Destination Wedding in Maui

by Esther K. Choy

Property

I wouldn’t put a price tag on having everyone together in the same spot, but dealing with the landlord was less than pleasurable. It turned out that many property owners on the island frown upon renting their houses to a large group of people who would hold a big ‘party’ of some sort. They don’t want to offend their neighbors, which is very understandable. So we had to do a lot of promising and relationship building to get the owners to trust us, which they eventually did. But we didn’t consider that we might not be able to trust them.

We ended up paying for a “master bedroom” without a bathroom. Paid for a loft “room” when it was actually a raised ceiling with a bed on it. Because the wedding was held on their property, the landlords had automatically assumed that they were invited to our wedding reception. At a $100 per plate, we did our best to tactfully ‘dis-invite’ them. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but they told our dancers that they had to end the luau early because they were disturbing the neighbors. I don’t even want to think about how much we paid for the luau.

Minister

We had never met Matt, our minister, before the wedding, but we spoke to him on the phone several times. He was recommended by my wedding coordinator and sounded like a serious, yet laid-back guy. We spoke to him together over the phone to get to know each other. My fiancé and I felt comfortable with his approach to marrying couples and his general outlook on life.

We agreed that he would arrive 30 minutes prior to the wedding, but he showed up an hour late. My sunset wedding in Maui started 35 minutes behind schedule. The first time I met the minister who would bring my husband and I together in marriage was at the end of an aisle of scattered rose petals. It was all a blur by that time. The only thing I remember thinking was, “Oh, so that’s Matt. He looks a lot shorter than I had expected.”

Photography

If there is anything you need to know about sunsets in Hawaii is that it happens as if someone just turns off a light switch. In minutes, the sun completely drops out of sight from the face of the earth. So, capturing the “magic hour” is crucial. Well, we had no luck capturing that time because the ceremony started so late. My photographer did his best with the time and the cooperation from my guests.

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