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!)