Emily & Brandon's Intimate Makena Beach House Wedding

It's with great pleasure I present to you Emily & Brandon's Maui wedding a few months after their 3 year anniversary! Congrats guys! And thanks for sharing your wedding with us...

The Bride: Emily - Photographer

Her Partner: Brandon - Project Manager

Location & date of wedding: Beach House in Makena Maui -- April 22, 2006

Why Maui?: We were engaged while living in China... and both of our families were from different parts of the US. Either way, people were going to have to travel to get to our wedding, so we thought we might as well make it a cool place. Neither of us had actually ever been to Hawaii before. Our first thought was Thailand, but then we realized it would be easier to do something in the States as it would be easier for people to travel to. And so... Maui it was!

Tell us your favorite or unique details about your wedding: One of my bridesmaids made swarovski crystal foot jewelry for us girls to wear - with a special one for me! I wanted to be barefoot, but not boring! Other than that, I like to think everything else was pretty understated and simple.

We only had 25 guests. I didn't even get a pedicure or manicure before the wedding! Yikes! I cried a lot during the ceremony and never ever retouched my make-up before pictures. Like I said... simple! Keeping things simple meant my stress level was almost non-existent. How many brides can say that?

The day-of went pretty smoothly, especially considering we hadn’t seen the location yet (at least not in person). Everything was set up for us once we arrived. During the ceremony, a fisherman walked over the rocks that were just a few yards behind us with his pole, bucket and little scruffy dog. He was just passing through, on his way to the other side of the cove. I thought it was cute, and a perfect thing to “go wrong” if something must go wrong!

My advice to other brides planning their Maui wedding: You can do it for a lot cheaper than you might think -- especially if you plan it yourself. We went through a coordinating company, and while it was a bit of a hassle... the decisions were SUPER EASY to make, I got just what I wanted, and on the day of no one had to worry about a thing.

Would you care to share links to some of your local vendors?:

Photographer - Stewart Pinsky -- I can't say enough good things about him and his work. Rarely a week goes by when my husband or I don't mention him! And we just celebrated our 3rd anniversary!

Catering - Cafe O'Lei (YUM! Even if they don't cater your wedding, you should go eat at their restaurant!)

Bartender - (we were allowed to purchase our own liquor, so we hit up the costco on the island before hand and bought the main liquor for the few signature drinks we had picked out, as well as a few basics to go with simple mixed drinks, the bartender supplied everything else - including mixers) Bars-R-Us -- no website.

Click on the photo below to see more fabulous photos from this wedding, including some adorable video clips & then if you feel like looking at even more wedding info & even more beautiful photos check out Emily's blog.