mauiphotog808

I shoot hundreds of weddings a year and I 100% recommend the south side of Maui. The weather is super consistent and it is MUCH less crowded. The is NOT a legal limit to the number of guests you can have for a beach wedding, however, I would not recommend having more than 50 guests on the beach as you are not allowed to have chairs and it makes it hard for all your guests to see and hear the ceremony. There are plenty of great restaurant options on the south side as well such as: Nick Fishmarket, Spago, Ferraro's, Duo, Gannons, Mala. Best of luck!!

IMO you get what you pay for. If you don't like what you see on a company's website, what makes you think your wedding will be magically better that what they are showing (which in theory should be their best work if they are featuring it on their website!) This is your WEDDING day, don't let price be the leading factor when it comes to planning. You can save money elsewhere in your budget, like staying in a condo vs. a resort or eating out at more budget places during the rest of your trip. Or doing more beach days or hiking instead of paying for activities. Save the bulk of your budget for your wedding day!

I just shot a wedding at a house that sounds like what you are looking for last Saturday. Oceanfront, beautiful! The guest count was around 20 people and they had caterers come in and take care of dinner. Here is a link to the vacation homes website: http://www.alohaomakena.com/index.html PM me if you want to see my photos from that venue, I don't want to get in trouble for posting my own blog URL, I know they are strict about people coming in here and self promoting. Best of luck!

Both venues have mostly grass areas and not much concrete, if you can handle grass, you should be good to go.

Fleetwood's in Lahaina is new and they have private rooms for reception dinners and their food is pretty reasonable.

I would highly recommend starting your search for a wedding coordinator. Weddings on Maui can be super simple or super deluxe, a local wedding coordinator can take care of all the details for you so you can just relax!!

The best bet for a budget friendly wedding on Maui is to have your ceremony on the beach, then choose a nice restaurant for your reception dinner. A venue wedding will cost you around $25,000 to start if you want the full she-bang (dinner, decorations, dj etc.) A restaurant can cost as little as $75 per person for dinner. I would also recommend hiring a quality coordinator. Maui is a word of mouth kind of place, it really is a small town, so coordinators know lots of vendors you would never be able to find on your own, some that don't even have websites, they just rely on coordinators booking them! best of luck on your Maui wedding!!