All of the islands have many churches available, whether you’re in Kauai, Maui, or any of the other beautiful Hawaiian Islands. There are also historical churches you may want to visit such as the beautiful Wai’oli Church that is located on the North Shore in Hanalei. You’ll be welcome at any of Hawaii’s churches.

On the island of Kauai, the Jewish Community is the only Jewish congregation on the island. The Jewish Community of Kauai is unaffiliated and conducts monthly Shabbat Services, observing and celebrating Jewish holidays throughout the year. They also host presentations on topics related to their faith and to the community at large.

You will also find some wonderful Buddhist temples and meditation centers throughout the islands. Kauai is home also home to two Hindu temples, of which the Sivalingam temple is still under construction and will be one of the largest Hindu temples in the world.

Good news! As a tourist destination it is not difficult to find a wedding planner specializing in Hawaii Weddings who will offer the perfect choice from a wide variety of packages, services, and ceremonies to fit your budget.

Transportation costs and lodging will probably be the largest part of your expenses, especially if you are taking family members. With some creativity and flexibility with regards to departure times and dates, you can save quite a lot of money by searching for specials and booking far in advance.

Another avenue to look into, if you or your beloved work for a large corporation, is the possibility that the company has an agreement with an airline or hotel chain for packages at discount rates. After you’ve solved transportation and lodging, the fun part of planning begins.

Six Hawaiian Island Wedding Destinations

The first step is to choose your perfect island destination. The Hawaiian islands are an archipelago of dozens of islands in the center of the Pacific ocean. There are six main islands:

1. Oahu (Where Honolulu is located)
2. Hawaii (the Big Island with an active volcano)
3. Maui (world famous for fun)
4. Kauai (exceptionally beautiful and laid back)
5. Molokai (closest to an “old Hawaii” experience)
6. Lanai (secluded, isolated and timeless)

Each of these islands has what you might call a “personality,” so it’s possible to match the mood you envision for the wedding with the island. Don’t forget to make an appointment to get a marriage license at least 30 days ahead of time. You and your future spouse must be at the appointment in person with driver’s license, passport and/or birth certificate. The cost is $60 cash, payable to the marriage license agent.

Better yet, your wedding coordinator can help you make arragements for the license to ensure you have the proper paperwork prepared prior to your wedding day.

But, if you do not have a coordinator taking care of this for you, here’s the information you need:

Where to Apply for a Marriage License

In Honolulu – Room 101 (1st floor) of the Health Department building, 1250 Punchbowl St. (corner of Beretania and Punchbowl Streets) Monday through Friday (excluding holidays), 8:00 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Oahu: For the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of marriage agents in the rural and suburban areas of Oahu – call (808) 586-4544

Other Islands as follows: For the names, addresses, and telephone numbers of marriage agents on the neighbor islands – call the local office of the Department of Health:

• Hawaii (Big Island) – (808) 974-6008
• Kauai – (808) 241-3498
• Maui – (808) 984-8210
• Molokai – (808) 553-3663
• Lanai – (808) 565-6411

To download your application, click here >  Marriage License Application in Hawaii.

Your Hawaiian style wedding will be most successful if you have consistency from the ceremony to the reception through the choice of decoration, accessories, keepsake items, even photography, up to the champagne toast and the cutting of your wedding cake. Just as important is to keep within a budget by shopping around for prices and possible free services whether through a wedding coordinator or searching the internet.

If your wedding is going to be in the Hawaiian islands, local bakeries may offer a hawaii wedding cake with local fruit and nut flavors, fillings, frostings and toppings for as little as $50 for a six inch cake (perfect for two to four people) to several hundred dollars for large, elaborate cakes. Prices through hotel catering services can be even more, but usually come with a set up including plates, forks, knives, cake cutter and, perhaps, a waiter or waitress standing by to serve. Again, working through a local wedding coordinator or planner may be the best idea to keep overall costs and prices within your budget.

Of course, the least expensive route is to make your own specialty wedding cake, especially if you are having your wedding and reception in your home town rather than in Hawaii. Embellishing the presentation of the cake and your table settings with flowers and fruits such as papaya, pineapple, guava and lilikoi will weave a wonderfully romantic tropical Hawaiian spell on guests and bride and groom.

Yummy Layered Liliko’i Cake

Here’s a simple recipe for one of the most well known island style passion fruit cakes. You may want to make two, one ahead of time to share with friends prior to the wedding it’s that good.

Passion Fruit Cake Ingredients:

• 1 package moist Yellow Cake Mix
• 1 1/3 cups fresh liliko’i juice (you can order concentrated juice by mail. Just call Aunty LiliKo’i at 1-866-lililoi then follow the directions on the bottle for correct amount)
• 3 eggs
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil

Bake cake according to package directions substituting liliko’i juice for water.

Lilikoi Chiffon Frosting

• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/4 cup Liliko’i juice concentrate, thawed, undiluted
• 1 cup whipping cream
• 1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Beat egg yolks and sugar until lemon-colored; add Liliko’i juice, place in saucepan and cook over low-to-medium heat until thick, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and chill. Whip cream and vanilla, then fold into Liliko’i mixture. Frost sides of cake; cover top with Liliko’i topping. Makes enough to frost one cake. If layering an 11-by-13-inch cake, double this recipe.

To assemble cooled cake: Thickly frost the cake with all of the Chiffon frosting mixture. Glaze the top of the cake with lilikoi gel topping (recipe as follows). Refrigerate until ready to serve.

Lilikoi Gel Topping

• 2 tablespoons cornstarch
• 1/2 cup water
• Pinch salt
• 12-ounce can Lilikoi juice
• 1 teaspoon lemon juice
• 1 slightly beaten egg yolk
• 1 tablespoon butter

Mix cornstarch with water to dissolve all lumps. Add salt, Lilikoi and lemon juices and egg yolk. Cook over low heat until thick, stirring constantly. Remove from heat and add butter. Spread when slightly cooled but still warm.

The invitation art will need to be designed with a theme, whether traditional or just plain fun; if this is going to be an “all girl” gathering, you may want to focus on certain bridal themes that can be a bit risque; if it’s going to be a more inclusive party with family and friends of both sexes, perhaps you want to have a Hawaiian Luau (pronounced loo-ow), meaning ‘a feast’.

Quite often this party is arranged by someone other than the bride or groom, perhaps the bride’s maid (or matron) or the best man. Whoever the event planners are, you need to start organizing early, starting with the look of the announcement; what kind of paper, clip art, wording, type of font, etc. The Hawaii wedding shower invitation should reflect the decor you envision for the site of the party (palm trees, sand and volcanoes?) and let guests know what accessories to bring if you’ll be playing games. The guests may want to bring their photo albums with fun old pictures of the bride and groom from years ago.

Special Touches

Another fun thing to include in the invitations is a translation of each guest’s name into Hawaiian. Just search the internet for “translate Hawaiian names”. You can then greet each guest by their Hawaiian name and perhaps “lei” them with a flower or affordable shell lei.

If you are fortunate enough to be doing the party and wedding in Hawaii, hire a local musician to play some traditional Hawaiian songs which are full of double entendre and suggestive sexual innuendo. It’s the nature of the Hawaiian language, soft and melodious and sensual.

If your budget allows, see if you can also get some Hawaiian dancers who will really spice up the party and even teach everyone how to hula.

The Hawaiian wedding shower invitation should also include a mention of the menu for the party and what sort of gifts are appropriate. Appetizers in Hawaii are called “pupus” and generally consist of smoked or raw fish (“poke”), poi (delicious pounded taro root), fruits like papaya, banana, coconut, pineapple, and macadamia nuts. A full on luau menu would include roast pork, “huli huli” chicken (rotisserie roasted), rice, grilled fresh fish and more poi, lots of poi.

Have fun with your Hawaii theme shower, it’s a fabulous way for a bride and/or groom to say goodbye to single life and a big aloha to their union as a married couple.

Flowers are not actually indigenous to the Hawaiian Islands, they were brought by early Polynesian voyagers making incredible journeys from Tahiti, navigating by stars and currents in sailing canoes. It was these ancient adventurers who also introduced the tradition of giving flower lei (there is no plural spelling for lei) to visitors, mahini, and honored local people, kama’aina. This tradition carries over in modern times when a bride, groom or minister presents lei at a wedding service or reception.

Lei Tradition

Another charming local tradition dates to the days of the great sailing ships and steamers carrying passengers from around the world who would put into port in Honolulu for trade or tourism. Upon departing, passengers would toss their lei overboard into Pearl Harbor. If the colorful strings of blossoms floated ashore in the surf, those passengers would someday return to the island paradise. The unlucky passengers whose lei drifted out to sea may never see another glorious sunset over Diamond Head again.

Local people often make their own lei since lovely fresh flowers such as orchid and plumeria are often free and abundant, perhaps growing in their own back yard when in season. However, there are numerous flower shops on each island where you can find reasonable prices for all your Hawaii wedding flower needs: center piece arrangements of bright tropical flowers for the reception tables, bouquets of all types, double orchid or fragrant plumeria lei, maile lei (usually for men) which are intertwined fragrant leafy vines, haku lei (a beautiful headpiece worn by itself or with a veil) for the bride, and perhaps a kupe’e, a small lei made to wear on the wrist or ankle.

There are a few unwritten rules regarding the giving, receiving and wearing of a lei. A lei is presented as a welcoming gesture and expression of affection and honor to another, so never refuse to accept one when it is offered. Wear your lei on top of your shoulders, not draped around your neck, and hanging down equally in front and back. As a matter of protocol do not remove the lei in front of the person who gave it to you. Be discrete and remove it later if necessary.

The fragrant beauty of every Hawaii wedding flower at your celebration will live in memory, like a gracious aloha forever.

The Art of Lei

Watch this meaningful and timeless tribute to the Hawaiian Lei. The tradition of lei making is celebrated in Hawaii each year on May 1st.

Vintage Coco Palm Palms' Postcard

It is still possible to recreate that famous wedding scene on the lagoon at the old Coco Palms led by the colorful and charming local musician, Larry Rivera (who was actually an extra in the movie).

Tropical Wedding Locations

Maui is another island where you can choose from packages that include professional photography and video with a waterfall backdrop, romantic sunset, gardens splashed with tropical color and a full selection of wedding services.

Travel between islands is easy and relatively inexpensive ($100 or less per person), so it’s possible to have your wedding ceremony on one island and hop over to another for an unforgettable honeymoon.

Barefoot Beach Weddings

Beach weddings are very popular and a staple for Hawaii Weddings. All Hawaiian beaches up to the vegetation line are public and free of charge; however, property fronting the beach may be private and restricted from public use, so check with your coordinator if you find a beach that is not on their “best locations” list.

If there will only be the bride and groom, perhaps with just a few guests, a barefoot wedding on the beach may be the perfect memorable ceremony. Garden locations on private property usually involve some sort of site fee as do churches, chapels, and hotel grounds. If you arrive a few days before your scheduled date, your wedding coordinator may direct you to several sites from which to choose; it’s a fun way to explore the island and find the the location that exactly fits your vision.

Tropical Floral Leis

Don’t forget to add some traditional Hawaiian color to your celebration. Of course you’ll want some flower leis, a haku lei crown of flowers for the bride and maybe a maile lei for the groom. Flower shops abound on all islands. You may want to have some tropical floral arrangements made for the reception or even as side pieces with tiki torches at the ceremony. Another wonderful touch is to have a local musician sing some Hawaiian wedding tunes accompanied by guitar or ukulele. The Hawaiian Wedding Song is a staple, however there is a whole world of great Hawaiian music you may have never heard but also may never forget.

So dream on when you’re planning your magical tropical wedding, it is only a plane ride away to paradise!

Elvis Scene From Blue Hawaii

When you begin to search the net you are going to find hundreds of different wedding packages. So, before you start to go into caffeine overload carefully scrutinizing all the wedding event sites looking for the one that just “calls” to you, narrow the field by discerning what it is you want to fulfill your once in a lifetime perfect Hawaii wedding.

Coordinators Serve the Client

Terry and Leandra's Hawaiian Wedding Ceremony

Wedding coordination is a service oriented business and the packages offered by the numerous companies are designed to help simplify your choices and to make your important decisions easier.

Many packages include such things as setting up your marriage license appointment, limousine service to area hotels, free leis, choice of bouquet and a variety of vows.

However, if you know ahead of time what you want, picking the perfect package or crafting it yourself, will make your wedding coordination life, and that of your eventual local hawaii wedding coordinator, all that much easier.

Narrow it Down

First, pick an island! Check out the “personalities” of each island: Maui, perhaps the most popular, has many activities and night life. Kauai, the “Garden Island,” is more laid back, yet endowed with luscious beauty and broad sandy beaches. Oahu has big city Honolulu and Waikiki, and probably the least expensive prices for the ceremony and services. Hawaii, the “Big Island”, has an incredibly diverse array of natural settings, from an often live volcano to black sand beaches. Molokai and Lanai are quite remote and can be the ultimate get away for your sacred private ceremony.

A Video & Photo Wedding Package

Next, decide what sort of photography and, perhaps, video package you want. These can vary wildly if not included in an overall wedding package, so again, compare prices.

Most coordinators have photographers, video companies and for that matter, most other vendors they work with all the time to obtain the best prices.

The ultimate decision is how much you want to be catered to during your wedding. Leaving the coordinating up to a reputable company with a great selection of Hawaiian wedding packages may be your best bet. Let them schedule a limousine to pick you up at your hotel, deliver you in elegant style to the wedding site, then whisk you and your new spouse off to a prearranged romantic dinner.

Why not? It’s your wedding — to be remembered for a lifetime!

Each island has its own personality and charm and by choosing a local photographer he or she will know how to coordinate your event  at one of best locations with beach, garden or mountain backdrops for the ceremony. This is where fabulous images can be captured.

Whether you use an event coordinator or search for the photographer yourself, there are a few questions you need to ask yourself and the photographer before deciding on a ideal photo, or wedding package.

Planning Your Wedding Photos

The first important question centers around your budget for the photography. You may also want to have a video taken of your special day, so you’ll have to strike a balance to preserve the lasting memories fully and completely.

Elaborate photograph packages may contain a photo session dedicated strictly to very high quality portraiture of the bride and groom and, perhaps, the wedding party, either in a studio setting or a location where the lighting can be strictly controlled. This would probably entail the use of a large or medium format camera to facilitate special printing techniques for a glamorous romantic feel to enlargements. These sessions can get very expensive, often thousands of dollars, so plan carefully.

The same photographer may be able to do the studio work and the ceremony, but it is not unusual to divide the services between two different photographers. The actual ceremony and reception are quite adequately handled with 35 mm SLR cameras. Their versatility and ease of use make them ideal for the changing conditions encountered, especially if the services are held out of doors. However, blow ups can be no larger than 8 inches by 12 inches from a 35 mm negative, so plan on these being the photographs for your wedding album.

Benefits of Digital Photography

Digital photography has added a whole new dimension to the services a Hawaii wedding photographer can offer. While film photographs can easily be transferred to a CD or DVD, photos shot on a digital camera are already digitized and are ready to download onto a computer or directly to a printer.

Though a high end professional digital 35 mm SLR camera looks indistinguishable from its film counterpart, the capabilities are significantly different.

Photos from a digital camera set to its highest resolution can be blown up quite large without losing clarity and sharpness. Also, it is possible to capture many images, hundreds even, on a digital memory card without incurring the expense of buying an equivalent number of rolls of film. There are no developing costs with digital, however downloading, touching up images, and printing them from a computer can be very costly.

When it comes time to make your decision about photography, choose a Hawaii wedding photographer based on the look of the photos you see on his or her website. The format, quantity, and extent of the package can usually be negotiated along with the price. Talk to or email the photographer of your choice and be confident the images they capture will be memorable keepsakes you can share with friends, relatives and descendants for years to come.

Vintage Coco Palms Postcard

You can still recreate that glorious wedding scene at the original location, the famous Coco Palms Hotel on Kauai. Though it has been closed since 1992 due to being devastated by hurricane Iniki, local musician and celebrity, Larry Rivera (who was an extra in the movie) can provide the flowered canoe and paddlers in the actual lagoon, plus conch blowers and Hawaiian maidens leading a procession to the grass roofed chapel.

However, the Hawaii wedding song is not the only romantic Hawaiian song available to the bride and groom on their special day.

Live Hawaiian Music & Shell Blowing

Traditional Hawaiian weddings, as do all important events, begin and end with the blowing of the conch shell. When planning that special day in Hawaii, think about hiring a local musician who can play the conch and some beautiful traditional Hawaiian love songs on the ukulele or slack key guitar (a beautiful Hawaiian guitar style). Even non-Hawaiian standards like “Over the Rainbow” or “At Last” will become memorable romantic love songs that will be “your songs” forever.

Expect to pay $150 – $200 per hour for the musician and for an extra beautifully romantic touch, a hula dancer for $100 – $150 per hour.

Hawaiian Songs

Vintage Coco Palms Postcard

Another option is to ask your coordinator to provide a CD player with some CD’s of great popular and traditional Hawaiian music available for free. Even more fun is to research some of the great Hawaiian recording artists and choose your own tunes. The artist Israel Kamakawiwo’ole, affectionately known as Iz, has a classic rendition of “Somewhere Over the Rainbow/What a Wonderful World” that is an instant memorable hit with couples the first time they hear it.
More great songs to consider are:

• White Sandy Beach
• Pearly Shells
• Sweet Leilani
• Beyond the Reef
• Bali Hai
• Lei Aloha Lei Makamae
• Lovely Hula Hands
• I’ll Weave A Lei Of Stars For You
• Sophisticated Hula
• Maile Swing
• Pretty Red Hibiscus

Hawaiian Music Artists

Some artists to consider are: Kainani Kahaunaele, Olomana, Keola Beamer, Gabby Pahinui, Emma Veary, Sons of Hawaii, Hui Ohana, Don Ho, Dennis Kamakahi, Dennis Pavao, Larry Rivera, and Alfred Apaka. Welcome to the wonderful world of popular Hawaiian music. After listening to some of these great musicians and songwriters, you may become a big fan for life.

Don’t forget to include that special beautiful romantic Hawaii Wedding Song you choose in the video if you have one made of your memorable day in the islands of paradise. Whenever you hear it you will be transported back in time to your magical Hawaii wedding.

Elvis Sings the Hawaii Wedding Song

Still photography has traditionally reigned supreme as a “must have” service when planning your Hawaii wedding. However, with the proliferation of relatively inexpensive high quality digital video cameras and computerized editing equipment, it has become quite affordable to capture the memorable moments of your ceremonies.

Every vow, every kiss, and that romantic walk on a sun drenched Hawaii beach are images that lend themselves to video in a way that photography does not. We live in a television society and in talking to other couples who have married, we often are pressed to watch the video of their wedding even before the photo album comes out.

Choosing a Wedding Video Provider

Wedding Videos That Capture the Moment

So, how can you tell whether the company offering you their video services is right for you?

These days, anyone with a cheap camera and a web site can call themselves a producer of Hawaii wedding videos. If you are already working with an event coordinator you trust, and they recommend a video service provider, chances are the company has proven itself to be reliable and competent. Here are some easy to follow guidelines to assist you in searching for someone who may more perfectly suits your needs.

Ask questions! There are no stupid questions, only questions you could find you had wished you’d asked. It is important to know how long the company has been in business and to check their references and review their testimonial. This information should be somewhere on their professional web site. You can even ask to see a free sample of their work.

What type of camera do they use? Most important, ask about their equipment. Fancy equipment is no substitute for talent, but it helps a lot. A three-chip digital camera (the chip is the sensor behind the lens that captures the image) is going to produce crisper cleaner images than, say an S-VHS analog camera. But, the difference between the image on a one-chip camera may not be as apparent to the average person as that of a three chip camera.

Audio and music are also extremely important. For anything short of a full blown Hollywood production, ask for wireless lavaliere microphones so you can hear clearly every vow and every word of the ceremony. Most Hawaii wedding videos are shot outdoors because of the fabulously beautiful settings, so there may be wind and surf noise in the background.

Click to see a sample and learn about  > RainbowWeddings Digital Videos

Music as an Option

You may be able to choose your own music for your video. Usually the company will want you to provide them with a CD of the music you would like to hear in the background.

Many video providers also have an extensive library of wedding favorites and when getting married in islands Hawaiian music is an excellent choice.

Finally, get your Hawaii wedding video put on a DVD by the company who produced it, they’ll do it right from the computer. Even if you have to go out and buy an inexpensive DVD player, you want to enjoy and cherish the beautiful images and moments of your ceremonies of that special romantic day as close to the clarity as when the magic occurred.