A Day in the Life of a Fill-in Wedding Planner (Day 1)

I am on location in Maui helping my best friend and colleague Cheryl Shoemaker of Orchid Isle Weddings and Events. She would have been here herself to coordinate the wedding, but she is expecting any day or week now so she asked if I could help her out. What an honor to represent her company and to be able to fly to Maui for a short trip to help my client and her's to make sure she has a flawless wedding day. The bride is Alyssa and as many of you might remember, she chose the theme "Because Love Should be Celebrated".

At any rate, I made it to Maui around 3:00 and got checked into my hotel around 4:30. I met with Daniel and Alyssa to take some boxes off their hands and got ready to meet my good friend, Evonne Wong of the famed Events by Evonne. This was the first time I met Evonne, but we have been conversing back and forth via email and Facebook. It was truly like meeting an old friend I hadn't seen in ages. We just talked and talked. If I didn't have an appointment we probably would have just kept talking. If you're ever planning a wedding on the islands, you can't go wrong with Orchid Isle Weddings & Events and Events by Evonne. Two very talented and successful wedding planners/designers on the beautiful Hawaiian islands!

She introduced me to Cafe O Lei in Kihei. OMG, such delicious food. I highly recommend this restaurant if you want a good place to eat. Prices for an entree run between $18-35. I had the Blackened Mahi Mahi with papaya salsa. FANTASTIC!

From there we headed back to the Grand Wailea to have my meeting with Alyssa and her mom to discuss any remaining items that were critical. The meeting went great and we got a lot of things ironed out. From there Evonne and I went to Dennys (it's the only place open after 9 p.m.) and had dessert and talked until 12:30 a.m.! I think if we both didn't have things to do the next day we would have kept talking.

So Evonne has an iPhone and I just bought the BlackBerry Storm so we took pictures of the iPhone vs. the Storm... She didn't tell me she had a cool green case cover... Unfair advantage Evonne!

So, it's actually Friday, and I'm getting ready to start the day. We had an unexpected crisis occur this morning. Alyssa's custom chocolates got mailed to their house in the Bay Area and not to the hotel so we brainstormed some ideas on what we could fill them with. I suggested Honolulu Cookie Co. shortbread cookies. She talked it over with her mom and I'm headed up to Lahaina to get them after my meeting with the SeaWatch Restaurant!

More pictures to come, but here's a shot from my room at the Grand Wailea (the place where John and Kate plus 8 was filmed!)

Mango Calla Favor Boxes - Oranges and Greens

Today is apparently a busy blog day for me! As you can see just by today's posts that I have been working on a lot of things the last few days! I received a call last week from a gentleman who was referred by the Hilton Waikoloa Village Wedding Atelier... the FABULOUS Kai Maxwell! He is getting married to his fiance, Suzette on 11/28/08. Yes, the day after Thanksgiving. It was a small order so I agreed to take it.

He really liked my mango calla lily favor box I did for a past client and asked if I could replicate it. Since he wasn't particular about the contents of the favor box, I suggested the Honolulu Cookie Company pineapple shortbread cookies in various non-chocolate flavors (so they wouldn't melt). He agreed and so these are some pictures I took of his favor boxes for his wedding! If you haven't tried these shortbread cookies, you are MISSING OUT! They are the BOMB! :) They are SOOOOOOO good! The great thing about them is you can order in bulk without having to purchase their pre-made boxes. That way you can have whatever flavors you want as long as you order in total a minimum of 100 cookies. Not hard to do especially when you have a lot of wedding guests. The cookies last about 6-8 weeks for the best freshness, but you can freeze them to prolong the freshness. 6 cookies fit nicely in each box.For a over the top gift you could fit in 8. What a sweet way to end the evening!

Hibiscus Favors

Today I finished the hibiscus favors for my Sheraton Maui Bride. She came to me by way of my Wedding Favors feature on TheKnot.com! This was a quick, last minute order. Only 2 weeks to do it because her wedding date is July 15th! The favors are complete which are shown here. We decided to go with the pink hibiscus with pinkish, yellowish orange centers, a mauvish pink and celadon green ribbons, the favor tag with the hibiscus water color design and the contents - pineappled shaped Butter Macadania Nut shortbread cookies from Honolulu Cookie Company!

All that's left to complete Joanne's order is her hair flowers. Almost done, just have to paint them and dry! Another order almost out the door for another happy couple. The rest of the week I'll be focusing on my #2 Canadian bride, Laura. She loved my Victorian Elegance flowers for my other bride and so I'm creating something for her centered around the same flowers.

Pineapples and Orchids

I'm finishing up another big order. This one comes from my client Laurie in Michigan. She and her husband are doing a vow renewal at the Hilton Waikoloa Village & Resort on the Big Island of Hawaii. She contacted me via the hotel's wedding atelier and asked if I could do her centerpieces, hair flowers, favors, table cards, place cards and thank you notes. Her basic theme was greens and pinks and she really liked the pineapple design I did for another client and fell in love with the green cymbidiums. We modified the color pink as she wanted it a bit darker and more vibrant than the original one I made for a previous Hilton client. This was a fun one since the wedding was small, but each piece really works well together. These are just a few of the images that I took of the items I made for Laurie and John.

Laurie decided on Big Island Candies dark chocolate dipped shortbread cookies to fill her favor boxes. If you have never tried these delightful shortbread cookies, TRY IT! They are really delicious - you can never just eat one, it's hard not to want to eat the whole box! On another note, if you love everything pineapple, try Honolulu Cookie Company cookies - another great shortbread cookie company out of Oahu. They make shortbread cookies in the shapes of pineapples and have these great fruit flavor shortbread cookies. I LOVE the lilikoi (passionfruit) and pineapple ones!