princessina

Still have 50 available...

Double post... Sorry.

OMG is that Martina Cacciaroni at Hawaii Wedding Planners - Oahu Wedding - Weddings in Honolulu - Get Married in Waikiki with Tailored Wedding Planning I've been so busy since I've been back from my wedding but let me warn you now...DO NOT USE HER! My story is long but I'm going to cover the relevant topics. I meet her and some other colleagues a year and a half before my wedding date. She's very personable and her website is great but this reflects nothing to her knowledge of wedding planning abilities. She's a great person and is very sweet but bottom line is she has not clue about what it takes to plan a wedding. I'd give her organizational skills a D-. I was so furious after my wedding that when I came home I did some research on her to find out that she was in college while she was helping me plan my wedding. Which means she's a part time coordinator and explains why she wasn't fully tracking with me. I found her myspace, facebook and some references on her college website that helped me to determine that she was a full time student during my year and a half of planning and that she graduated the same month that I had my wedding. There were so many details that we had discussed that she did not do at my wedding. I'm not sure if she thought I wouldn't of noticed or if she just solely forgot. Every vendor she recommended me to was horrible to work with. The day of the wedding she showed up with basically a bunch of friends (all about 25 yrs old or so) and they were her setup and break down crew. They didn't do a mic check before the wedding and the pastor couldn't even say my name right (which she was suppose to go over with him). It seemed like a bunch of college kids who go to college in Hawaii and decided that they're going to do a wedding planning company for people who do destination weddings. After all, how hard can it be right? I imagine that your able to get away with it so long as the party doesn't exceed 30 people but after that the flaws truly start to come out. Supposedly when I met her a year and a half before my wedding day there was another older lady who was suppose to be mentoring her but for unknown reasons the lady left. Martina is the only wedding planner I believe and there's another guy his name is Nathan Bingham or something similar, but he's just the boyfriend now turned fiance. I did some research on him and it looks like he runs some type of moped rental company on the island as well so they might just be in the business to make money but I assure you that she/they have no idea what they are doing. Even more fishy...when I paid my balance I got an emailed receipt that said it was from Oahu Wedding but the email address was [email protected] I checked that website Hawaiian Style Rentals - Honolulu's Moped, Motorcycle and Bicycle Rentals Specialists on Oahu, Hawaii. and sure enough it looks like the payment system is tied to his business. It doesn't pay to try and scam people especially with the world wide web. I read she got into a college in some state on the east coast so I'm sure she'll just move her business over there or still continue to give the illusion that she can operate out of Hawaii since she still has friend there. Whatever it is...I believe it will all come back to you eventually. I wasn't going to post my review of her initially after my wedding because I thought it would be spitefully of me to do that but if I can save just one person from telling my story than that's one person that can go on and have the wedding of her dreams since it's too late for me. My one day has come and gone but I still have the man of my dreams and that's what essentially counts. Your wedding day is only one day in a lifetime...don't gamble with someone your unsure about. I say to find someone who you can get good raves on from people who are neutral and have nothing to gain or lose from telling you their personal experience.

Sent you a pm...

Sent you a PM...

50 chargers for $150 plus shipping...

50 gone...50 still available

Just sent you a PM

Hi, Ladies, My weddings been over almost two months ago and I'm just getting to clearing some of the things I have left over. I have 100 bamboo plate chargers that I bought at Bed Bath and Beyond. I don't think BBB sells them any more or at least not online. They were only used for my wedding and are in immaculate condition. I'd love to sell them all together but willing to split them up and sell them 50/50. I think the rental rate is about the same so you could probably purchase and resell and pay less than what you would to rent. Thanks for looking

So I'm back now and had an interesting experience. I had Kyler from Kai Photos and his pictures came out horrible. I purchased a 6 hour package and only got one photog. Of the 6 hours he produced me with supposedly 378 selected pictures and 593 extras. As we looked through all of the photos in the extras they included duplicates of what we seen in the selected photos. So we got a total of 593 pictures not 971. The majority of our pics included only the bridal party and a handful of shots of our actual guests. I didn't realize how bad his photos were until I seen one of our uncles who took about 950 photos of the ceremony and reception. My uncle didn't do pre-ceremony or bridal pics because we relied on Kyler and boy do we regret it. My grip is not about him as a person or professionalism, it's more about his talent or his camera. I'm not sure which one it is. The pictures came out looking like those of an amateur photographer. Most of the pictures of the bridal party together, you can barely see faces. I know the day was a bit overcast and thought that this could of affected the pictures but when I seen our uncles pictures this was not the case at all. Anyways, I hope I save someone else from possible heartache. I would not at all recommend him or even Kai Photos. My wedding planner recommended him and she was horrible as with the other vendors that she recommended. I’ll compile a lengthy post about my experience with her.

Hi, Morgan, There isn't one for Oahu and compiling one would be great...too late for me but great for future brides. That was one helpful thing I would of liked to see here. I'm getting married later this month and using Kai Photos so I can give a review after that.

Hi, I am getting married on a private vacation property also on the north shore. Ke Iki Beach Bungalows was my first option but my horrible wedding planner dropped the ball on finalizing the details and it was already booked on the day I wanted. I applaud your efforts on going at it yourself and I tell you that you've found the right forum to be able to accomplish it. If I had found this forum sooner then I would of taken the route you took. My WP has helped minimally but is definitely not worth what I'm paying her. Something I will advise is to look into a day of coordinator. I've read about it around here somewhere and it's basically where you just pay them for their services to coordinate things on your wedding day. That's probably in your best bet if your going to have a group over 50+ and if you don't have an awesome, organized, very involved, maid of honor. The catering was really the make it or break it for me and we ended up going with Keneke's Catering. We were able to get a great buffet at a great price of $28 pp. I know it's on the expensive side of your figures but after all of my researching it was the best I could find for having a dinner menu. Here's what they offered: Wedding Special #1 - $28.00 per person Pupu: Ahi Poke, Spicy BBQ Chicken Skewers, Teriyaki Beef Sticks, Egg Rolls, Sushi, Fruit Platter Dinner: Prime Rib, Teriyaki Chicken, Mahi Mahi, Kalua Pig, Garlic Mashed Red Potatoes, Dinner Rolls, White or Brown Rice, Broccoli Stir Fry Mix Dessert: Premium Cheesecake with topping Beverages: Kona Coffee ~~ We will deliver, setup, provide servers and serve your dinner on China. The price included all of the service (deliver, setup and break down), plates, glassware, and silverware. If cost is a factor, I would definitely look into Keneke's because for the other ones once you factor in servers and delivery fees (which I'm not paying for Keneke's because their on the north shore) it'll be way more than the pp price. If anything, I can let you know after my wedding how the food was. My WP says their food is good, says she's ate their before but her word doesn't go too far with me nowadays. As for alcohol, we don't drink so we're not providing alcohol. We've left the option open to or guests to bring their alcohol if they'd like. We'll be staying on the property so they'll probably have all of the alcohol beforehand from the previous nights of drinking. Cutting alcohol out of the budget for us was what saved us the most money. My WP did say that if we want to do it all we would have to do is buy the alcohol from Costco and she would set up a self-help bar. I don't know if that helps. I don't drink so I wouldn't even know where to start to tell you what at the bare minimum you should provide. I think it really depends on the number of guests you have and how much your willing to pay. Sorry, I know I didn't have much reviews but I hope it some how helps you and that I didn't go on babbling. Also, doesn't Ke Iki Bungalows have a WP on site? I thought they did... Anyways, let me know if you have any questions.

It's so much work but it's well worth it...the frustrating part was really just trying not to be an absolute perfectionist with them all. The smallest imperfection to me up close is not even noticeable from afar or from another point of view. As for the font I used. I saved it on my laptop at work because I knew this question would come up. I had a hard time deciding what font to use, especially since it's so hard to find a decent fancy looking O (most fonts give you just the big circle). I don't know it off hand but well be sure to check when I get to work on Friday. I just played around with different fonts and ended up going with what I thought looked good, would be easy to paint, but still came across elegant (imo).

Hey Kits55 and Jacilynda...thanks so much for bringing this thread back to life. I've been meaning to come on here an post but have been soooo busy. Kits55...I absolutely love your parasols. They helped motivate me to get started on mine. I traced all 85 or so of mine this past weekend and now I'm onto the painful task of painting them all. So far we've only completed 10 ( I pretty much did it the same way using the projector to trace in a black marker (I did some sloppy tracing because it would be covered by the paint) and painting over it in black acrylic paint. Hey, Kits55...how many layers of paint did you use? Here are some pictures of the process and my final product. I have my monogram shown below but all of the parasols that we'll give away (about 80) will have only the date on it (it's the one in the top right of the last picture). We did one MOB, one MOG, our big O, and Thank you. The rest have our date on it.

Thanks ) ...we decided to opt out of the BBQ and do a nightcap out on the town.

Thanks ladies...there's a direct link on my first post to the template. The file is too big to email. If you absolutely must have it, I can transfer it through ichat. It's a pages file so if your looking for the template, it's a safe assumption that you have a mac.

Hi, Ladies, I finally completed my 2nd of 3 pre-wedding newsletters. The information is pretty basic but just thought I'd jazz it up and get our guests extra excited about the wedding. I wish I would of include the cover (mailing) page on my first one because it would saved me money on envelopes but at least I'm set up on this one and our next one. I did it on the program "pages" on my mac but should be fairly easy on anyone other program like publisher. Here's the link to my first one I did about 1-2 months ago. http://bestdestinationwedding.com/forum/t34362 Enjoy!

I haven't yet painted mine. I've been procrastinating because I don't want to waste any on trial and error. I keep hearing about using metallic paint but have yet to try it. I was trying to see if I could dress them up a different way but it seems as if I'm limited to painting it or throwing a personalized tag on it. I have to do a lot (about 85) so I was possibly thinking about airbrushing it but I don't even know how to airbrush. We'll see...

Welcome..and you'll be sure to find tons of info on your location here on the appropriate boards...

Welcome...good luck with the wedding planning!!!

Hi...and Welcome!!! You'll love it here!

Welcome...another Hawaii Bride...Yey!!!

Welcome!!! Your doing great to be starting so early...Good Luck.

Hi, Everyone, I'm looking for a Beach/Park somewhere on the north shore that would be great to have a get together. Somewhere to just get together and BBQ and swim in the ocean...not looking for anything grand but nothing where the rift rafts hang out. Thanks in advanced.

Things can be very overwhelming in the beginning but once you get a good WC and you have an idea of what you want and the vicinity of where you want it you'll feel a lot better. The good thing for you is that you have tons of time to plan, although I will warn you that it will fly by. I started early and actually meet my WC at a local bridal fair. I like to plan ahead and I'm pretty much on auto pilot...well as much as I can be. I wanted to start early because as it get closer to the wedding date I don't have much time available. Theses last few months I spend working, going to school, and planning here and there. I choose the north shore as my location because I still wanted an intimate setting and didn't want my wedding in the middle of a tourist gathering. This will depend on what you want but is a great start to narrowing it down. Once I decided I wanted it on the north shore...it just took some narrowing down to what I liked and what fit my budget. I looked into Turtle Bay but it was more than my budget allotted me. I ultimately decided to go with renting a private estate that allowed me to host about 100 people and stay within my budget. The one thing you'll definitely need is a great WC and one that will work for you. There are tons of good ones out there but you'll have to make sure that they work for you and what you want. Anyways...good luck and I wish you the best in your planning journey.