Jessica has been recognized as a preferred vendor to work with by her industry peers, earned TheKnot.com’s Best of Weddings award 9 times, and been inducted into TheKnot.com Hall of Fame. Jessica is a multi-award-winning photographer, a leader in her industry, and an educator to up-and-coming photographers through her Embark Retreat.
Happy Anniversary to Shana & Chris!! I can’t believe over a year ago we were saying Aloha and celebrating their beautiful Honolulu Waikiki wedding day! It was full of family, laughter and celebration and I’m so thankful to have had the opportunity to capture it for them! Shana and Chris are from Hawaii and planned their wedding day while living in California. After a year of marriage, I asked these two a few questions for future couples out there planning their wedding day, especially for destination weddings and this is their advice:
Don’t wait to book your venue. We had our hearts set on our venue and ended up moving our date because the date we wanted was already taken.
Get a planner, especially if you are having a destination wedding. Having our wedding in Hawaii and getting a planner early on really helped us to stay on track and make sure that all of the little details that we didn’t know about, our planner was able to make sure was taken care of. Our planner made a strict timeline that we stuck to, from sending invites to booking vendors, and it really made everything go smoothly. Also, having a team there on the day of to direct all of the vendors gave us the chance to really sit back and enjoy the day.
We wanted colors that reminded of us Hawaii and that complemented our location, and Coral and Mint were the best combination.
Our cake topper was a surprise from Chris, and it was designed to look just like us. It was cute and funny, and all of the guests loved it.
We had a long engagement, but started planning 9 months before the wedding.
We would have liked to have more music and dancing, but our venue had a time/noise restriction.
Chris was extremely involved. He picked the colors, designed the Save the Dates, Invites and Thanks, picked all of the music and had input on all of the small details that went into the day.
Honestly, our photographer. We are from Hawaii, and know several photographers locally, but after seeing your pictures, and having met you and knowing how comfortable we were with you, that was one thing we did not want to compromise or settle on.
We went to several locations, including hotels and private venues. Our planner highly recommended the Halekulani Hotel because of the superior communication and customer service of their planner Joel, the fact that so many of the amenities were included in the wedding package (including the cake and night in an amazing suite) and it is one of the premier hotels in Waikiki.
How awesome is this cake topper?!?!
If you’d like to see more visit their original three posts:
Part 1: http://jessicafreyphotographyblog.com/oahu-wedding-chris-shana
Part 2: http://jessicafreyphotographyblog.com/oahu-wedding-chris-shana-part-2
Part 3: http://jessicafreyphotographyblog.com/koolina-hawaii-bride-groom-photo-shoot
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VENDORS:
Location: Halekulani Hotel, Waikiki, Oahu Hawaii
Catering/Linens/Cake: Halekulani Hotel
Coordinator: NEU Events – Megan & Mona neuevents.com
Wedding Dress: Casa Blanca Bridal
Bridesmaid Dresses: David’s Bridal
Wedding Shoes: Nordstroms; Benjamin Adams
Flowers: Oahu NEX
2nd photographer: Eric Frey
Assistant: Adriane Nicole Photography – local Oahu photographer 🙂
Stationary: minted.com
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Now Booking Austin/Texas/Destination Weddings for 2016!
Email for availability & investment information: Jessica@JessicaFreyPhotography.com
Jessica Frey is an award-winning, Texas Hill Country-based international wedding and event photographer committed to delivering a high-quality experience complete with stunning and joyful images.