I had the awesome pleasure of attending a
destination wedding in Maui. What a romantic setting for your special day... Warm weather, sandy beaches, swaying palm trees, gorgeous flowers, all perfect ingredients for a wedding day.
The setting was at a gorgeous resort/hotel. When we walked in, the first thing you notice is the paradise within the hotel. In the middle of the hotel is an "outside that's inside." So let me explain a little further, it has a beautiful coy fish pond, a waterfall, huge, beautiful trees, and flowers, in the middle of the hotel. So you could walk outside your hotel room and overlook into this beautiful mini-paradise. Not only that, but the hotel had a beautiful backyard view of the beach! So you could imagine, their pictures will be amazing.
Back to the wedding... It was on Sunday evening at 5pm. The wedding took place on one of the hotel lawns that onlooked the private beach. The setting was gorgeous. The bride's
colors were light pink and light yellow. So as you walked up the lawn, the grassy aisle way was laden with pink and yellow rose petals. The groomsmen were already in place at the front in light, beige suits with nice ties to match. A bit more casual for the Hawaii destination wedding. While we all waited for the bridesmaid to start in, there was a soloist at the front with a guitar. He was a Hawaiian local serenading us with soft,
love songs. Then the first bridesmaid started walking down. The dresses were gorgeous! Each bridesmaid alternated in pink or yellow, flowing, above the knee length dresses. Apparently the maid of honor is a fashion designer in Australia and actually made a few of the
bridesmaid dresses, they really were fabulous. The bridesmaid bouquets were very full and beautiful with light pink and yellow roses, and a darker pink as well. The maid of honor walked down in a darker beige/brown dress she made, so she got to stand out a bit. Then the adorable
flower girls and ring bearers... The girls were in these beautiful white dresses, and the chiffon bottom parts of their dresses had fabric roses attached all over.
The bride... she was gorgeous!
Her hair was up and pulled a bit to the side. She had two beautiful roses adorned in her hair as well, for beautiful extra detail.
Her dress was an ivory, chiffon. It was a strapless dress, with a bit of fabric that overlapped in the front, just an inch or so, to add a small ruffle along the top of the dress. The dress was fitted, and then towards the bottom cascaded out a bit, to be beautiful and flowy. The back dipped a little bit below her shoulders, and at the bottom of her back, there was a fabric rose of the same fabric as the dress, and from their extra fabric cascaded down to add to the drama and beauty of its intended subtle simplicity, but certainly class and elegance.
The ceremony began with the Hawaiian pastor opening up and greeting the "paparazzi" (that was us, he referred to us as, the guests - lol!) He was great, very well spoken, almost a performer with his long, extra enunciated, lingering words, which gave a great affect for the ceremony. After the vows were said, and he pronounced them husband and wife, we were serenaded some more by the soloist.
The bride and groom took photos after the ceremony and then they also had a videographer that captured the whole ceremony. The reception was in the hotel, next to the coy fish pond I mentioned earlier. It was technically outside, but it was under a covered area. The reception tables had white linens, and the
center pieces were rectangular vases with gorgeous rose bouquets and greenery. Each seat had a name card, which I actually thought was a nice added detail. Normally I'm not in favor of place cards, but then can actually make for less awkwardness if done very thoughtfully.
They had hors d'oeuvres waiting for us (lamb chops, curry chicken kabobs), and a full open bar. I think hors d'oeuvres are a nice touch, especially when you and your groom take photos after the wedding. You don't want your crowd to get hungry. :-) Once the bride and groom arrived we began with a salad, had the choice of prawns, fillet mignon, or fish for our main course, and finished with a yummy custard, pie dessert. I had the prawns, and they were so yummy!
Time to cut the cake. The
wedding cake was smaller as a result of us already having dessert, but totally cute! Two round tiers, with frosting dots as details placed intently all around the cake. The bride got her new hubby good with the "bite" of cake all over his face. ;o)
The toasts were great from the best man and maid of honor. Then came the bouquet and
garter toss. My boyfriend was the lucky garter catcher - lol!
One of my favorite details was the DJ playing soft jazz songs as background music. I have to say that was great for the atmosphere, and a detail I may want to add at my own future wedding.
There was a short amount of dancing, father/daughter, mother/son dance, and then of course the encouragement to get the rest of the guests out on the dance floor. The wedding ended fairly early after that. The entire ordeal was fascinating, certainly an elegant evening, and full of wonderful things to see.
