wedding wings and other things

Okay, I'll admit it, we're not the most organized wedding planners in the world. Good thing we gave ourselves a little time, huh? And not to make excuses or anything, but between the three jobs John's working and the forty plus hours I spend at the store, there doesn't seem to be time for much else. Well of course we make time for the puppy and paddleboarding and watching depressing movies (just saw "Brothers" at the dollar theater, good movie, but don't go if you're looking for a "feel good" cheer-me-up sorta flick). Anyway, I've been told besides picking a good groom, and a dress (check and check) the next most important things are location, location, location. Well, as you've already guessed, we're pretty set on Hawaii, the trouble is there aren't very many affordable, get breath-taking venues that can accommadate everyone we've set out to invite. We're still hunting for the perfect spot. Until then however, we have reserved a pretty okay back-up location in Hilo, HI at Wailoa Park Pavilion. If nothing else pans out, that's where the festivities will be held. Unless of course we decide to do it in Thailand because I may have to go there to get my ridiculiously expensive root canals done there for a quarter of the U.S. price, so we could just combine that with a wedding, what do you think? ;-) Now that would be a destination wedding!

Speaking of destination weddings, while I've got your ear, allow me to rant for a minute...there are ABSOLUTELY NO WEDDING PLANNERS OR WEDDING TYPE THINGS DIRECTED AT LOCAL PEOPLE IN HAWAII!!! Every single website I've gone to and person I've called caters pretty exclusively to those who are doing destination weddings to Hawaii, they don't have kamaaina prices or packages, they all want you to get married at the hotels or cheesy, crowded beaches. It's really weird. I mean I know a lot of people come from all over the world to get married here, but there's still a lot of local people who want to get married at home too, right? Why is there no one available to help them? It's very annoying and odd. If anyone knows of someone who is available to do local weddings at kamaaina prices, please, let me know. Oh, all the ones I did find, were on Oahu, which does me absolutely no good.

Moving on...if you're coming from the mainland and looking into ticket options we're applying for a program with Hawaiian Airlines called "Wedding Wings" where everyone who's coming out here for our wedding can use a little code we give them when booking tickets to get a discount, I don't yet know how big the discount will be or any more specific details. I'll post the code and more info. as soon as I've got it. I think it all depends on how many people use their airlines from our group, if I could get a potential count of how many people would be thinking about flying Hawaiian (knowing there's a discount involved) that would probably help.

We could also look into getting a group rate at one of the Hilo hotels if people are interested in staying there, we could reserve a block of rooms, so please let me know if you don't have a place lined up to stay, I'd need to know how many people would be interested in that before doing that. I know most of you are planning to stay with friends/family that are already here, but we can find some affordable alternatives for those who are coming from out of town with no place to stay.

I found the most perfect dress, the only non-perfect part is the price of course, but that's typical too, huh? Everyone is expected to dress casually by the way...like SERIOUSLY casually, no suits or ties or jackets or anything like that. I mean, I guess you can wear that sort of stuff if you want, but just know you'll be slightly out of place. We don't know exactly what John's wearing yet, but I can pretty much guarantee he won't even be wearing closed toed shoes, let alone slacks and a tie. We're going to come up with a packing list of what to bring and a wedding week list of events and things to do and see while you're all here when it gets a little closer to Dec., so stay posted for that.

Other wise there's not much to say, except I'm getting less nervous and more excited daily. Can't wait to see you all out here!

love and sunshine,
shannon