Now that I am back in Vancouver, happily married to my beautiful wife, I thought I would do a small series of our wonderful and not so wonderful wedding moments! I hope you will enjoy 
Part 1 of ?
It felt like, I was below Hells Gate (which should have been)…Above Heavens Gate – in any case, all things happen for a reason.
After getting engaged in October, 2010. Aya and myself decided to have a destination wedding. We had decided Mexico, however trying to deal with Mexicans was a hard challenge so we decided to do Hawaii! Aloha Hawaii!!!, I googled Hawaii Barefoot Beach Wedding and a company called “Above Heavens Gate” came up (www.HawaiiWeddings.com). I clicked in on the first link and was stunned! The page looked beautiful, I watched all the videos of Captain Howie and could feel his passion and personal characteristics and thought this was definitely the place I wanted to get married!
I called them and dealt with Jodi and Crissy, I was really excited and chose to go with a “package” (note: packages and a la carte price are basically the same) called Pukalani Falls & Angels Bay Combination – Pukalani falls is in Captain Howies backyard which is actually quite beautiful, and the Angels Bay is Waimanalo Beach, which is also quite nice, but not as nice as the pictures on their website – they are all Photoshopped to look incredible! I have put two pictures below that I took for you to see – 1. Pukulani Falls 2. Angels Bay / Waimanalo Bay Beach
So in December I gave a $100 deposit for my wedding which was planed for May 24, 2011. I was very excited and I knew there was going to be a rather good amount of people who would be showing up (approximately 40). Above Heavens Gate said they could accommodate. The wedding time as discussed was to be at 2:00pm. At the end of the January I was rather frustrated in dealing everything over the phone and email, so I planned a last minute trip to Honolulu to go meet with captain Howie and his crew as well as to find a place that would be good for our reception.
While I was in Hawaii, Captain Howie was gracious and was happy to accommodate and meet me. I actually thought he was an extremely nice person and wish I had the chance to know him a little better. He comes across very very kind and is an extremely unique individual…Definitely not for everyone as their website states.
After meeting with him, I also had a chance to speak with Jodi and Crissy and discussed things for the wedding. They mentioned that we would come at 11:30 and then have pictures and that the wedding would not be until 4:00pm which was a huge mis-understanding as we had planned the wedding to be at 2:00 and also had sent our invites for that time. They really wanted us to notify all our guests that the wedding would be later instead..Also further to this it was crucial to them that they had photo’s done first before the wedding, Photo’s with the two of us and also with the guests which is completely backwards to normal style wedding…Apparently it’s Hawaiian style to do all the photos first???
January to April went on and there was not a whole lot of communication until towards the end of April when we wanted to finalise everything and be properly prepared. I had to go away on a business trip so I was trying to get everything done before hand. Finding out if Aya could do a trial make-up session before hand and of course trying to figure out that we could do our wedding at 2:00pm first before photos….it was extremely difficult and hard to deal with the response..well if you dont care about your photo’s, etc. its going to be too bright to have photos and they wont look good because of the time, etc…just a lot of excuses and utter crap. We finally agreed we would do our photo’s first and they would ensure we were alone and that it would be an intimate setting when I would first get to see her with her dress on.
As I thought we were almost done, Crissy asked that I had Aya call her with her questions. So when I was in Turkey on business I talked to Aya and she was very very upset and distraught about the situation and especially her phone call with Crissy. I am not 100% sure of all that was talked about and how exactly the conversation went, however she was very upset about some insensitive comments that were made to Aya. One of them being “Let’s hope there is not a Tsunami on your wedding day”… Aya had also sent an email back to her (pasted below).
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12:00pm couple gets dressed and ready
12:30pm couples photos ONLY in garden then beach
1:30/2:00pm guests arrive for group shot and ceremony
2:30pm ceremony begins
3:00pm signing of marriage license
3:10pm time to mingle at beach and for guests to take their own photos
3:40-4:00pm Everyone heads back to Waikiki
5:45pm everyone heads to Tiki’s Grill
6:00pm reception begins
I am terribly sorry I meant no disrespect whatsoever!! I made a note to our office to not mention anything about tsunamis.
In any case, after receiving an email with things such as “I made a note to our office to not mention anything about tsunamis”, “We are not for everybody”, “I would not be offended if the two of you went else where”, and “I would hate to be part of something that ruined your day”….I was extremely furious. I was not sure if they were mocking Aya, or sincerely sorry (I hope they were sincere). But really is it something they have to make a note of? I am sure they must deal with lots of Japanese people in Hawaii?
Other things like telling us they wont be offended if we go elsewhere or that they would not want to be part of something that ruined our day…it almost felt like they did not want to do our wedding nor had a good attitude… In the end, they are the service provider and we are the clients.
last but not least, we did cancel our reservation with them which gave us 25 days to find a new wedding planner/coordinator… – I graciously appreciate also receiving my refund back. – Thank you.
Just a few final notes:
*In all seriousness, I do think that if there is only two of you or say less than 10 people that Above Heavens gate might be a nice choice and could provide something quite intimate for your group in their garden of eden or someting where Captain Howie takes you out on his boat.
*Kind of joking here, but half serious – I felt the whole time when talking about photo’s that they were really pushing for “Digital Botox”, this is where they photoshop your pictures to make you look like a supermodel…Honestly I thought that was kind of silly to the extent that they went to make the beach look absolutely untouched and unspoiled as well as to making the people look almost perfect! So, if you are very superficial and ugly, they can make you look really good (Yes, even if you are ugly like me…they can make you look hot damn like Brad Pitt!).
In all seriousness, I really liked Captain Howies personality and his passion for what he does. He seems rather quite spiritual and connected with his “inner-being”. I do have to admit I was quite upset that the one sour grape spoiled the wine this time.
In any case, spoiled wine and disappointment is one thing but I believe everything happens for a reason….Stay tuned for part 2 to see what happened next!
Mk
Ps. These are only my thoughts and opinions on things and should be taken for that. I am sure my experience does not reflect what they stand for and could have been a big mistake… – I think we are very easy going people, however we might be have been more of a challenge logistically since we had a group of almost 40 people.
What venue did you use? I appreciate your post, as I was looking to get married there…
Hey, thanks for your note. We needed up using a company called Weddings of Hawaii – http://www.wedhawaii.com, they also have a Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/pages/Weddings-of-Hawaii/146651758716088. We were extremely happy with them. They were organized, easy and did what we wanted. If you want to see the movie they made for us, It is on my youtube wall here: – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FAPS5KKlwXo
As for a dinner venue, we dealt with Mike at Tiki’s Grill – michaelm@tikisgrill.com. They were absolutely outstanding. We Rented out the Coconut club, so were able to have a private venue and enjoy the beautiful view of Waikiki beach. Prices were extremely reasonable and the food was perfect!
Mk
Thank you soo much for your reply and links. Congratulations, it was a beautiful ceremony.
Funny, I have actually been looking at that site! Maybe you have reaffirmed that is who I want to use.
Best wishes!
Wow! Thank you so much for this blog and the links to the folks you went with. I was looking into above heaven’s gate and there were a few red flags. You just confirmed them! I’m glad to have the follow-up info to start the new search
I just came across your website randomly because I like reading reviews of venues after I have used them to see how they have kept up and I must say, you are very lucky you did not choose this venue. I was married in November 2011. A friend of mine was married the previous year and used Captain Howie and recommended them, so we did.
Up until the actual day of the wedding, everything went well..then the wedding day came. My husband and I arrived and were let in the gate. I was in getting hair and makeup done and the lady (Howie’s wife, I think) kept coming in, rushing the hair lady to finish up. The wife was extremely rude the entire time we were there and we seemed to be a bother to her. The pictures were odd, like you said, because everything was done prior – none were taken during the ceremony. The photographer told us it was because Captain Howie does not care for pictures being taken during the ceremony…..okay??? And the photographer and Capt Howie would speak in Spanish most of the time they were around us which annoyed me.
Afterward, no congrats or anything, it was “so how will you be paying”? We went back to his house took take care of the financial aspects and he was pushing us on getting the digital botox for an extra price, which we did and our pictures look HORRIBLE! I have yet to this date shared any of them because I am so disappointed. They are horribly fake looking and I had mentioned to the photographer prior that I would like more random, non traditional pictures included…..there was one picture with a bunch of seagulls by the water……yeah.
After the ceremony, I felt it was odd that none of my family tried to come in the gate to see me prior to the wedding. Unfortunately, I did not have my cell phone on me so I was unable to call them. I was told afterward by my aunt that they tried to come in and told them who they were and were treated very rudely and were not allowed in. Overall, I would not recommend using this venue. I was beyond disappointed with both the attitude and the quality.
Thank you so much for posting REAL PICS of this venue and your honesty. I would have been extremely disappointed had we booked with this company like we have been considering… Wow… We don’t really have the funds to travel to Hawaii prior to our wedding since we have decided to pay travel expenses for both parents, and our best man & maid of honor. So budget is tight but my expectations are high! lol After all it is Hawaii, right? I would love to have a real traditional Hawaiian wedding with real luau dancers, singers, etc in an amazing setting. Any reccomendations?? I really need a wedding planner I can trust and who isn’t into photo shopping to make something appear in a pic as something it’s really not… It blows my mind those waterfalls look so amazing at Captain Howies and in your real life pic it looks like a tiny little spring! Ugh Please let me know if you think you have somewhere in mind or someone I could use. This is so hard planning the unknown…. We would like to get married late Summer- Fall we are open to the best time of 2013. Thanks!!
Wow. I called them today and figured I would look up reviews… I am going to be looking more into this, now. However, I have a small group of 6…
I just came across your website because, my daughter was just asking about our wedding pictures and it started bringing back memories of our wedding. My husband and I got married by Captain Howie in his backyard in 2009 and honestly be glad you did not choose their company to do your wedding. We went just the 2 of us, and up to the wedding day everything went perfect when we arrived at his place, which is beautiful but a lot smaller than it looked in pictures, so I was glad at that point that we didn’t have guests. Same thing we had to do our pictures before our vows which was okay since it was just the two of us but would have been odd if we were having a traditional wedding. When the ceremony started his dog decided to sit on my dress through the whole ceremony (after digging up part of his lawn) and nothing was said, but then when he saw I was wearing high heels he gave me crap for wearing high heels on his lawn because I was going to put holes in it, ummm pretty sure your dog just dug up a few pieces of your lawn!!!! Anyway as the ceremony ended (which was so corny and not at all intimate or meaningful) he was actually kind of arrogant and rude. His wife was also rude and not friendly. Oh and through the whole ceremony he had a cheesy crumb stuck to his lip which was very distracting! When it was all said and done we were glad to get out of there. After we got back to Canada we waited over 2 months and still had not received our pictures, turned out they forgot about them, when we FINALLY got them in the mail and I saw them for the first time I cried, they didn’t look like prifessional pictures at all. It’s not like we had guests there to take pictures. These were our ONLY memories of our wedding, it was so sad and heartbreaking! We did get refunded in the end but that wasn’t even the point!! We were thankful when we were getting pictures by ourselves that we took some pictures as well which turned out better and just before we left I got Captain Howie to take a picture of my husband and I and that one with our own camera turned out better than the so called professional ones! Be glad that you chose a different venue for your wedding:)
Thanks sooo much for your feedback! Getting feedback like yours makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside and blessed that I did not have to go through the troubles!