your pictures! Your wedding was gorgeous and you looked amazing. Your dress was so perfect. I especially loved the pictures when your Dad was walking you down the aisle. That's one of my favourite parts of a wedding (it's always the part that makes me cry - that anticipation and joy on the bride's face, and how it's all finally happening). You looked so happy!

Quote: Originally Posted by roo66 How did you contact jessica? i have googled her and she looks fantastic but there is no contact number to reach her on to get prices etc thanks maria.x Maria, you can call Jessica at +1.808.283.7837 or email her at [email protected] I found it easier to email her, with the time difference and everything.

Quote: Originally Posted by roo66 Could i ask you both who,or if you are using to organize your weddings.There are lots of companys on line but im not sure.Did you get a package that included flowers ceremony photos hair and makeup etc.we are planning on going by ourselves and will need lots of advice on what to do where to go etc. We're using "A Dream Wedding: Maui Style" as our wedding coordinators A Dream Wedding Maui Style - A Full Service Wedding Coordinator on the Island of Maui. A friend of mine at work had them coordinate her wedding last year, and she absolutely raves about them. This friend of mine is incredibly detail oriented (she's an accountant!) and was very particular about everything she wanted for her wedding. I'm pretty much the exact opposite, but the fact that she loved the planners at A Dream Wedding: Maui Style so much was a guarantee for me that I would love them. We booked a basic package that included the ceremony, wedding license, officiant, flowers and a basic photography package, which we're going to enhance. They also helped with booking our venue for the ceremony and I was so happy to have help in that regard, with never having been to Maui before. We're using Mike Sidney (Mike Sidney) for pictures. A Dream Wedding booked him for us, and they work with him a lot. My friend who got married there last year used him, and her pictures are amazing. They booked Paster Vance (Pastor Vance Ali'i Rosete - Hawaiian Minister - Maui, Hawaii) as our officiant (we're going to have a non-religious ceremony). Two of my friends have been married by him, and they and their respective husbands can't say enough good things about him. We were joking that at the rate we're going, we should practically be getting a group rate! I booked my makeup artist and hairstylist myself, based on the recommendation of Barefoot Bride 5 on this forum. I'm having Jessica Waite for makeup and Dan Sanchez for hair. They're both amazing (based on the work on their respective websites and references), and I've found them both so professional and enthusiastic already. Dan even had me send him pictures of my hair and ideas for hairstyles already! I suppose I should end my novel of a post now. I hadn't been on the site much lately, but I think my passion has been renewed!