2+ Years in the Making!
To all my COVID brides- My husband and I started planning our wedding in the Fall of 2019. Our original date was December 2020 and we had to postpone it to December 2021. We initially envisioned only day-of-coordination services. However, after planning a 9-person wedding for our original wedding date (so yes, we had 2 weddings), we realized that we would need much more help than just day-of services for our larger celebration in order to keep our sanity. The Four Seasons Oahu (our wedding venue) provided a list of wedding planner recommendations and we started the rounds of calls. I want to stress that you could have in lame terms, the bougiest planner, but if you're not vibing with them on a more emotional level, then they may not be the one for you. You're a planning a day that has so many details and events packed into a mere few hours and you want to be working with someone you trust to walk you through it all. Enter Sally. There was just something about her that we really responded to. She's sweet, easy to talk to, and honestly knows her stuff. We live on the East Coast so the time difference was 6 hours ahead of Hawaii time - planning was always an evening job for us. She was always available to us, and was always accommodating for calls between us and our venue contact at the Four Seasons to ensure that we were all on the page. She was resourceful and sourced specialty items and always made sure to find the most cost-effective options. We wanted to create a specific feeling/vibe/atmosphere that represented the warm and welcoming feeling of the island, and Sally delivered. The most noticeable victory is when we were looking for curtain twinkle lights above the reception area. Sally explained our vision to one of our already-sourced vendors, and man did they deliver. **Check out Aloha Artisans on Instagram if you want to drool over decorations and out twinkle light ceiling** Sally was always super prepared when we would have our meetings, to the point where it was truly impressive how much she had accomplished since our previous correspondence. She's very experienced, and we really benefitted from her extensive familiarity and connections with many of the vendors on the island. Most importantly, Sally was flexible and great in adapting to changing situations. This was a big concern during our planning process because of Oahu’s COVID-19 gathering restrictions, which were quite literally changing on a weekly basis. This alone added even more stress but Sally was always up to speed and would keep us in the loop. Speaking from a personal level, this was not an easy wedding to plan between the COVID restrictions, distance, and time change, but Sally made it all worth it. We can say with confidence that we wouldn't have been able to do this wedding without her. She did above and beyond throughout the planning process, as well as the day of. We already miss working with her. Thank you Sally and her team at Arluis Weddings for making the 2-year wait worth it. Mahalo!