sdnative222

Oh darlin! I'm so sorry to hear that. You sound so frustrated. Would you consider moving your ceremony to Dana Point? It's a little south of Laguna, but just as picturesque. Laguna Cliffs Marriott Resort If it makes you feel any better, I didn't get to have my reception at my first or even second choice venue. I thought I had plenty of time and mailed off my deposit only to get a phone call two days later from my wedding planner that my date was reserved by someone else on the day I mailed my check. In the end, I moved my reception to a much smaller, more intimate restaurant 4 yards from the ocean. I saved money on the food and drinks.....and we didn't feel like we were being milled through a mass-production wedding hall.

Quote: Originally Posted by smith3576 Did anyone have problems with volume changes on their IPOD? No, I didn't have any problems with the volume. In truth, the whole sound board, mic and speakers were set-up by a professional DJ. We only needed to plug in our i-pod and let the playlists run. They color-coded the buttons we needed to press. I had one of my friends perpetrate MC and gave him this timeline to go by. Quote: Originally Posted by SSNM Wow, I must say I really admire your efforts into the playlists. Honestly, though, I do not see myself doing this well AT ALL despite your wonderful advice -- I'm WAY too simple. So how much would it cost to get a DJ to do this for me? I had a professional DJ set-up and breakdown for $500. It was far more cost-effective than $300/hr with a 4 hour minimum. Quote: Originally Posted by Lashawn Hello ladies! Thanks for the GREAT info.. will you or did you hire a DJ as well, or did you pop in the IPOD and get moving? I considered a DJ, but after contacting a few of them...we opted for the i-pod only. Many of the DJ's I contacted didn't have the music I wanted and I didn't see paying all that money when I was providing all of my own music. It worked out great, in the end. We got to hear all the music we wanted to. We saved ourselves almost $700 and....we didn't have to worry about transporting heavy stereo equipment from the mainland to our DW and back again. time.doc

I'm sure as your date gets closer you will get more and more excited. As for me, all the planning didn't get me ready for that last week before the ceremony. I don't know why, but those last 7 days were a whirlwind. As for your hair, who is doing it? Are they coming to you or are you going to them I lucked out and found a stylist in South Kihei, just 1 minute north of my hotel. Her name is Robbie and she runs Maui Day Spa out of her home. She can come to your location, but it was more cost-effective for me and my wedding party to go to her. Here's her link. Maui Day Spa - Spas on Maui, Salon Services on Maui, Massage on Maui She has this amazing dog that just chilled in the corner of the salon while you get your hair done. She made sure I had pictures of my hair before, with and without veil. All my curls stayed, even through all the humidity, until I crashed out in the hotel at midnight. Congratulations! Can't wait to see the pics when you get back.

On the Four Winds, the digital camera costs $40. Remember, this cost is for as many pictures as you can take on the trip burned to a CD with a cute video produced by the boat. It something fun you can show at your at-home recept. I think we took over 300 images underwater. Actually, the snuba and digital camera were both $40. The regular price included breakfast for the trip out, snorkel gear, flippers, BBQ lunch, and a stop off in turtle town. Totally worth it!

I've been on Pacific Whale, Four Winds, Quicksilver, and Aqua Adventure. Hands down I vote for the Four Winds. They don't leave at the crack of dawn like some of the boats.....and yet, they are able to anchor in the prime spot for snorkeling and snuba. The captain is a laugh-riot. Don't forget to to rent out the digital underwater camera. You have unlimited images. They burn all your pics to a CD for you to enjoy and print whatever you want at Costco. We used the $15 underwater cameras and the pics weren't as clear and vibrant as the digital ones you can rent on the boats.

I concur! Maui has more options for wedding vendors and options for entertainment for wedding guests. Kauai is more tropical and the perfect venue for you and your DH to spend "quality time" with. tee-hee

I got maui'd at Po'olenalena Beach. You're my wedding location buddy!!! I pulled the sides up and pinned them away from my face. I used a ton of hairspray and still some of it got away. Most of my hair was loosely curled and flowing down my back. It was amazingly windy at the time of the ceremony (4pm). I was able to photoshop out a few fly-aways. It was perfect for me. Even my veil looked amazing in the pics. There were a couple of small orchids pinned to my hair at the beginning of the ceremony. By the time of the first dance, they were all gone.

I just found this thread. As a native San Diegan, I'm curious to hear how your scouting trip went. I know of dozens of wonderful venues in San Diego However, I've been living in Huntington Beach for 3 years now. I love it....and have had the pleasure of seeing some gorgeous OC beach weddings, too. If I can offer any suggestions for ya, lemme know.

Congratulations!!!!!!! When are you gonna post your pics?

I got Maui'd at 4pm on Po'olenalena Beach (Love Beach) just north of Wailea. It was unbelievably windy, which made for some amazing and few not-so amazing pictures. I, too, had a tight budget since my DH and I were footing the entire bill. We were able to keep wedding ceremony costs at $1000 and the reception under $4500. Our wedding reception for 25 guests was at the Five Palms Restaurant in Kihei which was right on the beach. There is a beautiful grassy knoll right beside the restaurant....that I heard I could have had the ceremony on with no additional cost. That would have saved me ~$500 and 20 mins of drive time between ceremony and reception. In hindsight, I would have preferred to use that time to take more pics with the photographer. In fact, I would have preferred to get married on the grassy knoll (near the bar) as opposed to listening to my nephew complain about the heat on the beach while waiting for the ceremony to begin. I guess we all have 20-20 hindsight.

Quote: Originally Posted by Amanda81 I thought I would let everyone know how I have done with my budget. For the wedding coordinator I am using Deanne from Precious Maui Weddings. I compared her rates with at least 20 others and her rates were the best. At first I was a bit skeptical about using her because her rates were so good, but she has sent me links to the photographers they use as well as shown me pictures of the types of bouquets they include in their packages and everything seems to be of good quality. I didn't want to get married on a beach. So my Fiancé and I decided on a garden. Most resorts charge $450 or more just to get married in their garden. We're getting married in Kula Botanical Gardens. The cost is $8.50 per person if there are more than 13 people attending, and $10.50 if there are less than 13. They will set up chairs for $2.50 per person plus a $50 set up fee. So for 20 people it will cost me $270 including the chairs. For the reception we are going to Ruth's Chris Steakhouse. They have a private dinning room that sits up to 30. They just require a $1000 minimum spent for having the room the entire night. We have chosen a menu where we pick the appetizer, salad and dessert, but our guests get to choose an entree from a list of 7 options. The cost for this is $68.50 per person, which was one of the cheaper options for anywhere that I could find. I hope that helps for all of the other brides that are frugal like me Quote: Originally Posted by Amanda81 That is a great idea about cutting your cake after the ceremony when you still have the photographer. I may change my plans and do that instead! It sounds as though you have everything ironed out. I got married in Maui with a wedding party of 26 and the cost was under $5000. We were able to save a lot on the flowers wedding reception decor. We only had 4 tables to dress, so we used the bouquets as double duty. I had 1 MOH, 2 BMs, and 1 Jr BM. I hand-sewed simple purple table runners. I found boxes of one dozen white or creme colored votives in glasses for $3. The runners on white linens with 6 candles per table and the bouquets as the centerpieces looked amazing. Right before I got on the plane, I printed a couple of childhood pictures of both myself and DH in sepia tone. I posted them on tri-folded paper to make the table numbers. Those were a hit. MIL loved them so much, she took them home to GA. The most expensive thing for my wedding was the food and drink costs for the reception. Otherwise, we were able to haggle and negotiate everything else on the island. Happy planning!

I did notice that the site was running a lot faster. I initially thought it was because my new computer has more RAM. Nopers, the new rules and regs have been implemented. I like it. Cheers to Tammy!!

O dang! I can't believe I found this thread so late!!!. Good luck, ladies. Dreams Los Cabos is beautiful....anytime of the year.

Quote: Originally Posted by La Romana Stacey Here's a link to the contest: http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t38991 Stacey: I love your wedding seal!!!! Thanks for the link

G*d Bless all the hard-working mods! These tips are soooooo totally awesome. THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!

OMG! I'm so happy that I found this thread....I almost started pulling out all of my hair! I was a happy full member, then demoted to junior member, and now Imma NOOB. THEN, my computer crashed and I lost all my wedding prep docs before I could upload them. I'm happy that I have wonderful friends that took plenty of pics.....and saved my wedding planning emails. I think I've been able to pull up ALMOST everything. The wedding song list is lost forever though. I will start first thing tomorrow uploading my planning thread. Thank you ladies!!!!!!!!

Thank heaven for this link. It's been awhile since my last post....and it's almost as if I'm reading Russian. I have the hang of posting pics! Now, how the heck to I post a word document??

Quote: Originally Posted by cowman1999 We are having trouble finding some favors for the guys in our group? Any ideas on things they might use? We are doing koozies, snacks, and medicines for sure... I had a hard time brain storming for ideas for the guys, too. In the end.....all of the guests got almost exactly the same OOT bags....(i.e. thank you letter, map, big-day timeline, local maps, custom-labeled water bottles, mini-sunscreen packets, snacks except... the ladies got tropical smelling lip balms and a cute pashmina I purchased locally and the boys got mini-liquor bottles, flavor-less lip balms, and flip flops

I'm so sorry that you have to deal with this. You are not over-reacting. This is the perfect venue to vent your frustrations. It's rude and thoughtless of your uninvited guests to assume they will be welcome without an official invite in hand. I don't see why they couldn't tag along for the week's activities...and you would seem the bigger person by acknowledging their attendance. However, you do not have to feel obligated to invite your FH ex-gf to your wedding or reception. I'm sure you could find a way to forward this information to the appropriate parties well before anyone buys airline tix or attempts to book hotel rooms. Many years ago, I attended a destination wedding. It was 4 days in Vegas (bachelor/bachelorette/wedding weekend). Needless to say, it was a whirlwind. Long story short, I had to bring another friend along. He was able to join in on the bachelor party shenanigans, but did not attend the wedding party. The bride simply pulled me aside and calmly expressed the financial and logistic difficulties. No harm, no foul. No feelings were hurt. Hopefully, you can get a similar message across....the sooner the better.

I was on the fence for months before I decided on a sit-down dinner. One reason was the cost. The second reason was time management. I only had 24 guests. It was very easy to coordinate the reception timeline. Many of the guests did have leftovers and took doggy bags home. The food was so good, my DH and I returned to the restaurant for dinner 2 more times during our honeymoon.

Soooo I got married in November in Maui....and it was amazing! In fact, I was a little scared, but pictures can never do justice to the beauty of the tropical wonderland. I flew in 3 days before the ceremony to deal with wedding details. I visited the ceremony site and reception restaurant. The pictures online were bland in comparison to the actual locations. I was afraid of rain, also. However, my WC vowed they call it sunny Kihei for a reason. I was married on Po'olenalena Beach with the wind whipping through my veil. My reception was on the outdoor patio of the Five Palms Restaurant. Half of my guestlist hailed from the east coast. I don't think anyone paid more than $700 RT for airfare. Even though I negotiated a group rate at 2 hotels, most of my guests were able to find vacation rentals for $100/nt and they were really nice. Also, we rented a convertible Jeep Wrangler for the 13 days we were on the island. We took the top down as soon as we got the car. We only put it up once whilst driving through Hana...and it sprinkled a little. Otherwise, we had perfect weather the whole trip.

Congratulations and welcome! You already made it past the first hurdle since you found BDW! I surfed the net for 9 months and didn't get very far. I learned more in one week on BDW than in all the time I'd spent researching. I did find "The Knot's Destination Wedding" book a useful tool. I swear by their timeline checklists. I highly suggest finding a WC...whether it's an independant or connected with your resort. They can offer you personal suggestions based on the style, type and size of your wedding party. Happy planning!

Hi Thanda and welcome. You're really lucky to have found BDW. You will find a lot of ideas whether you are a DIY type or just need inspiration. Personally, I started working with the Four Seasons and really enjoyed my experience with their WC. In the end, I moved off hotel property due to budget and utilized a Lisa with Enchanted Weddings. She was referred to me by 3 Maui brides. Enchanted Weddings of Maui - Welcome! I gave her a long list of things I wanted and she came back with a few options for my every detail (i.e. flowers, cake, reception sites, music, centerpieces). Have fun and good luck planning

I originally planned for the Big Island. However, after some research I moved my wedding to Maui. I really liked some of the tools I found in the knot's destination wedding book. I borrowed it from the library and copied some of the checklists. I changed my island choice because 1)my FH is a surfer and I needed to accomodate surfboard shipping charges in my budget 2)more airline and flight options to Maui3)I utilized my timeshare and had access to more property options than on the Big Island Good luck planning.

It's never tooo early to start planning your perfect wedding. It will give you time to research availability and costs. There is no price for peace of mind. Personally, I waited too long for my first choice for my reception site. My second choice far exceeded my wildest dreams, but I went through 2 weeks of undue stress. Learn from my mistake. I also tried to purchase airfare a year in advance to no avail. Don't worry. I was able to get a great price 11 months before my big day. Have fun and good luck planning.