Craig and I had a boutique wedding with family and friends at Turtle Bay Resort on the island of Oahu. We chose the Hawaiian destination because its midway between his home of New Zealand, my home of America and our current home in Sydney Australia. Our wedding photos are also available at craigandamy.shutterfly.com


more wedding photos after the diy and planning sections!


page me on the Hawaii board.

Quick Links:

  • DIY projects
  • DIY templates for a few of our projects (on a different page)
  • Attire
  • vendor reviews (on different page)
  • Wedding Pictures
  • The Venue
  • Flowers
  • Bridal Party
  • Reception Pictures
  • Music and our IPOD experience
  • Honeymoon and around Hawaii

Vendors:

  • Ceremony Venue: Turtle Bay Resort Wedding Pavilion
  • Reception Venue: 21 Degrees North
  • Officiant: Ron Valenciana
  • Photographer: Stefanie Riedel
  • Florist: Island Impressions
  • Ceremony Music: our IPOD
  • Dress: Ebay and Elizabeth De Varga
  • Alterations: Joanne at Sew Special in Sydney
  • Bustle Brooch and Gloves: Touche, Piccadilly Center, Sydney.
  • Earrings: So Gorgeous, Hall St, Bondi Beach.
  • Craig's Suit: Myer, Pitt St Mall, Sydney.

Recommended Resources:

  • DWbrides for other Destination Wedding brides
  • DWfaq for questions about Destination Wedding brides
  • OahuWeddings for Oahu wedding venues
  • mrspresley is a great planning resource

playing around while making our save-the-dates
our diy save-the-date announcements and letters

our passport welcome letter
This is just a mockup. It was printed on creamy paper. The stamps are various hotels we will be at during our trip. Another page has stamps for various pre-wedding guest events. Templates are available Advice from me: proofread very well. You'd hate to get your wedding date wrong and have to keep explaining to your guests that you must have been eager to get married early. =)

our diy pocketfold invitations.
Here are the templates and directions used to create the. Feel free to borrow, I am happy to help other knotties.

our guest welcome packs
Craig created the flowers for me in Powerpoint! I used AlohaFriends to translate our guest's names phoenetically into Hawaii for the envelope. Each pack included a welcome passport (above), 3 vintage Hawaiia postcards from Island Art Cards and our timeline inspired by pineapplegirl and animal_lover.

our programs
Here is a close up at the cardstock we used to create them. I highly recommend Bazzill Basics linen cardstock. Feel free to use our template for creating them.

other programs made with the same template to show color variety. These weren't used for my wedding.
our guestbook
Instead of a traditional guestbook we asked for personalized wishes from our guests. We got a fantastic message from our friends Kristin and Eric "Ride this wave 'til the end. Best wishes and lots of love." This was perfect since we're both surfers.

cocktail hour photo album
Each side had vintage pictures of our families - his in the front and mind in the back. We included our baby photos and our most recent pictures of us with our immediate families. This was a special tribute to my mom who passed away a year before our wedding.

our tears of joy packs
These were almost all used at our wedding. A crying bride makes for a crying audience. They actually had to fetch a pack for me up at the front!
diy coloring books
. Images are from Microsoft's clipart site. A template and directions for personalizing it are available for other knotties.

our wedding announcements
they included an engagement photo and a link to our shutterfly website for wedding photos
our dinner menus
our reception crosswords
the inspiration is from mrs presley and the software we used on her recommendation was eclipse crossword. then we saved them and used msword to make them match our other reception items. these were a big hit. we put just a couple on each table and encouraged people to work in teams to solve them since no one person would have every answer.
our favors.
I originally was going to hang them on centerpiece branches, but we skipped centerpieces.

My desk during the peak of our diy projects

attire

my dress
brand: Elizabeth De Varga, style: Isabella

the first fitting
and the third one
my bustle brooch
my earrings
hairpins for my updo
my something blue
my shoes
cute shoes for the reception
giftpacks for our ringbearer and flowergirl
Puppets from home (Australia), personalized coloring books and crayons and sunglasses for the trip.
spa certificate for my maid of honor


Our best man got a flask, but we somehow didn't get any pictures of it.
classic photo that I couldn't resist.
My cousin and I are our aunt's wedding in 1978. Kids will do anything!

wedding pictures!

romantics
flowers

tip: a cheap bic pen wrapped in floral tape and decorated with a cymbidium makes for a cheap and pretty guest book pen

getting ready


tip: an unused large hairpin makes a handy tool for hooking tiny button loops
shoes
the bling
the venue

Our wedding ceremony was held at Turtle Bay wedding pavilion at 5pm. We kicked things off with pre-ceremony maitais and 4:30. We took all of our wedding photos beforehand which allowed us to move straight to 21 Degrees North for our sunset dinner reception. Originally, this was to be held in the semi-private lanai but because of wind and weather, it was moved indoors where the sunset was not as obvious.
waiting for the big moment

I was full of tears walking down the aisle. Very happy tears.
at the altar


exchanging of vows and rings
our first kisses and moments as a married couple
the bridal party
we had a maid of honor, best man, a ringbearer and a flowergirl.


more shots of the kids

craig's family


post ceremony
the cake

It's devil's food cake with ganache filling and buttercream icing in a cornelli lace design with dendrobiums to add color. tip: if you decorate with small dendrobiums in a fashion similar to ours, one can me placed on each plate as its served. this adds a nice splash of color.
our first dance
and many dances that followed!




the bouquet and garter toss

we only had one single gal and three single guys, but we made the most of it! check out the flying leap for the bouquet!
the reception at 21 degrees north
turtle bay luau
sweet treats

courtesy of Turtle Bay as part of wedding package


our musicians
Rather than use a guitarist or band for our cocktail hour, we decided to use an IPOD. It worked terrifically and I highly recommend it for others having small intimate weddings. We used an IPOD mini and JBL OnTour portable speaker system. I recommend the JBL OnTour portable because it will run on both power and batteries. It has very good bass and projects lots of sound. Just make sure someone other than you and your FI/DH are capable of switching songs and knows how to use the volume control to fade songs in and out for the processional.

We chose the IPOD over traditional musicians because it was capable of playing a wide range of music and we weren't "stuck" with songs that only sounded good on a guitar or with a string trio, but not both. It also allowed us to add a bit of personal character to the event!!

At the reception we moved to a restaurant which played its own music and then a bar with a solo guitarist.

Here is the playlist for the cocktail hour, ceremony and post ceremony portion of our wedding:
    Cocktail Hour - a splash of Hawaii!!
  • Misirlou - Dick Dale
  • Surfin' USA - Beach Boys
  • Beach Baby - The First Class
  • Good Vibrations - Beach Boys
  • Surf Rider - The Lively Ones (Pulp Fiction soundtrack)
  • Bustin' Surfboards - The Tornadoes (Pulp Fiction soundtrack)
  • Surfin' Safari - The Beach Boys
  • Surfer Girl - The Beach Boys
  • Catch a Wave - The Beach Boys
  • My Little Grass Shack in Kealkekua, Hawaii - The Mills Brothers
  • Hawaii Five-O - The Ventures
  • Pipeline - The Ventures
  • Luther's Luau - The London Symphony Orchestra (Superman soundtrack) - HIGHLY RECOMMEND
  • Kiss the Girl - The Other's Girl - a capella
    Transtion from Cocktails to the Ceremony
  • The Muppet Show - Locust Street Taxi
    The Ceremony Processional
  • Canon in D - Pachabel (Father of the Bride soundtrack)
  • Here Comes the Bride - Starsound Orchestra
    Recessional Songs and music for lingering
  • You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You - Dean Martin
  • What a Wonderful World - Louis Armstrong
  • In the Mood - Glenn Miller Orchestra
  • Only You (And You Alone) - Louis Armstrong
  • Bridal Dancing Queen - Wedding Band (Muriel's Wedding soundtrack)

blackpoint, oahu

a bridal shower with the girls

horseback riding, poipu, kauai
snorkelling, poipu, kauai
hanalei bay, kauai
napali coast, kauai
waimea canyon, kauai
west coast, kauai
surf signs, hawaii
waimea bay, oahu
probowl, honolulu, oahu