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Maui has been voted "best island in the
world" many times over. But perhaps you didn't know that Maui just happens to
be the most popular wedding destination in the entire Pacific Ocean. Half of
all the Hawaiian weddings taking place in the islands of aloha, are performed
on Maui. It beats out Hawaii, Kauai and even much more populated Oahu (where
Honolulu is located).
There are many reasons for this,
including the great beaches, the awesome sunsets, the uncrowded conditions,
and a romantic atmosphere like no other island in the world. But before you
run off and book your own Maui dream wedding, it might be a wise idea to
select a top-of-the-line Maui wedding planner. This article will give you just
the information you need to make the best selection of your Hawaiian wedding
planning company.
1.
Find a Maui wedding planner who has a decent website.
It is virtually impossible for any company
to do wedding planning on the island of Maui without a website. The
competition is too keen to be without one. Therefore, an attractive well
thought out website will give you a good clue as to just how busy and
professional the Maui wedding company really is. Of course you can be fooled
by a company who hires a great web designer, but this is probably a good place
to start in your search.
A good website should make sense. It should give you enough
information so that you can make an intelligent decision about a wedding
company before you even call. It should be well organized and easy to
navigate, because you won't want a disorganized company coordinating your
wedding. And the website should give you a good sense of the philosophy and
outlook of those who run the company.
2.
Choose a Maui Wedding Planner who gives you their names and business
address and phone numbers right on their website.
In every wedding market, there are
always a number of companies who seem to like hiding behind their website.
In some cases, they have worked at making their identity hard to find
because they don't enjoy too much contact with their clients. They will
cloak their identity, giving no personal information. They may even cloak
their business name and address so that you don't really know who you're
dealing with. Some go so far as to eliminate their phone number so that
you can only reach them through e-mail. Any of these signs could indicate
that you are dealing with a fly-by-night company or one who is only a
middle-man, hiring another company of Maui to perform their actual
weddings.
3. Select a Maui
Wedding Planner located on Maui.
There are actually wedding coordinating companies
who are trying to coordinate weddings on Maui from Oahu and even from the
mainland! These companies, inevitably, will have to "farm out" the onsite
coordination of your wedding to someone here on Maui. That means they act
like a middle-man, and generally have to charge higher prices. But most
importantly, they will not be
able to effectively follow-up with your wedding if anything goes wrong.
The larger your wedding, the more
likely it is that something could go wrong. Can you imagine having to
depend upon a coordinator who is not even at your wedding, who is located
on some other island or the mainland? Make certain, before you book, that
your Maui wedding planner is indeed, on Maui.
4.
Select a Maui Wedding Coordinator who answers their phone.
On the surface, this may seem like a
silly point. Doesn't everyone in business answer their telephone? Actually,
many Maui coordinating companies here prefer to hide behind their telephone
answering service, so they can call back their clients at their own
convenience. If you call them on different days and you can't get through to
a real person, or worse, they don't call you back in a timely manner, this
could be a sign that they do their wedding planning service on the side,
part time. Do you really want a part time Maui wedding planner?
5.
Pay attention to the way a Maui Wedding Planner treats you on the telephone.
You will want to do business with a
coordinator who treats you with respect. If someone is rude or quick, do you
really want them organizing your wedding? How you are handled on the phone is a
good indication of how you will be treated on the day of your wedding. If a
wedding planner doesn't have the time to get back to you in the beginning,
before you have even booked, how easy will they be to work with after they have
your deposit and you're "stuck" with them?
6.
Find a Maui Wedding Planner who has experience.
Over the years many young women have
told us that they see planning weddings as a dream job. Here on Maui, there
are many who have thrown up a quick website and begun to tell their friends
that they are now a Maui wedding planner. Do you want to be someone's first
(or second) wedding? Experience is so important, especially here on Maui where
their are so many different things to know, including wedding locations, legal
questions, types of flowers, the difference in wedding vendors, which
ministers and photographers are the best, etc., etc. A company who has a track
record of having planned and coordinating many different Maui weddings is more
likely to be good, or they wouldn't still be in business.
7.
Choose a Maui Wedding Planner who has planned and overseen a variety of
different weddings.
If You want a wedding planner who has
the kind of experience which matches your needs. For instance, if you are
planning a larger wedding with catering and entertainment with lots of
details, you don't want to hire a Maui wedding coordinator who has planned
only a few larger weddings. Make sure to ask if they have planned the kind of
wedding that you want to have.
8.
Make certain your Maui Wedding Planner will actually be at your wedding.
There are cut-rate Maui wedding
companies who only perform front office services. They book a minister, a
photographer and maybe a videographer to do your wedding, but they don't send
an on-site coordinator to oversee everything, because that would mean they
would have to raise their prices and cut down their competitive edge.
If no on-site wedding coordinator will
be showing up, who will make certain that everyone knows what they're doing?
And if for some reason, one vendor (like the minister) is late or heaven
forbid, does not show up at all because of some mix up, who will pull
everything together and get a backup? Unless your wedding involves just a
minister, and no one else, you want to be certain that a Maui wedding planner
will be in attendance when your ceremony is performed.
9.
Choose a Maui Wedding Planner with the "Aloha Spirit."
"Aloha" means love in Hawaiian. Those
of us who live in Hawaii enjoy the attitude that is here and which comes,
first and foremost from the native Hawaiians. But all of us who live on Maui
and who enjoy the incredible job of planning weddings for all our couples,
want to practice the spirit of Aloha. We want to treat you like you're family
(or ohana, as we say here). It is wise to look for a Maui wedding coordinator
who truly treats you like you're part of the family.
10. Choose a Maui
Wedding Planner who is a member of the Better Business Bureau.
This final point is probably our most
important tip. In any industry there are always companies who do not treat
their clients well. Even companies who have been in business for years. On
Maui there are several wedding planners who have a long list of unhappy or
semi-happy couples. The easiest way to avoid such companies is to check up
on them with the Hawaii Chapter of the Better Business Bureau. You can be
sure that a company with a number of black marks will rise to the attention
of the BBB. A member company offers you one more guarantee that you will go
home happily "Maui'd."
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