Features
Weddings & Honeymoons
Fall/Winter 2004
The marriage of two fiery volcanoes, massive Haleakala in the east and the older Pu'u Kukui in the west, gave birth to Maui, the second largest isle in the Hawaiian chain. Today embers of Maui's tempestuous past linger on in the vibrancy of days charged with sunlight and laughter. You can feel it in the trade winds and the moon-driven rhythms of the ocean, smell it in the perfume of millions of blossoms wafting from flower farms and backyard treas, hear it in the passion of Hawaiian love songs and taste it in Maui-grown mangoes, pineapples, strawberries - even Maui onions.
Wild as you Want to Be
Julie Bielau and Tom Hettrick of Edmonds, Washington, opted for wet and wild. Both are master divers whose romance began when Tom became Julie's scuba instructor. Fittingly, they took the plunge underwater. "I used to dream of mermaids when I was a little girl," Julie says, "so when Tom promised me a mermaid ring, I knew he was the one." They decided on Maui because every picture they saw of the island matched their fantasy of the tropics. Before dawn on January 28, 2004, Tom and Julie - along with her father, the reverend Heidi Alfrey-Nelson of Wet and Wild Weddings, and an underwater-videographer, headed for Ahihi Cove, a secluded notch in the black-lava coast at Makena.
"Dawn was a crazy time for a wedding," Julie admits, "but it was so quiet then. The clouds were just turning pink, and a full moon still hung in the sky." They had the whole world to themselves. Julie wore a dress she found at a costume store. "It was called Sea Goddess and had a starfish on the front," she says. "My father got in the water and snorkeled with me over to the site where Tom was waiting below. Then I went down by myself." The couple exchanged vows on diver's slates, and Tom gave Julie her ring - a white-gold mermaid holding an emerald, with a diamond in her hair.
Something Old, Something New
The Sheraton Maui on Kaanapali Beach embraces a somewhat more traditional approach to weddings. Its Ali'i Wedding Package, for instance, includes a ceremony on land and three nights in the Presidential Suite. The suite crowns Pu'u Keka'a popularly called Black Rock, a high lava promontory jutting into the ocean. Most couples exchange vows on the suite's private hilltop lawn, where full circle views sweep over the mountains, the beach, and out to the sea, with the island of Molokai and Lanai on the horizon.
Three years ago, the Sheraton Maui hosted Ralph and JoAnne DeMarco of Santa Rosa, California. The Demaros felt they deserved a proper wedding after the first time around, in December 1948. There were young then - JoAnne was only 16. She wore a blue dress because her mother couldn't see spending money for a white bridal gown when the marriage wasn't going to last. "We got two wedding gifts," Ralph remembers, "a set of Pyrex mixing bowls and ten dollars." Fifty-five years later, Ralph and JoAnne had the wedding of their dreams on Maui. "A limousine picked us up at the airport," Ralph says. "For the ceremony JoAnne wore a long white Hawaiian gown, and I had a white aloha shirt to match. But the best part was when a helicopter flew over the wedding and dropped thousands of white orchids. The looked like white doves. I can still see them floating down."
Carolee Higashino of A White Orchid Wedding, who coordinated the DeMarcos' vow renewal and arranged the flower shower, has her eye on trends in Maui weddings. "A lot of people are looking for private beachfront estates," she says. "I recently did a jungle wedding at the home of Mike Love, the lead singer of the Beach Boys. I call it my machete wedding because I had to get a crew in there to hack a path to this gorgeous cliff-side spot." According to Carolee, who coordinates both traditional and unusual weddings, the prevailing trend right now is natural. "Even celebrities are getting married barefoot," she says. "And instead of using a traditional altar, we often do something out of bamboo and palm fronds, sometimes with tiki torches. The conventional white wedding cake is also getting a makeover on Maui. "Couples are more and more creative these days," Carolee reports. "I've had an aloha-print cake, a chocolate surfboard cake, and even one where every guest brought a square of decorative cake to the wedding and we put them together in a patchwork quilt."
One of Carolee's favorite weddings took place on Kaanapali Beach. "We have a sand-castle man on Maui," she says, "and I asked him to build a sand chapel with columns and archways, all decorated in seashells and starfish. We had banners flying in front of the turrets and a matching banner along a path leading to the chapel. He had to build everything that morning so it wouldn't wash away. It's long gone now, of course, but no one who saw the chapel will ever forget it."
Defining Romance
As if the island itself isn't fantastic enough, Maui resorts are often over-the-top on fantasy. The Grand Wailea Resort Hotel & Spa on the southwest shore of Maui features a 2,000-foot-long aquatic park composed of nine pools, with a three-story lava slide, the world's only water elevator, a sandy beach, a Tarzan swing, and white-water rapids pumping 16,000 gallons a minute. Brides carry 12,000 roses a year down the aisle in the hotel's white wedding chapel, and the chapel bells ring more than 9,000 time a year - a 24-chime salute for each wedding. And that's not counting the weddings in the gazebo or on the oceanfront lawns. The resort hosts more than a thousand weddings a year in all.
White domes and turrets atop the neighboring Fairmont Kea Lani Maui make it look like a mirage straight out of the Arabia Nights. Popular wedding sites include an ocean-view terrace and a gazebo holding up to 100. Another neighbor, the Four Seasons Resort Maui at Wailea, offers a backdrop of contemporary-classic buildings, seaside lawns, and lush tropical gardens.
West Maui's most concentrated resort area, Kaanapali Beach, is not to be outdone in terms of luxury and fantasy. Couples at the Hyatt Regency Maui Resort & Spa can marry at a choice of four outdoor locations, including an Asian garden beside the shimmering Swan Court lagoon. Millions of dollars in Hawaiian and Asian art adorns the Westin Maui Resort & Spa, while a replicated pirate ship centers the super pool at the Maui Marriott Resort & Ocean Club. Just up the coast, the Kapalua Bay Hotel and The Ritz-Carlton, Kapalua put all the emphasis on quiet elegance. Sequestered in the 1,650-acre Kapalua Resort, surrounded by a nature preserve, and underwater park, a pineapple plantation, and several perfect miles of beaches, each hotel stages no more than one wedding per day. "I want every on of my brides to feel like the most special person in the world," say Jennifer Camilli, The Ritz-Carlton's wedding manager. "For one day, no one else counts." Favorite wedding sites at Kapalua: A spit of lawn-covered lava jutting into the ocean (with a bright setting sun turning the world into a cup of gold) and the historic Kumulani Chapel (beside the rolling green of a golf course with breathtaking views of the ocean).
The Hawaiian Dream
At the opposite extreme of the island, way at the end of a winding seaside road punctuated by more that 54 bridges, the little rural enclave of Hana holds the Hawaii of everyone's dreams. Prime places to say "I do" at the Hotel Hana Maui, the only hotel of consequence for miles around, include a sparkling black-sand beach, the tropical gardens, a pavilion, and the restored 1864 Plantation Guest House. Most of the staff, people who know all about the loving spirit of aloha, have been with the hotel for decades. The newest bridal site on Maui rests halfway up the slopes of Haleakala Crater. The fragrance at Maui Kula Lavender, a lovely lavender farm, is heavenly. To picture the setting, imagine a little Hobbit shire mixed with Provence and touches of old China. Couples marry at several garden sites tucked among the 31 varieties of lavender, against a backdrop of sweeping plains, ocean, and the West Maui Mountains.
Far down below the flower farm, on a north coast beach in secluded Kuau Cove, lies an incredibly romantic place, with the unlikely name of Mama's Fish House. Mama's has grown from a shack in the sand into a hideaway of deluxe seaside cottages and a fine-dining restaurant serving some of the freshest fish on the island. Couples often decide to tie the knot a Mama's over mai tais, then come back and get married on the beach. Last December, Chicago resident Lance Rock proposed to his love, Wendy Farrell, at Mama's by having a procession of torchbearers present a puolo, a traditional pouch made of ti leaves. As Wendy opened the puolo and found her diamond inside, he dropped to one knee and asked the big question. She said yes, and the wedding - at Mama's - is scheduled for early next year. Like Lance and Wendy, most couples know that getting married on Maui is only the beginning of the fun. Some plan to visit the Yankee whaling port of Lahaina, follow the road to old Hawaii in Hana, or maybe find a rodeo near the cowboy town of Makawao. Others will trek or ride horseback into Haleakala's crater, soar above the forest canopy on a zip-line cable, snorkel, dive, sail, hike to waterfalls, and watch for whales and spinner dolphins. And nearly all will take time to soak up the Hawaiian sun at some of Maui's 81 accessible beaches, whose sands come in a rainbow selection of white, gold, black, salt and pepper, green and ruby.