Another Shout Out :: Cameron Ingalls

We have had yet another shout out from one of our fabulous photographers.....The Super talented Cameron Ingalls from N. California. Thanks so much for sharing our community with your readers!



Check out Cameron's Website and stay up-to-date with his blog!

5 Tips from Elite Vendors :: Part I

I am so excited to say that we have a new addition to our blog: Weekly tips from the community. Every week we will be offering helpful tips to Hawaii Brides from our very knowledgeable vendors. Wedding professionals have seen it all, and they know what to do, what to avoid, and what you all must know!

Our first Elite Professional to offer up some very useful information is Stephanie from Pacific Coast Host, Wedding and Event Planning. She has given us her top 5 tips in planning a destination wedding. I hope you find these tips useful, and feel free to contact Stephanie if you are in need of her services, or have more questions!

1. Hire a local planner – This will be your best investment by far: A professional that works and lives at the destination you plan to wed will save you a considerable amount of money not to mention time. They have the local connections, the local knowledge, and can help you bring your ideas to fruition most effectively… Bringing someone from your hometown might sound great but they will still have the same challenges as you do when planning far away and thus will probably cost you more for their time not to mention supporting the expenses for their trip. Their resources are also limited compared to the relationships that a local planner has and you will want to utilize as much knowledge as you can when making even the smallest decisions for your big day

2. Create a wedding website. This is a must for destination weddings… you can share so much information via your website and you’ll have a great time making it too! Most people are online these days so logging on to your site is quick and easy for them and a site is an efficient event management tool for you.

3.Cut back on postage, “Go Green”: Save the dates need not be expensive: Send a simple postcard with your date and then refer everyone for more info and updates to your website. I have had many clients actually ask their guests to RSVP online at their site… this is a great way to Go Green, just think of all the paper, fuel and postage you will save.

4. Spread the culture of your destination: Having a destination wedding is the perfect way to share the culture of the islands with your guests. The ways to incorporate the culture are endless…here are a few ideas: choose an associated wedding theme like palm tree, pineapple or orchid; Choose local entertainment for the cocktail hour, a hula dancer and ukulele player; Choose a local fruit filling for your wedding cake like guava or lilikoi. The exposure to culture will provide for a more memorable experience that you and your guests will enjoy.

5. Create a guest itinerary. Even if you are not planning on hosting additional events other than those wedding related, you can still plan other fun outings and let your guests know what you’re up to. These casual “come as you are” events are perfect for guests to spend time with you before the wedding and get to know other guests a little before the big event. Some ideas: Plan a volleyball tourney, Texas hold em or a snorkeling/ kayaking adventure.



Thanks again Stephanie for all your great advise!!!

:: Big Thanks to Theorie ::

Elite Hawaii Weddings is blessed to have found not only the best in the business, but the coolest, as well! Another one of our fabulous photographers has blogged about our Launch, and we are so honored! They are a very successful company and we so thankful they took the time to give us a shout out.

Amy and Maurice Wright are a husband wife photography team based out of So Cal. Their company is Theorie. We chose one of their weddings to be our first featured wedding! You can check that out here!

Thanks again Amy and Maurice!

Don't forget that we are still looking for a couple to be featured on our website, so if you or someone you know recently had a fabulous Hawaii wedding, we would love to feature you. So send them in! You can send all the info to Susie@elitehawaiiweddings.com.

Happy Monday!!!

Do you have our next Featured Wedding?

I am looking for the next fabulous wedding to be featured on Elite Hawaii Weddings! If you have taken the time to look around the site, then you would know that each month we feature a new wedding to inspire the Hawaii Brides-to-be. We are looking for a wedding that took place this year in Hawaii that was beautiful, unique and inspiring!

Anyone can submit a wedding as long as at least one of the wedding professionals is a member of Elite Hawaii Weddings. Brides, vendors, or wedding lovers can all submit :) Our last wedding was submitted by the super fabulous photographers Amy and Maurice Wright of Theorie! You can view and read about their wedding here.

Please send a photo and short description of the wedding to Susie@elitehawaiiweddings.com. If we are interested in featuring your wedding, we'll contact you by the end of next week. We will be excepting weddings on-going, so feel free to submit them anytime.

I look forward to receiving your submissions!!!

Susie

:: Overwhelming Response :: Thank YOU!! ::

It has only been three days since we announced the launch of Hawaii's newest wedding community, Elite Hawaii Weddings, and the response has been overwhelming!!!! I want to thank everyone who has commented on the site. We are so proud of this, and we couldn't be happier with the positive feedback. Please continue to share your thoughts about the website.

We are getting great feedback from our vendors, and many new professionals wanting to be represented as a Elite Wedding Professional.

The most recent company to join Elite Hawaii Weddings is the Grand Wailea Resort on Maui.

They are one of the most exquisite hotels on the island, and we are very excited to have them!

In addition to the professionals wanting to be a part of this community, we are getting a lot of love from the fabulous vendors that are already with us. Heather Moreau of Vallentyne Photography is one of our Preferred Vendors and she did a post on her blog about us yesterday. You can check that out here.


If anyone would like to blog about us we would really appreciate the love! Be sure to let us know so we can tell our readers!

We have a lot of exciting stuff happening around here including give-aways, tips from vendors and many more fabulous featured weddings for all the brides needing inspiration.....so come by often.

We love comments and would love to know what you think so feel free to drop us a line!

Have a fabulous Thursday!

Mahalo,

Susie

Website Launch -- It's Official!

We are proud to announce the launch of Hawaii's newest on line community for Elite Brides!

EliteHawaiiWeddings.com. We have been working steadily at creating this community for the last year, and we are absolutely thrilled you have stopped by!

Why am I so excited about this site???....
Well let me tell you :) ... In the process of putting together this community, we did a lot of research to find the "right" wedding professionals. We know what an Elite bride is looking for, and we know how hard it is to find it! There are so many vendors out there to choose from. I literally searched through hundreds of vendors in order to find those we wanted to be a part of our community.

As I was sifting through these vendors, I kept thinking, "Wow, how do brides have time to do this?" It is hard enough planning a wedding! Who has time to sift through 200 florists only to find the 2 of them are of the quality you are looking for! So, as I was doing this research, I was truly satisfied knowing that we are making the wedding planning process easy and enjoyable. Not only is our website easy to navigate, beautiful to look at, but you don't have to worry about sifting through not-so-great vendors. You can trust that everyone of the professionals on our site is top quality!!!!

All you have to do now is decide which one can fulfill the style you are looking for! The best part about it though, is that we have limited the number in each category to your top 10 vendors. We feel they are all equally at the top of their game, and you are truly given the very best to choose from. We did this so you don't have to spend more time looking through 100's of vendors in each category. More is not always better in our opinion, and we much prefer quality over quantity!

What to expect from this Blog....
We will be updating this blog often to provide you with helpful tips and fun ideas to help in the planning process! If there is anything that you would like us to write about, please leave a comment with your ideas! We have many fabulous vendors on in our community, and we will be utilizing their vast knowledge of Elite Weddings to help you with your planning!

How do you define an Elite Professional....
An Elite professional in our opinion is someone who provides the best quality product and service. If I wouldn't hire them for my own event, then you will not find them on our website. Some examples of Elite professionals we are proud to have part of our community are The Fairmont Orchid, Orchid Isle Weddings and Events, and Vallentyne Photography, just to name a few.

Please take a few minutes and explore our site. We are very proud of this and look forward to helping you plan your wedding with ease knowing that you are working with the absolute best!

~Susie