Believe all the amazing reviews; you can't go wrong with Makena Weddings!…read more We had a pandemic-delayed wedding and had to postpone twice over a couple years. Makena Weddings made these postponements soooo easy for us, finding new dates, rescheduling all our vendors, and giving us nothing but support through the whole process! We worked primarily with Cindy, and the entire experience of planning our destination wedding at Olowalu Plantation House was a breeze! Wedding planning has a reputation of being super stressful, but honestly our experience could not be any different with the amazing support, guidance, and obviously logistics-handling that Cindy provided. Cindy brought our vision board to life with the perfect vendors for rentals, her recommendations were spot on, and moreover, she was so attentive to details. My husband and I consider ourselves very detail-oriented, and we were so happy that Cindy paid careful attention to every little thing, called out anything that might bother us so that we could consider readjusting, and took care of every situation without skipping a beat. The day of our wedding could not have gone smoother. Everything was perfect, we were so carefully attended to, and the evening went flawlessly without a single worry from us. If you want the beautiful wedding of your dreams, no stress or worries, and wonderfully caring and detail-focused people to work with, look no further than Makena Weddings!

We chose Makena Weddings for our small sunset beach ceremony, and they made everything effortless…read more Having attended a ceremony they coordinated ~10 years ago, we knew we were in good hands. Laurie and Cindy guided us through their beach package, adding a musician at our request (they booked Marvin Tevaga), recommending the perfect beach location, arranging Amber Quale Photography, and having co-founder Reverend Al Terry officiate. The bride shared a few bouquet ideas, and the result was stunning. We planned everything over email just a month in advance, and every vendor they recommended was outstanding. As Laurie predicted, we had the beach to ourselves. Mother Nature gave us a breathtaking sunset that Amber captured beautifully, Marvin's ukulele and voice added elegance and joy, and Al not only felt like family but was genuinely engaged--helping us focus on the meaning of the moment rather than just the logistics. If you want a stress-free, classy, and unforgettable beach wedding ceremony, Makena Weddings is the way to go.

Ken catered our mother's birthday party at Wailea Elua Village. We had plenty of responses to our…read morerequest for help and chose Ken because he's a chef who knows how to run a business. Of course we did not know how great a chef Ken was until the night of the party. Everyone agreed that the dinner was better than the night before at the Four Season's Spago restaurant. It was the kind of dinner where you keep eating long past when you knew you were full. Ken and his assistant, Berlin, provided great service. Glasses and plates were kept full the entire evening, and at the end everything was cleaned up and packed away. We highly recommend Ken, especially to those of you planning your event from thousands of miles away. He takes care of it all!

From the owner: Imagine arriving at a beautiful, secluded grassy knoll, over looking a Maui beach at sunset with…read morewhales playing in the ocean (during Whale Season) and tiki torches flickering in the warm tropical breeze. Your Private table side Chef for the evening, a candlelight dinner and a table set for two on your own grassy knoll front row to the ocean for a breathtaking sunset. Your gourmet meal is prepared and served ocean-front using all the freshest local ingredients. Locally caught fish is our specialty but we also have a variety of other menu items including Maui cattle company beef, chicken and local seafood. Entertain your most special guests with this beachside dinner prepared exclusively for you on location. Everything for a fine dining experience is included- table, chairs, crystal, fresh island food, accomplished chef and plenty of aloha. You can book for any occasion. We also offer Private Bartenders and Chefs for you wedding or condo event.

The best around. They catered our Seabury Hall alumni dinner and what an experience. The food was…read moreall delicately prepared and fresh farm to table ingredients. I didn't want our meal to end. We started with the ahi poke cups and then the delish butter lettuce salad. Our main dish of opah had an delectable ginger sauce with fresh veggies and jasmine coconut rice. I am not sure of all the different spices in the meal but melted in our mouths. Dessert was a light banana chiffon cake. All courses were wine paired and I was in heaven sitting in Maunalei campus. Euphoria of food delicacies and so fun! Hire this wonderful caterer and you will be blown away! Thank you Maya and your staff for an unforgettable dinning experience. Tell your friends and family! Happy Eating

Chef Maja created the most beautiful, healthy and delicious meals for our group gathering. She put…read moretogether a unique menu for our week keeping all of our dietary preferences in mind. All of her dishes came out on time and were beautifully presented. She shared information on each presentation with us and was very friendly and conversational. She surprised us with interactive opportunities and special in-season Hawaiian fruits. I would definitely recommend her and will be connecting again the next time we are in Maui. Mahalo, Maja

Where do I begin! First, I will miss waking up to emails from Katy (as my husband and I live in…read moreCalifornia) to discuss wedding details. We've been emailing back and forth for the past year to create the wedding of our dreams. I wish we could plan another one! Our wedding was everything we could have dreamt of and went perfectly! Katy was on top of everything, from our very first email/zoom meeting, to our very last goodbye after the wedding. She made all of my Pinterest pictures and our ideas come to life and it was all even better and more beautiful than we expected. She is so organized, it made the day before the wedding and the day of super easy. Everything was planned out and we always had a updated schedule. She would take our ideas, needs and budget and always give us options for vendors and all of the vendors we had were so professional and such nice people. They made our day that much more special. Katy was so responsive and quick to answer all of our questions and execute last minute requests/changes. Planning a wedding during COVID wasn't easy, but she made it seamless. We also flew to Maui early 2021 to see our venue and Katy planned amazing tastings for us to pick our caterer. We were so happy we got to do that, as it made us that much more excited and prepared for our big day. She will make any future bride or groom very happy and we can't wait to work with her again! Thank you, Katy! Lauren + Justin Vaughan Venue: Olowalu Plantation House (January 12, 2022) Catering & Wedding Cake: Sugar Beach Events Florals: Dellables DJ: Maui DJ Services Bartending: Bars R Us Photography: AnnaKim Photography Videographer: Sunlit Films Hair & Makeup: MeiLi Autumn Beauty Can't wait to upload more pictures when we get them. :)

It's been two months since our wedding and we, and our guests, still can't stop raving about our…read morewedding weekend. Much of that credit goes to Katy for pulling off the best wedding ever. We hired Katy to plan our wedding and welcome dinner. She's not cheap and the wedding wasn't either. Expect to blow your budget, but you pay for what you get (we spent ~$2,800/guest for the weekend) and trust us, it was well worth it. Katy is one of a kind, and clearly multiple levels above other wedding planners. If you're looking for a luxurious, highly personalized wedding, one that truly accentuates your love and journey, hire Katy, she's your gal. She knows what she's doing! I can't imagine us having even close to the experience we had without her. Many gave us the advice that something always goes wrong at your wedding, just let it go, but our wedding, under Katy's leadership, was flawless. We can't underscore enough how critical Katy was in making our wedding weekend the best time ever. Katy is super organized, professional, and she's an amazing designer. There were many instances where both of us were decision-paralyzed particularly during the design phase. After a few questions and yay-or-nays on pictures, Katy knew exactly what we wanted. It's like she read our mind, and then delivered. From our wedding vision, to big ticket items to the smallest details, it can get overwhelming. Our advice: trust her and listen to her advice because she knows exactly what she's doing and she'll get it done so you have peace of mind. We had our dream wedding and all of our guests lamented about how it was "the most special and beautiful wedding they had ever been to," still to this day, and even the ones who had been to multiple weddings at our venue before. We had a very "us" experience... this was no cookie-cutter thing. We prioritized food, drinks, and entertainment, and boy-oh-boy was that done right. Katy is connected to all the best vendors on the island. Fine Champagne and caviar flown in, best chef in Maui, bartender, vocalist and playlist. In addition, got difficult family dynamics? No problem, Katy handles it kindly, with the utmost professionalism, making sure you have nothing to worry about so you can truly enjoy your special day. We'd do it all over again! Venue: Olowalu Plantation House Beauty: Meili Autumn Beauty Gown: Galia Lahav Gown Pressing: Maui Wedding Dress Pressing Flowers: Bella Bloom Catering: Cutting Edge Catering Bartending: Garnish Craft Cocktails Charger plates & cake stand: Table Candy Glassware, flatware, china: Set Linens and napkins: BBJ La Tavola Surfboard Seating Chart: Miss B Calligraphy Welcome Sign & Menus: VOWS Wedding & Event Planning Place Faux Agate Stones: Etsy Rentals: Rio Event Design Music: Music by Kalo Games: Yard Games Hawaii Cake: Sweet on Maui Officiant: Maui Wedding Officiant Photographer: Angela Nelson Photography Videographer: Sunlit Films

You know when your beverage magazine publisher friend is having a great time at the bar, you picked…read morethe right bartender. Chad and company did an outstanding job at my wedding but it wasn't just the wedding. We did a tasting at their old Kailua location months (they have since moved) before the wedding with two friends, getting to try an absurd number of drinks. Courtney got us kind of hammered, but it was fun getting to try and compare almost two dozen drinks and that's after we had a heavy brunch. The final drink we tried, the espresso martini blew us away and the partner of the best man who came with us, basically ordered us to put it on our menu (she would later drink a sizable number of these at the wedding). She was right though, that is a drink you should absolutely get, but more on that later. Courtney worked with us and we decided on the Lemon & Ginger Bourbon Fizz, Strawberry & Bubbles (a modification of their existing Strawberry Nirvana drink), and the Espresso Martini. Anyways, Stir in the week or two weeks before the wedding, will get your approval for the invoice for the alcohol, which you then order from their preferred distributor at wholesale prices or source the alcohol yourself. It is advised to pay for Stir to do the pickup, delivery, and storage from the distributor as it can be a lot of alcohol depending how large your wedding is. If you buy from Stir's preferred distributor, Fujioka's, they'll only refund unopened spirits, so be careful how much wine and beer you buy as that's not returnable. The day of the wedding, they setup, do a welcome drink if that's part of your contract, and proceed to serve both your signature drinks and regular cocktails. They'll even do mocktails for your non-drinking friends, along with regularly refilling ice water. Our friends had a great time with so many mentioning to my wife and I that they loved the drinks. We did go with about 140 large ice cubes, but by the time I got to the bar after family and groom/bride photos, those were all gone, so crushed ice for the rest of the wedding. Our guests loved the bourbon drink so much that they cleared out all nine bottles of bourbon and four of the five bottles of vodka for the strawberry nirvana drink. We went home with so many unopened bottles of wine as the signature drinks stole the show. We kept the espresso martini a secret until the thank you speech and Stir started making them right as our freshly made mini taro malasadas came out. Our guests drank so many of the espresso martinis, with some guests having three. I hope they were able to sleep that night. The Stir bartenders and Chad did a wonderful job and my wife and I highly recommend them.

Such an awesome part of our wedding was our personalized drinks! We did a tasting and it was one…read morethe best experiences/memories we have from wedding planning. Chad and Nicki are awesome! Highly recommend doing a refreshment bar with water so you don't have to worry about water the whole night. We also asked them to not start shots until 8pm, which they held true to. Champagne pass before the ceremony was also extremely awesome and felt extra fancy!

Hats off to Tina and her team for an outstanding event. From the first time I met Tina, she…read morelistened, and talked through all the options for our party! Many people from the mainland came and were raving about all the food and how good it was! The party was at our house where they took over the kitchen (which is a great thing, as you know the party is always in the kitchen)....getting people to mingle on the lanai and enjoy the outdoors! The staff cleaned everything up...like you never would have known they were there. I so appreciated everyone! Mahalo!

Food for the Soul catered our wedding of 150 people and knocked it out of the park! We had a family…read morestyle meal and the food was incredible. Their presentation was gorgeous and completely matched the vibe of our wedding. The service was also impeccable. We would highly recommend them for any event!

We had the absolute privilege of working with Jacqueline to plan our wedding in Paradise Cove on…read moreOahu. We live in Australia and we planned our wedding at very short notice. Jacqueline was OUTSTANDING at every point in the process. She met with us a number of times over Zoom to plan our approach and ensured we had many options to choose from. The resulting wedding was absolutely beyond belief. The whole day felt like a dream. We both got to be so relaxed (as did our families and friends!) because Jacqueline was across every single little detail. Every recommendation Jacqueline made about the flowers, the venue, the photographers, etc. was absolutely spot on. It could have been stressful booking venues and vendors we had never seen or met but Jacqueline's expertise meant that we never had any worries. Our wedding day was unforgettable and amazing. We will cherish these memories forever and ever. We really have Jacqueline to thank for bringing it all together as she did. Her presence on the day was such a delight, too. We can't thank her enough! One of the absolute highlights of the day was that Jacqueline personally drove our huge flower arrangement back to our hotel, so we returned to our room filled with the memories of the day. She's just beyond amazing and the personal touches were incredible. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

WOW, indeed! We are so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Kendall at A White Orchid…read moreWedding. From our very first conversation, we could tell that she truly cared about our upcoming event(s) and we felt confident that she would make our wedding day everything we'd ever dreamed of and more. My husband and I also work in Special Events and we had specific ideas and very high expectations for our big day. Kendall not only listened attentively and remembered each detail to ensure they were executed flawlessly, but she also went above and beyond to provide invaluable suggestions and tips along the way. We worked with INCREDIBLE vendors at her suggestion and trusted her completely to make the best decision that would bring our vision to life. Kendall's professionalism and organization were apparent from the start, always one step ahead, anticipating our needs and making sure no detail was overlooked. We were beyond impressed with the way Kendall treated our wedding with the same care she would her own... creating absolute perfection for my husband and I. From coordinating with vendors to managing timelines and being by our side, she handled every aspect of the planning process with grace and professionalism. Kendall's calm and reassuring personality was a godsend throughout the entire planning process, keeping us grounded and stress-free, even during the most hectic moments, and her positive energy was infectious. Our wedding was everything we ever dreamed of and more, in large part due to Kendall and A White Orchid Wedding. Our day was filled with love, laughter, beauty and unforgettable memories - and we have Kendall to thank for making it all possible. If you are in need of a Hawaii wedding coordinator that you can TRUST, we wholeheartedly recommend WOW for your special day! Mahalo nui loa, Kendall, for creating an experience that we'll never forget, we couldn't have done it without you!!