Lush & Tropical Hawaiian Plantation Wedding

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When we picture Hawaiian weddings, visions of palms, sweet scents of pineapples and stretches of black sand beaches first come to mind. While today’s real wedding is certainly Hawaiian, it’s far beyond the stereotypical beach wedding – taking place at a lush and gorgeous mountain view plantation.

And it’s not just the venue that takes this real wedding beyond the typical “Hawaii postcard”, the wedding exhibits untraditional floral choices for such a tropical setting. The couple paired the iconic palms and monstera leaves with berry toned roses and dahlias with puffs of pink peonies – an unconventional and fresh pairing.

The focus on florals its next level on the custom, botanical invitations, created with great care by Shindig Bespoke. We agree with your guests Rose & Casey, they absolutely deserve framing (or at least the gorgeous photo by Naomi Wong Photography, of course!)

Our Love Story

Rose crashed a party at Casey’s house after the Outside Lands festival of 2013 in San Francisco.

Casey proposed on a pier in Barcelona, Spain. He carried the ring box in a pair of socks for a week through Ireland and several days in Spain before he popped the Q.

A thematic element we used on the save the date, invite, program, cocktail napkins, florals, etc. was the Bird of Paradise flower. Not only is it a beautiful exotic flower but it also has a very symbolic meaning:

Paradise on Earth,
Magnificence, excellence and success,
Royalty and a regal bearing,
Faithfulness in romantic relationships,
Joy through challenges and successes alike,
And Optimism towards the future.

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The Venue

We chose our venue because we loved the mystic mountain backdrop. Its extremely unique and beautiful – some of our ceremony photos captured it well. It rained right before we walked down the aisle and right as we walked out (to Spirit in the Sky, by Norman Greenbaum).

Our guests were amazed by our improbable and serendipitous coordination with Mother Nature – who also provided a few rainbows too. Our officiant was the friend who introduced us, he took his job very seriously

The Photography

Naomi was recommended by our wedding planner. We met her when we went to Kauai to look at venues six months prior to our date and we did engagement photos. We found Naomi to be laid back and fun. She was also very professional. We were extremely happy with the outcome.

Favorite Moments

The readings and songs during our ceremony were our favorite part and the most personal. Here is a link to the readings and a description of the Celtic bell ritual we added to include our parents.

Another favorite part was the after-party and dance-party where our DJ played only 90s Bay Area hip-hop.

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The Details

The color palette was white, pale pink, burgundy and gray. There is a lot of green and blue in the landscape and the sky, so we wanted to keep the palette minimal.

The most dramatic design element was the lighting. We had uplighting on trees throughout the grounds, string lights over the dancefloor, Edison bulb chandeliers in the tent and tiki torches lighting the exit and way to the restroom.

We highly recommend Shindig Bespoke – designing the save the dates and invitations was the best part of the entire planning process. These really set the right tone for the wedding. We used a vintage botanicals theme – which was elegant and unique with a cool island vibe – without being kitschy. We got so many rave reviews on our invitations, some guests said they were tempted to frame them.

The Honeymoon

We went to New Zealand, and we strongly recommend this to other couples. NZ has a really great mix of adventure, relaxation and romance; plus lots of wine!

The two best accommodations and destinations were Azul in Queenstown and The Farm at Cape Kidnappers. A highlight was the helicopter ride through Milford sound and landing on a glacier which can only be described as otherworldly.