Celebrating another anniversary and baby's first birthday

Its' been almost two years since I did Joanne and Collin's wedding of 400 guests at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel's Coconut Grove and Monarch Room ballroom.

The brides' aunties are in the Garden Club and created beautiful florals using the brides' favorite color red.

One of my business partners created their bamboo arch and the bamboo aisle markers which started out high at the beginning of the aisle and then gradually went to the lowest point which was at the front row so that the flowers would not obstruct anyone's view.

The bride is a talented chef and has her own line of gourmet sauces and also does specialty cakes for friends and family. For their wedding, their favors were her own special garlic teriyaki sauce that was awesome and the personal label listed the "ingredients" of a good marriage with a cute caricature of the two of them.

During the course of many other random conversations through the planning process, I found Joanne liked to do new things, so a few months after her wedding I asked her if she would make a cake for my son's baseball theme graduation party.

Joanne found out that my son was a pitcher and created a baseball cake out of rice krispies and other ingredients that was totally edible. It was a big baseball that was on top of pitching mound and had a baseball field with his name and number, and upon it's delivery he got to sign his ball with an "edible" pen like how a professional player would sign a game ball.

As they are nearing their second wedding anniversary, we are also getting ready to celebrate their son's first birthday which is two days later.

Remembering a Royal Hawaiian Hotel Wedding

One of the greatest joys of being a wedding and special event planner is not only helping a client with their most special day, but creating friendships along the way.

Today's featured couple were married at the Royal Hawaiian Hotel in September of 2007 (photo courtesy of Love Story Weddings). It's hard to imagine that they were married almost two years ago! It seems like yesterday that we are planning their pink and brown wedding while the bride was finishing her last year of college at the University of San Diego.

As we were planning their wedding, my daughter was getting ready to head to San Diego State University which became a common bond of tears of joy between her mother and I as we watched our little girls grow up.

They are both back in Honolulu now and have since had a baby girl that ironically was born on my son's birthday. I love keeping in touch with my past clients and look forward to the opportunity of helping them with their baby's 1st birthday luau.

Advertising and Marketing Goals

Each year I take a few days out to re-evaluate all of my advertising and marketing goals for the upcoming year. It is through this process that we determine what has provided the best return on our investment.

One of Hawaii Wedding's and Events main goals is to provide fair and reasonable prices to our clients for the level of our experience, value of the time invested in their event and the quality service they will receive.

As a small business owner, we work from a home based business which saves the high overhead cost of renting office space, has been more convenient for our clients as we meet them where they are, and the added bonus of allowing more time to spend with our family.

By carefully managing our paid marketing dollars and "word of mouth" advertising, we have successfully been able to achieve this goal which in turn benefits our future clients. It is through the support of my past brides who have graciously taken the time to write a review of our services on such wedding websites as WeddingWire.com or continue to refer our name through wedding forums such as The Knot.com

Our greatest marketing success of the year was when we were awarded the 2009 Bride's Choice Award winner which is based on the number of positive reviews received.

Personal Event Shopper Service

Are you wondering just how you are going to manage to get all of your errands done the week of your wedding day without going crazy?

Let Hawaii Weddings and Events take some of the pressure off of you with our new personal event shopping service. Your time is precious and the days leading up to your wedding should focused on spending time with your family and friends being relaxed and stress-free versus wandering the streets of Honolulu.

Give us your list and let us take care of your errands (including, but not limited to the following):

· Purchasing items and preparing your out-of-town gift bags so that they are ready upon arrival

· Picking up your special linens and delivering to your venue

· Purchasing your beverages for your off-premise events and delivering them to your caterer

· Buying items and stuffing your favor boxes

· Picking up your wedding gown and getting it pressed for you

· Purchasing bridal party gifts and delivering to your rehearsal dinner

· Preparing children activity bags to keep them busy during the wedding reception

· Having your favors, guest book, parasols, etc. shipped to Hawaii in advance and delivered to your hotel upon arrival.

Our Personal Event Shopping Service fee is $45 per hour plus tax (Please keep in mind that this hourly fee not only covers paying for our staff’s time, but it also covers the wear and tear on our vehicles as well as the cost of gas). Rate is reduced to $35 an hour for those that have booked one of our planning and coordination packages.

The hourly fee is charged based upon amount of time it takes to travel to each destination (copies of MapQuest calculations will be used to figure mileage and time) as well as the amount of time it takes to do your shopping and prepare items.

Our Personal Shopping Service is subject to availability of and requires prepayment for our projected time (based on your needs) and for the products that we are purchasing on your behalf. Receipts for all purchases and your change will be provided upon completion of your shopping trip.

Personal shopping service is subject to availability with priority given to Hawaii Weddings and Events couples that have secured one of our coordination packages.