katie and peter
Ever wonder what a wedding would look like if you didn’t want to invest too much time or energy into planning it? Well, look no further! This hilarious couple reached out to me because they wanted an awesome wedding, but didn’t want to do any of the work to plan it. They did want to choose a few things that were especially important to them, like the food, but they were happy to rely on all of my expertise and recommendations for the rest.
In my experience, planning a wedding like this can go two ways…
1. They are true to their initial feelings about planning and they hire me because they love what I do and it ends up being a match made in heaven OR
2. They think that is how they feel, but as the wedding gets closer family pressure forces them to get more involved than they would like and everyone ends up stressed.
Luck for everyone, this couple what the the “match made in heaven” type!
Now, it may seem odd to not want to plan your wedding, but as a planner, I know that really means they don’t want to have to make a bunch of decisions and they want someone who “get’s” them to do the heavy lifting. After our initial consultation, it was clear that we were all equally laid back, had a sense of humor and shared similar taste in style. I knew that with some strategic questions to get to know them and paired back vendor recommendations, it was going to be easy to put together something really fun and beautiful that would be right up their alley.
Whenever I approach events like this, I like to start with honoring their priorities. I knew that tasty and healthy food was extremely important to them, so I reached out to my go-to farm to table caterers, Ke Nui Kitchen, for the perfect wedding menu. We made sure to have a diverse amount of fresh fruit and vegetables as well as sustainably caught local fresh fish and organic chicken. The second thing that was important to them was creating a Hawaii experience for their guests. I took this opportunity to design and event that was fun and colorful, but still formal enough to be a wedding.
The lawn were the entire celebration took place is a peninsula surrounded by a stunning mountian range, a historic fish pond and tall swaying palm trees. Guests were greeted with an interactive poloriod guestbook and tray passed tropical cocktails. Guests sat under the shade of an ancient monkeypod tree enjoying the view of the water during the ceremony. At the cocktail hour, the guests were surprised with a mini aviary of tropical birds which made for an epic photo op. After their island inspired buffet dinner, both the bride and groom danced with their moms before opening the dancefloor to all of the guests. All in all, the couple, their guests and the vendor team had a blast!
Photo Credit: ARIA Studios
