Maui Wedding at Olowalu Plantation House

The face of the beach wedding has changed. What we have here is another example of how creative couples continue to redefine their destination I-do's. Captured by Kaua Wedding Photography, this island affair is an elegant twist on a rustic seaside soirée. It's filled to the brim with feminine florals and sophisticated style. Top it off with a downright gorgeous film from Cinemaui and we're officially in love. See it all right here in the gallery.

From the bride...The wedding planning began with the venue which wasn’t a hard choice as Jonathan and I love the ocean and Hawaii. Jonathan proposed in Oahu on the island of Mokolua, so Hawaii was very special to us and we knew we wanted to have out special day in Hawaii as well and try and visit for our anniversary's. We fell in love with Olowalu Plantation House the second we saw it. We were lucky to have our Hana, Maui friends get married so that we could see our venue. We had seen many pictures and already knew this was it but after we saw it, it became even more real. The island is gorgeous, the weather is amazing and the vibe and people on the island are exactly what we wanted for our special day. We knew right away we wanted a destination wedding after attending a couple. We loved that it brought everyone we loved together for more than just 1 day. We planned activities before the wedding and a beautiful brunch hosted by my in laws the day after. Not only was it so special to have 87 of our family and friends be there to share our special day with us but it was also an excuse for everyone to take a vacation.Jonathan and I wanted a small quaint wedding with the people we love most in the world and are a part of our lives, getting married in Maui gave us exactly that. We are so happy we chose a destination wedding in Maui, we have so many wonderful memories we will cherish forever. The venue was naturally so beautiful so I really didn't have to do much, I didn't want to take away from the setting and the cute little plantation house. I wanted to keep our decoration soft, elegant and beachy rustic. The tones I chose were blush, ivory, navy and gold, I love the softness of the ivory, blush and gold but wanted to throw in the navy as a pop of color and felt it matched the vegetation of the venue perfectly. I chose beautiful long navy blue dresses for the bridesmaids that matched perfectly with the blues of the ocean and the greens of the trees and grass. I wore a beautiful strapless ivory lace gown, I found my dress before we locked in a venue but it went perfectly with our romantic elegant theme. Jonathan and the groomsmen wore light gray suits with navy ties and brown shoes. Jonathan wore a navy blue vest just to set him apart from the rest of the group. They all had custom made tie clips with their initials and the date of our wedding. I had two beautiful flowers girls who wore white and navy dresses with a touch of blush, I had orchid head bands made for them to keep the island feel. The flowers girl baskets were handmade by my friend Parisa Kaprealian (owner of Pretty Please Design) with moss, and silk ivory and blush flowers. I also had moss incorporated in other elements of the wedding. My handsome little ring bearer wore pin stripe shorts with navy suspenders and a blush pink bow tie with chuck taylors, he was absolutely adorable. I had the ring pillow custom made with burlap, lace and handmade navy flowers. I asked both my mother and father to walk me down the aisle. I wanted them to blend with the wedding colors so my mom wore a beautiful long blush gown and my father wore a beige suit. The table decorations, I went for a more rustic theme with mason jars, milk glass vases, burlap, lace, candles and grape wood as the centerpieces. I chose white linen for the tables and blush napkins for a pop of color though still very soft and elegant. Each seat had handmade thank you cards and menus, I also had custom Koozies made for our wedding favors, placed on every napkin. The flowers were just incredible and truly tied everything together, from the colors to their beauty. The most important thing to us was that our wedding be as personal and meaningful as possible. I think most couples want their wedding to be a true reflection of themselves, Jonathan and I were no different in this respect, we wanted our wedding to showcase our passion for food and how we love to throw a good party, whilst also reflecting both our Iranian and Christian heritages. We wanted to incorporate both our cultures into our wedding so we decided to have two ceremonies. Being that we wanted a destination wedding it was hard to find a Persian officiant as well as a Christian officiant. We decided to ask our father to officiate our wedding. They know us the best and it was so special to have them marry us. They were both very honored and wrote every word of our ceremony to reflect Jonathan and I and our journey together and our beliefs. Jonathan and I decided to have the Persian ceremony first, so we can have the grand finale of the husband and wife announcement at the end of the Christian ceremony. Since I am not religious I asked my father to talk about us, marriage and read a poem about love and the meaning of marriage. As part of the Persian ceremony the bride and groom sit in front of a spread also known as the “sofreh” the spread has many symbolic items for our future. Some examples are eggs for fertility, honey for sweetness and gold coins for wealth as well as many other items. I was very lucky that my good friend and bridesmaid Parisa helped me with the sofreh. She handmade many of the pieces as well as put it all together. She incorporated lace, grape wood, moss, and the colors of the wedding into the spread. She took my vision and made it reality, it was so beautiful and perfect in every way. Jonathan's father officiated the Christian ceremony with words of Jonathan and I followed by a prayer. Jonathan and I wanted to write our own vows, we thought it was more personal and meaningful. I had little wooded books made with the words “his/her vows” and the wedding date. We will always remember and have our vows. I custom made fans for our guest, one side had and explanation of the “sofreh” and the other side was our family, wedding party and in loving memory of those who passed. This helped keep everyone cool as well as put a special touch and explanations of our ceremonies. Our ceremony was such a special way for us to share with all of our family and friends our cultures and exactly how we feel about each other – and also how we feel about all of them. It was a truly magical ceremony and we will never forget a moment of it. Most of the wedding decorations I made by hand, I didn't know I had a creative side until our wedding, it truly brought it out. I handmade each wedding invitation (envelope, card, map, direction and the RSVP card). I also handmade the escort cards and all the mason jar decorations. I had help from my friend Beth owner of Beth loves paper with the guestbook, and everything paper. It was very special to me to put so much love and effort into our wedding, it made it that much more special. For the guestbook we took Polaroid photos of our guest and had them sign their names and messages. We wanted to capture every moment and everyone’s expressions, we felt the best way was to have a photo guest book, made with the same paper as my invitations. If you have ever been to a Persian wedding you will know its lots of eating, drinking and especially lots of dancing. We started the dancing right off the bat when they announced us in the reception as husband and wife for the first time. We wanted to set the mood and have everyone dance right from the beginning. We played Persian music and since the music is so upbeat and fun we had everyone on the dance floor. We then went into our first dance and the father daughter dance. Jonathan and I ate quickly right before heading out to shoot our sunset pictures. I have always envisioned sunset pictures for our wedding and I was so extremely happy with the outcome, our photographer Kaua was amazing and captured so many special moments. We wanted to also incorporate more of my culture throughout the wedding so asked the bridesmaids to do a knife dance before the cake cutting to a Persian song. The bridesmaids loved and it all the guest found it very interesting and entertaining. We also had all the guest light sparklers during the knife dance and the cake cutting. The cake was delicious, we had vanilla cake with Lilikoi filling and it was very good. I wanted our cake to reflect the island and all its delicious fruits. We danced the night away from playing tunes from my brother in laws band “Con Bro Chill”, to lots of Persian and a variety of house and 80’s top hits. Jonathan and I took a moment and stepped away from the wedding to look back and reflect on the day. As we looked back we saw all our family and friends really enjoying themselves with big smiles, dancing and lots of laughter in the most beautiful, romantic setting. This made our hearts melt, to know all these people have traveled all the way to Maui for us and we were able to show then a truly magical night, made it that much better. Honestly, we couldn't have envisioned a more perfect wedding and are so grateful to all of our family and friends who traveled far to join us in Maui to celebrate, and to all of our incredible vendors who made the day as beautiful and as seamless as it was. We will cherish the memories from that day for the rest of our lives.