jennypah's reviews

When choosing a musician for our Hawaiian wedding we wanted something very reminiscent of Hawaii and its natural beauty. The most important song to me was Somewhere Over the Rainbow by Hawaiian artist Israel Kamakawiwo Ole'. This particular song was featured in the movie, 50 First Dates, starring Adam Sandler and Drew Barrymore. We had chosen a couple of musicians that had the right sound and flavor. We went with Paul because our wedding planner, Manulele knew Paul personally and felt his work would be best for us.

Paul played so wonderfully at our wedding Iz's song as well as other fun and beautiful songs while the guests waited for my arrival and afterwards during pictures. Paul is very reasonably priced and highly recommended.

My husband and I have gone to Roya a few times for our jewelry needs. Gifts for me and I've gone and had jewelry repaired. Roya is in a jewelry center type of facility. We searched high and low for my engagement ring and wedding band and the closest and best thing we found was at Roya's. Roya had two rings a band and one with the setting that we wanted to combine to come with the perfect ring. We ended up keeping the same band design for my wedding band because it matched and was our inspiration.

Roya also found us the most perfect center stone for my ring. We had seen many diamonds at other jewelers with varying quality and of course, prices. But my stone was just right for the size, price and the inclusion is basically impossible to find. We were very indecisive at the beginning but Roya was extremely patient with us and accomodating. I think it took about 4-6 weeks to have the custom ring made and then we were set.

I would give Carlos 5 stars but can't because there was one thing, somewhat small but also significant, that didn't go perfectly. We ordered a beautiful and delicious chocolate cake with chocolate ganache in 3 tier square (for about 70 people) and then matching sheet cake for the rest. Our cake was coverd in quilted chocolate fondant with gold ribbons and beading. The restaurant cut up the sheet cake first to serve the guests and when the slice of cake appeared in front of my husband the frosting was white. It wasn't the end of the world but most upsetting was that it didn't match and the fact that my husband hates white icing. All in all the cake was awesome tasting and beautiful. I would definitely recommend Carlos but be very specific about what you want, if it's in writing the guy, Buddy, will do it.

My husband was looking a pretty unique wedding band. After we had searched many websites and local jewelers we thought were out of luck; until he came across Tungsten World (www.tungstenworld.com). They had pretty much the exact ring my husband was looking for a comfort fit, domed band with inlay and tungsten. Their Apollo - http://www.tungstenworld.com/Tungsten-Carbide-Ring/APOLLO-Gold-Round/ fit the bill except for one thing; the inlay offered was gold and not the platinum my husband wanted. The hubby sent an email to them inquiring if they could make the same ring with a platinum inlay instead. The owner, I think it was the owner, said yes and we were set! The ring with tungsten and platinum inlay was about $750 and what a bargain it was since it was pretty much a custom job and EXACTLY what the hubby wanted.

I had no idea how to book anything for a destination wedding but got a recommendation from my planner and online research that told me that Alexander Day Spa & Salon was the way to go. I had all my wedding day prep appointments schedule at Alexanders - mani/pedis, hair and makeup, but had to cancel the mani/pedis abnd my MOH's hair and makeup due to wedding beach site scouting and MOH doing her own hair. So it was just hair and makeup for me, the bride. The day of my MOH had hair issues and needed some help and we kept our fingers crossed that they stylist could help. In to make and save the day was Chelsea and her friend/assitant Fallon. Both girls were amazing and so much fun to talk to. My MOH and I were both stylist-done-hair virgins and LOVED every minute of it. Chelsea did such an amazing job with our hair and we only gave her a general idea of how we wanted our hair done. As for my makeup - I can't stop raving about how natural and perfect it was. I am not a big makeup wearer and had a moment of where-am-I? but after getting used to it and seeing the pictures my makeup was perfect!

If you ever need hair and/or makeup from Alexander's request Chelsea. She's worth every penny!

I ordered a 130" Oval, Drop Veil in Champagne with a Cut Edge. The veil itself was only $73.00 and shipping $10.30. The veil itself was relatively simple and it was perfect and huge! It arrived about a week after I ordered it, much earlier than expected.

It's hard to find and make arrangements for a Chinese banquet when you don't speak very much Chinese or know/understand the traditions. I was lucky enough to find Sang Along on some knot.com and wedding blog message boards. I met with Kenny (the manager/owner) and some other Sang Along staff in Chinatown and went over their services and what I was looking for. Kenny and Al (our MC) were very professional and knowledge about Chinese culture and traditions. We had a lot of email and telephone communication leading up to the reception day. Al and the DJ crew showed up at the reception site 30 minutes earlier than we expected and were very agreeable to work with when trying to figure out where to set up.

As I mentioned I had no idea what to do nor when to do it and Al, as the MC, handled everything with perfection. He had a rough outline of a timeline (that I threw together) but since he knew more about tea ceremonies and generally what happens at weddings he kept the pace for the evening. Al and his crew did an awesome job and even had "toys" during free dancing! Glow sticks, glow glasess and some of the coolest things we've seen and our guests too!

Manulele was actually the 2nd planner I contacted. The first planner was very rude and after a few emails decided not to respond to any of my emails. Manulele answered all of my initial questions and at the right time seeked the business. During the planning process we had a million questions and requests - all of which Manulele addressed and went above and beyond to help us have the best wedding ever. We had so many beaches on our list to scope out but all had their own issues. Manulele, being a native of Kauai, knows the secrets and found us our very own piece of paradise for our wedding that was private and secluded. Everything went wonderfully and I would recommend Manulele for your wedding and especially if you are looking for a very Hawaiian feel to your wedding.

I found Kauai Floral Arts through my planner, Manulele. Laurel was very sweet and communicative via email during the planning process. However, the flowers that showed up the day of my wedding were 90% wrong. I needed:

2 bouquets (1 bride and 1 maid of honor),
2 leis (ti leaf with white orchids and an all white orchid lei), and
flower girl petals.

For my bouquet, I asked for burgundy calla lilies with green cymbidium orchids in my bouquet and wrapped with burgundy ribbon and was reassurred I'd get "eggplant calla lilies" in an email. I wrote back basically indicating that eggplant and burgundy are not the same colors (one is purple and the other a red) and that red not purple was my favorite color. I also mentioned that I had a monogrammed sash with burgundy lettering to tie on my bouquet. After a couple more emails I was told that her supplier had burgundy callas and she had the burgundy ribbon. No problem there. I also changed the colors of my Maid of Honor's bouquet from the original light pink cymbidium orchids to be yellow cymbidium orchids with yellow sunflowers or gerberia daisies (depending on availibility).

The day of the wedding my planner dropped off the flowers in the lobby and called up asking that someone, but the bride, pick up the flowers from the lobby. It didn't sound odd to me but it only hit me the day after the wedding why she may have said that. When the bouquets showed up in my room my burgundy callas were definitely eggplant callas and of course no burgundy ribbon because it wouldn't have matched at all because I ended up not being able to use the monogrammed sash on my bouquet. When the red monogram was up against the eggplant callas it made the callas look very purple. My MOH's bouquet was the original pink orchids but with the yellow daisies that didn't match at all. I ended up having a panic attack and almost ended up tossing the bouquets all together. I was devastated that I couldn't use the monogrammed sash because it was specially made with a matching tag that was sewn into my dress.

After 30 minutes of freaking out and tears I didn't use the sash and had to use the bouquet because what else could I hold? As for the MOH's bouquet, we cut out the yellow daisies and left the bouquet with the pink cymbidiums. Right before I walked down the aisle I saw that the flower girl toss petals were purple orchids - again another detail oversight. All in all - I would not recommend Kauai Floral Arts unless you have to time to go a few days before to check on the flowers and confirm that they were what you ordered or envisioned. Kauai Floral Arts is not detailed enough for the high prices they charged. The only thing they got right were the leis and they were the least of my concerns.

We used Maria at Liberty Travel in Englewood NJ. The only reason we went with a travel agent was because we were traveling with a large group and most of our guests booked through Liberty Travel. After our experience we won't ever use a travel agent again for the following reasons (1) didn't really save us money (2) we were mislead about quite a few things about Hawaii (3) we weren't given the perks of newlyweds that we were told we would get and (4) we were booked on the worst airline ever (US Airways).

Maria was very hard to get in touch with. I'd call (leaving a message with someone) or email and would not get a call back 90% of the time. I would finally catch her on the phone the same or next day and she would acknowledge she owed me a phone call but never did call me back.

The mis-information:
- Since we had a group of more than 10 on our flight out to Hawaii we wanted to make sure we all sat together. Maria said we'd get a block of seats assigned to us and we could do whatever we wanted. Not true. She didn't even assign our seats at all and we all ended up scattered on the plane going there and back. When we were checking in at the airport and we complained about not being seated together the airline said that a lot of travel agents do not do it because they are either to lazy or don't know how to do it but they are able to assign seating.

- We wanted a layover to Hawaii to break up the flight but were told that the Honolulu layovers were in small "scary" planes so we opted to layover elsewhere. Turns out that the interisland flights are huge 737s!

- We were told we'd get perks if she indicated that we were honeymooners/newlyweds. We only got perks at the Sheraton in Kauai and weren't even married then! At the Sheraton Waikiki and on the cruise we got zip and when we inquired we were told that the travel agent didn't indicate anything when she booked us.

- We booked a beach front room at the Sheraton Kauai (because the hubby wanted direct beach access) and instead ended up at an Ocean Front Room (which goes off into lava rock and no beach at all). Luckily we liked the room better and it was definitely in a quieter area of the resort.

- The Mountain view room at the Sheraton Waikiki was barely a mountain view. We had more of a highway and generators view.

Other drama:
- When we flew out to Hawaii we laid over in Phoenix and got stuck for 5 hours because our plane had a irrepairable mechanical failure and we had to wait for another plane to fly in from Mexico to take us to Hawaii. We were only give a $6 voucher for the delay. Barely enough to buy lunch.

- Luckily our guests didn't have a delay going home but we flew home a good 9 days after our guests and ended up delayed in Phoenix for 2 hours again due to a mechanical failure (this one was repairable).

- Pricing could never be clearly broken down by the travel agent (which was more annoying than anything) but I think this is the same with all travel agents.

- Maria also didn't keep very good track of all the payments we made because we would've been overcharged $500 if I wasn't keeping insanely detailed records.

All in all, we learned a lot from our experience with Maria at Liberty Travel and honestly, would never again use a travel agent because there was almost no benefit besides the learning experience.