Wedding Blog

I am a beach baby. I LOVE the beach and all things tropical. Papa Pig was actually born in Honolulu, and his entire family still lives on the island. Growing up as a military brat, we were fortunate to be able to spend two years in Guam, which I consider to be a miniature, less commercialized version of Hawaii. I’ve always known I wanted to have a destination wedding. The one setback was knowing that some of our family might not be able to attend. To remedy this, we decided to hold our wedding and ceremony on the island of Oahu, and hold a second reception locally in Baltimore, Maryland. We researched a ton on TheKnot Hawaii community boards (thank you Hawaii Knotties!) and our top contenders for the wedding ceremony/reception were:

• Hale Koa - budget friendly, military hotel. Since the Hale Koa Hotel is a federal entity, prices would not be subject to the 4.7% sales tax. There’s a garden area were we could host our ceremony, but we really wanted an oceanfront ceremony. How could we go to Hawaii and not have an ocean backdrop? This was our first choice for the reception, but the aesthetic of the room wasn’t quite what we were looking for and it was without windows. Being a military hotel, brides do require sponsorship in order to host an event at their facility.

• Waimanalo Bay - Mr. P and I have visited Hawaii twice in the five years we’ve dated. Hands down, this is our favorite beach. It’s private with a long stretch of sand that could accommodate our guest count. We found out shortly after our engagement that new laws in Hawaii were passed requiring permits for beach weddings. Professional photographers would also require permits under certain circumstances. Given that we were planning a wedding from across the globe and did not hire a wedding planner, we opted to seek other options.
• Kahala Hotel & Resort - beautiful, but didn’t work within our budget. They were also charging an additional fee if we brought in our own photographer rather than using one of their preferred vendors.

We ultimately decided to hold our ceremony at Lanikuhonua, a private estate, approximately 40 mi. outside of Waikiki, and our reception will be at the Moana Surfrider. They’re both absolutely gorgeous. Here’s the kicker: August is a toasty time of year and Lanikuhonua only had morning and daytime slots available for our ceremony. I’m very sensitive to heat. I’m typically semi-dripping with sweat. As such, we are doing the unthinkable and holding a morning ceremony with an evening reception. It’s island casual in the morning, and the evening reception will be a bit more formal.

Image Source

Lani Kai Reception Room @ the Moana Surfrider

Courtesy of Lanikuhonua

Is anyone else planning their wedding with a large gap between the ceremony and reception? What recommendations are you offering to your guests to occupy their time in the interim?