Magical Destination Wedding at Haiku Mill

Erin Lepperd
October 17, 2014
Categories: Real Weddings, The Blog

A Maui destination wedding is like a romantic, sunny vacation wrapped inside a beautiful celebration. And that, my friends, is a thing of beauty. Of, course, Haiku Mill takes island romance to a whole new level of magic with chandeliers strung from palm trees and old stone walls covered in lush greenery made even more beautiful at the hands of Teresa Sena Designs and Anna Kim Photography. Click here for more!

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From The Bride…You never know where love will find you, and for us, that statement rang true. Love found us hard at work. Through break-room conversations we grew to be friends, had e-mail exchanges about our love of travel and fine dining. It was our mutual interest of such things that caused our friendship to blossom into something more. For our first date, Dave asked if I would accompany him to try out a new restaurant in town, since we both have an appreciation for good food. After a three-hour dinner with wonderful conversation, the evening flew by and we were the last ones to leave the restaurant that night. We dated for nearly five years before tying the knot, and though I haven’t worked with Dave for 3 years, I will always be grateful for that job. It taught me much more than spreadsheets, marketing, project management, and work life; it brought me to love. With our shared love of traveling, having a destination wedding was an important component in planning our wedding day. One of our favorite places to visit is the south of France for its architecture and lifestyle. Since traveling to Europe wasn’t realistic for our families, Hawaii was the destination of choice to celebrate our nuptials and provide a vacation for all. To our delight, we found Haiku Mill, so very reminiscent of the distant and exotic places we adore, nestled along the winding road to Hana in the hills overlooking the glimmering blue sea on the island of Maui’s north shore. Lush and exotic flora create a hidden paradise amidst the ruins of a sugar cane plantation from the 1800’s. Haiku Mill’s ambience using French-inspired sculptures, antiques and treasures collected from around the world, exudes old world elegance within the rustic endearing charm of the sugar mill ruins. There is almost a palpable feeling of magic radiating from those old walls. After selecting Haiku Mill as the venue, we chose Brandi for paper suite and branding design, owner of Alexis June Creative, to develop branding for our wedding design. She designed the B&D logo, beautiful ‘B’ and ‘D’ initials, fused together in stylish script. We incorporated our logo into every aspect of our wedding from the save the dates and wedding invitations to leather matchboxes, cocktail napkins, cups and welcome bags. Brandi helped us solidify our style in a branding that was all our own. Our wedding brand led us to reflect our style of minimalist elegance by choosing an overall design with simple, clean lines using a white color palette with gold accents for our wedding. To complement the natural beauty of the Mill, we chose soft petal florals in shades of white and ivory, including ranunculus, freesia, roses, lisianthus, white dendrobium orchids and peonies with touches of fresh greens, in gold vases for a natural design with an organic feel. The vine-covered stonewalls of the Mill provided a dreamy background and so perfectly complimented our choice of a simple yet elegant décor. Crystals and white orchid leis were suspended from the glass ceiling and lighting was achieved by hanging chandeliers and interspersing candlelight in gold candleholders on the table to achieve a glamorous, yet understated, glow. The gold chargers with white plating and the uniformity of the tablescape provided a clean, sleek look, which matched our style as a couple. Details were the heartbeat of our wedding. From mailing our guests a Maui guide book and wedding weekend itinerary a month before, to welcoming our guests to the island of Maui with custom “Aloha” tote bags filled with local island goodies and welcome notes, to heartfelt thank you notes tucked into each guest’s dinner napkin, and finally sending our guests off after our wedding with custom “Mahalo” bags filled with heart shaped sugar cookies made by my grandmother. These special touches of hospitality were very important to us in conveying our gratitude to our guests, who had traveled thousands of miles to be there. We also included tangible elements of our wedding design vision in our save the dates and invitations. For the save the dates, we sent a custom watercolor postcard in a clear envelope, with gold flakes sprinkled in the envelope. The gold leaf flakes gave the save the date a fun and exciting feel about the upcoming event, and we followed up that fun by incorporating edible gold leaf flakes in one of the signature drinks that was served at the wedding. The wedding invitations included a piece of lace from my wedding gown that adorned each invitation. It was a sneak peak of what was to come, and it also provided a keepsake for our guests. I fell in love with my Ulla-Maija couture gown, and wanted to share the beautiful handmade French lace with all. Our favorite element was displaying our parents’ and grandparents’ wedding photos, side by side, in elegant gold frames, which were part of my grandmother’s cherished frame collection that she shipped to Maui for us. This priceless display helped us celebrate and honor them with love for paving our way. After all, we are but a reflection of those who have come before us. Call it a coincidence, or call it fate, but we ended up with 28 of our nearest and dearest to celebrate with us on the 28th of December. It was the perfect number to celebrate our wedding over dinner with king style seating. For us, having an intimate dinner party with delicious local farm to table organic food (from Maui Executive Catering), flowing wine and great conversation was the part of our wedding celebration that we will always remember and cherish. We danced under the moonlight elegantly enhanced by chandeliers, the glimmer of hanging crystals and white orchid leis, creating just what the venue is known for, an incredibly romantic ambience. The toasts given to us were thoughtful and heartwarming and we relished the company of our favorite people sharing our wedding day with us. Sparklers lit up the night paving the way for our departure that evening as we began our life as Mr. and Mrs.; symbolism that perfectly displayed how we felt in that moment. Our overall intention in celebrating our wedding was to stay true to ourselves in the process so the day would reflect our authentic love. We succeeded in our vision, as we are still floating on air from that beautiful and magical day.