Carissa + Mike: The Music

Well i couldn't help but share a little about the music that inspired Carissa and Mike's wedding day! After all, what is a vintage Hawaiian inspired fete without vintage Hawaiian music?

Carissa created an amazing playlist of vintage tunes (think Hawaiian steel guitar and ukulele, straight out of a Kerne Erickson painting) that guests enjoyed throughout the evening. Here's a fun playlist, all available on itunes, of quintessential Hawaiian songs for the perfect Vintage Hawaiian Celebration:

1. "My Little Grass Shack in Kealakekua Hawaii" by the New Hawaiian Band

2. "Beyond the Reef" by the All-Star Hawaiian Band

3. " Pearly Shells" by the New Hawaiian Band

4. "Lovely Hula Hands" by the Starlite Singers

5. "Hawaiian Paradise" by the All-Star Hawaiian Band

6. "Waikiki" by the New Hawaiian Band

7. "Blue Hawaii" by the All-Star Hawaiian Band

8. "Hukilau" by the Maile Serenaders

9. "Hawaii Nei" by Duke Kamoku & His Islanders

10. "Sweet Leilani" by the New Hawaiian Band

Enjoy!

Carissa + Mike: Lanikuhonua

When San Diego bride, Carissa, reached out to us to help her plan her destination Hawaii wedding, one of the first things she mentioned was how much she loved our website, ESPECIALLY because it was BLUE. Little did we know how important COLOR would be to this wedding, but after a few meetings, it became VERY apparent that "bright" and "bold" and "colorful" would be the buzz words that would inspire the design for Carissa and Mike's intimate celebration. This would be no ordinary wedding!

Carissa already had her wedding dress picked out (a gorgeous, flowing, COBALT BLUE Amsale) and she knew that she would ask guests to wear WHITE, creating the perfect palette for bright, bold and colorful design. From there, we set out to create our own version of Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room (Disneyland is where Carissa and Mike got engaged!), oceanside at Lanikuhonua on the island of Oahu.

Wooden Monkeypod Chargers dressed up the vintage Hawaiian inspired tabletop, complete with pineapple vases filled with fresh island tropicals, including colorful hibiscus, ginger and monstera. Vintage style hula nodders, that guests took home as favors, were a hit. They completed their intimate tiki lounge look with oversized wooden vases filled with lush tropical flowers and foliage, and illuminated Buri Lanterns, that lit up the night and set a perfect mood for a vintage inspired celebration in paradise!

Carissa and Mike... What can i say?! I enjoyed every minute, and i mean EVERY minute of this fun and crazy planning process with you. I'm so thrilled to now call you my friends, and with our shared love (obsession more like) of poke, malasadas and all things vintage Hawaiian, i feel like we're practically family!

Thank you to Frank Amodo and Alex Rapada for capturing amazing images of the day!

(and Carissa, thank you for the sweetest review on YELP!)

Inspiring The Menu

Wedding menu inspiration can come from anywhere: The meal a couple had on their very first date, a Bride's favorite dessert or a Groom's special family recipe. My favorite wedding menus are the menus that have taken shape from inspiration drawn from a couple's personal treasures that hold some sort of meaning to them, that reflect on their lives, the people in them, and their experiences that has brought them to their wedding day.

No place on the island has inspired wedding menus for our couples more then the infamous roadside shrimp trucks of our island's North Shore. After all, no trip to the North Shore (or Oahu, for that matter!) is complete without a pit stop at one of the unassuming but knock your socks off delicious plate lunch joints dotting the highway just past Turtle Bay.

So... headed to the North Shore with Pacific Aisles destination wedding couple, Charmayne & Nick, to check out prospective wedding venues (Loulu Palm and Turtle Bay's Keiki Beach), how could we pass up stopping for lunch at Giovanni's, the last stop for yummy garlic shrimp plates before hitting Kahuku town. The first bite of garlic and butter drenched shrimp had us all in heaven. The second bite had us all convinced that no menu for a wedding on the North Shore of Oahu would be complete without shrimp inspired by this North Shore delicacy. And with that, inspiration was found!

For more must do's (and must eat's) on Oahu's North Shore, check out this great article from our friends at the Pacific Bride Guide.

Carissa + Mike: Sneak Peak

What's an island inspired wedding without some COLOR! After all, Hawaii IS officially known as the rainbow state, and for this San Diego couple, color = happiness.

Stay tuned for more photos from Carissa & Mike's October wedding at Lanikuhonua!