Think Tropical Can't Be Timeless? Allow This Hawaiian Wedding Weekend to Prove You Wrong.
If you love all things tropical but don't know how to make a beachy setting look timelessly elegant? Allow Moana Belle Events to show you how it's done. Today's wedding at Lanikuhonua in Hawaii has absolutely stolen our hearts and convinced us to book a one way ticket to paradise. With its romantic pink, white, mauve and green color scheme, Passion Roots knew exactly how to blend the two worlds with a mixture of tropical and garden blooms. Head on over to the full gallery to get inspired for your beachside affair - all taken by Kerry Jeanne Photography!
From the Bride... Vanessa and Nathan’s love story began in New York City, where the serendipitous opening of elevator doors, led to plans for coffee where Vanessa would tell Nathan about her secondment to Sydney, from which she had recently returned. Nathan (who of course being Australian and having lived in Sydney before) saw this as the perfect opportunity to get to know Vanessa. Time must have been standing still, since, what was meant to be a 30-minute catch-up over “flat whites” between client meetings turned into hours of conversation and plans for a follow-up date. As they say, the rest is history. After several months dating in NYC, we decided to move across the globe to Sydney, Australia where Vanessa had a work opportunity that she couldn’t refuse, and Nathan would be returning to his home country.
She knew she would regret not taking this opportunity, and several years later, it's turned into the best decision. We knew that we wanted our wedding celebration to be outdoors with amazing views that showcases the natural beauty of Oahu. We wanted the setting to capture Hawaii's gorgeous greenery and were intentional with our design/décor so as to not take away from the gorgeous landscape. Relying on our wedding planner, Moana Belle Events, we actually picked our wedding venue sight unseen! We knew exactly the vibe and scenery that we wanted and more importantly, the ability to customize our wedding day. We loved the versatility and accessibility that Lanikuhonua offered and the ability to have a blank space to customize the design details to our liking. We also had ultimate trust in our wedding planners to help bring our vision to life. We saw photos and videos online and thought it was a great venue to hold both our ceremony and reception to allow for a seamless guest experience. Lanikuhonua, the Hawaiian term for “where heaven meets the earth”, is an oceanfront paradise which remains true to its name. Our ceremony took place in the garden lawn in front of a stunning ocean view. Our venue also has exquisite sunsets which made for an unforgettable setting the evening of our November wedding. We absolutely loved being able to experience this tropical destination with our closest loved ones and were treated with a postcard-worthy sunset that was simply stunning – it was so magical!
What was your vision for your wedding?
Our vision was all about romance! We wanted an elegant, memorable and fun-loving destination wedding. We planned a 3-day wedding celebration which started with a Welcome Event for our guests since we had family and friends traveling from around the globe (from Australia, California, New York City, Florida, Texas, Washington DC and even Saint Kitts in the Caribbean where Vanessa’s family is originally from) and many had not met each other before. Our Wedding Day vision was all about bringing two families together and celebrating our love every step of the way. It was so exciting to see our loved ones come together from around the world to celebrate our union. We believe our vision came true as our family and friends left Hawaii with so many new friendships and memories. Having our closest family and friends in one place was such an incredible feeling. The last day ended with a beach party celebration where we had a chance to unwind and have fun in the sun before we said farewell to our loved ones. We rented surfboards, kayaks, stand-up paddleboards, beach chairs and umbrellas which made for a perfect way to unwind. Fortunately, the weather had cooperated for us all weekend, but as we packed up in the early evening, the sky opened up and a thunderstorm rolled in across the mountains, and left us with an incredible rainbow which stretched across Waikiki – a fitting end to a truly magical couple of days. Our ceremony arch designed by Passion Roots was an organic pillar of both tropical and garden greenery arranged to perfection with garden flowers in pink, peach and white. Our wedding guests were seated in white vineyard chairs with rattan seats. We made the last- minute decision to add a rose petal aisle splash and I couldn’t imagine our ceremony without it. It completely tied our romance theme together! Flowers was an important factor for us to create the romantic atmosphere during our day. We loved the work of Passion Roots and selected this vendor immediately after we secured our wedding venue.
We had an amazing wedding planner, Moana Belle Events, who are locally based in Hawaii and truly brought our vision to life. We actually selected our planner right after we got engaged and worked with the team throughout the entire planning process – it was so helpful to have their local expert advice, ranging from venue selection, refining our wedding vision, and all the way up to the actual coordination of vendors and timeline on our wedding day. Our reception area was decorated under an expansive sailcloth tent which helped protect our guests from the heat and potential rain. The tent was strung with a mixture of alternating café and twinkle lights for a magical outdoor feeling for our guests to dance the night away on a natural wood dance floor. Outside the tent, the trees leading to out cocktail bar were also strung with café lights. Our reception space had large rectangular tables in a U-shape surrounding the dance floor and DJ, draped in neutral linens and rose-colored gauze table runner for texture and romance. Our table settings had wood charger plates, oversized white plates, gold flatware, a blush napkin and stemless glassware for a relaxed elegant vibe. Our tables were set with beautiful low arrangements that were a mixture of garden and tropical flowers and greenery in pinks, white, mauve and green. The arrangements were surrounded by votive candles in mother of pearl candle holders. Some of our favorite small details from our wedding which tied our theme together was the tropical wedding crest which we used throughout the event, our bride and groom floral chair decorations and the raffia hand fans for our wedding guests (which were absolutely necessary given the warm weather!). We also had a wall seating chart with a white backdrop and mix of pink colored envelopes. Each envelope had our guests name and table number as well as a white wax seal crest which matched our invitation suite. The wording at the top: Syned, Sealed, Delivered (and play on words from our wedding hashtag #SyneSealedDelivered) was the perfect final touch to our seating chart!
