MrsNFB's reviews

Cheryl Liem Shoemaker and her assistants Mimi & Stefanie really pulled the wedding together. Since we had so many details, there’s no way we would have had the wedding we had without Cheryl and crew, our resort coordinator couldn’t have handled it all. I had only met with Cheryl for couple hours prior to the wedding day (once a few days before and once for a walk-through before the wedding rehearsal) and she grasped all of our little details and nailed them on the day-of. Cheryl’s assistant Mimi also took some amazing detail photos of the wedding. Cheryl is extremely easy to work with and very sweet, would absolutely work with Orchid Isle again if I could do it again!

Please note that even though Cheryl is based on the Big Island, she services all the islands and is from San Francisco (she also produces weddings/events there as well).

L-O-V-E the Paper Source! Although I had a weird experience at the Paper Source Pasadena where I was there way before they closed and they wouldn’t take my letterpress order, the Beverly Hills store more than made up in service. Our letterpress invites were even done earlier than scheduled and they had arranged for me to pick them up in Chicago since I was working from there for many weeks (that’s where their letterpress items are printed). The quality is top notch. We even went back and got letterpress cards to send as thank-you notes. I also got an embosser for our envelopes from Paper Source; it’s so nice to not have hand write our return address :) Hooray to Michelle at the Bev Hills store!!

Dard was fantastic. Even though we had only corresponded through email, he brought such warmth and familiarity to our ceremony. Many of our guests made a point to tell us it was the best ceremony they had ever witnessed. Dard and his lovely wife Penei stayed not only for the reception (they are awesome dancers!) but also for the after-party. They are a fun, loving couple and anyone would be lucky to be married by either of them.

Seriously, the most beautiful flowers I’ve ever seen. I was blown away by Heidi’s centerpieces and bouquets. Every bloom was PERFECT. We were lucky to get Heidi as she does not do many events off-property of the Four Seasons. Since any event at the Four Seasons is her priority, we had the possibility of not having her for our big day...I went full steam ahead with that possibility since I REALLY wanted her to do our flowers (plus, our wedding was in the off-season so felt more comfortable taking the risk). Heidi has an amazing flair for styling flowers that came through with our centerpieces. Having seen her work many times when we visited the Four Seasons Hualalai, I gave her very little instruction since I loved everything I had ever seen there...told her our colors and that I wanted it to look clean, modern but also reflect the islands (oh—and that I hate overly tropical looking arrangements). She even came back at the end of the wedding (we had rented all of the containers so I figured she would just send her staff), to make sure we were happy with everything and had some of the centerpieces sent up to our room.

Even though I LOVE Flowers by Heidi, they are on the pricey side. Since I needed to get 19 additional leis (Heidi provided the bride & groom leis) plus orchid heads to sprinkle down the isle, I went with a recommendation of Emmas. I went in a few days before the wedding and placed my order (and paid)...note that the address for Emmas online is WRONG (every listing!)...they are now in the Kona International Marketplace. They have a wide selection and variety of leis to choose from with many price points, all gorgeous. I even got reminded about providing our officiant with a lei, which I had forgotten to put on my list. It was a simple, fun process to order the leis, pay for them and have them picked up on the morning of the wedding by family. I had a BM with me who had secretly taken their card and ordered an arrangement for my surprise bridal shower. That arrangement was lovely as well.

Clark and Wendy are awesome, definitely a great pick for a Big Island DJ!! They customized a playlist with our 80s theme (we provided A LOT of songs that they incorporated into their playlist) which was so much fun. They had everyone dancing at some point or another and a great time was had by all. They also did a great job with our introductions, which were kinda wordy and required some comic timing I never would have imagined how many people LOVE Michael Jackson...I think Thriller was the song w/the most people dancing!!

Toby was fantastic to work with and his photos are gorgeous. We wanted a photojournalistic feel to our wedding photos since we are not really into posed pictures. Toby was everywhere and his photos are like works of art. He’s been a little hard to get a hold of since the wedding. We waited over 6 weeks for our proofs after the wedding, I’ve emailed him about getting some photos printed through him without response and our we are in a holding pattern waiting for our CD of photos released from him. He's definintely one of the best photographers I've worked with and the lack of follow up after the wedding doesn't bother me that much now that I've seen the beyond amazing photos.

Our final result at the Mauna Lani was fantastic. I had written a comprehensive wedding memo detailing how I wanted things and it was followed to the letter. Pinkie Crowe was always there to make sure things were going to plan on the day of the wedding, assisted by her fabulous assistants Lauren & Misty. Although we had a rocky start since I wanted to do pretty much everything out-of-the-box, once Pinkie came around to the fact that I was not going to settle for what they “usually” do (i.e. it seems to me it would have been easier for them), we had a good time planning. The entire Mauna Lani staff really stepped it up for our wedding. From the Beverage Manager who we negotiated $20 off of their standard corkage fee to their Pastry Chef who designed a custom chocolate dessert bar for us, we are so appreciative for all they did...and put up with A special note about the bell staff there...excellent! We had over 20 boxes of décor items delivered to our room and it was always done with a smile (even the really heavy boxes). The only reason I give them a minus is that I had booked time in their salon for a mani/pedi on the morning of the wedding and they double booked me...I did not get my mani/pedi. There were a few minor things that we had discussed that were not followed (i.e. tying the chair ties like a men’s tie versus a bow) however I did not put in the wedding memo so don’t blame them for missing that. PSA: if you have many boxes as I did, you’ll need to provide your own cart as the Mauna Lani does not allow use of the bellmen’s carts unless the bellmen actually move your items (in which case you will be charged every time things are moved).

It's also worth noting that the Mauna Lani offers many gorgeous wedding locations including the Mauna Lani Beach Club and Eva Parker Woods Cottage (where Nicholas Cage and Lisa Marie Presley got married). Their wedding packages start at $500 including ceremony site, officiant and wedding coordinator. It's an amazing deal for such a top-notch location.