Cassandra and David are simply, purely awesome! (Previous reviews mention Valerie, but our experiences were only with David and Cassandra.)
We had our wedding on May 11th, 2009 in Oahu (and we've been terribly remiss not submitting our review earlier -- please don't let that happen to you once you go with them!). We live in Canada and when we decided to go for a destination wedding, we were rather underwhelmed at the lack of professional wedding coordinators, judging from online sites and portfolios of other work.
When we stumbled up on Honolulu Wedding Company (be warned that the site may be hard to find at first with generic "wedding coordinator hawaii" searches), we were absolutely thrilled because their photographs were simply beautiful. Our parents and (older generation) family friends were incredibly skeptical about the whole affair because we based our entire relationship and wedding on people that we hadn't met, and hadn't even seen the venue in advance.
Cassandra and David were professional and personable, and they gently guided and prodded us when we needed something done. If you are looking for a New York style of wedding planner featured in the movie "The Wedding Planner", you will be disappointed because these guys are not into barking orders or overly aggressive.
Cassandra took care of all of the details while David coordinated transportation and overall logistics. The wedding day was truly magic and upon reflection, some revelations really stuck out for me that I want to share:
1) These guys are worth their weight in gold because they work their butts off and ensure that all the little details are covered, even if you didn't think of them. They were there the entire wedding day & night coordinating and handling the small emergencies that will inevitably arise. Some companies/planners we read about indicated that you had to pay extra to have your actual coordinators onsite for the entire day.
2) The feeling of showing up for a wedding and having it go incredibly smoothly (without having seen the venue beforehand) is wondrous and a relief. My wife had trepidations that there would be something wrong with the venue, the tents, the layout, food, transportation, photography, flowers, and program. All went without a hitch (except for small emergencies created by yours truly by forgetting to bring key items to the ceremony), and only because of the fantastic job that Cassandra & David did for us.
3) Honesty -- We had the feeling that Cassandra and David usually work high-end weddings with much larger budgets than ours (just take a look at their wedding portfolio on their website and start asking questions -- you'll know what we mean). After seeing what they did for us, we felt incredibly grateful with what they were able to pull off within our limited budget. Our guests honestly thought that the wedding was incredibly expensive, and we gleefully kept our mouths shut because it was only a third of the average budget guesses that they all threw at us (especially our parents and relatives -- family is always good-naturedly nosy aren't they?). The point of this paragraph is that Cassandra & David will *always* keep you honest, especially if you are going over-budget, and will not only pinpoint where, but will also provide alternatives with the pros & cons.
Word of caution: Just because Cassandra & David are (in our eyes) makers of magic, it doesn't mean that the magic allows you both off the hook when it comes to responding to them. My wife and I found the time difference to be problematic at times as we tried to schedule conferences and checkpoints. If you're into weekly status updates and conference calls as we initially planned, then that probably won't work out due to Cassandra & David's busy schedules, the fact that the timing sometimes just doesn't work out that way (due to venue, catering or other responses that have to come in outside of HWC's and your control), and because sometimes WE were the bottleneck (i.e. reviewing spreadsheets and quotes prepared by HWC). Bottom-line: make sure you do your own homework and keep up with the list of details and questions that HWC needs answered. In the end, there's a REASON why these guys ask for these things.
Finally, some key points that you may want to consider that may have been unique in our case that you should discuss with Cassandra & David:
1) We picked our own live musicians, but HWC offers great suggestions as well -- depends on your tastes really.
2) Our initial catering company folded close to the wedding date, and HWC already had a backup planned. Due to their connections and reputation, they were able to get this organized incredibly quickly (approx. 5 days notice to the alternate catering company).
3) We rented our own audio equipment because we had a small group (38 guests) and my one of my groomsmen was semi-DJ (i.e. he knew how to work the audio equipment).
In conclusion, Cassandra & David were just amazing to work with and helped us to bring a truly memorable day to life. If you have any questions, I'm more than willing to provide a personal reference or have a conversation about HWC if you have any questions (please contact me through my profile).
