Lavish Maui Destination Wedding

Marla and Justin’s Maui destination wedding was absolutely stunning, featuring a vibrant tropical color palette, lavish orchids, a helicopter ride over the island, and Polynesian dancers as entertainment during dinner! Anna Kim Photography captured their fantastic celebration! From Belle Destination Weddings & Events:

For the wedding ceremony, we used a very neutral color palette using lots of whites, creams and greenery to complement the natural beauty of the outdoor ranch ceremony venue. For the reception, we took it up a notch and brought in some fun bright colors using pinks, oranges, purples and yellows to really showcase the tropical elegance of Hawaii. The flowers used were all local and sustainable here on Maui: tuberose blossoms, ferns, phalaenopsis orchids, cymbidium orchids, torch ginger, mokara orchids and textural tropical foliage.

A lavish Maui destination wedding in Hawaii

Justin and I met in Maui at the Grand Wailea. We were on spring break, each with our own kids. It was love at first sight. Justin came around the corner at the top of the stairs, we were introduced and that was it! We always go back to Maui for holidays and just love it–so naturally it was the perfect place for us to say “I do.”

Justin proposed just after New Year’s this year. We were staying at the Four Seasons. We typically go for afternoon walks on the beach, but this time he stopped in front of the chapel at Grand Wailea, got down on his knee and proposed! It was so charming and spontaneous. He didn’t have a ring with him so we ran up to Tiffany’s and bought eternity bands. Then we went back to the pool at Four Seasons to have champagne and celebrate with friends and staff we knew.

We chose Maui as our wedding destination as it is the most special place for us. It was a no brainer. Justin had a vision to incorporate choppers somehow into the wedding. We knew we wanted to keep it intimate and just include our children, parents and nanny. We decided to make our date over spring break for the kids, with March 15 falling between both of our birthdays in March it was perfect. We found our wedding planner, Lena at Belle Destination Weddings, through the planner at Grand Wailea. We had tons of ideas, vision and plans. We wanted our group to travel by helicopters to and from a private, appropriate venue. We also wanted travel to be fast and easy as we had our older parents with us. Lena came up with Piiholo Ranch for the wedding venue. They have a charming, rustic cabin that the Baldwin family uses as their personal get-away. It’s very private, you can only reach it by chopper, horses or off road vehicles.Pia, the most amazing Hawaiian minister, married us in a combination of traditional Hawaiian and contemporary ceremony. We followed the ceremony with pupu’s and champagne at the ranch before heading down for sunset photos on the beach and dinner. We were able to obtain a permit to takeoff and land from the Wailea golf course only a few minutes from our hotel. We hired three choppers from Blue Hawaiian, two of them incorporated beautiful tours of the island on route to the venue, the third went directly to the site w/vendors and nervous family members. We had a vision for a sunset, luau style dinner complete with hula dancers and a fire knife dancer, and we have a relationship with Ferraro’s and the Four Seasons so that was the perfect venue. Marvin Tevaga performed at our ceremony and he flew back in one of the choppers so he was able to join his trio for the dinner, performance celebration. Lena helped us execute everything seamlessly, including the amazing photography and videography teams, Anna Kim and Sunlit Films! The flowers, boutineers and bouquets were all very simple with local finds of white, cream and green, while the dinner table centerpieces had a lot more color– all created by the talented Teresa Sena Design. It was all beautiful. The cake was the best I’ve ever had, again simple but with local Hawaiian flowers.

We wanted simple, breezy wedding attire. Justin loves linen and vests so we ordered handsome outfits for him and coordinating ones for our four boys from Island Style. He wore a french blue cuffed shirt that matches his eyes. I gave him pineapple cufflinks as a wedding gift that day. Alexa, our daughter, wore an Alexander McQueen dress and Jimmy Choo wedges that matched the boys, it was perfect.
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Inspiration
Boho Glam Wedding Inspiration

I had originally intended to find a simple, breezy dress, I couldn’t have found anything more different! After searching wedding stores and the Internet, my personal shopper friend sent us to Cache Couture in Vancouver. I tried several dresses on, my dress was the last one I tried on that day, we all kind of knew it was the one so it was saved for the end. It fit like a glove. I loved the pale blue color and ostrich feathers as I hadn’t wanted a traditional dress. We had a pale blue veil made to match and as we were going by helicopter I knew I wanted my dress covered to be a surprise, so I commissioned a coordinated silver, silk cape. I kept the jewellery simple, wearing only my Tiffany band and a diamond cuff bracelet Justin had given me for Christmas a couple years ago. I also wore simple, silver Jimmy Choo sling backs, the shoes were meant to disappear so as not to compete with the intricate, gorgeous, one of a kind haute couture gown. It was amazing! I changed into a short, cream, sequinned sleeveless Jenny Peckham dress with beautiful Rene Caovilla shoes for the celebration after the ceremony. Everyone looked fabulous! We also made up local, Maui themed gift bags for our family with thank you notes and a personal message. – Marla, the bride