Hawaiian wedding in the suburbs without the usual clichés

The actual physical location of your ceremony and reception will largely be determined by where you live and what you can afford. With that said; Determination, imagination, and a few creative tricks can go a long way toward minimizing the obstacles of location and money. One of my brides wanted to get married in Hawaii, but for various reasons it was not possible, she finally agreed to hold an evening wedding in the backyard of the brides parents’ 1960’s ranch style home for about 75 guests. The bride and groom decided they still wanted an island wedding, so I started creating a tropical setting right in the middle of the landlocked suburbs. The first thing was to discard all the old clichés; wooden tiki god statues, coconut cups, volcanoes with flowing lava, grass skirts, plastic of any kind and of course the thatched bar. This was a wedding, not a clam bake.

The bride and groom wanted a casual but somewhat sophisticated look and so they got it. The emphasis was on creating an illusion. When planning a theme, don’t try to recreate an exact replica, it’s impossible, especially when it comes to a location theme. What you want to do is create a mood, an illusion really, an outline much like you do for a theatrical production. The human imagination is an incredible thing; when the senses are stimulated by sound, sight, taste and smell, the mind begins to fill in the blanks and the illusion becomes an experience.

I started by measuring the area and drawing a rough plan of where things would go. You don’t have to be an artist, and your drawing doesn’t have to be perfect, but you do need to be fairly accurate in scale and size, or you’ll end up with too much stuff in too little space. By the time I finished my drawing, I had a pretty good idea of ​​what and how I needed the props and started renting a variety of tropical trees and plants in different sizes and textures. Garden burlap was brushed with flooring adhesive, then covered with sand and placed over and around trees and plant containers creating what looked like little sand dunes.

The look was completed by adding tropical flower stems that had been inserted into water tubes and placed randomly throughout the display, rocks, bunches of bear grass and Spanish and leaf moss were also used. And a focus area was created for where the actual ceremony would take place and where the cake would be placed later. Tiki torches, ropes and lighting defined and accentuated the area for the ceremony and reception; the wedding took place at dusk and two sound systems were used; one for music and the other for an ocean soundtrack that played softly and continuously throughout the night. This is very important; if you’re going to have a location soundtrack (ocean, rainforest, etc.), it needs to be unobtrusive. It is subliminal background noise and should be smooth and continuous just like it would be if you were in a beach house in Hawaii or in a forest.

Place the speakers around the perimeter or in trees or bushes. It’s better to have several small speakers than a couple of huge speakers blaring, save the big ones for another time. The reception featured Hawaiian music and light jazz; the buffet consisted of roast pork, vegetables, a variety of tropical fruits and breads, sushi, jasmine rice, and a signature tropical drink available with or without alcohol. Guests were asked to dress for an evening in Paradise. Round picnic tables were used instead of the traditional luau (on the ground) seats out of consideration for older guests, and umbrellas on the tables were covered with lights. Tiki torches were originally planned but did not provide adequate light. The umbrella pole and table opening were covered with Spanish moss, sand, tea lights, and flower petals that spread around 8 inches in diameter to create a tropical centerpiece.

The bride kept personal flowers to a minimum, there were no corsages or buttonholes, attendees brought an orchid stem and the bride brought only a small casual bouquet of orchids and gardenias and wore an orchid lei and the groom wore a traditional Hawaiian Maile Lei . The flagstone-style patio was used for the dance floor. Tropical plants were used again and placed around the patio highlighted with uplighting. The buffet table was placed away from the patio, but near a door that opened to the garage, which the caterer had set up as a prep area to make it easier to bring food and drinks to the table. The table was illuminated by string lights under the edge of the table and by small tiki torches that were inserted into the three large tropical arrangements placed in the arrangement of the three buffet tables in a corner style. Cutlery and cloth napkins were already on the reception tables, making it easy for guests to handle food and drinks. This wedding turned out to be one of my all-time favorites. The lighting, the atmosphere, the music, the food… everything was perfect. So many little details made this wedding great.

Lighting and audio played such a big role and that’s why electrical cables posed a real problem. To eliminate the tripping hazard posed by cables, I created a pattern using string and stakes by placing tables and other traffic areas that required lighting; then, using a flat shovel, the grass was cut at an angle along the pattern and the outside electrical extension cord was passed through a PVC pipe, then the pipe was slipped into the cuts and the grass was flattened over the upper part. Writing this sounds so easy, but it actually took a long time to create a working pattern, thread and connect the tubing, and make secure connections, but this little detail made a big difference.

Another detail that made a big difference was the use of burlap as a base for all the sand used and made clean up a lot easier, as did the fact that the tropical plants used were mostly rented and kept in their original containers. . Let’s not forget parking, which is always a big concern for in-home weddings. This particular house was located in a cul-de-sac that offered very limited parking. In this case, a nearby church was contacted and the family was given permission for their guests to use the church parking lot and shuttle service was provided to and from the church. In short, never dismiss your dream and never overlook the details and never underestimate the time it will take to achieve the illusion. You may not have exactly what you need, but you can get close even if you’re 3,000 miles away.