A Wedding on Oahu
by Jessica Royer Ocken
I have just returned from a fabulous vacation on the Hawaiian Island of Oahu. Via the invaluable advice of friends who live there, my husband and I spent two weeks seeing and doing and enjoying the best of the island. It was as wonderful as our honeymoon, and that got me thinking a lot about our wedding, which was just two years ago and still fresh in my mind.
We had a small, family event, and we chose a destination location—Fort Morgan, Alabama. It turned out beautifully, and I could go on and on about it (but I won’t). However, strolling along Waikiki Beach in Honolulu reminded me that this tropical mix of big city and rainforest had at one time been in the running for our wedding destination. One reason we opted against it was my vision of the challenge of finding just the right location, vendors and details from so far away. Just for fun, while we were there I did some scouting and discovered that planning a wedding from afar is not so hard, particularly with all the conveniences those in Hawaii have already put in place. If you’re considering this, I hope the following will help you on your way.
When it comes to a wedding on Oahu, you can handle as many or as few of the details as you want. At one end of the world-famous Waikiki Beach, Chris and I came across the Hilton Hawaiian Village Beach Resort & Spa, a bustling and beautiful world of its own—complete with shopping, dining and exotic animals (no kidding!). They’ve just put the finishing touches on their Ocean Crystal Chapel, an elegant, light-filled jewel box surrounded by lush greenery and flowing water that creates a lovely formal ceremony setting in a tropical location. The hotel can arrange for everything from officiant to food to photographs, if you’re taking the hands-off approach.
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