The Planning
DESIGN / VIBE / VISION
Kelsey and Elliott are from Colorado and connected with Mauna Creative, who is both Colorado and Maui based, before finding their venue and together we decided the Ritz Carlton was the perfect venue for their early January wedding post holidays, what better place to escape the Colorado snow and start the new year! Their vibe was a blend of elegant and tropical and they are vibrant, joyful people and wanted to reflect that in their colors. The florals by Asa florals reflected that with more color than our more traditional weddings and brought a vision to life that was bright and celebratory.
PROPOSAL STORY
Elliott secretly planned a "photoshoot" with my cousin's wife (Thao). She's a photographer and has taken photos of us before. This made it seem less suspicious. Elliott was planning a surprise proposal in Atlanta during a trip but I got sick and had to cancel the trip - so this was a back up plan. We arrived to the photoshoot destination and while my cousin was posing me for pictures, I turned around and Elliott was on his knee. I was so surprised and happy and then we met my family at a restaurant after to celebrate!
WEDDING GOWN
I started my dress hunt in San Francisco and quickly learned what I liked and did not like. I tended to lean towards clean silhouettes with a minimalistic look. After dress hunting in Colorado (where I reside), I started with a few dresses from Jenny Yoo's bridal line and knew the Loretta dress was the one when I tried it on! The style was perfect for our beautiful venue at the Ritz Carlton in Maui!
BRIDESMAID DRESSES
I had a non-traditional bridal party that included 2 girls and 4 guys. They are all fashionable and so I gave them colors and few guidelines and they pretty much had free rein from there. They chose the perfect vibrant dresses and suits for a tropical wedding. I particularly loved the collared shirts the guys picked out with bright green palm leaves on them, they matched the vibe perfectly.
FOOD & DRINK
Food and drinks were the most important part of our wedding weekend. We knew that we wanted this to be a highlight of the weekend. We were immediately drawn to the seafood dishes and fresh flavors of Hawaii that the Ritz had to offer. Since we knew there would be a lot of seafood and Hawaiian flavors during the wedding dinner, we opted for a traditional prime rib feast for the welcome dinner (a nod to our favorite restaurant in San Francisco, The House of Prime Rib).
FLORALS & DECOR
We focused on lush elements such as the half moon arch and the overhead dance floor installation. Vibrant green couches by the dance floor and tropical hued linens tied it all together, in a brand new clear top sail cloth tent which was the finishing touch of the design as the sun shining through gave a ethereal feel to the entire design. To note, this worked great in January but would potentially be too warm in months like July and August. However on January 5 it was perfection!
WEDDING CAKE
We opted out of a wedding cake and chose a malasada dessert bar! Our guests could choose from a variety of toppings and ice cream to go with their malasadas. It was the perfect bite to eat while taking a break from the dance floor. To celebrate being in Hawaii we also chose to have a shave ice bar during our welcome dinner which was a hit with everyone.
SPECIAL DETAIL #1
To elevate the music offerings, they brought in international DJ Greg Garman to play under the stars in the tent until close
