my dress.

So, by now, we all know that I was married before - blah, blah, blah.  Because of that, I didn't want to spend a lot of money on this wedding dress.  I mean I could have - I just didn't feel right doing that.  In saying that, however, it was still very important to me to still feel like a bride.  Another requirement - I wanted a long dress.  No question about that.

Plus - I was on a time crunch - I needed a dress by October and it was July.

Enough Said.

Which left me with very few options.

I went the "safe" route and made an appointment at David's Bridal - I had a list of dresses  I wanted to try and on.  But - O.M.G. - not one of those dresses would I have even considered to wear on my wedding day.  They looked cheap and goddy and so NOT me.

Anyway, I left the store that day feeling defeated and panicked because I had no idea where to go from there.  I knew that if I went to a regular bridal store I'd be paying way more than I wanted to spend but, really, with time not on my side I decided I better start looking at all those bridal stores.

Anyway, I was on the phone with one particular bridal store the night before I was to venture out to those oh-so-expensive stores when low and behold they suggested the most ingenious thing ever - "why don't you wear a bridesmaid's dress".

Say. What?

Genius.

It was at that moment that I shifted my thoughts from expensive bridal dress to inexpensive bridemaids dresses.

And by, golly, I found a beautiful dress...

Here's just a preview of what it looks like - stay tuned for more  pictures soon....

xo, Megan

the beginnings of a wedding.

So now that you know that we went to Hawaii to get married.  I thought I'd share a little bit on how we planned for the big day...

We got engaged in June and had already been planning a trip to Hawaii with his family in October.  Once we were engaged, we couldn't get October and Hawaii out of our brain.  On our second date, we had actually talked about what we wanted our second wedding to be like (both of us had been married before) and my "dream" was to go away with just our families to Hawaii - nothing fancy, over the top, or extravagant.  Just the beach, a simple wedding dress and our families was what was important to me.  Actually the most important part for me was saying my vows to the "right" man this time.

Anyway, by the grace of God, we were able to coordinate everyone, including my whole immediate family to go to Hawaii for a vacation and our wedding in October.

Once we knew that everyone was on board, I started researching weddings in Hawaii.  I had absolutely no idea how or what I was going to do and, to be honest, the idea was a bit daunting knowing that I was going to have to plan something from Canada.  I started researching wedding planners in Maui - I was pretty certain that hiring a wedding planner was going to be completely out of our budget.  And, let me tell you, our budget was not very big.

Anyway, after emailing several places I decided on Leah from Island Wedding Memories.  There were a number of things that I liked about her and her website.  For starters, they are a family business and any chance I get to support a family business, I'm all in.  Plus,  their little family was ridiculously cute.  The other great thing about her was that she offered different packages that you could customize to best fit your wedding.  And the final thing, if not the best thing, was that she fit nicely within our budget.  So I was able to stay within budget without having the stress of doing everything myself.  She did everything - from getting the beach permits, to getting our marriage licence, booking the minister, ordering leis for the ceremony, music for the ceremony, getting a photographer. She was great!  And if she didn't have an answer for us, she was happy to forward us different options or suggest things that I might normally not have thought of.

Once the ceremony was underway, we had to start thinking of a "reception".  I was quite specific on what my vision was for the "reception".  The key to my vision - I didn't want a reception.  What I did want, was a nice dinner with our families at a fancy restaurant that overlooked the water.  I definitely knew that I wanted to pick something that none of us would normally go to so I started googling.  Another requirement - I wanted the reception close to the ceremony location.  The nice thing about the ceremony location was that it's the side of Maui that boasts luxury resorts after luxury resorts.  Surely to goodness I'd find something.  The hard part about finding a reception location - most places required us to have a set menu since our party was a bit larger.  I didn't want that.  I wanted our families to be able to choose freely off the menu.  Also, most places required a site fee but because I really only wanted a regular dinner, I didn't think paying a site fee  was necessary. So after much research and calling around, we decided on Duo at The Four Seasons - it fit our needs best - it's fancy, is an open-air dining room, looks onto the beach, no site fee and we can all order off the regular menu.

Done and Done.

xo, Megan