Turtle Bay Resort | Breathtaking Storymaking

r went above and beyond for every little detail my New husband and I could not be happier. so if you are looking for that special place Turtle bay is your location. Megan Koehne || Conference Service Manager mkoehne@turtlebayresort.com

ooking for a venue and endless phone calls/emails, we ended up settling with Turtle Bay after much debate of the location/high wind and waves. The responsiveness and comfort Sheri brought to me as a bride, made me feel important and special. After 1 month debate and with the reassurance from Sheri, we opted with Turtle Bay Resort because of how thorough Sheri was with us. Sheri was very responsive and I appreciated her for that. However, after being transfer to the care of Melina Patrick (catering manager), our connection and responsive failed miserably. My weddding coordinators and I had the worst experience to get a hold of her and didn’t start planning our wedding until a month before. Understandably, there are other weddings that were going on, she did a poor job of checking emails. Days have gone by and the wedding was getting closer and it was even more difficult to get a hold of Melina. It was the worse! The week before our wedding, we finally went over the small details and she falsely and confidently stated she will forward all the details to the people that needed to make our vision come true….it was not! The set up of tables were not as discussed. The layout was not customized as we spoke. The cake flavor was not what we wanted. The cake was not even passed out to all guests but left on the cake table, thus a lot of cake was wasted! Or..more like the majority, $550 to waste. I was so sad because it was a moment I wanted to see others enjoy a piece of happiness. The stress level was high and it shouldnt be. A feedback we got back from our guests was: the bartender was too conservative of the liquor, pour even less than the restaurant inside Turtle Bay. Thus my guests decided to purchase drinks inside vs at the bar area. Overall, despite the venue looking nice in a video, a bride needs to think twice before booking and anticipate lots of headaches of poor communication, where she will get dressed up because there are no bridal and groom area to get ready, and the overall service for a pretty penny being spent. 1 star is off for poor communication, 1 star is off for management service—could have been better in that a bride is fully invested in her judgment—which was absent. Book st your own risk.

nsive with so many of our last minute changes (hello, pandemic 2020). We also worked with Mikilani early on, and she was lovely & super useful in helping us choose our Turtle Bay ceremony & reception site. We chose Turtle Bay because we wanted a more remote location for our wedding, and as much as we love Waikiki, we just couldn't see ourselves being married with so many people around. I also love the North Shore! Turtle Bay has many locations to choose from for your ceremony & reception, and we really liked this flexibility. We chose a toes in the sand beach ceremony & an outdoor tented reception; due to the rain we ended up having our ceremony in their beautiful oceanfront pavilion, and our reception was moved indoors. We knew having a wedding on the North Shore in March could come with rain so we weren't that surprised about the shift, and we were lucky to get plenty of beach photos when the rain stopped. I do wish they could have done our reception in the pavilion (we had seen it 2 nights prior and it was gorgeous with string lights), but the resort felt the rain would be too heavy and they moved the reception into their banquet hall. The funny thing is the rain passed quickly and we were able to get beautiful sunset photos! The servers and bartender were also so wonderful at our wedding. Our guests loved exploring the huge Turtle Bay property with beaches and hikes. We also did our welcome party/ rehearsal dinner at nearby Roy's which was amazing. Now for the not so good: I was disappointed in the fact that the bell service charged a delivery fee for each guest's wedding welcome bag. Margie was awesome in helping us negotiate this price, but I was surprised Turtle Bay would charge for this considering we brought so much business to the hotel. Also be aware that vista level rooms come with continental breakfast each morning; I'm not sure if the room block includes this level, but if so I really would have preferred this for our guests. This is a beautiful outdoors property with great conference managers. It is a big hotel so be prepared to speak with different departments in your planning process, and I highly recommend a day of coordinator. And don't worry, Turtle Bay makes everything come together within 1 month of your wedding date. This was such a magical, amazing day, and I want to relive it! If having a gorgeous venue is important to you then this is your place!

re of before, during and after the event. I can honestly say that the day was very carefree. Our family and friends had a great time, and we can't wait to go back! I would highly recommend Turtle Bay for any event, or even just a vacation. You will not regret it.

quiring with Turtle Bay Resort and was flawless in answering all my questions (there were many!) and preparing contract drafts before finalising our booking. Audrey Noyes from then on managed the bulk of the organising of catering, venue set up, day of schedule etc. Audrey was great to work with, she was able to accommodate our small wedding and made us feel just as important as another couple paying for 200 guests! Being from Australia and dealing with constant currency conversion rates we were really worried that there would be unexpected costs that landed on our bill after the wedding day was done but this was not the case. Everything we had to pay for and how much it costed was as initially agreed upon, we even got some money back as the drinks consumed were less than the deposit! We got married at Kuilima Point on a beautiful, wind free sunny day in January. The view on Kuilima point is stunning and the surrounds of our ceremony and reception were immaculate. We decided to upgrade to a clear top tent which I think was worth it, we even had an eclipse! All of the included furniture, lighting, dance floor and décor that Turtle Bay provided was perfect. We took some amazing photos on the beach, near the pool and on the rocks as the sunset. You couldn’t ask for a better view of Hawaii. I think it is important to keep in mind most of our vendors charged extra to travel to and from the North Shore as the majority were based in Honolulu or the south of Oahu. All of our vendors knew of / or had worked with Turtle Bay previously so we had no worries about them finding it. We never even met or saw our florist as she just set up and had my bouquet delivered to my room which is perfect because you have so much else to worry about as a bride on your wedding day. All the food served during the cocktail hour and dinner was amazing. It incredibly fresh and tasty and no one went without. Turtle Bay also made our cake, which was equally as delicious however we asked for fondant icing which I don’t think we got. Or we did, but the heat melted it somewhat. With that said, I would not change ordering a cake from there as the filing was delicious and the cake vendor we had looked at was going to cost double with transport fees. We had our welcome / rehearsal dinner at Roy’s Beach House which was divine, I highly recommend eating there as it was by far the best restaurant at Turtle Bay Resort. Our farewell breakfast was at Kula Grill which was a buffet so catered for all adults and kids cravings the day after the wedding. As far as the hotel itself, it has the most spectacular view from every angle. We made the right choice to book a Junior suite which was the size of a small apartment. Perfect for all the entourage that joins you on the day of your wedding. I do wish they had put us on the top level considering the occasion, but when we asked at check in we were told in was booked for the majority of our stay. The view was still beautiful on the 3rd floor and the sound of the waves crashing was so relaxing. As a couple, we will never forget the magic of Turtle Bay Resort and will no doubt return in the future xx

n away by the beautiful resort, amazing hospitality, great restaurant & activity options, & overall exceptional experience throughout our entire stay. Upgrade yourself to a Beach Cottage, it's absolutely worth it! Oceanfront Pavilion (Welcome Brunch): This was the most effortless part of my wedding planning. Turtle Bay made it so easy - you pick from their options, which are all good, & you've got yourself a wonderful little party. We had the Sunset Beach Brunch + deluxe hosted bar + custom cake (surprise bday cake for my husband). The weather was beautiful & the location was perfect. It was such a fun way to welcome our out-of-town guests to Hawaii. The Point: We all met up at the pool bar the night before the wedding. Great spot for large groups, incredible sunset views, & everyone was raving about the live entertainment. Roy's Beach House: Had dinner here on our last night at the resort. BEST restaurant at Turtle Bay! Had a table of about 10 of us & the manager Keith was so sweet to us & really made us feel welcome & taken care of.

or everything we wanted, it fit well into our budget. It also offered the conveniences that come with having a hotel wedding (e.g. not having to rent a ton of equipment and not having to hire a separate caterer) while still allowing us to have the wedding we wanted (i.e. aside from the food, they didn’t have required vendors, just preferred, and we could book whomever we wanted). We ended up choosing the pavilion at Kuilima Point for our ceremony, and the Kuilima Point lawn for our reception (under a tent). Overall, I was definitely happy with the fact that we had our wedding at Turtle Bay, but there were some things I would have liked to have known beforehand. For example, I knew that our guests would have to make a special effort to stay or make it to the North Shore, but for whatever reason it did not occur to me just how much the travel fees for all of our vendors would be. I totally understand vendor travel fees, and why they are necessary, but man, I really wish I had factored in the travel fees to the North Shore (which were generally more expensive than to, say, Honolulu) when trying to decide on a venue because boy did they add up. I think someone in some of the other reviews mentioned the funky way Turtle Bay does their hotel block. We ended up not doing the block because we didn’t have a guaranteed count of how many people were planning on staying at Turtle Bay, and because of that there was the potential for us to be on the hook for a lot of money if we did go with the block. I honestly felt super bad about this though, because it would have been nice to have had to offer to our guests. It would have been nice for the room block option to have been realistically more doable. Also, we ended up having out wedding in September to accommodate some of our family’s schedules. I was prepared for the fact that it would be windy in the North Shore, but when we checked in to Turtle Bay a few days before our wedding it was pouring. Honestly, the weather was pretty terrible until the day of our wedding. I don’t know how we lucked out, but I was seriously preparing myself for the worst. I think the rainy season starts even later in the year in Hawaii, so this was probably just bad luck on our part, but I do think that it would have (possibly?) been less likely to rain if we had planned our wedding for late spring or summer. All I am saying is definitely consider the weather on different parts of the island too before making your decision (for example, we drove to Aulani on one of the days it was pouring at the North Shore, and the weather was beautiful). But, with that said, did we have a beautiful wedding? Yes. The sunset during our reception was so beautiful that everyone started getting up and taking pictures. I was worried about the food too because we hadn’t had an opportunity to taste it beforehand (there is a complimentary tasting included with your package, but we could not fit it into our schedule), but my worries ended up being totally uncalled for. The food was SO GOOD and everyone was raving to us about it. Food is so important so we were very pleased that it turned out this way. In the end, we were extremely happy with our wedding, so overall I would recommend Turtle Bay.

ia Point and it was dreamy and beautiful. The food was out of this world and all my guest absolutely loved the resort and thought the wedding at Kumilima point was exceptional. Definitely check out Roys while you are there!

eception. Overall a very nice day for our wedding

hts they have that too. Another added plus is their vegan menu. Yeah! Mahalo Turtle Bay!

ur wedding reception, which was not at Turtle Bay, and they heated it up and brought it out to us poolside! Thats pretty awesome and impressive! This is why you pay the extra money to stay at this resort. They will go above and beyond for you, to make sure your stay is truly unforgettable and amazing. This place is beautiful, but the service and the employees that work there is what sets this place above the rest. Its the people that make the place.