Save the Date

I'm sure many of you are viewing our blog for the first time, probably because you received a Save-The-Date. Welcome! Our Save- The-Dates (STD) were designed by a good friend, Alex Tebow. She is super rad. She is also designing our invitations. Look for those in the mail sometime near the end of January. The pictures on our STD are pictures we took on our trips to Maui. Pretty neat, eh?

If you have the time, look through our blog. We have wedding information and travel tips blogged. Please feel free to comment as well!

Where to stay...

We recommend staying on the south side of the island near Kihei or Wailea. Kihei tends to be more affordable. However if you decide to stay in another area, it shouldn't be too far of a drive to Kihei for our wedding. We aren't reserving any blocks of rooms at a specific hotel. Everyone has such different budgets we don't want to pigeon hole anyone. Plus there are so many places to choose from!



We have had a great time staying in condos. We have saved money on breakfast and lunch by buying food at the grocery store and costco and preparing it at the condo. Also many condos have washer and dryers which we found very convienent when all of our beach clothes get dirty.


A great place to look for a condo to stay is http://www.vrbo.com/ There are many places available around the time of our wedding for around $100 per night. WE plan on staying in a condo for the first half of our trip. Maybe we'll be close by you!!!

Update

Hey there readers!
Things are coming along nicely. I bought my dress two weeks ago and I love it! I've had to stop myself several times from showing a pic to Matt. I hope he likes it when he finally gets to see it in April.
According to the knot.com our wedding is in 197 days. Wow! I think those 197 days are going to fly by. We've already been engaged for nearly 8 months. Crazy. I can't wait for Maui! I'm so excited for a much needed rad vacation and I get to marry the love of my life. I win!!!
Wedding planning is going great. We are picking our cake this week. We are also working on a Save the Date, so people can have something stuck to their fridge to get excited about. I'm also working with our coordinator Kara on flowers. There is still a bunch of things to do and plan, but we are right on track.
U hope you are getting as excited about Maui as I am!

Getting in Shape

I'm planning on going shopping for a wedding dress sometime in September. I'm on a mission to slim down a bit before then. I have lots of great advice from my fitness guru sister Shawna. She made an awesome workout plan for me, as well as helped with menu ideas. I've had a cold this week so I haven't been able to work out. But Matt and I have been counting the old weight watcher points and combining some of Shawna's meal planning ideas. So far Matt has lost 5 pounds and I have lost 4, in only one week! We are on our way to looking good for the big day, and life in general. Wahoo!

GPS

I know this may be a no brainer for most of you, but it is super helpful to bring some kind of GPS device to Maui. The street names are all in Hawaiian and have a ton of vowels and I find them difficult to navigate. Thank God we brought our GPS with us on both of our trips. Our old GPS had the option of changing the accent. We had ours on a British male voice. It was too funny listening to the Brit pronounce all of the Hawaiian road names like Pi'ilani Highway. :) So funny.

Wedding Update!!!

Hi! Many of you know, we have set a date!!! April 17, 2012 we are officially getting married in Maui. I'm so excited. The planning is underway and getting very fun. So far we have booked the following vendors:

I'm good friends with the Tebow family. Alex is a graphic artist and designed her own wedding invitations a few years back. Since then she has been designing wedding invitations on a freelance basis as an extra job. I love her work. She designs the invite and you get them printed on your own. Her work is lovely and it really helps cut costs. Here is her website: http://www.alextebowblog.com/

Kara Byrnes from Your Aloha Wedding company as our wedding coordinator. She is so awesome! She is very thorough and quick to respond to emails. She has helped us book the following vendors.

Hanne Ruhnau is our photographer. I love her pics. You should check out her work. Here is her website http://www.hanneruhnauphotography.com/#/home/

Tino Rosete is our officiant. He married Tania and Patrick and did a rad job. You will love him. Here's his website. http://www.mauivalentine.com/about/

We are having our wedding meal at the 808 Bistro in Kihei. We haven't been here before, but they came highly recommended by Kara. They are super affordable and have good yelp reviews of their food. We might even rent the whole place out if enough people come to Maui. They are BYOB so that will help save us some money. We will go to Costco to buy the good stuff :) Here is a link to their website: http://www.808bistro.com/ and to their yelp page: http://www.yelp.com/biz/808-bistro-kihei-2

We are getting married on a public beach. It is called Po'olenalena beach. It is in Wailea. Here's a google image of some random wedding couple on the beach. Lovely, right?


I hope you enjoy checking out all of the work we have done so far. :)

Aloha!

EATING!

Hello!
As you know Matt and I love to eat. It is definitely a super fun part of vacation. Here is a guide to our favorite places to eat in Maui. I’ve included websites when possible so you can check out the menus!

Paia Fish Market
http://www.paiafishmarket.com/
2 Baldwin Avenue # A, Paia, HI

The Paia Fish Market is delicious! Here is a place where someone goes out on a boat during the day, catches all sorts of fish, and then they cook it for dinner. They have several kinds of fish prepared in taco, burger, or filet form. They also have the most amazing fresh ahi shashimi. So good! As far as fresh fish goes on Maui, this is one of the most affordable places.

Lappert’s ice cream
http://www.lapperts.com/
Kihei Aloha Ice Cream
2463 South Kihei Road # C13
Kihei, HI 96753-8691

Holy Crap Lappert’s ice cream is the best! We ate it nearly every day in Maui. It has a higher fat content than most ice creams. So good! The ice cream is sold at several locations including Lahaina and at the Grand Wailea. We mostly went to the Kihei Aloha Ice Cream shop in Kihei.

Pita Paradise
1913 S Kihei Rd # J
Kihei, HI 96753-7837

Pita Paradise sells a variety of pitas and kabobs. They often have pitas made with the catch of the day. They also have delicious hummus. Again this is a place that is an affordable choice for lunch or dinner.

Kihei Caffé
http://www.kiheicaffe.com/
1945 South Kihei Road, Kihei, HI 96753

This was our favorite breakfast place in Maui. We split pork fried rice and macadamia nut and banana pancakes. A great place to fuel up before a day at the beach!

Da Kitchen
http://www.da-kitchen.com/
425 Koloa St. #104
Kahului, HI 96732

This is by far the best local food on the island! There is a Da Kitchen Express in Kihei, which is also delicious, but I think the one in Kahului is better. They offer a variety of plate lunches, which consists of some kind of meat, white rice, and potato-mac salad and other tasty treats. Matt loves the Kalua pork. This food is better than any food you will eat at a Luau.


Costco!
540 Haleakala Highway, KAHULUI, MAUI, HI
Eating in Maui can add up. We stayed at condos on both trips. So we bought some groceries to save money. Milk is cheaper at Costco in Maui than at the grocery store. We also bought cereal, pizza, “Uncrustable” peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, Passion-Orange-Guava (POG) juice, and Maui Onion Chips here. This is also a good place to buy macadamia nuts for souvenirs and also sunscreen if you forgot yours or ran out!

Happy Eating!

Snorkeling

The first time we went to Maui I was super scared to snorkel. I wasn't the best swimmer at the time. We rented snorkel gear and boogie boards from Snorkel Bob's in Kihei. There are two locations in Kihei, but we go to the one located at 2411 S Kihei Rd # A2. I love Snorkel Bob's! Here's the website: http://www.snorkelbob.com/ The staff is super friendly and knowledgeable.

Matt is super patient and pushed me just enough to try snorkeling. I love it now and I can't wait to go snorkeling in April!

Both trips to Maui we took an excursion to the Molokini crater for snorkeling. Wow!

We have used the same boat twice. The Seafire is captained by an ex-coastguardsman that reminds me a little of Magnum, PI. His staff is awesome. Each trip he took us to molokini and to two other locations to see a sunken ship and beautiful sea turtles. I wholly recommend this boat if you want to take an excursion. They are a better price than most boats and they leave from the Kihei boat dock. The Seafire is one of the first boats to arrive at Molokini for the day which allows you to beat the crowd.

Here is the website for the Seafire Molokini tours: http://www.molokinisnorkeling.com/

Maui Revealed

We were fortunate enough to travel to Maui twice. The first time was for Tania and Patrick's wedding in 2008. It was such a magical day. We had a great time and the best vacation ever. The following summer we were able to go to Maui again. Matt had frequent flier miles from his trips to Asia for work, not to mention it was a mandatory shut down for him at work. So we went to Maui again! It was lovely.

One thing that helped us plan our activities for both trips was the famous blue travel book, "Maui Revealed". We really recommend it to anyone! In our blog we plan to high light our favorite eating spots and activities, most of which we got from this guide. This book took us around nearly the whole island of Maui. From the Oheo Gulch in Hana to the best banana bread stand on the planet, this book steered us in the right direction.

First Post

Hi friends and family!

As you know Matt and I are planning our wedding. I thought this blog would be a good way to keep you updated on details as well as a way for us to share some of our favorite Maui activities with you. We hope you enjoy!

Love, Matt and Joanna