Maui Weddings From The Heart

I hate to give this company such a low rating because all the vendors we worked with were great! My experience working with the owner Shasta from the start of planning to the wedding day was stressful and not pleasant. I planned my wedding in Maui from Georgia and used
to get direction. Our destination wedding specialist Susie recommended Shasta to me because the pictures of the weddings she has done were beautiful. We decided to go with her recommendation.
Our wedding date was 02÷08÷14. We started planning our wedding over a year in advance. We decided to get the «V. Hana Aloha» wedding package. We also added hair/​make– up and the wedding site to our package. Our wedding was to be held at Gannon’s. When I first contacted Shasta she was very friendly and responsive. But that didn’t last very long. We would go months without hearing from her. One time I contacted her with questions on the planning and wanting an update. She basically told me that she was busy with other weddings that are coming up soon and my wedding was still far away. I cannot think of one bride that would be happy with that response from her wedding coordinator, but I let it go. I noticed that our package didn’t mention a wedding rehearsal so I asked her If we would be having a rehearsal for the wedding. She said she would have to charge an extra $ 125 for her to do a rehearsal. What??? I’m sorry, but I think that should be included and of course we opted out of paying extra for that.
Since Shasta seemed to be very busy, I started doing a lot of the coordinating myself. I started to just contact the Events director at Gannon’s directly. The Events director at Gannon’s Susan Jencks is so easy to work with! I planned our whole reception through her instead of planning it through Shasta. I wish I planned my wedding through Gannon’s directly also. Susan even let us do our wedding rehearsal two days before the wedding for free!
Since Shasta was still coordinating our wedding I still had to go through her if I wanted any changes made. We wanted to add a gazebo at our wedding site and change our package that we got. The «Hana Aloha» package has limousine service and we really did not care for a limo. If you don’t want something, why pay for it? So we wanted to get the «IV Pua Lani» package instead. We didn’t think that was a big deal, but to Shasta it was! She charged us a fee every time we wanted to add or change something. She said she had to charge us because she had to change our invoice! You are charging us just because you need to change the invoice? That’s a matter of just a few clicks on your computer! She did this even though we were not in communication for months!
We paid off our balance a month before the wedding and Shasta said to give her a call as soon as we get to Maui. Once we got to Maui I contacted Shasta and she went over the details for the wedding and told us that our on-​site coordinator would be Andrea.
It started to rain right before our ceremony was to start. Gannon’s made «the call» that our wedding and reception had to be moved indoors. The gazebo we paid for was set-​up and got rained on! Why would the gazebo still be set up even though there is a threat of rain? My husband got to the wedding site early and asked Andrea if the gazebo could be moved indoors. She said no because it would have to be taken apart and put back together again. So we paid $ 350 for a gazebo that was never used! My husband was asking Andrea a lot of questions that she wasn’t really prepared for. She even had the wedding party standing on the wrong sides during the ceremony. Isn’t the bridal party on the left and the groom’s party on the right? Well we were standing opposite of that.
My advice is to do your research before you decide to go with this company to plan your wedding. Weddings in Maui are already expensive and you don’t need a wedding coordinator «nickel and diming’ you for trivial things. Our wedding was beautiful even with all the mishaps, but I wish I had less stress leading up to our wedding day.

Shasta is a great asset to your Maui wedding. If you’re coming to Maui to get married I suggest you enjoy the process and let Shasta take care of all the details for you so you have no need to worry about anything.
I worked my way through college as a photographer’s assistant specializing in weddings and appreciate the hard work and detail which needs to be attended to in order for the day to run smoothly — Shasta delivers on all accounts.
She’s even a professional photographer as well as being a pro at picking the best location or your ceremony, plus she’s calm and genuinely nice to be around which is always important for me when hiring a photographer for any occasion.