Features
Pacific Rim Weddings
Summer/Fall 2001
Brad Mason, CEO of a successful medical manufacturing company, met his future wife Anne Hinckley at her workplace in an interior design showroom. Their courtship lasted a little over a year before they became engaged. It took a year to plan what Anne calls, "...an amazing week of events."
Brad and Anne wanted a special way to bring together a diverse groups of friends and family so they could all meet and form friendships prior to the actual wedding. When a friend recommended the Lodge at Koele on the remote island of Lanai, they decided to visit to experience the resort first hand. "We knew it was right the minute we walked out to the lake," remembers Anne. They both preferred the intimacy and casual elegance of the Lodge. Anne says that from the beginning they felt, "...like guests at a beautiful Hawaiian mansion."
They began planning by sending friends and family a "save-the-date" card that read "Brad and Anne request that you, our family and friends who have shared your friendship and love in our lives, save the dates of May 15-20th, 2001 to join us in an extended celebration of our wedding on the island of Lanai, Hawaii at the Lodge at Koele." They worked together with coordinators from A White Orchid Wedding to plan a wedding celebration and family vacation everyone would enjoy.
Guests were flown into the island of Maui and taken by ferry to the more secluded island of Lanai. The couple hosted a week of exciting adventures with a fantastic private snorkel sail aboard the Trilogy catamaran, golfing tournaments, a shopping trip to Lahaina, luxurious spa treatments, wonderful meals spent laughing and talking, and a luau extravaganza. Everyone was invited to a rehearsal dinner at Henry Clay's rotisserie restaurant on Friday. Their brief time together in such an incredible setting allowed family and friends to bond and create memories, which made the wedding ceremony even more poignant. By the end of the week Anne said, "We felt like everyone was really there to witness our love for each other."
The wedding day arrived all too quickly and everyone dressed for the occasion. The bride wore a striking art-deco inspired sheath by designer Badgley Mischka. Brad was debonair in a black Armani suit, with attendants also dressed elegantly in black. Guests were welcomed, offered white parasols for shade, and seated on the lawn fronting the lake, the perfect vantage point to watch as Anne and her attendants walked from the orchid house. The bride met her parents at the Gazebo, where they joined arms to walk their daughter down the aisle and give her away together. Guests watched with tears of joy as Brad and Anne exchanged vows. As the couple made their way down the aisle, ten thousand white orchids showered down upon the entire wedding party from a helicopter high in the sky. It was a spectacular sight!
The reception was just as spectacular. Tables were decorated with burgundy and fuchsia potted orchids, with the exception of the head table in all white orchids. Guests received glass-covered mint tins with a silver pineapple motif. Hurricane candles in varying heights were scattered throughout, with garden lanterns hung in the trees surrounding the reception. A monogrammed passionfruit cake in rolled fondant was perfectly elegant. Everyone dined and danced late into the evening, enjoying the camaraderie of the entire week's events.
If anyone had any regrets that week, it was certainly that it all ended to soon. Even though Anne and Brad spent a luxurious honeymoon together afterwards, nothing could top the love and joy they had experienced at a place they will always remember as the "Hawaiian Mansion."