filby42

I had an AWESOME experience with Lori - she was wonderful on our wedding day. We had a crisis when we got to the island (my mom fell and broke her arm, and she wasn't able to even come to my wedding), and I was a wreck. Lori was so kind and she even tried to coordinate something for my mom to take pictures at the hospital  Lori also came through a few weeks before the wedding by telling us that she was having difficulty with the photographer we had chosen. She hadn't had problems in the past, but recently she had problems. Before she called to tell me this, she called 4 of her other photographer options and they all gave her a quote the same as the photographer we had chosen. I really trusted her judgement, so I told her she could fire our photographer we chose, and she helped us choose new ones. And....I have to say...that the photographers were my favorite vendor at the wedding! They were the best and I was so grateful that Lori felt she needed to tell us about the other photographer and give us options in case we wanted to hire a new one. (our photographers were Marbelle - a wonderful couple, Freddy and Jennifer, who made me so comfortable, and they are just the greatest people and we had GREAT photos!!!)   I would recommend Lori in a heartbeat (in fact I have recommended her several times now to other friends who got married in Maui) - she had great recommendations, she came through in two difficult situations, and she is just a really sweet person.  Â

I recommend Lori (Scott) Lawrence of Tropical Maui Weddings. I had a very unfortunate thing happen when I went to Maui for my wedding: my terminally ill mom (she had cancer) broke her arm the day we arrived in Maui, and she was unable to come to the wedding. I was freaked out, stressed, and sooo upset (crying non-stop for two days!) when this happened and Lori was sooo helpful. She tried to help us coordinate things with my mom so she could come to the wedding (unfortunately, for liability and insurance reasons, the hospital couldn't release her for the wedding so she missed it). I felt like Lori really cared, and was very helpful with our difficult situation (and a very upset bride at that!). Her husband sang and played the guitar at our wedding and we got so many compliments on the whole wedding! It was a beautiful day - I was so sad that my mom could not come, but the wedding turned out beautiful and just as we wanted. Lori is sooo organized too so everything ran smoothly. Check out her website: Tropical Maui Weddings provides Maui Wedding Planning Services And her blog:Tropical Maui Weddings - The Blog! I can't say enough good things about her and her husband Jamie.

Okay so this will be a quick review, and if you have any questions, please email me!!! WC = Lori (Scott) Lawrence/Tropical Maui Weddings.com and Ceremony wedding music = Jamie Lawrence First of all, my WC Lori (Scott) Lawrence was the best!!! I could not have done this without her. She had the timeline down, directing the boys and the ushers what to do. She set up all of our appointments and her awesome husband sang at our ceremony. Jamie has a beautiful voice and plays like an angel! Lori was so wonderful that 2 weeks before the wedding, she called me and said that she had been getting bad reviews about the photographer I had chosen. Lately, he had seemed not to be doing as good of a job. So....after my initial freak-out, she calmed me with the suggestion that I hire a different photographer. She had already talked to three of her favorites that were available and would do the same package for the same price. Lori took the initiative to give me a choice rather than wait to see if I would be disappointed in my photos with the other photographer. And I am so appreciative that she took the time to work hard and get three other photographer options for me to choose from. I chose Marbelle, the awesome husband wife team of Fred and Jen Joswick. Photographers = Fred and Jen Joswick/Marbelle.com AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!! I can't even describe how great Fred and Jen were! Not only did they agree at the last minute (2 weeks prior to the wedding!) to do the wedding, but they were just the coolest people ever! I was so worried that my husband was going to hate the photo sessions. He does not like to be the center of attention. However, Fred made him feel at ease and was so cool, letting Justin talk about the cameras and equipment, and we had so much fun! Even more amazing was that they offered to start our photo session early, at the Maui Hospital where my mom was (long story...my mom ended up being in the hospital and couldn't come to the wedding so Jen and Fred offered to go to her with us all dressed up!!! Mom would not allow us to do that, but it was so thoughtful of Jen and Fred to offer. We just got the pictures today, and (not surprised) they are sooo beautiful! Check them out: Web Photography Gallery You can click on all the different galleries (at the bottom of the page) to see all the pictures. Hair = Shelly Young (Mariahsmane.com) Shelly was great too! She did my hair soooo fast - I couldn't believe it! And it was perfect - I had originally thought I wanted my hair half up. But Maui was really windy so I told her I needed it up, but didn't really know what I wanted. So she looked at a few pictures I had, and my dress (which was twisted in the back) and she decided to do a beautiful, side twisty up-do. It was gorgeous! Ceremony and Reception = Five Palms Restaurant This place not only had FABULOUS food, but the waitstaff and the event manager (Kathryn Freeman) were WONDERFUL!!! The ceremony site is beautiful - the view is right out to the water, and it was fun having guests at the condo building next door cheering us on The restaurant was beautiful - open air windows so the breeze comes into the restaurant. And I can't even describe how good the food was! Dessert was phenomenal! I would suggest forgoing the traditional cake and get dessert! We had the pineapple creme brulee and the chocolate hazelnut croiquant to choose from. They were both to die for! Flowers = Maui Floral Design Fabulous flowers - that is all I have to say. I had a very specific idea for my bouquet and it turned out beautiful. The bridesmaid bouquets were gorgeous and matched their dresses perfectly! Check out the pictures above. The corsages and boutonnieres were lovely too. So....my advice! Go with Lori Lawrence for WC, and if you were thinking of a smaller, restaurant style reception, go to the Five Palms! It was such a wonderful, fun and beautiful day, and I want to thank all of these vendors for their work.

I love your pictures! You look so genuine and happy and beautiful, both of you! Looks like it was a wonderful wonderful day

very cool! you should start your own business

Wow - this is great! I love all the anti-pig signs and all the hilarious pig things at the hotel. What a great way to put a positive, funny, spin on a situation that could have sucked. I will remember this when something goes not the way I planned.....its always best to let it go because you can't do anything about it, and just have fun! Congratulations!

thanks everyone! we ended up booking with Maui Charters the Maui Magic trip through Tom Barefoot (a discount tour booker on Maui). We are so excited to have almost everyone that is coming to the wedding go on the snorkel trip. There are about 27 of us!

Although we haven't had our wedding yet, we are having dinner and the reception at the Five Palms Restaurant in Kihei. They are supposed to have wonderful food, and the wedding coordinator there (Kathryn) is so helpful!

thanks! i have been looking at the Maui Magic and Four Winds II with Maui Charters.

I want to make sure we get a Molokini snorkeling trip set up for our guests if they want to go, but I want to make sure it is a good one Any suggestions?

I'm a lawyer (however not in Hawaii so I can't write a letter for you, sorry!) but trust me, threatening legal action works almost 99.9% of the time. Even if it said straight up in your contract with the wedding planner that she gets to keep any deposits you pay for vendors, you could probably still get the $ back because that is "unconscionable" or not fair basically. And you should also threaten contacting the Better Business Bureau and threaten to put bad reviews of their business online!!! That is very bad for their business to have reviews online that are horrible! I think a lot of brides now research online before choosing a wedding planner so it could hurt their business. And with the economy the way it is, I'm sure they don't want business to be hurt. Anyway, good luck with getting your deposit back. And great choice with Lori at Tropical Maui Weddings!!!! She is awesome!!!! We are getting married in less than 2 months and she has been nothing but helpful, nice and so on top of things

you look so beautiful!!!! and happy

My wedding planner (Lori Scott Lawrence of Tropical Maui Weddings) suggested Five Palms in Kihei so that is where we are getting married and we have about 42 guests. The owner of the restaurant is soooo helpful and the website shows wonderful pictures of the grassy area where you can have the ceremony. Lori said the food is wonderful, and the prices are very good (we are having a budget wedding so it was perfect for us). Check it out: Home

I like #2 !!!

Welcome!!! I would say that it is probably cheaper to get a wedding coordinator (WC if you saw someone's post earlier) and pick your own places simply because you have more options with a wedding coordinator. A hotel usually has a set caterer, etc., while a wedding planner usually has an option for all different budgets. My wedding planner is awesome and she knows so many people in the area. She is friends with the owner of the restaurant that we have chosen for the reception/dinner, which also has a front lawn right above the beach. So instead of having the wedding on the beach, we have decided to have the wedding ceremony on the front lawn of the waterfront restaurant (Five Palms in Kihei). We don't even have to pay a fee for use of the space for the ceremony! Either way, I think you will be so happy you chose to get married in Maui! Its such a wonderfully beautiful and relaxing place. Good luck planning and let me know if you want the name of my wedding planner!!!