Watabe Wedding Corporation

Unilocal 100 Review Challenge 2015: ⁷⁷⁄₁₀₀
I was specifically interested in the Aquaveil Chapel for my wedding ceremony. Please be aware that the packages are NOT flexible as stated in this article:

After discussing the ceremony with the staff at the Kalakaua office location (no validated parking!) I put down a deposit of $ 100, they call a «set-​up fee». The following day I received an email stating that the limo ride which is included in the package from Waikiki to KoOlina could not take us from Pearl City to Ko Olina instead which didn’t make sense, since it’s an even shorter distance?! If we wanted them to drive us from Pearl City to Ko Olina, it would be $ 220 additional to the package. If we did not want the limo ride all together they would not compensate us for not utilizing this service, we would still pay the full package price. Next there is a $ 500 outside vendor fee to use your own photographers, unless you utilize their photographer package which starts at $ 1,200. Because of all these «additional fees» and inflexibility of their packages we cancelled our ceremony reservation 48 hours after meeting with them and they do not issue refunds as the «$ 100 deposit» is nonrefundable even for only 48 hours.
So, make sure you know ALL the package options before you deposit any money to this company. To clarify, this is not a review on the individuals that assisted us, instead it is a review of the company’s policies.
p. s. NO Kama’aina discounts

Our wedding was in May 2014 and our wedding planner Ayako T was very professional, friendly and helpful. We emailed back and forth since we are out of state (I had long listed questions). She answered every question in detail and quoted me with different price options.
On our wedding day I felt like a princess. My makeup artist Ayako was very detail oriented and she would fix my make up and hair before almost every picture was taken. She even provided make up for my husband without us asking. Our wedding planner Ayako T would help us with posture and attire before the pictures were taken. They try to make every picture come out as perfect as possible.
I highly recommend them. Thank you for both Ayakos who made our day so perfect and stress free.

First of all, it was the most beautiful wedding I have ever seen and luckily it was mine. :)
Even thought we are living in California and have never been to Oahu… the only things we had to do were pick the place, flowers, time and date. Communicating with Ayako was awesome, btw. Then we just paid before the wedding and that’s it!
Their service was even better than I expected — everything was organized, clear and friendly, I couldn’t be happier and my family was happy with their service also, I definitely recommend Watabe Destination Wedding.

From start to finish, Watabe handled our wedding perfectly and my wife and I could not have been happier! Everything turned out even better than we imagined it.
Despite the fact that I don’t know any Japanese, it was never a factor or a problem in the planning. Akira and, later on, Ayako, were excellent, patient and always polite in walking us through all the steps we needed to take, providing us with information not even related to the ceremony and reception.
The day of our wedding, we had staff ready and waiting for our every need, with Ayako present and helping with any small detail. We even made a mistake with a menu need (vegetarian) and our MC, Yuko, who was also fantastic and energetic, let us know our chef would have tofu brought in immediately, which we felt was above and beyond. Things like this happened all day and always with a smile.
We just could not be happier with how everything turned out at Ko Olina Chapel Place of Joy (which was a vision of beauty itself) and we happily recommend Watabe to anyone getting married, whether they’re Japanese or not. Thank you to everyone at Watabe for making our day wonderful!