WARNING: Long Post, lots of details & photos
Less than a year ago we were discussing when and where we would get married. We had visited Oahu and Kauai before and absolutely fell in love with Kauai. I told my husband that I would like to get married by a waterfall and that having my family there and spending time with them was on my priority list. We decided then and there to make it an intimate wedding with just immediate family.
We chose October 2019 because I would be back from my out of country work, but we immediately had to change it because my sisters who are doctors at hospitals couldn't take off with a few months notice. So we moved the date to February 2020 which gave them over 6 months notice.
Since it was only going to be immediate family we also decided to "gift" our family flights, hotel accommodations, and car transportation. This additional expense made up for not having a big reception party. We also extended this invitation to those who were considered family, but not married yet. My MIL's boyfriend has been with her for over 7 years, and my sister's boyfriend (now fiance) whom I knew was going to propose by winter 2019.
We didn't really have a "Budget". We estimated how much everything would cost and discussed whether or not we could both pay our half. It was originally at $20k, but we knew it would be closer to $25k.
OFFICIANT/PHOTOGRAPHER/VIDEOGRAPHER/MUSICIAN
We found a great officiant (Island Weddings & Blessings) who could marry us at a waterfall on the north shore of Kauai. He had packages we could purchase and could be customized. We got one with a photographer, videographer, and musician. Also, we work in the entertainment industry so we know how important raw files are, so we paid an additional fee to have the raw videos & raw photos.
**Your photographer likely keeps your photos handy for a set timeframe, and then removes them from their files. With the raw you have the original untouched high-res files that you can edit later on. Same goes for the video footage.**
Waterfall Location + Officiant: $1150
Photography with 100+ images: $1150
Edited Video: $550
Hawaiian Musician: $250
Raw Video Footage: $100
Raw Photo Files: $300
FLOWERS
Our officiant Michael also worked with flower companies in the area to help with bouquets and leis. I reached out to his list of recommended locations and I really liked Molly (North Shore Buds & Blooms). I got a bouquet, 2 lei's and 1 maile ti lei.
Cascade Bouquet: $165
2 matching leis: $30
Maile style ti lei: $25
HOTEL ACCOMMODATIONS
We had stayed in 2 different hotels on Kauai the first time we visited: the Marriott and the Grand Hyatt. Since we wanted to make this a vacation we decided to go with the Grand Hyatt. We decided to pay for 3 nights, mainly because my family needed to go back work so they could only stay for a long weekend. Hotel rooms took up most of our budget.
Hotel Room for me and husband (5 nights): $4,756 (with taxes)
Hotel Rooms for family (3 nights, 4 rooms): $9,530 (with taxes)
My parents and his mom/mom's bf/brother got hotel rooms by LAX the first night after their first flight, and my sister/fiance came to our place to spend the night. We didn't pay for this, but it was about $200/per night to stay at the AC Hotel near LAX.
INVITATIONS
With only 10 of us we didn't really need invitations to send out. But, we wanted to make it formal instead of an email or phone message so we went ahead and made the purchase.
Vistaprint 10 cards: $18
LICENSE
Our officiant directed us to where we could get our license. We signed up for the license over 6 months in advance, and the day we landed we went to go pick it up.
Hawaii LIcense: $65
CAR RENTAL
Grand Hyatt had a deal on our room, which came with a car rental. So, we only had to rent 1 other car for the group. When we arrived in Kauai some of us had a lot of luggage so we upgraded our 5 day car and paid the difference.
AVIS Car Rental 3 days: $167 (doesn't include gas, FBIL paid for gas)
AVIS Car Rental 5 days upgraded difference: $280 (includes gas)
PLANE TICKETS
This was a lot of work to get at an affordable rate. I checked flight prices daily and used my Chase cc points to pay for my parents and my sister/fiance first leg of the trip to LAX. My MIL used her points to pay for herself, her boyfriend, and my husbands brother's first leg of the trip to LAX. Then I paid for everyone's trip from LAX to Lihue airport.
My LS was the exception because I paid for both her tickets from Guatemala to LAX / LAX to Lihue. She never requested off during 2019 or the beginning of 2020 to come to the wedding. She asked the Monday before the wedding, and in turn couldn't come. I had to cancel her flights less than a week before the wedding. If anyone was following my posts from 2019, she's the same sister who told me she wanted to invite her girlfriend to the wedding - none of us knew she was in a relationship. Needless to say, the girlfriend was unable to make the trip to Hawaii and told us in 2019, and then my LS couldn't come. This brought on so much stress the last week before we had to fly out.
Plane tickets for us: $866
Plane tickets for family: $4287 (includes my little sister's flights. I was unable to get a refund for one leg, so I gave it to my mom to use when my LS needs to come to the states. The other leg I'm waiting for a refund, total cost of my LS flights was $917).
FOOD
The day we arrived we went to a Luau, and then the day of the wedding we went to a restaurant at the hotel. We paid for both since the Luau was a "Welcome to Hawaii" dinner, and the dinner the day of the wedding was like a "Reception" dinner.
Luau for 9: $882
Dinner for 9: $818
TOTAL (including tax): ~$25,500
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NOT included in our budget above:
My Wedding Ring: $1500
Husbands Wedding Ring: $1200
My Dress from DB (my mom surprised me and paid for it): $500
My Alterations: $500 (includes 2 locations because DB completely screwed it up. It's still not perfect which I'm still pissed about after the wedding, but it looked great in the photos and you can't tell)
Husbands Shirt & Pants from Banana Rep: $100
My veil, shoes, head piece: $120
Husbands belt, socks, watch: $50
Hair salon for me and my sister: $225 (I was going to pay this, but my sister surprised me and paid for it).
Makeup: my sister did mine and hers. I didn't want a glam look and wanted a more natural look. I wish I could have known that my eye make up got messed up after we said our vows because it rained and I cried. There are a few photos that have a huge smudge on my eyelid. My husband can fix it on Photoshop, oh well.
TOTAL: $3470 (not including mom's gift or hair salon)
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We also paid for breakfast for just us and ate/drank by the pool and at other places around the hotel. I'm estimating this cost around ~$500. My parents paid for dinner the last night, and his mom/bf paid for drinks at the bar the last night.
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This makes it to be roughly a little less than $30k for the whole trip. It's not as cheap as I originally thought it would be, but I love that I got to spend the long weekend with family since we never get to do that. If we would've had a big reception we're pretty sure we wouldn't get to even see our families as we'd be getting pulled left and right. Also, we were pretty nervous going to the waterfall (1 hr drive from south to north shore), so I can't imagine standing in front of lots of people when I was only standing in front of family.
Overall, it was such a great experience, even the parts that I had planned that didn't go the way we wanted to. It started to rain on our way to the waterfall so everything was super muddy. All I could think of was my bad choice in shoes because there was literally dirt everywhere. I was so worried about my dress getting wet and dirty, so my sister had to hold it when I was walking to the waterfall so our plans of having her stand with my husband while I walked didn't happen. Our officiant forgot to use our full names in the beginning like I requested and instead used the names we go by which wasn't a big deal, but irritated me at the beginning. It also rained during our vows! There are a few photos with my husband holding up an umbrella while we both said our vows.
My biggest gripe was the dress and how I didn't follow my gut to buy a dress that was my size so alterations would have been a lot cheaper. I got a size 4 and I should have been a size 0, a lot of the alteration issues with the back straps and the fit could have been resolved if I got a dress that was my size. DB insisted I get the dress they had in the store instead of buying online, and I should've followed my gut to just buy it online. There were so many problems because they screwed up the dress entirely and I had to go somewhere else to get it fixed. It didn't get fixed 100% because the dress didn't zip up at the back all the way (my sister had to zip it up occasionally so it wouldn't go down), and it was uneven in the back which no one could see cause I decided to wear a veil last minute. I guess that's what happens when I give a place less than a week to fix what DB messed up. I plan on going back just to get the zipper fixed because it's going to bother me.
Aside from the dress, everything else was wonderful. Everyone loved how informal and intimate the whole weekend was. Everyone had a great time at the pool and enjoyed eating good food at the restaurants. I'm already thinking of what we would do if we decide to do a vow renewal in the future!
