Michelle first reached out to me in fall of 2019 looking for help planning and coordinating her Denver
wedding. Her and her fiance, Jon were in the process of planning a beautiful celebration in downtown Denver, where they live. Due to the many moving parts and logistics for the wedding, Michelle really wanted to have someone there to coordinate everything on the day. Enter… me!
I’m sure you can assume where this story is going…. Their 2020 wedding quickly turned into a mess of date changes and then ultimately they decided to cancel the wedding and we sadly parted our ways.
Fast forward to June 2021 and I open my inbox one morning to an email from Michelle. The email started with… “I wanted to reach out because I had a crazy idea…” Of course my interest is immediately peaked and continues when I read on that they had officially picked a new wedding date for early January 2022 and are planning to have a smaller, more intimate celebration.
Michelle wanted to see if I would be on board for coordinating their wedding again, but this time, instead of Denver, the wedding would be held in….
Hawaii!
The Big Island to be specific at the beautiful historic, Mauna Kea Resort. I naturally jumped at the chance to take this exciting adventure with Michelle and Jon.
After months of extensive planning, coordinating vendors, navigating meetings in different time zones, and finalizing all of the little details… we landed on the Big Island of Hawaii right after the new year!
This is not going to be a blog about the beauty of Hawaii, because, well, I think you know that already ☀️ But what I can say are the following differences between doing my job there vs. here in Colorado:
- Less eucalyptus, more monstera. The tropical flowers are just to die for 🌺
- Humidity is no joke. The amount of sweat that poured out of my body was unreal 😅
- Rain plans are way less of a worry there since it’s pretty much always sunshine and rainbows (literally)
- Island time is a real thing and it took me a while to get used to (especially since I’m originally from New England… so like…. the complete opposite).
- Fire knife dancers make for pretty amazing entertainment at dinner. For both the guests and the wedding planner (I was snapping photos along with everyone else!) 🔥
Here are some of my favorite small details about Michelle and Jon’s beautiful Hawaii celebration:
✍️ They chose to write handwritten cards for each guest at the wedding. We placed these cards into envelopes and they were waiting for them at their seat in the reception space. I absolutely loved this personal dedication to thanking each guest!
🎵 Can’t beat a good Hora, am I right? That has to make the list. And under the Hawaiian sunset it was everything.
🌺 Their guest favor was a lei that everyone received at cocktail hour. On each lei, we placed acrylic tags that had the guest name and table number. Favor + escort card, BOOM.
🔥 They surprised their guests with luau dinner entertainment! We had a 10 minute fire knife show that blew everyone’s socks off! It was yet another nod to focusing on guest experience.
I also want to give a shoutout to all the amazing vendors who were a part of this day. It was a pleasure working with you and I hope to be back soon!
Venue - Mauna Kea Resort, 62-100 Kauna'oa Drive, Kohala Coast, HI @maunakeahotel
Coordination - Jillian Jensen Events @jillianjensenevents
Photo and Video - Aya Productions @ayaproductions
Floral - Grace Flowers Hawaii @graceflowershawaii
Hair and Makeup - Big Island Beauty and Bridal @bigisland_beautyandbridal
Reception Lighting - Big Island Tents @bigislandtents
Photobooth and Marquee Letters - Brio Booths @briobooths
Live Cocktail Hour Musician - Eddie Heaukulani
Rabbi - Rabbi Ken Aronowitz
Fire Knife Dancers - Olowalu Entertainment @olowalu.entertainment
Bar signs - Jillian Jensen Creative @jillianjensencreative
Invitations & Paper goods - Paper Girl Creative @papergirlcreative
(If you’re reading this and you’re getting married in Hawaii…….. 🙋♀️)