Tropical Maui Destination Wedding

It’s a little art deco meets Santa Barbara meets Maui. This colorful fusion and destination wedding has all the love behind it, and is giving us all smiles today! Check out their sweet story and how they infused so much of themselves into their destination wedding below!

from the planner: “Having started dating along the central coast of California, more than 14 years ago, this couple wanted their wedding to reflect their relationship with an added touch of modern tropics. Every detail was planned out – from the Church Venue (not only a homage to their Catholic upbringing but also the same name as the groom’s late grandmother), to the Invitations (custom made by a local designer to encompass the start of their journey together along the central coast) and their place cards (custom tiles reflective of Santa Barbara!) You will love the authentic emotions, especially from the groom. Their love and laughter is in every photo!”

How did you two meet? We met through a mutual family friends in San Diego in 2005. Both of our parents were separately looking into purchasing a home in the same development. The process to get priority in choosing and purchasing the desired home is that you would need to stay in line for 3 days. Crazy. Anyway, we both just so happened to be volunteered by our parents to stay in this line (versus sleep in, enjoy our summer break from college, etc.). While waiting in line, a mutual family friend who’s family was also interested in the development introduced us, and a friendship blossomed that eventually turned into a first date, then many exchanged visits to San Diego (Marie’s hometown) and Corona (Philip’s hometown) and then San Luis Obispo (Philip’s college town). We had maintained a long distance relationship for over 8 years and then eventually moved in with each other in 2013.

Tell us about the proposal! Philip decided on proposing at a winery in Paso Robles, CA. He planned for it to be a weekend trip to revisit the Central Coast and San Luis Obispo where we had spent the beginning of our relationship while Philip was in college. We were to revisit our favorite restaurants and maybe fit a winery tasting in. He was able to set up a private tour at Justin Winery. I was really excited and surprised we were able to get a private tour, because we really enjoy wine, especially some of those from this particular winery. The tour was just us as a party before us had cancelled unexpectedly. Philip seemed to be making more jokes than usual, maybe a little more excited than his normal self. The tour ended in their very special wine cellar which was intimate and away from the crowds. The moment that our tour guide left to get one last tasting he “forgot,” that was the cue, and it was there that Philip proposed. I learned the whole staff was in on the proposal and it was so nice to be greeted and treated so warmly there after the proposal. We spent the whole day soaking it in.

What was your wedding day vision? We wanted our wedding to be a destination wedding and wanted a location that wasn’t outside of the US and somewhere all of our guests could enjoy. We decided on Maui since it was the right amount of quaint and not so much on the tourist end like Oahu. We visioned our wedding to be elegant with a modern coastal vibe, one like Santa Barbara. Our colors were mainly dark blue, white, green (heavy greenery), and hints of gold.

What was most important to you while planning? We wanted to create an atmosphere that would be memorable and special to our guests who flew from all over to celebrate with us. We also wanted it to encompass what meant a lot to us as our relationship grew. We had traveled to Santa Barbara often and many of the cities around the Central Coast. We also wanted to make feel like they were in a tropical paradise.

We chose to splurge on the reception for that goal. The art deco theme and minimal tropical helped make it unique along with all of Platinum Wedding’s help in making this vision come to life. On the other hand, the wedding ceremony was beautiful to us as simple as it was, as we wanted to focus on the symbolism and ceremony itself. Although we did not splurge on this, we made sure each part of this ceremony was just as important.

Favorite parts of the day? What made it so special was walking in to the reception hall for the first time. Although we had an idea from our vision board and all our back and forth emails with Dani from Platinum Weddings, it was one of the best surprises we’ve ever had, it was absolutely amazing to see our reception and every detail come to life, and more.

We were in awe of the textures made from the tablecloth, place settings, and glassware. What made it extra special were the centerpieces and florals, and chairs (so grateful for that gift from Platinum!). Those were the final touches that made our dream come true. Walking in for the first time had us in love.

We loved the lead up to the reception from sharing a few drinks with our bridal party and guests to escaping for a quick hour to take some photos with Dmitri and Sandra, capturing footage with Nate, and hanging out with Dani. In all honesty, we truly enjoyed seeing our vendors in action (it was almost like seeing celebrities–and also feeling like celebrities with the cameras following us!).

It was so much fun getting to know and work with everyone and just having a good time laughing with each other, cracking jokes, trying to be as photogenic as we could (it can be hard for us but we had so much fun!). We can definitely say that every second of our wedding day was unforgettable, everything was perfect. Every moment was our favorite moment.

Tell us about your favors. For our favors we decided to do tile coasters. We chose Santa Barbara style tiles since we love the look, how they can be so unique individually, but still cohesive and beautiful when all put together. We always made trips out to Santa Barbara as we really enjoyed the atmosphere, architecture, and landscapes. (the tiles were handpicked by the couple representing a location they had visited together!)

Any advice for couples who are planning? For brides planning a destination wedding, I would advise them to not be afraid to splurge on a wedding planner, a good videographer, and photographer. It’s a once in a lifetime experience and you deserve the very best. After having our wedding in Maui, I was so glad we invested in a videographer and photographer whose work we loved and were fully invested in. We are so happy with the services and finished products. But if we were to do it over again, I would probably seriously consider investing in the extras of premium packages.

Also, having an amazing wedding planner was key and a major plus. Who wants to stress out while enjoying your destination wedding? It is very important to have a wedding planner who understands your vision and can help you articulate it when you are busy with other details and planning. I can say myself and my husband were not feeling any sort of stress in coordinating our wedding, which allowed us to relax and just enjoy our time in Maui with our family and guests, it was definitely worth it.

Lastly, I really enjoyed that we were able to throw a welcome party a couple of days before our big day. It was great to see our guests interact before the event and introduce those who had not previously met. Pre-wedding events are ok to have and highly recommended as it’s nice to soak up your wedding celebration in other ways, especially after enduring a long planning process.

Tropical Maui Destination Wedding

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