our hawaiian wedding edited: pictures on page two

Today we got home from Hawaii. I am super jet lagged of course. We were there for 20 days; a week before the wedding, five days in Maui for the honeymoon, and quite a few days spending time with Brenton's family whom he mainly sees only once a year. I haven't assembled pictures from my family yet so I don't have much to post. I will update this post with pictures once my mom gets home from work
The wedding was fabulous. I was super calm the day of the wedding. I am leaving out the name of vendors b/c I don't think they will be helpful to anyone. If you would like them for some reason; give send me FM.

Beachouse: So the first two nights in Oahu, we stayed at home with brenton's family. His mom found a 8 bedroom beach house for us which we booked with family members and friends. I was a little worried what it would be like having 14 other people staying with me the week of the wedding, but it was actually super fun and not drama filled (which worried me a bit). There were nights that the house had 20 or so people crashing there. Aunties and all sort of people came and went and staying on the couches of the house. Brenton's immediate family stayed upstairs with us in the part of the house that can be rented separately. Having everyone there made it much easier to assemble flowers and prepare for the rehearsal dinner that we had at the house.

Flowers: Some of you may remember me posting about flower problems. The florist that works with our place quoted us close to $7000 for flowers. There was no way we could afford that or what we wanted from any other florists in Hawaii MIL had an old friend of hers do the flowers. He now lives in Atlanta so he flew in for the wedding. For a while I didn't think I was going to be able to use the flowers I wanted. Cymbidium Orchids went up a great deal and hydrangeas my favorite flower ever were hard to come by in Hawaii. Elliott, the florist was able to convince Hawaii's agriculture dept to allow him to bring the flowers in. He also somehow talked the wholesale florist, who we got the rest of the flowers from, to hold on to the hydrangeas in their refrigerator. Elliott used all the family members and friends who were around to create the most amazing flowers for us. I couldn't have been happier. Our family couldn't have been more loving and supportive; they worked their bums off.

Hair: Brenton's mother owns a hair salon in Hawaii. She did everyone's hair and those who wanted their makeup touched.

The Kahala: During our scouting trip we fell in love with the Kahala. We had some issues regarding our catering manager falling off the face of the earth a few weeks before the wedding; but other than that it was the most amazing place ever. If you ever go to Hawaii and can afford one night in a fancy hotel; definitely hit up the Kahala. It is super laid back unlike the hotels in waikiki. It's quite and just beautiful. The food is remarkable. The hotel has dolphins in their lagoon. Brenton's cousin's wife is one of the dolphin trainers. I really wanted to get the dolphins jumping behind the wedding party. Apparently they charge 150 bucks for three shots. Well brenton's family member was able to comp. this for us. I am looking forward to this picture the most.

Photography: our lead photographer was a referred through a friend of the family. He did all the portraits and getting ready shots. He left before the reception begin. He left behind his assistant who was the sweetest lady ever. She said that our wedding was the first wedding she ever cried at (that she worked at). She also said she loved working with us b/c she could feel all the love in the family. I guess she was talking about how our entire family was pretty much our vendors are were involved in every part of our special day. She stayed an extra thirty minutes. We will not get our professional proofs back for a month. at that point another friend (who is a non wedding photographer) is doing all the developing. So it should take a bit of time to get our pictures in.

DJ: even though he was obsessed with michael jackson and threw in one random song (the one from that teenie booper dance movie) and started this solo rehearsed dance to it in the middle of the reception; he was pretty good. not my favorite element of the wedding but I was satisfied.

I will be updating in the next few days with pictures etc.