Weddingbee Blog

Our wedding must have been exhausting; once our guests loaded up onto the shuttle… about half of them passed out…

except my handsome Mr. Sushi, who was just glowing. And why wouldn’t he be glowing?! He just got married to me!

Sooo… you might have noticed that every time I referred to our “reception”, it was in quotation marks.

Well, that’s because we didn’t have a traditional reception. There was no grand entrance, no toasts, no cake cutting, no dancing. Instead, we took our wondrous guests to a luau. Not even a private luau, but one open to the public (i.e. LOTS of tourists were present). Because the dinner part of our wedding day was very casual, we didn’t hire our photographer for the rest of the evening. Yep, we only had him for the ceremony and picture time. The rest of the evening we relied on our family and friends (and some taken by me, bride or not, you can’t separate a photographer from his or her camera) to supply us with photos from the luau.

We took our guests to Germaine’s Luau; which is probably the more casual of the luaus on Oahu (versus Polynesian Culture Center and Paradise Cove), but has more of a party atmosphere… which is what we were going for.

You can see how they had the seating set up:

co-worker “C” & PA friend “A”—Isn’t it cute that they color coordinated with each other?

Part of the admission to the luau (besides the awesome Hawaiian buffet dinner) was drinks. Every person got tickets for 3 drinks of their choice (non alcoholic beverages were unlimited). We “splurged” ($8) on these glasses for our drinks, which were twice as big as the cups the bartenders give you for drinks. Every time we went up for drinks the bartenders would either refuse our drink tickets or give us an extra shot to congratulate us getting married.

The luau kicked off with the imu (underground oven) being uncovered, and the Kalua Pig being brought out. Soon afterward, we feasted on an all you can eat buffet that had an array of tasty Hawaiian and American selections; unfortunately no one got any photos of the delicious food. I think we were salivating at this point and only had eating on our minds.

As the show was beginning to start, the host asked for 3 male volunteers. Bestie Lauren’s husband started yelling “Auntie, Auntie….WE HAVE A GROOM!” That got their attention, and Mr. Sushi was called to go backstage.

Bestie Lauren and hubbers Kirk

Mr. Sushi came back out sportin’ coconuts and a grass skirt.

He was to have a hula dance off against 2 other luau guests. Contestant wins by audience cheers. Mr. Sushi definitely was a good sport about it, but he lost to the guy with the pink grass skirt.

Next the real dancers came out and put on a great show! A lil’ eye candy for the guys and the girls.

The moon was amazing that night. It might be hard to see in this photo, but there was ring of light around the moon. It was a gorgeous night!

So I lied. There was some dancing. And by that, I don’t mean the hula dancers and Mr. Sushi’s lil’ hula dance. Mr. Sushi and I were called onstage and we had our first dance (to the Hawaiian Wedding Song) in front of EVERYONE; our 20 guests and the 200 “guests” of Germaine’s. As someone who doesn’t like to be the center of attention, I think I was mumbling to Mr. Sushi the whole time about how people were looking as us.

Secretly, I’m glad our friends took photos.

Everyone had a great time.

How cute are my ’rents?!

The end of the luau was the end of our wedding night. Our guests piled onto the shuttle to head back to Waikiki. Originally we had thought we might go to a local bar for a post wedding drink, but everyone was pooped and totally crashed on the way back to Waikiki… me included!

You’ve seen me get glammed, our intimate first look, you’ve seen all the details of our wedding, followed through our lei ceremony, watched us exchange rings, met our families and viewed our favorite photos. Welp, that’s it for the wedding day recaps.

But no worries, you haven’t gotten rid of me yet. I still have a few Hawaii vacation/Honeymoon posts and I still have a budget recap for you guys!

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Previously:

Picture Time, Picture Time!
My Ohana
Ceremony… Take 2
Ceremony… Take 1
Ceremony Details
The First Look
Gettin’ Glammed
Welcome BBQ