Posts Tagged ‘Waimanalo’

It felt like Below Hells Gate – our Hawaii Wedding – Part 1 of ?

Posted: June 10, 2011 by mkritch in Life, North America, Reviews, Travel, Words From My Mouth
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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

Waimanalo 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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Hi Crissy,
Thank you for clarifying our wedding plans yesterday.
However, I was deeply hurt and offended by your tsunami comment. I have many family members and friends who were and are still affected by the castrophic tsunami that has killed hundreds of thousands of people in Japan. I understand that you were saying it in a jokingly manner. However, at this moment, it was an inappropriate comment to bring up. I hope this comment does not come up in front of my family or friends on the day of our wedding.
As for our wedding plans, I have spoken to Mark, and we have decided:
Go ahead the updated time line:
10:00am hair/makeup at Pukalani Falls
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

5:00pm relax
5:45pm everyone heads to Tiki’s Grill
6:00pm reception begins
YES – to video.
YES – to flower petals.
With all this chaos with the sun being to bright at noon… and possibly not being able to capture nice photographs, is there a possibly to change our wedding to an early time?! Or is this too late to change?
I haven’t been part of the planning from the beginning, but I assumed that because we chose one of your wedding package, we would be getting some kind of discount. When I compared your prices to your ‘a la carte’ menu, we are saving a mere $48… I thought because we are purchasing things ‘in bulk’… there would be more of an incentive.
Sadly, I would be lying if I told you that this whole experience so far has been amazing. I felt I was overly criticised for what we thought would be best for us and our guests. I understand that you guys are the professionals, and know what will work best. But, I felt that our reasons and feedbacks were never taken positively. Our main goal was to make sure we had ample time to head back to the city, freshen up and be at the reception by 6. Your idea of having guests arrive at 2:30, and have them leave before the ceremony even started… didn’t really make sense to me, as our friends and families are flying into Hawaii to see our ceremony…??
We are known as laid-back, go with the flow type of couple. And it hurts that I have to write this email, and express my hurt feelings.
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After this email was sent, we swiftly received an email back from Crissy with the following
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I am terribly sorry I meant no disrespect whatsoever!! I made a note to our office to not mention anything about tsunamis.

As far as changing your wedding to an earlier time. We can do a sunrise. The timeline for that would be as follows:
4:00am hair/makeup
6:00am photos
8:15am guests arrive
8:30am ceremony begins
9/9:30am wrap up… everyone heads to brunch
We have a 10am photo shoot so we could keep your schedule as is or change it to the sunrise only on this day.
We don’t do discounts if our couples order in bulk. Perhaps you have us confused with another wedding company? We have certain time frames we need to strictly go by in order to give our couples a stress free schedule and have everything inorder prior to their arrival.   I don’t know what else to tell you other than “we are not for everybody“. I would not be offended if the two of you went else where. I would hate to be part of something that ruined your day.
If you would like to discuss this further please call Capt. Howie at 808-***-****.
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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.

Aloha…come and gone

Posted: February 1, 2011 by mkritch in Food, Life, North America, Reviews, Travel, Words From My Mouth
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Well Aloha, I guess…Today is Tuesday, but I got back on Saturday morning from a quick trip to Oahu (Honolulu), Hawaii. Wednesday around 11am, I was just getting really frustrated about Hawaii since we are having our wedding there in May, so I decided to check flights. Flights were extremely reasonable for last minute – around $350 return.  I decided I would fly out of Bellingham, Washington on Alaska Airlines and fly back to Vancouver, BC on Air Canada.   For the booking, Expedia.ca would not let me book at noon as it was five hours before the flight, so I decided to try out Travelocity as it would allow me to book..in fact if I am not mistaken it may have been $10-$15 less than the price Expedia was showing me.

Not realizing it was pro-bowl weekend, I was in for a surprise when booking a hotel – the cost of hotels on websites for a 3* were $150+ some even being $200+ per night. I decided to give my trusty Priceline a try and was able to steal a deal for around $90 per night for a three star hotel – the Ala Moana Hotel which is right beside the Ala Moana Mall.  I was pleasantly surprised with the hotel and although I would not stay there while on vacation I would consider to stay there if I was on business or by myself.

Alaskan Airlines – Bellingham (BLI) – Honolulu (HNL)

Check-in – I am extremely confused with Alaskan Airlines, reason being…on their website they say they are partners with pretty much all the OneWorld airline partners (Cathay Pacific, KLM, Air France, British Airways, etc…), which makes you think they are a OneWorld Partner…So I pulled out my OneWorld status card and jumped in the business class check-in (although, there were only 4 people in front of me in economy check-in), but the guy said they were not one-world.  Well in any case I was sent to the back of the economy line and waited my turn to check-in…They advertise on their website that they are partners with them, so I think they should recognize OneWorld Status… Once I got to check-in, I was kindly greeted and told the flight was on time. I was also able to steal an upgrade to business class :) … The flight was due to take-off at approximately 5:20, however everyone was boarded and ready to go at approximately 5:10 so we left 10 minutes early! SWEET!

The seats in Alaska Airlines Business Class are big comfy leather seats, all in fantastic condition – I am not sure, but I had the impression that the aircraft was relatively new. I believe it was a Boeing 737-800 series. Quiet and comfy! The way I like it. I guess their aircrafts are also now equipped with GOGO inflight internet, however it is land based so flying to Hawaiii I was SOL.  I was still able to get lots of work done off-line and catch up on emails, etc.  The flight attendants on the flight were fantastic, however I thought they were somewhat slow in getting me drinks and ensuring my beer was always full :(

The food was rather quite delicious from the salad to the bacon wrapped shrimp…It hit the spot!  (see pics below).  About two hours before the flight landed, the attendants gave out some paper work for Hawaii customs, and then also did a 3-4 minute blurb about the Alaskan Mileage plan credit card… I thought it was somewhat tasteless to do it at that time, I think that should have beend one at the very beginning of the flight or a little closer to the end of the flight – As the flight is approximately six hours long, people are probably sleeping or in my case I was happy with the silence and felt relaxed.  About one hour before landing the stewardess came one and said something along the lines of being in the Aloha spirit, we are giving free Mai Tais to anybody 21 years of age or older. Since I was in first class I didn’t have to worry about paying anyways, but I took up the offer for a Mai Tai…it was extremely sweet, but still tasted fine (I think its a mix they use)…  Alaska Airlines is a great airline, with good price and would fly them to Hawaii again with no hesitation. – I would really like to see them choose an alliance, stick with it and just tweak a few things…if you can travel with them, they are no frills basic and almost perfect airline in my opinion.. – I don’t care that they do not have an entertainment system…after all now-a-days most people have phones, ipods, tablets, etc. who needs an entertainment system anyways?

Welcome to Alaska Airlines Alaska Airlines First Class Menu Longboard Lager Longboard Lager on Alaska Airlines

Salad Alaskan Airlines Entree Alaskan Airlines Dessert Alaska Airlines Mai Tai

Once I arrived in Honolulu, I made my way to Budget rent a car which I also got from my good friends at Priceline.com – I paid about $40 per day, which saved me about $40-$50 in total.  I had a nice full size car – I believe it was a Nissan Sentra. In any case, I was more than happy with the vehicle I got. The check-in was easy and check-out was even easier!  The only issue I had was the car was quite dirty when I got it, the middle console was sticky and also the car had water marks all over it, especially the mirrors which made it hard to see vehicles behind me in the dark.  – All in all it was OK.

While I was in Hawaii for a short two days, I went around and checked out venues and met our priest – he is very interesting and seems like a very kind man. If I am not mistaken he is a Krishna, I do not know much details about the religion or practice, but in any case he seems quite passionate about what he does!  – I would be very passionate too, if I wedded people on a beautiful beach in Hawaii for a living. :)

Waimanalo Bay

Waimanalo Bay Waimanalo Bay Waimanalo Bay

As far as receptions go, before I went to Hawaii, I was quite set on Roys Restaurant. I went to check out the venue, however there were some things I didn’t like, so I think I will end up choosing something a little different and probably be catering the Coconut club at the Aston in Waikiki.  The food at Roys was fairly decent, but I think it is quite over-priced and perhaps the flavors may be a little too complicated and much. I like to think I have a great palate for food, but there were flavors going round round everywhere! When I travel and when I dine out, I always enjoy a good dessert. My favorite is always a Chocolate Souffle!  I am sure I have had atleast two dozen Souffles or “Chocolate Lava Cakes” around the world, but I have to give it to Roys for #2. This goes really high on the list!  The #1 place was actually in Santiago, Chile at a place called Astrid & Gaston (Which also goes down as my favorite restaurant in the world!).  A few pictures below of food from Roys and the view from Tiki’s.

Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale Roys Hawaii Appy Roys Hawaii Seafood Roys Hawaii Chocolate Souffle

As a note, I would suggest that if you do go to Hawaii, go to Roys and order the Chocolate Souffle and enjoy a fantastic Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale, it is superb! (You can save yourself the $$$ on the food and enjoy a fantastic dessert and beverage!)

Last but not least, I have to share with you a few pictures of the Coconut Club at Tikis & The Aston hotel in Waikiki – the venue looks fantastic, but the food doesn’t sound amazing as it is buffet…in any case the view will be splendid and the people who join our wedding will make it a wonderful event!

Tikis Coconut Club view Tikis Coconut Club

Last but not least, Hawaii was extremely busy for the two days I was there…lots of running around and doing errands, etc. I flew back on Air Canada.  Air Canada to me, generally is a great airline…well atleast they have a great rewards program if you travel (We will save that topic for another day).

Air Canada – Honolulu (HNL) – Vancouver (YVR)

Check-in at HNL was great, quick and with my Elite status I was able to zip to business class check-in and not worry about waiting in the long long economy line. I did travel in economy class, since I did not plan my trip far in advance I did not get my usual bulk head seat selection. My seat was an isle of 16D and was extremely uncomfortable as it did not recline.  The boeing 767 that Air Canada uses on the Hawaii route is one of their POS aircrafts, no entertainment system, oldy moldy…I was contemplating purchasing an upgrade, but after getting on the aircraft I was glad I didnt since their business class was only big seats and not pods. The pods on almost all of the other Air Canada international flights are amazing!  In any case, I was exhausted and fell asleep for almost the whole flight, so it went by quick and I was ok.

Another thing, the Star Alliance Lounge by United Red Carpet Club was super far from the Air Canada gate…literally about a 10+ minute walk…absolutely ridiculous!  Good thing Honolulu Airport is cool, there really is nothing there, but it is an open air building so it feels like your walking outside. :)

All in all, the trip was a great success and really glad I went to Hawaii for a couple days. It was good to see the place where we will get married, and also help to choose and finalize a place for our reception! I think we will be more than happy with the choices we will make!

A few more pics for ya :)

Mk

Hawaii - Mountain Hawaii Butterfly Hawaii Hawaii