VENDOR TYPE
Welcome to my married bio!
Best viewed in full screen.
I can usually be found on the Hawaii board or
MrsNFB@gmail.com
if you have any questions.
To view my planning bio (Knottie MaunaLaniBride), click
here
.
We had a perfect day on September 30, 2006, on the Big Island of Hawaii. Below are our professional photos by the wonderful Toby Hoogs, it was really hard to choose which photos to put in my bio since we had over 1000 shots. Enjoy!!
Please give credit if you use any of my pics. Thanks!
Pre-Ceremony Photos
Dan waiting for me taken from the balcony of our suite. That's me walking toward him for our pre-ceremony photos. It may not be for everyone but it was great that we did the pre-ceremony photos. Not just for the sake of maximizing our time after the ceremony to be with our guests but it definitely put our nerves at ease to see, hug and kiss each other before the ceremony. It was also really fun!
Photo on left is our first kiss that day :) Middle photo is the one we gave to our parents. Right photo is one of our faves, it's in our living room.
Ceremony
We had three uninvited guests at the ceremony :) Actually we were the uninvited ones since we got married at their home. Our resort works with the state of Hawaii to breed sea turtles, or honu. Every July 4th, the resort has a Turtle Independence Day celebration and frees the babies that are old enough to fend for themselves. The turtles often return to the same beach, these three beauties are evidence of that :)
The groomsmen (middle) ended up helping the ushers with programs and seating.
I was so happy to see these pics of people using the fans (even for shade!) and reading the programs.
Processional - we ended up with one extra groomsman so the first group to come down had one BM and two GM.
I love this photo of my dad and I making our way to the aisle.
We had two set-ups for our musicans...one at the ceremony where they played the processional, accommpanies a special hula performance and the recessional. We had another set-up w/stage set-up in the cocktail area. The musician on the left, Leon, is who I set everything up with and the guitar player on the left, Frank, is a Grammy-nominated slack key guitar player. Leon also provided the sound equipment and the hula dancer.
The turtle's point-of-view :)
This was our infamous unexecpted hula during the ceremony. It was so beautiful, I can't imagine the ceremony without it.
Besides the look on the best man's face, I love this photo :) The look on Dan's face is pure love plus the background is so dreamy.
Man & Wife!!
Cocktail Reception
Let the drinking and eating begin!
With our resort wedding coordinators, Lauren on left and Pinkie on right, while drinking our signature cocktails :)
Dan had a green flash and I had a lava flow.
We signed our marriage license at the cocktail reception because of the stunning backdrop.
Afterward, we toasted with macadamia nut brie cheese wontons...our photographer told is it was a first for him :)
Musicians set-up at the cocktail reception (stage and power provided by Mauna Lani).
Guests picked up their table cards during the cocktail reception. There was a large milo tree that was wedding central...table cards distributed,
guest book signing and card box were all located there. We didn't spend a lot of time decorating this area, our wedding coordinator
made sure it was functional and neat.
Hey fellas, have another!
Post-Ceremony Nicole & Dan Shots
We snuck away from the cocktail reception for about 30 minutes to get some beach shots and some sunset shots.
Reception
These are my two fave reception decor shots.
We had four alternating centerpieces in green and white. Placecards were votive candle holders with clear labels.
I love the orchids that were stuck in the handle of the coffee cups...so cute!!
Sweetheart table (we had chargers at our place settings) and my bouquet as the sweetheart table centerpiece.
This was the BP before the introductions. We wrote funny intros as a surprise and this ended up being one of the most entertaining parts of the wedding...I love the reactions of the BP when their intro was read :) We used the song "Jungle Boogie" by Kool and Gang as the BP entered and "Sexyback" by Justin Timberlake played as Dan & I entered. Both were hilarious.
Hmmm...um, Dan had more fun with bringing his sexyback than even he thought :)
We then hugged everyone, they sat down and we went into our first dance...
"Better Together" by Jack Johnson
I really like how the gobo projected the dots on the dance floor (and us).
The following are pictures of our money dance. Dan is half Filipino so it was something that was really important to him. We made a note in the program explaining the cultural signifigance of the Filipino money dance for guests that were not familiar with it. The Filipino money dance isn't like others where a guest pays to dance with the bride and groom...our guests stuffed bills on us as Dan & I danced together. At other Filipino weddings, I've seen this done to a slow song be usded an upbeat one. We did a one-song money dance, to "Bebot" by Black Eyed Peas which is sung entirely in Filipino (we also had the English translation in our wedding program). Despite kind of dreading it, I actually had a great time with the money dance and I think our guests did too...
Buffet focal point floral...also in green and white.
The chafers our resort used were covered in wood. I really like this look as opposed to the regular silver chafers for our outdoor wedding.
Cake time! We had a white cake fillled with haupia (a coconut custard) with buttercream frosting and coconut shavings.
It was served with caramel sauce.
A few of the items at our chocolate dessert bar. L to R: sticky chocolate cake w/mango sauce, raspberry Bavarian, homemade smores
This is a photo looking at the reception area, taken from the cocktail area. The milo tree looks magnificent in this photo.
Okay, there was some serious dancing at our wedding especially by the (ahem) bride.
We skipped speeches, the bouquet toss and garter toss to concentrate on an 80s dance party :) I can email our exact songlist to anyone.
Guests taking advantage of one of our lounge tents in the cocktail area during the reception. We kept the bar open in this area as well.
This was our last dance to the Iz version of "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," where the DJs asked everyone to make a circle around us (this was not planned, it was a surprise to us). We ended the night with a group hug :)
Our end-of-night favor was a Chinese-to-go container with fresh, hot malasadas (a malasada is a Porteguese donut...it looks like a large donut hole rolled in sugar, best served warm) prepared by our resort a few minutes before distribution. We added a custom label and sage-green ribbon details. These were a huge hit, people still talk to me about them. Our wedding coordinator told us that some people took up to 6 containers each (people could take as much as they wanted...we had lots of containers)!
Misc. Details
Left is Mauna Lani Bay Hote & Bungalows, right is a cool shot of the interior of the resort.
Guest book table at the end of the night.
A couple after-party shots as guests started trickeling in to the Honu Bar at the Mauna Lani.
You can see that Dan changed (he's in shorts and a red t-shirt) but I was determined to wear my dress until the bitter end :)
Non-Pro Pics
Below you'll find our non-pro pics from that day (photos by friends, family and awesome detail shots from one of the assistant wedding coordinators, Miss Mimi, from Orchid Isle Weddings). There are a million details that I did not review so feel free to page or email me with specific questions. Thanks for looking!
VENDOR TYPE
Vendor Reviews
VENDOR TYPE
VENDOR NAME
GRADE
REVIEW
PHOTOS
Venue/Catering
Mauna Lani Bay Hotel & Bungalows
Pinkie Crowe
http://www.maunalani.com/
A-
Our final result at the Mauna Lani was fantastic. I had written a comprehensive wedding memo detailing how I wanted things and it was followed to the letter. Pinkie Crowe was always there to make sure things were going to plan on the day of the wedding, assisted by her fabulous assistants Lauren & Misty. Although we had a rocky start since I wanted to do pretty much everything out-of-the-box, once Pinkie came around to the fact that I was not going to settle for what they “usually” do, we had a good time planning. The entire Mauna Lani staff really stepped it up for our wedding. From the Beverage Manager who we negotiated an amazing corkage fee for us to bring in our favorite pinot noir to their Pastry Chef who designed a custom chocolate dessert bar for us, we are so appreciative for all they did...and put up with :) A special note about the bell staff there...excellent! We had over 20 boxes of décor items delivered to our room and it was always done with a smile (even the really heavy boxes). The only reason I give them a minus is that I had booked time in their salon for a mani/pedi on the morning of the wedding and they double booked me...I did not get my mani/pedi. There were a few minor things that we had discussed that were not followed (i.e. tying the chair ties like a men’s tie versus a bow) however I did not put it in the wedding memo so don’t blame them for missing that. PSA: if you have many boxes as I did, you’ll need to provide your own cart as the Mauna Lani does not allow use of the bellmen’s carts unless the bellmen actually move your items (in which case you will be charged everytime things are moved).
Day-Of
Coordination
Orchid Isle Weddings & Events
Cheryl Liem Shoemaker
http://orchidisleweddings.com/
A
Cheryl and her assistants Mimi & Stephanie really pulled the wedding together. Since we had so many details, there’s no way we would have had the wedding we had without Cheryl and crew, the Mauna Lani couldn’t have handled it all (Pinkie actually asked me who our coordinator was for the details). I had only met with Cheryl for a couple hours total prior to the wedding day (once a few days before and once for a walk-through before the wedding rehearsal) and she grasped all of our little details and nailed them on the day-of. Cheryl’s assistant Mimi also took some amazing detail photos of the wedding, I’ll have to get her info to post if anyone is looking for a photographer on the Big Island (in the meantime, contact Cheryl). Cheryl is extremely easy to work with and very sweet, would absolutely work with Orchid Isle again if I could do it again!
Florist
Flowers by Heidi
Four Seasons Hualalai
Heidi Yamamoto
http://www.flowersbyheidi.net/
A+
Seriously, the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen. I was blown away by Heidi’s centerpieces and bouquets. Every bloom was PERFECT. We were lucky to get Heidi as she does not do many events off-property of the Four Seasons. Since any event at the Four Seasons is her priority, we had the possibility of not having her for our big day...I went full steam ahead with that possibility since I REALLY wanted her to do our flowers (plus, our wedding was in the off-season so I felt more comfortable taking the risk). Heidi has an amazing flair for styling flowers that came through with our centerpieces. Having seen her work many times when we visited the Four Seasons Hualalai, I gave her very little instruction since I loved everything I had ever seen there...told her our colors and that I wanted it to look clean, modern but also reflect the islands (oh—and that I hate overly tropical looking arrangements). Heidi and her team did an amazing job of setting up, they even provided extras that I didn't pay for such as floral for the back of our chairs and flowers on the cocktail tables. She even came back at the end of the wedding (we had rented all of the containers so I figured she would send her staff), asked if we were happy with everything and had some of the centerpieces sent up to our room.
Photographer
Toby Hoogs Photography & Video
Toby Hoogs
http://www.tobyhoogs.com/
A
Although we don’t have our photos yet, I give Toby an A because he is just the most hard working, sweetest person. He was EVERYWHERE. Can’t wait to get the pics and share them with my fellow Knotties.
Officiant
Beach Weddings Hawaii
Dard Aller
http://www.beachweddingshawaii.com/
A+
Dard was fantastic. Even though we had only corresponded through email, he brought such warmth and familiarity to our ceremony. Many of our guests made a point to tell us it was the best ceremony they had ever witnessed. Dard and his lovely wife Penei stayed not only for the reception (they are awesome dancers!) but also for the after-party. They are a fun, loving couple and anyone would be lucky to be married by either of them.
Lighting & Generator
Localites
Carl Woodside
(808) 323-8343 (home)
(808) 896-5214 (cell)
A
Honestly, I was a little worried about Carl. He doesn’t use email and I waited until the week before the wedding to get anything in writing from him regarding using his services. Carl did an outstanding job with our lighting needs. He provided 300 feet of Japanese lanterns over the reception tables as well as lighting the three tents we had in our cocktail area (they were open throughout the wedding—2 lounges and 1 kids tent). Carl also provided a small portable generator for the sound system on the beach for our ceremony since the Mauna Lani did not have anything for us in this respect. Everything was just perfect, Carl did a great job, would definitely recommend to others. Carl also has sound equipment for rental.
Musicians ,
Hula Dancer &
Sound Equipment
Vaka Nui
Leon Toomata
808-960-6376 (cell)
B+
We were introduced to Leon (aka LT Smooth) at Huggo’s on the Rocks by a mutual friend a while back. We loved his show at Huggo’s so we asked if would perform at our wedding, luckly he agreed. I never got anything official in writing from LT besides the emails we exchanged but I was never worried that he would not show up. LT provided two sound systems (one for ceremony/beach and one for the cocktail reception), another guitar player (the person that we wanted, a Grammy-nominee!) and a beautiful hula dancer. The only song I asked for wasn’t played when I wanted it played (I wanted Somewhere Over the Rainbow/It’s a Wonderful World for the processional) however they did play it for the recessional. They also added a surprise hula in during the ceremony which ended up beautiful but to a control freak like me, I was just thinking that it wasn’t in the program (seriously, that’s what I was thinking while I was trying not to cry because it was so beautiful). In the end, they all were AWESOME and many of guests commented on how great they were.
DJ
Good Vibrationz
Wendy & Clark Kutera
http://www.goodvibrationz.com/
A
Clark and Wendy are awesome, definitely a great pick for a Big Island DJ!! They customized a playlist with our 80s theme (we provided A LOT of songs that they incorporated into their playlist) which was so much fun. We had everyone dancing at some point or another and a great time was had by all. They also did a great job with our introductions, which were kinda wordy and required some comic timing :) I never would have imagined how many people LOVE Michael Jackson...I think Thriller was the song w/the most people dancing!!
Childcare
Malhini Keiki Care
Cory Cockett (& Kaia Andersone)
http://www.mkcare.com/Page1.html
A
These ladies were awesome. I actually ran into Cory while meeting wedding coordinator Cheryl for coffee at Starbucks a few days before the wedding, such a small community! All of the parents made a point of thanking us for providing the nannies, it was a big hit. The nannies came with activities for the kids as well as child-sized tables and chairs, there were some kids that we did not even see during the entire evening because they were in the kids tent! Even though I had booked them later, once all the kids were gone, they packed, cleaned up and only charged us only for their hours worked. Fantastic!! I believe they also offer services on Oahu.
Leis
Emmas Flower Shop
808-324-4800
A
Even though I LOVE Flowers by Heidi, they are on the pricey side. Since I needed to get 19 additional leis (Heidi provided the bride & groom leis) plus orchid heads to sprinkle down the isle, I went with a Knottie recommendation of Emmas. I went in a few days before the wedding and placed my order (and paid)...note that the address for Emmas online is WRONG (every listing!)...they are now in the Kona International Marketplace. They have a wide selection and variety of leis to choose from, all gorgeous. I even got reminded about providing our officiant with a lei, which I had forgotten to put on my list. It was a simple, fun process to order the leis, pay for them and have them picked up on the morning of the wedding by family. I had a BM with me who had secretly taken their card and ordered an arrangement for my surprise bridal shower. That arrangement was lovely as well...pic on the right.
Linen
BBJ Linen
http://www.bbjlinen.com/Site/home.cfm
A
I do events for a living and love BBJ Linen. They always provide high quality linen and are super user-friendly especially for destination weddings (they provide self-addressed, postage paid duffel bags to send the linen back after the wedding). They sent samples for free for me to take to Hawaii during our tastings so we could show the banquet staff how we wanted the linen arranged. I rented chair covers w/ties, all reception table linen (the Mauna Lani does not have white linen that reaches the floor for rectangular 6’ tables...only short tablecloths that they use with skirting...so we had to rent), table runners (these were actually the chair ties!) and napkins. BBJ gave me a nice discount since I work with them often but even then, it was a pretty penny (plus shipping was almost $400 roundtrip because they ship FedEx 2Day). There are cheaper options to having linens shipped in but I felt the most comfortable with BBJ after getting lesser-quality samples from other linen companies.
Invite
Letterpress
Printing
Paper Source—Beverly Hills
http://www.paper-source.com/
A
L-O-V-E the Paper Source! Although I had a weird experience at the Paper Source Pasadena where I was there way before they closed and they wouldn’t take my letterpress order, the Beverly Hills store more than made up in service. Our letterpress invites were even done earlier than scheduled and they had arranged for me to pick them up in Chicago since I was working from there for many weeks this summer (that’s where their letterpress items are printed). The quality is top notch. We even went back and got personalized letterpress cards to send as thank-you notes. I also got an embosser for our envelopes from Paper Source, it’s so nice to not have hand write our return address :) Hooray to Michelle at the Bev Hills store!!
Wedding
Dress
Vera Wang Salon at Barney’s New York in Beverly Hills
http://www.verawang.com/
A-
The service here is exactly what you want...I didn’t want a lot of hand holding and they were respectful but still made sure I had what I needed. I came in with a bunch of print-outs from the Vera Wang website with dresses I wanted to try on and had them all in a dressing room in a matter of minutes. They suggested a couple more styles that I wouldn’t have picked out for myself as well. I kept coming out and trying on more and they were very patient and accommodating even though I was looking at bridesmaid dresses as a wedding gown (my salesperson also mentioned to me a place where I could get white VW bridesmaid dresses since they do not sell them there as they exclusively sell VW gowns). Since I couldn’t decide between two dresses, I ended up buying both dresses and they came in weeks ahead of schedule. The only reason they get a minus is because once I picked up my dresses, they didn’t offer to show me the gowns before I left or offer to help with alterations which I had to call to get their preferred vendors for...however, it seemed like a newer, younger sales associate so no biggie :)
Dress
Alterations
Lady Jane
Jane Mayer
10000 Riverside Dr., Ste. 2
Toluca Lake, CA 91602
818-761-3541
A
I loved working with Jane, she is so sweet. She had my dress done in a few weeks (only one alternation needed). She even figured out how to do a mini-bustle on my dress which I didn’t even think about but came in very useful the night of the wedding. Although she prefers to create custom dresses, she’s an excellent seamtress for alterations especially for difficult to alter dresses (like Vera Wang).
Wedding Day
Glam
Paul Brown Salon—Hapuna
http://www.paulbrownhawaii.com/
A-
All the girls at Paul Brown are very cool. They gave Dan his first mani/pedi a few days before the wedding as well as a great haircut—it’s tricky to get a guys cut a few days before an event since they usually need a week or so to look right but his cut was perfect. The BMs and I also had our glam there before the wedding. I have been to Paul Brown before (on Oahu) and loved the result, if I had to do again, I would have a full hair trial before the wedding. Although my hair was nice, it’s not what I had imagined but to be fair, I didn’t come with photos or anything. My make-up artist was AWESOME, Jenny, but the other make-up artist was just so-so...definitely ask for Jenny. They also fit me in for a quick polish change the morning of the wedding when the Mauna Lani had double booked my appointment.
Hawaii
Travel Agent
Travel Store of Kona
Mary Huebner
877-331-2415, toll free within USA
808-331-2415 outside USA
A
Mary was such a rockstar during our entire process. We had been referred to Mary by family on Oahu so we recommended her to all our guests for their trip to Hawaii. Although sometimes it took a while for her to get back to people (at least that’s what folks had told me, she always got back to me right away), everyone was happy with their results. She even helped folks plan activities while they were on the islands.
Custom
Labels & Tags
http://www.myownlabels.com/weddings.asp
A
So easy to order and work with. Got my proofs in a day and got my orders shortly thereafter. They even combined my separate orders so they could all be shipped at once. Great product and service. Their hang tags come with little white strings which was great, something I didn’t have to worry about.
OOT Bags
Ailana Kai
http://www.ailanakai.com/
A
We got the 7”w x 9”h x 3”d lauhala totes. Great service, got them pretty quickly. They were a big hit with our guests, perfect size to fit a few treats and a bottle of water. We wanted to make sure that the bottle of water was completely in the bag which is why we went with the 9”h bags.
Boxed Fans
Asian Ideas
http://www.asianideas.com/
A
Great service, we got these so fast after placing our order! We got the wood fans w/glossy white box. (I added ribbon and custom stickers on each box).
Wedding
Programs
Crane & Co.
http://www.crane.com/navSubDepartment.aspx?NavName=NavWedding&Name=DoItYourselfProgramKits
A+
I purchased a couple boxes of the Baronial Square Pearl White Printable Program Kit and am SO happy that I did. Everything is ready and prepared for printing and assembly so it made creating the program very easy. There is even a program template on the Crane’s website so I didn’t have to monkey around customizing the paper size in Word. The only part about this that I disliked was the printing since I took that on...it took HOURS to print out all the pages. I guess I could have taken to Kinkos or a printer but I had no idea it would take that long to print 50 programs (I ended up having an eight-page program since I used all the paper provided in the kits).
Message-In-A-Bottle Invites
(Beach BBQ)
Marketing In a Bottle
http://www.marketinginabottle.com/
A
These were so cute and well received!! I ordered a sample that came through regular mail (it took a while) but the my order got to me super fast and the product was good quality. For our wedding, it was perfect for a beach BBQ but not formal enough for the wedding invite
Save-the-Date
Postcards
Chronicle Books
"Hula Honeys" series
http://www.chroniclebooks.com/site/catalog/index.php?main_page=pubs_product_book_info&products_id=2061&store=books
A
Easy to order, fast shipping. We ended up not using several cards in each pack because of their referral to Oahu (we didn't want our guest who didn't really know much about Hawaii to be confused).
Seating
Plan
A Perfect Table Plan
http://www.perfecttableplan.com/
A
Extremely easy to use!! We wanted assigned seating to assure that our friends and family got to sit together and to avoid a free-for-all. A Perfect Table Plan was great and provided us many ways to present the seating plan which was useful since people needed the information differently (i.e. the guests one way, the banquet manager another way, the coordinators yet another way) depending on how they were using the seating charts.
Wine
(our “special” Pinot Noir)
Windward Vineyard, Paso Robles, CA
http://www.windwardvineyard.com/
A
Although this wine is delicious and we knew we wanted it for our wedding even before we were engaged, they don’t ship to Hawaii so it was a pain (and expensive) to ship three cases of wine twice (once to us in California and then again to Hawaii). It really is a fantastic pinot noir though and our guests loved it, we went through 14 bottles in addition to hosted premium bar. We ended up gifting a few bottles after the wedding and then shipping the rest back home...I guess better more than not enough :)
Adesso
Polaroid
Guestbook
Ebay seller:
noritake22
(Ebay Store:
Granny’s Bridal Boutique
)
A
We changed our minds about the personalized plate a million times yet Lori was so patient with us. The book came quickly and with the perfect personalized plate. We love the album and are so glad we decided to go this route instead of the photo matte...we look at the guest book all the time!! P.S. We used extra fine tipped Sharpies w/this guest book and it worked well.
Seashells
http://www.seashellworld.com/
A
Seashell World was great to work with. They have a huge selection of shells. They were quick to ship and I had minimal breakage (I think about 10 out of 125 shells were broken...none of the starfish were broken).
Lanterns
Pier 1 Imports
http://www.pier1.com/home.aspx
B
Although I got a great deal on my lanterns from Pier 1, I had 4 out of 15 lanterns arrive with broken glass because of bad packing. I still ended up using two of the broken ones because the breaks were minimal but felt that since I had paid for extra shipping (because they were going to Hawaii), that they would have taken care of packing them appropriately.
Trays for Starfish
Straw Mats
Square Votive Holders
Jamali Garden
http://www.jamaligarden.com/
A-
Jamali Garden has an amazing selection of decor items...it's too bad they are all the way in NYC! Receiving the items took a while, even though they ship FedEx. Everything I got from them was pretty heavy so my shipping charges were enormous (the trays are REALLY heavy as are the 3" square votive holders). If you end up buying an order of heavy items, it might be wise to ship directly to Hawaii since it will cost even more to ship it twice (once to you and once to Hawaii). I had the votive holders shipped directly to my coordinator.
Beach BBQ
Location
Hapuna Beach State Park
Large Pavilion
A
Very easy to get a permit to use pavilion (info in my planning bio). Great location right next to the beach, restrooms, showers, etc. It's a bummer that even with a permit, you can't ask anyone to leave the pavilion. There were some teenagers in the pavilion who were watching a DVD (of all things!) and it took a while for them to leave. Once they left, we had the pavilion all to ourselves and no one tried to crash :)
Beach BBQ
Catering
L&L Hawaiian BBQ
http://www.hawaiianbarbecue.com/
In Waimea:
Parker Ranch Shopping Center
67-1185 Mamalahoa Hwy.
Ste. A-105
Kamuela, HI 96734
808-885-8880 (phone & fax)
B+
We LOVE L&L and knew we had to incorporate into the wedding somehow. We ended up using them to cater our beach BBQ. The B+ is reflective of the service, the food is definitely an A+! The biggest downside is that they don't deliver but the Waimea L&L is not too far from Hapuna Beach so it worked out great. They won't fax a price list/menu outside of Hawaii so I had to call to get prices. My suggestion is to type your order up and fax it to them so they have it in writing...the English of the folks that run that place is not stellar so it is to everyone's best interest if you put your order in writing and fax it to them. Please note that L&L in Waimea is
CASH ONLY
(I ended making a cash run to the grocery store next door). I bought the chaffing dishes from Smart & Final in LA and table runners from Ikea. I got the containers of sterno, plates, cups, drinks, small coolers, etc. from Walmart in Kona.