We'd like to thank...

Being surrounded by family and friends was definitely one of the highlights of our wedding. Another was having our wonderful wedding vendors be a part of our special day and being able to put our complete trust in their experience and expertise. Although we knew most of our vendors from being involved in the wedding industry, we had the fortunate opportunity to get to know them professionally from a completely different point of view...and we couldn't have been happier. A few extra special thanks go to:


PEONY FLORAL DESIGNIn an earlier post, I wrote about our decision to let our florist "go crazy" with the design of our floral arrangements. Not wanting to box her in with any heavy restrictions, we really wanted Nikki Lomas to use her creativity and have enough flexibility to do what she does best...and she did! Peonies, viburnum, tulips, roses and ranunculus...the flowers that she chose for us were simply breathtaking. Our vendors had only a limited amount of prep time, but Nikki and her husband did a fantastic job setting up our ceremony and reception spaces. From the stunning bamboo arch arrangement to the gorgeous bouquets to the beautiful centerpieces on each table, the florals were just amazing!!

LES SAISONS
WOW! The beautiful chair covers and sashes provided by Naomi Lee at Les Saisons left me speechless. I caught a glimpse of our reception room moments before I walked down the aisle and my jaw literally dropped open. If you think that something as simple as covering your chairs and adding organza sashes couldn't possibly transform your room, think again. I was completely floored by the end result and it left such a wonderful lasting impression on our guests!

MARK NOMURA PHOTOGRAPHY
We wanted natural looking photos that captured each special moment of our day and Mark delivered ten-fold. Mark was so pleasant to deal with and responded right away to any questions we had in anticipation of our wedding. Through all of the formal photos, he put everyone at ease and was competely unobtrusive during our ceremony/reception (I actually remember telling my husband that I didn't remember seeing Mark once the processional started). We couldn't be happier with the fabulous job he did with the photos (many of which I eagerly included in today's post)!


PUMEHANA DAVIS
There's not much to say about hearing beautiful strains of music from an über-talented harpist like Pume, but I will share this little tidbit... You know how people always tell brides to try and stay "in the moment" as much as possible during the ceremony? Well, just as my bridesmaids starting walking down the aisle, I reminded myself to listen to the music that my husband and I had so carefully selected. We asked Pume to play a few classical songs for our processional that weren't your typical ceremony selections, but had special meaning to us. I'm so glad that I remembered to listen to the music because it sounded more beautiful that I ever imagined it could be and it made my walk down the petal-strewn aisle that much more surreal. Pume continued to play for our guests during the cocktail/dinner hours, adding such an elegant touch to our celebration!


WEDDINGS BY GRACE AND MONA
Seeing Mona Hirata and Mika Yasunaga in action on our wedding day was like watching a well-choreographed musical...minus the dancing...and the singing. They were the designated contacts for all of our vendors which meant that my husband and I were free to just enjoy the day and not worry about a thing. Mona and Mika not only kept us on schedule and helped with the placement of all my handcrafted goodies (i.e. place cards, food tags, programs, etc...), they ensured that we had all of our bases covered a full two weeks before the wedding. Every minute detail you can imagine (or not imagine), was addresed by Mona and Mika. There's a reason why couples hire wedding coordinators...and they were worth every penny.


HALEKULANI
What was most important to us in choosing a venue, was the ambiance, the food, and the customer service. What we ended up with was the perfect open-air location for our ceremony (with beautiful views of Waikiki Beach and Diamond Head), a charming, intimate space for our reception, fantastic food, and outstanding service provided by Joel Nishimoto and the staff at the Halekulani. Yup, we're still patting ourselves on the back for choosing this spectactular venue!


STACEY LEE DESIGNS
I just had to include Stacey Lee in my vendor list. I own so many pieces of handcrafted jewelry by Stacey Lee, that I could probably be decked out in her earrings, necklaces and bracelets for a whole month without any repeats. Naturally, asking Stacey to design my bridal jewelry was a no-brainer for me and she took one look at my dress and came up with the perfect design: a double strand of wire-wrapped seed pearls with a drop pearl pendant and simple pearl earrings to match. I also purchased necklaces for my bridesmaids from Stacey, each similar in color but different in style.


THE DIAMOND SPECIALISTS
Excellent diamond education. Custom designs. Top-notch customer service. 'Nuff said!A HEARTFELT MAHALO to the entire "cast and crew" of our fun wedding production:
Advanced Visual Arts
Alison Hayashi
Halekulani
Les Saisons - web site coming soon!
Mark Nomura Photography
Peony Floral Design
Pumehana Davis
Stacey Lee Designs
The Diamond Specialists
Weddings by Grace and Mona

Our wedding...the recap

The wedding day finally arrived. We had breakfast with our parents in the morning and a fairly relaxing morning considering the busy day we had ahead of us. At 11:30AM sharp, my cell phone rang and everyone started arriving: the wedding coordinator, my bridesmaids, the hair/makeup people, the photographer, the videographer, the florist. It seemed that the parade of people through my hotel room door never stopped and I had a front row seat to all the organized chaos!

As a side note, being able to spend that time in the suite getting ready with my girlfriends was truly priceless. It's rare these days for all of us to be in the same place at once with everything going on in our busy lives, but that morning all we needed to worry about was getting primped and prepped...and not smudging our lipstick.

What happened next was a blur of activity in my mind. We posed for our formal shots, my husband and I had our "first encounter", more photos with the bridal party, and then on to the ceremony...ah, the ceremony.

As my father walked me down the aisle, I didn't see any of our guests. I only saw my husband standing at the altar. I fought to hold back my tears and was overwhelmed with a feeling of joy that I've never felt before. Our ceremony was short and sweet, but so very meaningful.

During the cocktail hour, we were able to make our rounds and mingle with our guests (how nice!). At this point, my husband and I were SO RELAXED. Nothing to worry about now except enjoying a fun reception with all of our loved ones!

In my next post, I'll tell you a little more about our WONDERFUL VENDORS and how they contributed to the wedding of our dreams!! I'll leave you with a few photos from our special day.



CREDITS:
Florist - Peony Floral Design
Linens - Les Saisons
Photography - Mark Nomura Photography

Practice makes perfect

The first "chicken skin" moment I had was during our rehearsal the day before our wedding. Surrounded by our bridal party, parents, wedding coordinators and the reverend, everything started to come together in my mind...for the first time. The rehearsal itself couldn't have been any smoother and our officiant kept us laughing the whole time. Everyone was in great spirits and when we headed off to our rehearsal dinner that night, the mood turned even more festive!

We opted for a casual gathering at E&O Trading Company and invited our out-of-town guests to join in on the fun. After so many hours of meticulous wedding planning, it was such a treat to just kick back with everyone for a few hours! With overflowing plates of Crisp Indonesian Corn Fritters, Grilled Chicken Satays, and Naan Bread, my husband and I had a chance to "table hop" and mingle with all of our guests...something that we knew we may not have much time to do at our reception.

We presented our bridal party with gifts, said our goodbyes at the door, and then made our way back to the hotel so we could get a good night's sleep before our big day!

The unexpected shower

I may be biased, but I think that I have the best girlfriends in the world. They've been there for me through the craziest times in my life, and whenever I'm with them the laughs never stop. A few days before the wedding, I had lunch with my girlfriends and despite my strong protests, our simple lunch turned into a bridal shower...and I loved every minute of it.

We headed over to Indigo for their tasty buffet lunch and were seated at a table by the window...far away from the other diners. Once we polished off our dim sum appetizers and fresh veggies, the bridal shower fun began. With a nod to Oprah's Favorite Things, my girlfriends "showered" me with gifts and amusing explanations to go along with them. The pièce de résistance, however, was a gift that I will treasure for many years to come. My friends presented me with a scrapbook that they had lovingly made for me -- each person had contributed a few pages chronicling the fun times that we had shared. One friend, who shall remain nameless, even included an excerpt from a note I had written to her about 20 years ago. You can always count on old friends to resurrect all the embarassing things from your past!

There are few things in life that are more enjoyable than laughing and chatting with girlfriends over lunch.

In the midst of chaos...

In the midst of printing place cards, finalizing program wording and firming up a thousand and one details with our wedding vendors, our out-of-town guests started arriving from the mainland and the idea of "multi-tasking" took on a whole new meaning.

Wanting to spend as much time with our out-of-towners as possible, we managed to schedule multiple airport runs (sometimes twice in one night), dinners in Waikiki, and impromptu sightseeing trips to some of O'ahu's most scenic spots. One of the stops we made was the Byodo-In Temple in Valley of the Temples.

We bought bags of fish food for everyone and watched our friends' reactions as the hundreds of koi fought over it. And, of course, we each had our turn ringing the three-ton peace bell. In the days leading up to the wedding, anything that could bring "calm and peace" to us was welcomed with open arms!