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r/weddingplanning•
AlohaBird

So overwhelmed. Trying to find a non-resort venue on Kauai. Help, am I over-stressing/over-thinking all of this?

Hey everyone - I feel like things are starting to look hopeless trying to find a venue. We've contacted two non-estate venues, one of them, Common Grounds does catering and venue - but they don't book the venue until 6 months out. The food will come out at about $5,000 w/o alcohol or venue costs, which we are still waiting on a quote. (I hope it's okay to post names of venues/vendors.)

The other non-estate venue, a botanical garden is $4,500 and requires an in-state coordinator to manage all of the details. While we plan on meeting with and hiring a part-time coordinator to help facilitate our chosen vendors and do the day of, we've already contacted caterers, we chose our photographer and we know where we'd rent chairs/tables from and we have a florist for the leis so all we'd need is a baker and makeup/hair artist and an on island florist for the bouquet.

So we've been looking for a private estate on North Shore - we found a real estate company that has 3 estates- am I crazy to think that $3,000 for the event and a minimum of a 5 day stay at $550/night-$750/night for a wedding is a lot?

The other non-estate venue, a botanical garden is $4,500 and requires an in-state coordinator to manage all of the details. While we plan on having a part-time coordinator to help facilitate our chosen vendors and do the day of, we've already contacted caterers, we chose our photographer and we know where we'd rent chairs/tables from and we have a florist for the leis so all we'd need is a baker and makeup/hair artist and an on island florist for the bouquet. I've started contacting VRBO owners/managers to see if they allow events of 25-50 people, I have a long list to go, but 3 have said no so far.

And to make things more stressful, our friends and family keep asking what our dates will be - but we can't say until we find a venue. We will be there in January to choose a coordinator, do some test/taste-runs, look at venues and such. But I feel like that is so far away now. What would you/have you all done for destination weddings? Is anyone/has anyone had their wedding on Kauai?

Edited: Wall of texts are hard to read.

Posted Oct 7, 2016, 6:15 PM UTC

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petixangApril 29, 2017 CA•

Have you looked into retreat centers? My mom lives in Kauai and there are a lot of new age spiritual folks there. I bet there are a few retreats, maybe they'd be willing to host a wedding.

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AlohaBirdOPSeptember 2017 Kauai, HI•

What a great idea. I'll start looking now and see what I can find. Edit: I looked around but couldn't find any that mentioned it or had looked like they had the space. :( But thanks for the idea!

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hyaena_hyaena•

I may have some answers for you, since I myself am getting married on Kauai next September (09/10/2017)! So excited to hear of another bride on the island!!

I definitely went through this struggle when I was first looking for venues, including emailing people on VRBO. The hotels are way too expensive, but I also didn't want to rent a field and build from the ground up. The venue we decided to go with is Plantation Gardens. It's a restaurant, but they have no venue fee unless you want to do the ceremony there (+$500) or a cocktail hour (+$500). Instead, they have a food and beverage minimum. I believe for their 40 person option it's 4k, and 60 people it's 6k. Their food looks delicious, and cake is included! They host the dinner on their lanai outside, and the ceremony in their koi/orchid/succulent gardens. I have never been there myself, but it looks gorgeous online! Only downside is no dancing besides first dance/parent dance.

There is also The Beach House, another restaurant with a ceremony space. Or some of the hotels nearby on the south shore, but they're pricey. You can also rent the field from the botanical garden (Allerton I think?) and rent your own chairs/tent near the beach. You might be able to save some money by doing a beach ceremony, but the State of Hawaii is super strict on permitting and no chairs/decorations (understandable). The nice part about doing a restaurant venue is that there is no boarding/lodging requirements, and we can rent a cheap rental off VRBO nearby.

I hope that helps, you can email me if you have any questions! I'm pretty much all done with vendors, just counting down the days!

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AlohaBirdOPSeptember 2017 Kauai, HI•

Yay! Another Kauai destination bride! We found a venue through a vrbo! We're going to stay there so that takes care of our lodging and the special events fee is only $1000. But is definitely a struggle pulling together everything else from the ground up. We got a quote back for CG to cater and it was more than I estimated. So we're going to keep looking and get a better idea of our options. The shocking part of vendors is the chairs/table rentals. One place is $8- $12/chair! Their tables are almost the same price as the chairs. And the bummer of that is I'm not impressed with the quality of the chairs :( I see the appeal/reasoning to go with a place that already has them and realize that the money we're saving on the venue will be put into the rental of chairs and tables. Sticker shock is real though. :)

As we get closer I'd love to see who you are going with for flowers, hair & makeup. We're actually going to ship in leis from Oahu because they are less than half the price of anything on Kauai and they do 1 day shipping, so we'll get them the night before. Do you/did you get a coordinator or day of?

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hyaena_hyaena•

Holy cow, those are some expensive chairs! The rentals were a big part of why we're doing the restaurant venue - everything is included except for decorations :) But we definitely are paying more for the food and beverage than if we were doing a different venue. We were originally going to do a VRBO house, but I could not find one that would allow events AT ALL so I totally gave up on that idea, but it would have been nice!! We're not using any day of coordinator or wedding coordinator because I'm a penny pincher, though I'm sure it would have saved a lot of stress. Are you?

I still need to find a hair/makeup person I like. What are you going to do about the trial run? I think I might just cross my fingers and hope for the best! That's great to know about the leis, since they are SO DAMN EXPENSIVE on Kauai!!

What's your wedding date??

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AlohaBirdOPSeptember 2017 Kauai, HI•

Hey Hyaena, I wanted to give you an update! Our wedding is going to be Sept 3rd - so happy we choose a date! We've booked our photographer, we have the venue and we think our caterer, who is actually the best value for the menu (about $110pp w/o alcohol), it's still expensive but I don't want a food truck - well technically they are a food truck, a FANCY full mobile kitchen - it's sooo cool and the food looks amazing. They have a little communal dinner thing they do twice a week for 60pp that we're going to go to when we there in January so that we can taste their food.

As for hair/makeup I've been yelping stylists Janet Duldulao Hair & Makeup and Paradise Beauty are the ones that impressed me most so far. As it gets closer I plan on booking a trial run (we get there two days before the wedding) and then doing makeup on location.

We don't have a coordinator. We'll be getting one for day-of because I've seen too many weddings go wonky without them. But things are coming along well enough that I don't feel we need more than day-of coordinating. No idea who to use yet, though.

How are things coming for you?

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hyaena_hyaena•

Hi there!

That's awesome! We might be on the island at the same time! We'll get there the 7th to run some errands and stuff.

That's amazing that you have that all done. Doesn't it feel good to have things checked off the list?? I've been doing some research of my own for hair/makeup and I think I might go with Megan Daul - I found her on facebook, but I haven't contacted her at all. She has a website too (but I don't think I can post it here). I'm a bit nervous though since I wont meet with her before the wedding, so no trial runs are in the plans. Eek.

And the caterer sounds delicious! Will they do your cake/dessert too?

I've been debating a coordinator, but I think I'm going to try to do it myself. Luckily the restaurant will set stuff up/take stuff down and we don't have rentals to worry about.

Are you guys having a traditional rehearsal dinner? I'm thinking about just having a bbq at the house we rented. My in-laws like the idea, but they think that since it's a destination wedding, everyone should be invited. But then that's like wedding part 1, and I don't want to deal with 60+ people the day before the wedding haha. What's your plans for that part?

Also, have you figured out flowers? I posted on tripadvisor, and it sounds like there are some great farmers markets on the island that you can get flowers at!! Just an idea :)

I hope your planning has been going smoothly!!!

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adossantos8911/13/16 - Boston, MA•

Airbnb? You'd have to let the host know that you're doing an event, but I'm sure this is common in Hawaii

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AlohaBirdOPSeptember 2017 Kauai, HI•

I've been contacting some properties on vrbo, 3 out of three don't have the permits, but I'll keep trying. :)

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