June Wedding at the Maui Coffee Farm

Carrie and Kevin wed in June at the Maria Lanakila church in Lahaina Maui. Friends and family flow in from across the mainland, from California, upstate New York and Pennsylvania. Carrie requested spring flowers for her bouquets featuring, bright pink, white and pale pink peonies. The stems were wrapped in navy blue, an on trend color for 2014. After the beautiful church wedding the group traveled back to the Ka’anapali Coffee Farm to gather for the wedding reception and dinner. The ocean views and evening sky provided a dramatic sunset for a lovely Maui Wedding.

Flowers were provided by Sally of Blue Sky Weddings
Photography: Barry Frankel Photography
Caterer: Carol Longhi Oleary
DJ: Boomshot Jay Langworthy
Wedding Cake: Maui Sweet Cakes
Wedding Planner and Design: Gabrielle at Blue Sky Weddings

December Wedding at Olowalu Plantation House in Maui

Coming from Australia, Julie and Jarrod found a central meeting point to marry at the Olowalu Plantation in Maui. Their families flew out from Southern California and Australia to join the couple for their marriage ceremony in West Maui. The wedding and reception featured bright jewel toned flowers, a travel theme featuring the couple’s favorite cities and destinations and a clear top tent with pretty white lanterns. The music was provided by Ahumanu, a Hawaiian style duet, and DJ Boomshot. The food was provided by Carol Longhi Oleary Catering. For dessert there was an array of cake pops, French style macaroons made by Fabiani’s Bakery in three flavors and a pot of melted warm chocolate with fresh tropical fruit for dipping on each table.  After the family style dinner was served dancing lasted into the night.

Photography by Hula Girl Photography
Catering by Carol Longhi Oleary Catering
Planning and Design by Blue Sky Weddings Maui
Flowers by Sally of Blue Sky Weddings
Officiate: Reverend Kimo Kirkman
Venue: The Olowalu Plantation House in Maui
French Style Macaroons: Fabiani’s Bakery

Shave ice: A cool idea

Shave ice is a fun addition to a wedding reception and Maui has lots of options for shave ice vendors. The choices available range from classic neon syrups in bright colors to organic local fruit flavorings, expensive and fancy to home styled and simple. Another popular idea is to feature cocktail inspired flavors such as pina colada, lava flow, blue Hawaii, or whatever your fancy and  add a shot of rum or vodka to top it off for a lush cocktail. Shave ice is a cool idea for hot weather weddings.

Shave ice is a Hawaiian tradition brought to the islands by Japanese plantation workers in the late 1800’s. Fine ice is shaved off a block which makes the ice very fine and  allows it to mix completely with the flavor syrups.  It is typically served in a paper or plastic cup.  Often a scope of vanilla ice cream or azuki bean paste is added at the bottom of the cup. Some of the many flavors include, pineapple, guava, coconut, lilikoi, li hing mi, lychee, mango, Thai tea, kiwi, tiger’s blood, watermelon and local Kula strawberry, add a snow cap, homemade azuki beans, fresh mochi balls or a scope of Roselani vanilla ice cream and you have a local Maui sweet treat to impress your guests.

Lahaina, Hawaii – January 22, 2014 – WeddingWire, the nation’s leading online wedding marketplace, named Blue Sky Weddings as a winner of the prestigious WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards™ 2014 for Wedding and Event Planning in Maui, Hawaii

The WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards™ 2014 recognizes the top five percent of wedding professionals in the WeddingWire Network who demonstrate excellence in quality, service, responsiveness and professionalism. The esteemed awards are given to the top local wedding vendors in more than 20 service categories, from wedding venues to wedding photographers, based on their professional achievements from the previous year.

While many industry award winners are selected by the host organization, the WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards™ winners are determined solely based on reviews from real newlyweds and their experiences working with Blue Sky Weddings. Award-winning vendors are distinguished for the quality, quantity, consistency and timeliness of the reviews they have received from their past clients.

“There’s no better way to start the year than by honoring the hard work, commitment and success of the top-rated wedding professionals within the WeddingWire Network,” said Timothy Chi, CEO, WeddingWire. “It is exciting to celebrate a sixth year recognizing businesses whose clients believe they are committed to quality, professionalism and all around top-notch service. We are honored to recognize Blue Sky Weddings for their impressive achievements within the wedding industry.”

As a Couples’ Choice Awards™ winner, Blue Sky Weddings is highlighted within the WeddingWire Network, which is comprised of over 200,000 wedding professionals throughout North America and abroad.

Blue Sky Weddings is proud to be one of the top Wedding and Event Planning in Hawaii in the WeddingWire Network, which includes leading wedding sites such as WeddingWire, Project Wedding, Brides.com, Martha Stewart Weddings, and Weddingbee. We would like to thank our past clients for taking the time to review our business on WeddingWire. We value all of our clients and truly appreciate the positive feedback that helped us earn the WeddingWire Couples’ Choice Awards™ 2014.

For more information about Blue Sky Weddings please visit our WeddingWire Storefront today at www.blueskyweddings.com

To learn more about the Couple’s Choice Awards™, please visit www.weddingwire.com/couples-choice-awards.

My Favorite Maui Wedding Photographers

While working in Hawaii wedding planning for the past 10 years I have had the pleasure to meet and work with many talented photographers who live in Hawaii.  I cannot even begin to choose my favorite and end up with a short list of several excellent choices competing for the top spot. I would love to share my favorites with you so I will feature the work of a selection of the best photographers on Maui over the next month.

Hughes PhotoGraphics as among the top professional photography studios shooting Maui weddings. Hughes PhotoGraphics is Scott Hughes who delivers a true journal style capturing the emotions and moments of the day. Hughes also produces gorgeous books. I always recommend Scott when excellent images are a top priority.  Here are some images by Hughes PhotoGraphics from a Blue Sky Wedding at a private beach side house in Lahaina Maui.  More weddings by Hughes PhotoGraphics please look here and here. Venue featured is  Blue Sky Beach Villa Maui, see more photos here and here

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