Hello Everyone, Not sure who will end up reading this review, but when I was considering getting married at the Royal Kona Resort I couldn't find anything online to help me make a decision, so I ended up using the resort a bit blindsided! Now that I am back from my fabulous wedding and honeymoon, I wanted to tell everyone about my amazing experience and recommend the Royal Kona to others. Hopefully a future bride will find the below useful! My partner and I got engaged in September 2010. As soon as the ring was on my finger I said 'Can we get married in Kona?' which was met with a 'of course!' I am Australian and my partner is Scottish. We both live in Australia and having a destination wedding seemed to be the best idea as all of our family and friends would have to travel, as opposed to just his family if we decided to have the wedding in Australia. We both went to Kona four years prior for a holiday and absolutely loved it. I had always hoped to get married there eventually. When we stayed in Kona before, we actually stayed at the Kona Tiki Hotel. We both loved it, but it just doesn't have the facilities to hold a wedding. Initially I looked at arranging all the wedding particulars myself, such as a venue, minister, music etc, but it ended up just being too much work to do from Australia via email. We then started looking for a place that could arrange the majority of the wedding things for us. We only wanted a small wedding with 20 people max & we contacted quite a few different resorts on the island asking for info on their wedding packages etc. We narrowed it down to the Royal Kona Resort & The Kona Village Resort as they both had the sort of venues & prices we were looking for. As my husband is a chef, we ended up going with the Royal Kona as he thought the reception menus were value for money and I enjoyed receiving quick responses to my emails from their wedding Co-Ordinator Ashley Akmau. After quite a lot of email contact between myself and Ashley we set a date and put down a deposit. We paid this deposit via cheque in US funds (If you're in OZ you have to physically go to the bank and request this to be done and it costs $15AUD) and received a receipt in the post. Ashley told us that they would contact us three months out from the wedding to make arrangements. I was a little concerned about this at first as I thought planning a wedding would take at least a year, but Ashley seemed confident everything could be done within 3 months. Three months out from the wedding I contacted Ashley to start the proceedings. I was starting to get a bit nervous and concerned that the wedding was so close with nothing yet arranged. Ashley really set me at ease and we started working through all the wedding things. She emailed me a questionnaire about the wedding from 'How many guests' to 'What type of flowers for your bouquet' and we pretty much went from there. At times we were emailing back and forth every couple of days. Nothing I asked was ever a problem and she was always helpful and professional in her emails. Ashley pretty much arranged everything. She had lots of pictures of the different venues for the ceremony and reception, different table set ups, bouquet pictures. She also suggested little hints and tips to save us money. She also had no problem with us bringing a handmade table runner from Australia and personal decorations for the wedding table. I always felt comfortable contacting her and I didn't feel like 'just another bride' as I’m sure she deals with many every year. Everything was pretty much arranged two weeks out from the wedding and I was thrilled with the result. Everything I wanted was done. I had the sort of minister I dreamt of, the type of ceremony I wanted, the entertainment at the reception, the food selected, the flowers ordered and the hair and make up appointments booked. . I felt like everything was complete and I hadn't even stepped foot on the Big Island yet! My partner and I arrived on the Big Island four days before the majority of the guests started arriving. I wanted to arrive early so that I could meet personally with Ashley to ensure that all the wedding things were underway. I also wanted to make sure that anything that wasn't quite right could be fixed in plenty of time. To be honest, the only thing that needed to be fixed was an appointment with a wedding shop to iron my dress as it got really creased on the way over from Australia. Ashley suggested someone that could help and the dress was ironed promptly. Ashley had everything under control and showed us the ceremony venue & wedding reception areas. It wasn't even a problem when the final number of guests jumped from 19 to 23 two days before the wedding due to a late notice RSVP. When our wedding party arrived, Ashley co-ordinated a wedding rehearsal and a meeting with the minister. She also confirmed all the hair & make up appointments for us and gave directions as it had to be done off site due to the amount of bridesmaids. On the big day everything went smoothly and it was honestly my dream wedding. The thing that surprised me the most was that Ashley & Karen (another wedding co-ordinator) assisted during the entire wedding. One looked after the groom and the other looked after me, making sure we didn't see each other before the wedding. They made sure the guests went to the right place after the ceremony and even helped me at the reception when I broke the bussell on my dress! I never expected them to be there! They were so professional & well dressed for the wedding I wish I'd had them as proper guests! I'm so happy we decided to have our wedding at the Royal Kona. I highly recommend getting married there and I wouldn't have changed anything. The Royal Kona Resort is so lucky to have Ashley as a wedding co-ordinator and you won't be disappointed should you decide to get married there. Please tell her 'Danielle from Australia' said hello! Please also feel free to contact me if you have any questions -
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