Makena Weddings, is in our minds, the pinnacle of top wedding and event planners, they are truly the best, and it shows from their attention to detail and their genuine love for their brides and grooms and what they do.
We love Laurie and Al, ...and haven't just had the pleasure of working with them, but have gained friends in the process, whom we will I am sure try and visit every time we go back to Maui in the future! Maybe that makes it not quite fair that I am reviewing, since, why wouldn't we give them the highest stars (though I would give them 10 stars if I could!), but I think that speaks to how great they and the team (especially Amie) at Makena Weddings conduct themselves, especially in such a stressful event such as a wedding, and all the personalities involved.
Laurie was recommended to us by my fiance's family, who kept hearing about Laurie and Makena Weddings from family friends and people they met in Maui. Al was recommended to us by my fiance's uncle who used to live in Maui, and attended Hope Chapel in Kihei. The pastors there recommended Al only, they would not recommend anyone else, for a true Hawaiian-Christian-based minister. We did not want a generic officiant, we wanted someone who embued the spirit of Aloha and would bring our Christian faith into the start of our marriage, and the only one that we kept hearing about was Al. The fact that the recommended coordinator and pastor were married... made it destiny for us to not only want, but NEED to have them help us with our wedding!
Al made everyone at the ceremony at ease. He made everybody laugh, cry, and have a genuinely good time at our ceremony, which I know can often have the cookie-cutter feel. I could feel everybody's love for us at the ceremony, and did not once worry that people were thinking about the cocktail hour or food/drinks after, Al kept their attention and focus on us the entire ceremony, and we thank him for that. We would recommend Al to everybody!
Laurie was with me from the very beginning, planning, coordinating, organizing, contacting the vendors, and making sure all the details and big ideas came together. Through our conversations, she brought our ideas to light, and I trusted her enough to have free rein with some ideas of her own, which enhanced and added to what I imagined my wedding would be. I was completely comfortable and confident in her abilities, and I knew she always had our best interests at heart, no matter what anyone else suggested or requested. We had the perfect wedding, everything came together beautifully and I didn't have to wonder if a vendor would show up, or how everybody would work together, Laurie took care of everything behind the scenes and always had a happy smile when she came to check in on us to make sure we were happy and having the best day of our lives.
My only complaint is that there wasn't enough time!! Makena Weddings made our wedding so much fun that nobody wanted to leave after 6 hours of ceremony/cocktail/reception/dancing, that's how good they were, we could have probably gone for another 4 hours and never have known what time it was!!
BEST WEDDING EVER!!! Mahalo nui loa Laurie, Al, Amie, and the entire Makena Weddings ohana!!
Me ke aloha, Mr. & Mrs. Danny and Leslie Ward