I ordered 150 silver organza bags (6" x 9") for my invitations and they were great. The prices were much cheaper than a lot of places I looked at. I didn't go through their website directly but through eBay instead.

Michelle Lose of Elegant Originals was so talented. She decorated my bridal sneakers with beautiful lace, beads and crystals, which match my gown perfectly. And she even custom made the socks for me to go with the sneakers! They were the most comfortable shoes that a bride could ask for. Everyone kept asking me if I actually wore the shoes. YES! I wore them for the entire day (except when we went on the beach). You can see pictures of it in my bio! They were just the cutest!

She also donates a percentage of all purchases to The Leukemia Research Foundation. During the summer of 2000, her 3-year-old daughter was diagnosed with Leukemia. My bridal sneaker - Princess Stephanie - was named after her daughter. She is currently doing very well and was cured of her Leukemia in October. I am glad part of my purchase went toward a good cause!

AND... Michelle decided to use my picture on the home page of her website. Check it out! =)

The dress that we all liked was this blue, floral strapless by Alfred Angelo. My girls went to the store to try them on and it was $150. Later, I found out from a few brides that there is an online store called E-Bridal Superstore that sells Bridesmaid designer dresses for less. I went on there and found the same dress for only $90. I told my girls and they all ordered it from there. They got the dress right on time as well. I would highly recommend them to all brides-to-be and their bridesmaids.

Chair Covers & Linens were awesome. I didn't think of renting linens until a month before the wedding and when I called them, they were very accommodating. Since they were in Michigan and I lived in California, right away they sent me the swatches of what my table linens, napkins and chair sashes would look like in my wedding colors - periwinkle and silver. But for some reason, their periwinkle was a little darker than I'd like. So I ended up going with the lighter blue.

They told me that the linens would arrive by FedEx a day or two before my wedding, but when I flew out to Hawaii 5 days before the wedding, the linen box was already sitting in the Sales & Catering Manager's office. Everything with them was so seamless from ordering to actually getting the linens. At the end of the wedding reception, the hotel staff folded all the linens and put them back in the original box with the pre-paid FedEx label, and FedEx came to pick it up the next morning. If I have to rent linens again in the future, I would definitely use them again and I highly recommend them to anyone.

Karen and Mike were a great husband-and-wife team. They were efficient with all the fittings, and also very accommodating when 2 of our groomsmen couldn't make it to the final fitting with the rest of the boys and had to reschedule it for the next day. All the tuxedos looked great and the boys looked so sharp on the day of the wedding. I highly recommend them.

We also had a huge turnout for the rehearsal dinner since it was a destination wedding. 70 out of the 100 guests at the wedding attended the 10-course Chinese banquet, hosted by my MIL. The food was excellent and so was the service. I highly recommend this restaurant for either a rehearsal dinner or a Chinese wedding banquet.

We had a great turnout for the Pre-Wedding Luau at the Paradise Cove. About 55 out of the 100 guests at the wedding attended the luau, which was generously hosted by DH's uncle from New York. I have to say that Paradise Cove was one of the better luaus that we have been to, but unfortunately they were not very well-organized. And coming from a planner like me, I was not very happy when 10 of our guests didn't have a seat! I have Darren to blame because he was the one responsible for booking the luau! Hahaha... =)

One word of advice is that you better confirm the final headcount A FEW TIMES before you get there. Otherwise, some of your guests won't be sitting at the same long table as you do, and that's what happened to us. But once we all got seated, the rest of the evening was a blast and everyone had a great time.

Kahu Silva came highly recommended, but when I tried to book him for our wedding, we found out that he had a prior engagement on the evening of our wedding that he couldn't get out of. I was really disappointed but was happy to know that Kahu Bruce Ah Leong could perform our wedding.

About a few months before the wedding, I tried to call Kahu Silva's wife Sharon to schedule our rehearsal, but the Kahu actually answered the phone. We ended up talking for an hour and we felt connected instantaneously. It was through that phone call that Kahu decided to personally do our wedding and cancel his prior engagement.

We didn't know about his change of plans until a few days before the wedding when Sharon called. DH and I were ecstatic and the ceremony was just unbelievable. Kahu offered his prayers, blessings and chants with the conch shell blower announcing the festivities to all 4 corners of the earth. We then had the Ka Wai Ola ceremony (traditional Hawaiian water ceremony) and it was so moving that I just lost it right there. Before he announced us as husband and wife, we did a lei exchange.

It was a very unique ceremony that we will never forget. After the wedding, everyone came by to tell us how special the ceremony was.

If you want to get your nails done especially for the wedding, I highly recommend Nails L’Mour but make sure you make an appointment in advance, otherwise they get really busy later in the day. The manicurist was really professional and I wanted periwinkle hisbicus on each nail to match my wedding color. She sat there and mixed the exact color that I wanted and then hand-painted each one patiently. It was awesome. Although they are on the pricey side, I think it’s worth every penny!

It was very hard to get in touch with someone at L’Amour Collection. It took me about 2 months from getting a price quote over e-mail to the actual wedding samples of the invitation I picked since they were in Southern California and I was living in Northern California at the time. In between those 2 months, we were trying to match the colors and the weight of the card stock plus creating a monogram that I wanted. By the time that was all done, I literally only had a month to approve the samples, get them printed and send them out to guests. It was really nerve racking, but when I finally received the finished product in the mail, they were gorgeous! I was very happy with them. You can see pictures of them in my bio. But if I ever need to order stationery from them again, I will definitely place the order way ahead of time next time. I was supposed to order matching thank you notes from them but didn’t want to wait another few more months, so I opted for photo cards from Shutterfly instead. It was much quicker and cheaper as well.