CC Travel Blog

On a beautiful day, Winnie married Teddy in a simple Hawaiian style destination wedding. Invited as a guest, we witnessed their happy moments and shared their tears and laughter in the reception. It was a memorable day, a sweet day and a bright sunny day.

The setting was simple, but who needs extravaganza in such a naturally beautiful place?

The property is used only for weddings. Besides tight and limited parking, it has everything!

The sun set slowly onto the coast line and the wedding began in late evening.

The wedding is simple, besides the DJ and the food caterer, all singing and music were done by friends, which is a great way to make everyone remember the big event.

Although late afternoon, the sun was fierce. Lucky the program was printed in a fan for multi-purpose uses.

Under the swinging palm tree mini grove, Teddy anxiously waited for his bride.

And here we all rose and honored the bride walking in.

The wedding was conducted with Christianity elements together with some Hawaiian style special phrases.

I can’t help but noticing some details of the bride.

The Hawaiian style wedding ceremony has the process of lei exchange. Presenting lei represents love, respect and congratulations. The priest said that although the life of lei is short, the exchange of it represents their commitment to each other for the long future ahead of them. I was intrigued, indeed, while we were all so hung up on the details of the process, have we ever thought about the meaning behind the process despite how incoherent they are?

The ceremony ran about 20 minutes, good timing, not too long but hitting the major points. The bride and groom handled it well and happy, unlike those heavy tearing church ceremonies. It must be the relaxing Hawaiian air effect.

In my opinion, a successful wedding relies 30% on ceremony and 70% on the reception. Winnie & Teddy’s wedding was a success because the food was delicious, the setting was graceful yet not too up tight, the guests were easy going and all happily sharing their happy moments.

Besides the all inclusive drink bar, a sushi chef was also on site serving sushi.

While everyone snacked on the hot items and sushi, the bride and groom took care of their paperwork.

In September, Maui’s late afternoon can be burning hot. Eventually the guests hid inside the beach house for some cool air and continued the chit chats. The success of the wedding also relied on the guests. Winnie and Teddy invited their close friends and family such that there were some new face introductions but also allowed a lot of catch up time among the guests.

The wedding favor brought the guests another happy moment. Picking up their Hawaiian sandals, the guests all kicked off their high heels and stuffy shoes and replaced them with the comfy sandals.

The reception was set under a white tent. The table deco followed the island theme with lots of shells on the center piece.

Under a beautiful sunset, we shared our meal.

Three pairs of friends toasted for Winnie and Teddy; they spelt out the newly wed’s secrets and their cute moments. This is not a wedding with lots of tears, but it sure is a wedding with tons of laughs and good jokes.

So I’ve experienced a Hawaiian style wedding and shared the love of a pair of friends. The setting is blessed by natural beauty and the idea of simpleness and purity is relaxing and welcoming. Nothing is more perfect than this combination.