Chiquita's Maui wedding review!

I have to say everything went very smoothly We had awesome weather the whole time we were there and did alot in the two weeks we had.

Airline - Hawaiian Air

We drove down to Seattle from Vancouver saturday november 1st and stayed over night at the Best Western Airport Executel. I had a park and fly package with them that included parking the car for two weeks and one nights' accomodations for 4 of us. Worked out great and the car was still there when we got back on friday november 14th.. heh.

We booked our flight with Hawaiian Air because it was SO much cheaper than flying out of Vancouver and it was a non-stop flight from Seattle to Maui. We were allowed 2 checked bags each (because we had booked our flights back in february) and I had no problem hanging up my wedding dress in the first class closet. I tried to get bumped up to first class when we got to the airport but we were too late.. they had already filled up the last seats.. ah well. They don't serve a hot meal though.. just snacks and sandwiches and stuff. I wasn't too concerned about that but some people might be. Also liquor was $5 dollars a drink and you also had to pay for headsets if you wanted to watch the movie. You cannot pay by cash either, it's either debit or credit card.

Once we landed we had a shuttle pick us up and take us to our car rental place.. Aloha Maui Vans (van rental Maui, van rentals Maui, -- Maui Windsurfing Vans). We got a Subaru Forrester which was great on gas and was roomy enough for all our stuff. And had A/C of course which was a relief

We rented a condo at the Hale Pau Hana (Maui Condo Rentals, Maui Vacation Rentals) which is right on Kamaole Beach II. It was so perfect. We had the sunsets every night from our balcony and the beach has great sand. We could snorkel right outside our place and see tons of different fish and turtles etc. We also hosted a BBQ the night before our wedding for everyone as there are BBQ's right outside as well. The only thing about renting a condo privately is we didn't have a cleaning service coming in daily to make beds etc. Didn't bother me at all but again this might be an issue for someone. You can call the Hale Pau Hana directly to rent a room with them and the cleaning service will come in daily.

I hired a WC here at home named Susan Hyatt (WEDDING LADY - Expert Wedding Planner in Vancouver, Maui, Honolulu, Bahamas) and she works with Dream Weddings over in Maui. (A Dream Wedding Maui Style - A Full Service Wedding Coordinator on the Island of Maui). We met up with Ashley at a Dream Wedding and she was great. Walked us through everything (marriage license, locations etc) and I felt confident everything would come together nicely.

Shelly from Mariah's Mane came to our condo the day of the wedding to do my hair, my two MOH's and my sister's hair. She did a fabulous job and I would recommend her in a heartbeat. We all did our own makeup but I know Shelly does that as well if you wanted her to.

Our photographer was John Motelewski (Maui Wedding Photographer & Portrait Photographer - John Pierres Photography (Maui, Hawaii)) and he did such a fantastic job with the photos. We had him for 5 hours which seemed to be the right amount of time for us. He took photos of me and my 2 MOH's then went over to where Jayson was hanging with his 2 GM's and took a bunch of pics there as well. Then he followed Jayson to the beach and took more photos of the guests arriving etc. They had a good range of pictures and you can see them here if you like: http://www.pictage.com/582634

We got married at Mokapu Beach in Wailea at 4:30pm. It was the perfect time of day as there was plenty of daylight for the ceremony and group shots after, but also right on time to get sunset shots with Jayson and I after all the other photos. We had a non-denomenational minister, Pastor Rob, who did a wonderful job with the ceremony, and also had a guitar player for about an hour. I don't think I ever caught his name though.. oops!

Our reception was at the Seawatch Restaurant (Seawatch Restaurant :: Maui Restaurants :: Wailea Fine Dining :: Sea Watch) in Wailea and man was it ever fantastic!! The food was top notch and I was sooo stuffed I didn't really have room for cake! We had an open bar as well and the service was impeccable. Every time I turned around they were there ready to get me something else if I wished it. Our reception was out by a pond so it was private from other diners which made me happy.

I ordered chair covers and sashes from Covered Affairs Maui (Covered Affairs Maui) and Polly was very easy to work with. We only communicated over email but she arrived at the Seawatch earlier in the day to set up my chairs and came after we left to take them down. I had nothing to worry about!

Our wedding cake was ordered from Maui Wedding Cakes (Maui Wedding Cakes - Maui Weddings, Wedding Cakes on Maui, Maui Bakeries, Weddings on Maui) and tasted SO good. I was completely full after dinner but we had done our cake-cutting photos beforehand so I got a taste before dinner. Delish!!!! The Seawatch staff cut up our cake and served it to everyone so I didn't have to worry about that either.

Finally, the following evening we hosted a luau in Lahaina for all our guests. I had reserved seating at the Feast At Lele (FEAST AT LELE|OFFICIAL WEBSITE|MAUI'S FINE DINING POLYNESIAN DINNER SHOW) and we had such great seats right in front! The food was to die for I must say. They didn't have a pig roasting in a pit which I was a bit disappointed about, but the dancing more than made up for it and did I mention the food was to die for It was. Highly recommend it there.

A few other notes:

It's expensive in Hawaii. We saved alot of money by shopping at the Costco in Kahului (near the airport) for flats of water and granola bars and alcohol etc. I bought a few snacks for my OOT bags there and some pineapples etc. Since we had rented a condo you can stock up on cereal and milk etc and save money that way. I had also got a Hawaii Entertainment Book for the coupons.. but the selection for Maui isn't nearly as good as the coupons for Oahu. However you can definitely get your moneys' worth if you buy it.

Excursions we took:

Open door helicopter tour with AlexAir. Fantastic!! We are photography buffs so it was nice not to have to worry about windows taking pictures

Snorkel trip to Molokini with Pride of Maui company. This was a great trip.. they feed you breakfast and lunch as well as alcohol. You do two snorkel trips.. one at Molokini and one at Turtle Town. I also snuba-ed on the boat which was fun

Road to Hana. Great day trip for taking photos and stuff.. but not alot to do once you get to Hana.. heh.

Haleakala Crater. We went up once at sunset for photos and once at sunrise for photos. It's super cold up there.. I was wearing about 5 layers of clothing! But the photos are worth it. Oh and the forrester handled the twisty road really well. Just watch out for the cows! And the bikers.. and the nene's.. and the wasps.. yuck.

If anyone has questions, please ask. I'm sure I'm forgetting things. All in all, we LOVED Maui and would go back in heartbeat. It was sooo nice living in a bikini for two weeks and quite depressing to come back home to our rainy weather.

thats an amaazing review! Im glad everything went so great for you

but wow does your review make me miss Maui soooo much!! I went last year and now reading this i think im going to have to book something really soon to go back!

Thanks.. and yes we want to go back too.. the sooner the better

Sounds great, I'm so excitied. Who did your make-up?

Thanks for posting your review, Chiquita. I'm glad everything went well and everyone you worked with was pleasant. Hale Pau Hana sounds great- we love snorkeling- I'm going to look into it for our honeymoon! thanks!

--can I tell u that Oskar and Zoey look EXACTLY like our cats!

Hi Chiquita,

I'm having my hair done by Shelly at Mariah's Mane also! Do you suggest having a practice run with her prior to the big day? Or was she good just the day of?

Oh, and thanks for finding Aloha Maui Vans! Our folks have rented vans with them.

Deb

P.S. You are probably going to see me asking you lots of questions. There aren't that many Maui brides here.

Haha Deb.. no problem I didn't have a practice run with Shelly. I knew I wanted a messy up-do type of hair style and she pretty much knew how to do it from my description. She also brings quite a few hair magazines with her for you to look through so if you see something you want just point it out.. or bring a pic with you. If you are having a fairly specific elaborate hair style you may want to a practice run, but for me I was pretty casual about my hair.

The guys at Aloha Maui Vans were great No complaints whatsoever!

wow lisa I can't believe I never read your review!! great job, sorry for the delayed comment

ps the good thing about that tho is I'm going to go look at your wedding pics again now yay!