Vendor Reviews
During our recent scouting trip to Maui, I had the pleasure of meeting with a few vendors, so I have reviews about my experiences with them. Of course I can't provide a full review up until the wedding since I didn't hire them, but for vendor reviews post-wedding, I guess you'll just have to wait until after 12-12-12! They probably won't even be posted until 2013!
Cake Bakery/Cake Walk - Right off the plane we met with our Heidi for a cake tasting. It was AMAZING. Her cakes hit the spot. We had white cake with fresh berries and buttercream frosting, white cake with lilikoi mousse and buttercream frosting, banana cake with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting, red velvet with cream cheese frosting. My favorites were the fresh berries and lilikoi mousse cakes. Really surprised by the lilikoi since we aren't really fond of the flavor. I must say that her frosting was not too sweet, but perfect for our taste buds! She didn't over-frost either. She suggested we have a dessert bar for options, but also to save on cost, so we are definitely going for a dessert bar! I sent her a follow-up email and she said that they do limit the number of weddings they bake for, which reassured me that quality wouldn't be lost. *OUR PICK!
Maui Wedding Cakes - This was our second tasting and the cakes were just OK. Nothing really stood out in my mind in terms of flavor. The cakes were a little dry and the frosting didn't really make up for that. Nothing much to say about them. He did mention doing 25 wedding cakes on 11-11-11 which worried us because to me that's just a red flag. Quantity of quality? Hmmm...
Cake Fanatics - EmmaLee was nice enough to meet us at our timeshare! Very sweet of her to do that. She was definitely our second choice. Her cakes were super moist, very yummy. Fondant looked great. The flavors were good, nothing too creative, but good (better than Maui Wedding Cakes, in my opinion). She had vanilla with vanilla filling, chocolate with chocolate ganache filling, and red velvet with cream cheese filling. Just plain, nothing to rave about, but boy were they moist! A little too sweet for us, though. She would've been our second choice.DJ Billy Arbour (Maui Sound Waves) - We met with Billy and he was great! However, I didn't feel like he was on the same wavelength as us, though, but he was very nice and open to our ideas. Even our day-of coordinator said she prefers the DJ we chose over Billy because he is a little more dated with his music.
DJ Boomshot (Jay Langworthy) - Jay was also nice enough to meet with us. We hit it off right away. He was super laid-back, we vibed really well with him and even provided us with a couple mixes that we LOVED! We knew he was the one when we left the meeting and after listening to his mixes, so we booked him right away. Unfortunately, he is charging holiday rates for our date, but we both agreed that he is going to be worth it. *OUR PICK!
Olowalu Plantation House - AMAZING! My fiancé and I were both excited to visit Olowalu. Everytime we passed it along the highway, we were tempted to go past the gates! We were staying in Ka'anapali, so we passed it several times! What a tease. We got there and met with our day-of coordinator since our WC was out-of-town. She broke it down for us--where we would have our tent set-up, where our ceremony would take place, lighting, what works best, etc. She even gave us her opinions on DJs, which we really appreciated, and also gave us a rundown of how a lot of the plants weren't maintained up until recently. Apparently one of the owners of the house had a wedding for their daughter at Olowalu, so they really fixed it up! She said the grounds look amazing and I only hope they keep it maintained from now on because it looks great. It was a little windy, but she said we would have our tent setup on the side of the house rather than nearer to that tree, so we'd have some protection from the wind. I loved the decor and the inside looked fantastic.
Aloha Mixed Plate - We didn't have a formal tasting with them since they don't do that, but we've tried almost everything on their menu. This time, though, we tried the grilled ono and it was sooo yummy. I also tried the kalbi ribs for the first time since we always get the deep fried beef teri and it was soo yummy. We are always satisfied when we go to AMP and I am definitely looking forward to eating their food on our wedding day. My only problem with them was that it was difficult to get into contact with them. It took several calls and emails for me to get a response. I had to email their operations manager who finally had to ask the general manager at AMP to get back to me. The correspondences stopped, so I had my wedding coordinator handle the catering since I just didn't want to deal with the headache.
Pacific Blue Floral - We weren't able to meet with any florists while on Maui (I assumed we would use our wedding coordinator's floral design team--but I want to keep my options open), but I recently got into contact with Michelle a Pacific Blue Floral. She didn't answer my questions via e-mail, but rather set-up a time to do an over-the-phone consultation. I don't really like talking on the phone, but I thought, "sure, it's only 30 minutes to an hour." We were on the phone for nearly an hour and I thought it was the best consultation ever! She was so thorough with everything. Went through the entire timeline, each table, any additional flowers, leis, etc. What I like about her is that she takes the time to ask you a few questions in order to get a better idea of the style of flowers for your wedding. I thought this was very considerate of her. She understood exactly what I wanted and was very willing to work within out budget (I have yet to receive her proposal). I even asked about having her provide flowers for me in order to do some DIY floral arrangements and she happily obliged! Looking forward to see what she comes up with when she sends over the proposal.
Cake Bakery/Cake Walk - Right off the plane we met with our Heidi for a cake tasting. It was AMAZING. Her cakes hit the spot. We had white cake with fresh berries and buttercream frosting, white cake with lilikoi mousse and buttercream frosting, banana cake with chocolate chips and cream cheese frosting, red velvet with cream cheese frosting. My favorites were the fresh berries and lilikoi mousse cakes. Really surprised by the lilikoi since we aren't really fond of the flavor. I must say that her frosting was not too sweet, but perfect for our taste buds! She didn't over-frost either. She suggested we have a dessert bar for options, but also to save on cost, so we are definitely going for a dessert bar! I sent her a follow-up email and she said that they do limit the number of weddings they bake for, which reassured me that quality wouldn't be lost. *OUR PICK!
Maui Wedding Cakes - This was our second tasting and the cakes were just OK. Nothing really stood out in my mind in terms of flavor. The cakes were a little dry and the frosting didn't really make up for that. Nothing much to say about them. He did mention doing 25 wedding cakes on 11-11-11 which worried us because to me that's just a red flag. Quantity of quality? Hmmm...
Cake Fanatics - EmmaLee was nice enough to meet us at our timeshare! Very sweet of her to do that. She was definitely our second choice. Her cakes were super moist, very yummy. Fondant looked great. The flavors were good, nothing too creative, but good (better than Maui Wedding Cakes, in my opinion). She had vanilla with vanilla filling, chocolate with chocolate ganache filling, and red velvet with cream cheese filling. Just plain, nothing to rave about, but boy were they moist! A little too sweet for us, though. She would've been our second choice.DJ Billy Arbour (Maui Sound Waves) - We met with Billy and he was great! However, I didn't feel like he was on the same wavelength as us, though, but he was very nice and open to our ideas. Even our day-of coordinator said she prefers the DJ we chose over Billy because he is a little more dated with his music.
DJ Boomshot (Jay Langworthy) - Jay was also nice enough to meet with us. We hit it off right away. He was super laid-back, we vibed really well with him and even provided us with a couple mixes that we LOVED! We knew he was the one when we left the meeting and after listening to his mixes, so we booked him right away. Unfortunately, he is charging holiday rates for our date, but we both agreed that he is going to be worth it. *OUR PICK!
Olowalu Plantation House - AMAZING! My fiancé and I were both excited to visit Olowalu. Everytime we passed it along the highway, we were tempted to go past the gates! We were staying in Ka'anapali, so we passed it several times! What a tease. We got there and met with our day-of coordinator since our WC was out-of-town. She broke it down for us--where we would have our tent set-up, where our ceremony would take place, lighting, what works best, etc. She even gave us her opinions on DJs, which we really appreciated, and also gave us a rundown of how a lot of the plants weren't maintained up until recently. Apparently one of the owners of the house had a wedding for their daughter at Olowalu, so they really fixed it up! She said the grounds look amazing and I only hope they keep it maintained from now on because it looks great. It was a little windy, but she said we would have our tent setup on the side of the house rather than nearer to that tree, so we'd have some protection from the wind. I loved the decor and the inside looked fantastic.
Aloha Mixed Plate - We didn't have a formal tasting with them since they don't do that, but we've tried almost everything on their menu. This time, though, we tried the grilled ono and it was sooo yummy. I also tried the kalbi ribs for the first time since we always get the deep fried beef teri and it was soo yummy. We are always satisfied when we go to AMP and I am definitely looking forward to eating their food on our wedding day. My only problem with them was that it was difficult to get into contact with them. It took several calls and emails for me to get a response. I had to email their operations manager who finally had to ask the general manager at AMP to get back to me. The correspondences stopped, so I had my wedding coordinator handle the catering since I just didn't want to deal with the headache.
Pacific Blue Floral - We weren't able to meet with any florists while on Maui (I assumed we would use our wedding coordinator's floral design team--but I want to keep my options open), but I recently got into contact with Michelle a Pacific Blue Floral. She didn't answer my questions via e-mail, but rather set-up a time to do an over-the-phone consultation. I don't really like talking on the phone, but I thought, "sure, it's only 30 minutes to an hour." We were on the phone for nearly an hour and I thought it was the best consultation ever! She was so thorough with everything. Went through the entire timeline, each table, any additional flowers, leis, etc. What I like about her is that she takes the time to ask you a few questions in order to get a better idea of the style of flowers for your wedding. I thought this was very considerate of her. She understood exactly what I wanted and was very willing to work within out budget (I have yet to receive her proposal). I even asked about having her provide flowers for me in order to do some DIY floral arrangements and she happily obliged! Looking forward to see what she comes up with when she sends over the proposal.