April Planning Update!

Oh boy I almost missed getting this April update up. We were about to go grocery shopping after naptime, but last minute I ask Keith if we can pretty please go tomorrow…because there’s been a lot happening and I owe you guys an update! 😉

If you read the March update you know about my big aha moment which has made everything about planning so much easier. In case you didn’t have a chance to catch it– I feel like I cracked the code when I realized a wedding is about storytelling. Telling a story. Your story. It’s given me so many creative ideas- for instance, our planner Nicole asked on our last call if I was doing a guestbook for people to sign. I told her, you know how all the Disney fairytales start with an ornate storybook that opens, the camera zooms in and the story starts?

I shared I was going to build on this and make a beautiful storybook. There will be pages already written and an invitation to our guests to help us write the next chapter. Nicole seemed amazed with the creativity when I shared this and few other ideas, but I told her it’s not me it’s the framework. The ideas are just coming now that I cracked the code.

Flowing from the storytelling framework I came up with a handful of words and phrases to describe our wedding-

Welcoming
Romantic
Beautiful/ethereal
Yet comfortable
The magic of Disney
The feeling of Aloha
Like walking into a fairytale
Happily Ever After

I finally feel dialed in and planning lately has been so much fun I can’t even tell you how much!

Here are some decisions we’ve recently made.

Bridesmaids Dresses
I wanted the dresses to be beautiful, romantic and echo the fairytale theme. Disney recently partnered with Dollhouse Bridal on a line of fairytale-inspired dresses, so of course I had to check it out. I’ll be honest, I definitely had an ‘am I taking this too far??’ moment, but it so happened Juliana and I both loved the Aurora Dress:

And Juliana had a great idea. She told me, ‘Mom how iconic would it be to do BOTH pink and blue? You know how the fairies argue in Sleeping Beauty and change Aurora’s dress from pink to blue? Mom, it would be iconic.‘ (doing my best 12-year-old impersonation 🙂 )

Juliana accepted the important role of Maid of Honor, so I took her suggestion and it’s honestly perfect, especially since our wedding colors are light pink and blue.

Menu
Something else we recently chose were our wedding menu and cake flavors. Last month we did a tasting at Aulani with our planner Nicole and it was so much fun! Here are the 5 cake flavors we chose:

1. Belle’s “Try the Grey Stuff”:
   red velvet and cookies-n-cream white chocolate mousse and chocolate cookie crunch
2. Churro Crunch with Cream Cheese:
   Cinnamon cake with cinnamon mousseline and feuilletine crunch
3. Aurora’s Pretty In Pink:
   Pink guava cake with guava pate de fruit and guava cream
4. Lemon Ka-Chow:
   Lemon cake with lemon curd, vanilla cream and macadamia nut crunch
5. Minnie’s Strawberry Shortcake:
   Vanilla cake with whipped cream and fresh strawberry filling

Usually the tasting is just 3 flavors, but Nicole worked it out for us to try 5 for a minimal cost. I’m so glad we got to try all 5 we wanted because our two favorites jumped out. Keith, Juliana and I agreed ‘Aurora’s Pretty In Pink’ was the winner- the guava flavor is fresh, delicious, unexpected and very Hawaii. But because there will be 3 tiers and we really liked the Lemon Ka-Chow too (the macadamia crunch is just so good!), we chose it for the middle tier and ‘Aurora’s Pretty In Pink’ for the top and bottom.

(Nicole had us practice cutting the cake together and feeding each other…it was so much harder than I thought!)

For the main menu we got to choose items from each course to try. The braised beef short ribs were so tender and the fresh local garden greens paired perfectly with the dijon vinaigrette. Because most of the classic fairytales are set in France, we included dishes or dressings from France. At the end, Nicole brought the dinner chef and pastry chef out to meet us and we heard that most sauces/gravies/enhancements have their origin in France which was so interesting to learn!

I won’t go in depth on the menu choices as this post is already getting long, but let me know if you’re interested in hearing what’s on the menu and I’ll include it in the next one! We also chose our cake design which I am so excited about so maybe I’ll share both?

Lighting
Something I’m working on over the next few weeks is lighting, because it makes such a big difference to the look and feel of an event. I want our lighting to be soft and welcoming and contribute to the overall fairytale feeling. As I shared in the February update, I’ve been using AI to generate decor images at Wailana Pool where our reception will be. Initially I used it to ‘try on’ chair styles, linen colors, and centerpieces. Now that I’ve gotten those finalized, I’ve been using it for lighting inspiration. I want to include fairy lights, candles, and maybe lanterns on the floor (next to rose petals because you know, romantic 🙂 )

Nicole, Kim and the team at Aulani have been nothing short of incredible. I know a lot of people say that but these ladies really are the wedding dream team…I guess I should say Disney’s Fairytale Weddings dream team. 😉

Love,

Terra