Meeting in the Middle - Hawaii Wedding

The inspiration for this wedding came from the bides love of pink! The only guidelines the bride and groom gave me for their destination wedding were the color and they didn't want the day to feel informal (as some destination wedding are very casual). All wedding planing I did with this couple via Skype because they live in Japan.
Since it was a small ceremony and reception (13 guests to be exact) I was all about making it personal and adding those extra details that are hard to afford when your hosting a big wedding.
There are extra hurdles whenever i'm doing an event/wedding outside of my bubble near my St. Paul studio. Traveling to Hawaii from Minnesota, a whole new set of things to figure out; the biggest being flowers: how I was going to get them and how I was going to keep them alive until the wedding. After doing a ton of googling Waikiki flower shops/wholesale flower resources, it dawned on me that they were all getting their flowers shipped in from the mainland and I was coming from the mainland. So I brought my own fresh flowers! I dry packed a big box of my flowers that I purchased on the friday before we left and paid the fee for an extra bag and checked them. I had to fill out a customs form (which I knew about because I called Hawaii like 3 times before the trip, making sure my flowers weren't going to get trapped in quarantine)  but that was it, no one even check my box; it couldn't have gone more smoothly!

The hotel said they didn't have buckets available for me to barrow (lame) so that was my next hurdle but when I got to my room and saw trash canes, I was like SWEET this will work perfect!

I only had one bunch of calla lilies get crunched in transit but everyone else was still in perfect condition. I chopped and plopped them in the 'water buckets' and made all the arrangements in the hotel room the night before the monday morning wedding. It was just enough time for them to rehydrate, open up and be beautiful for the ceremony and reception.

Other Wedding Details

The Wedding Ceremony took place on the Hala Koa Hotel property in the Japanese Garden.

Attire
Since the bride and groom weren't having a wedding party, I requested that everyone attending ware the wedding colors of pink and gray. Without being too matchy matchy, it worked out perfect!





Ceremony Decor
The gazebo got a new look for the day. We hung white, circular medallions made of shell from inside the gazebo and I used two pink table runners to flank the opening of the gazebo. above the entry I hung a spray of orchids and roses. I had other orchids to tuck in the pink cloth but once I had it together, it was just too much - less is more in this case!

For the ile I chose to make a swirl pattern with the rose pedals instead of the standard just tossing them at random. This helped with the bride and grooms of wish of a more 'formal' ceremony and it was just an extra detail that looked, according to the boys, "ITs Sweet Mandy".

Programs I made before I left. I chose to make them into fans since it was an outdoor wedding and people could get warm. I did my best to incorporate Japanese Kangi into the program and the paster did the service in both Japanese and English, which was very cool!

Reception Decor 

The Reception was a lovely lunch held in a small banquet room after the service. I opted for one long table so that the lunch was more intimate. I had brought gray linens with to layer over the standard white. I did 4 arrangements down the center of the table, keeping them low for easy conversation. 

Place card were made out of a pink patterned paper and I embellished with a Martha Stewart paper flower.  

The table favor is a pink leather photo album. The cover saying the new couples name and wedding date, the first page having a lovely thank you note to guest for their travel and presence at the wedding. Guests were encouraged to use the favor for trip/wedding pictures. 

Guest also wrote notes to the newlyweds on the photo matt guest book. I choose a pink medal frame to make it more personal to the event. 

All in all, the wedding was wonderful, full of love and the joining of not just two families, but also two cultures. I believe its a day that will be cherished byt all who were there.   

Thank you David and Midori for letting me be part of your special day!