Testimonials

real words from our couples

Jeanette and Ken Wright

November 11, 2018

Arabelle,

Our wedding at Makena Cove on October 26, 2018 could not have turned out more perfect thanks to you. Planning a wedding in Maui from Florida was a struggle until I contacted Ancient Hawaiian Weddings and you were able to fit us into your schedule at the last moment. You completely took the stress out of the process: Thank you for assisting us with the beach permit, minister, photographer and musician. All were amazing and made us feel very comfortable! We are so glad we took your advice; dinner at Humuhumu was a very romantic reception recommendation! The ceremony, the officiant, the flowers, the musician and even the dinner all exceeded our expectations! We couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day or more memorable wedding! We’re looking forward to seeing the photos and will let you know how they turn out.

Thank you again, Arabelle, for meeting all of our requests, for the flowers and for communicating with us well throughout the entire process. You were a pleasure to work with!

Maui Townley Wedding

Tanya and John

Aloha Arabelle!

John and I can’t even find the words to tell you how much we appreciate EVERYTHING you have done for us! I had created this “Fairy-tale” wedding in my imagination and didn’t dream it could be exactly that way…. WELL.. I was certainly mistaken. Our wedding went ABOVE AND BEYOND our expectations!!! .. and it was ALL because of you!!! Starting back in February, I just knew from the moment I chatted with you that you were the one to help us plan.. I did A LOT of research and I was confident with you after the very first conversation. You never missed a beat. Every call, every email, every question, every concern, every request.. you were on it! You made the absolute best suggestions even when I was stubborn about certain things. Thank GOD I listened to you! I will recommend you to EVERY person I know whether they have plans to marry now or not..lol!
You created perfection…

Marci was unbelievable! I LOVED her! I was so very nervous about someone I never met.. I have always hated when people did my makeup or my hair.. This was the very first time in my life that I LOVED the work! She made me feel like a princess… for my REAL fairy-tale wedding! John couldn’t stop telling me how stunning I looked.. thanks to Marci and her creative meticulous work! When we come back to Hawaii I will definitely get back in touch with her to make me look like that again for a very special night!

Rev Dennis was INCREDIBLE! We thank God that he was our minister. We couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful and lovely ceremony by such a warm person. God blessed us with him.

Carl and Yolanda were AMAZING. I despise the camera but they both made us feel so comfortable and so at ease. We haven’t received the video yet but the pictures are incredibly lovely! .. a wonderful surprise to come home too! Yolanda is very talented!

I have one regret.. everything went so fast that I didn’t even have a chance to meet the musicians. I wish I would have had a second to meet them and thank them for being with us and all their beautiful music, but before I knew it they were on there way out! I was so focused on everything else that my head couldn’t even absorb the music at that time, so I cannot wait to hear it all on the video! Everyone else complimented them and said how beautiful it was though! I would just like to extend my gratitude to them via you! Kristine was a pleasure to plan with! Kristine, Ginny and Don made for a perfect trio!

All our flowers were so gorgeous! EXACTLY (and even better) then I had imagined. I had such a difficult time leaving them in the hotel room. I took a dozen pics!

The cake was scrumptious and BEAUTIFUL! My only regret with this is that we wanted more! ; )

The Estate was the most beautiful place I have ever been. In my entire stay in Maui and Kauai, there was nowhere I loved more than our own private estate for our wedding! WOW! I heard there were 170 weddings on 10/11/12 in Maui alone. How incredible is it that we were fortunate enough to be secluded from all that in our own privacy on the most beautiful estate on earth!?!?!

I will say it again and again.. God had blessed us from the start.. starting from you. I have been to sooo many weddings but I have NEVER been to one nearly as beautiful as ours. We were blessed with all those around us.. gorgeous weather.. no mosquitoes! LOL! ..and His creation around us in stunning Maui!

As for my dress.. I just couldn’t bear to part with it. John was taking pics of me putting it away to give to you and I burst out in tears so I shipped it home instead. ; ) Im not sure what to do with it, but it is too special to me to part with right now.. I hope you got my message in time!

Anything I can do for you, please let me know.. I would love everything I wrote to be posted on your site.. any other place that you would appreciate a review.. I would also love for EVERYONE to be cc’d on this so they know how special they made our day.

You are an angel.. Your son is lovely! He is so fortunate to have such a special person for his Mom! I was happy to meet him! I can’t imagine how difficult it is for you to plan so many weddings, but this was what you were meant to do. You are so strong Arabelle! You & your son will continue to be in my heart and prayers for a beautiful life together filled with many blessings. You deserve the best and more. I am going to miss talking to you!

Maui Townley Wedding

Mike and Cindy

It’s been crazy busy since we arrived back in Canada from our glorious two weeks in Maui. It is true – you never go to Maui only once – we can’t wait to return. Thank you so much for making our most unforgettable day a reality. It was the best day of our lives. We have been so pleased with the photos and the video. We have made a photo book for Mike’s parents, a photo mug for my mom, the photos have been a big part of a calendar that we did for all of Mike’s brothers and sisters – and we had the video playing in the background during our ceremony/celebration back here in Canada in November. It was a hit! It brought beautiful, warm Maui to cold, wintery, snowy Canada!

Again, thank you for pulling this all together for us. It was a perfect day!

Maui Townley Wedding

Jamie and Tom

Arabelle,
Thank you, thank you, thank you….Our wedding was spectacular because of you. When I tell people it all happened in 3 weeks they are shocked. The musician, the dancer, the conch blower. Our amazing reverend and the flowers!!!!! I have never received so many compliments on my hair and make up! She literally transformed me and I felt like a princess. You were so right about the location and I’m so glad that you could meet us to show us the beaches so we could select the right one for us. It was perfect and it shows in the pictures and in the video. Our family and friends that saw Hanne’s pictures said Tom and I were glowing in almost everyone.

Let me know where we can send a few pictures to you and thank you again for making our wedding day amazing.

Hawaiin Wedding referal

Wendy and Josh

Hi Arabelle,
Josh and I really wanted to take the time to truly THANK YOU for pulling together the perfect wedding for us! It was beautiful and everything we wanted! I was holding my breath and waiting for something to go wrong. They say something always goes wrong in weddings. Fortunately, this was not truth for our wedding. Everything was just perfect!! Reverend Keli’i Brown did the most beautiful ceremony ever!! Thank you for recommending him. We were both amazed with his beautiful ceremony as was the rest of our family and guests. We received nothing but compliments as to how beautiful the flowers, location, and how Hawaiian the wedding was.
We loved the ceremony SO much! So did all of our guests. During the reception dinner everybody was asking us to get copies of the DVD because the ceremony was sooo beautiful and Hawaiian! I totally remember you suggesting many times to try and keep it as Hawaiian as possible and you were so right!! 🙂
We received our wedding video a couple of weeks ago and it was wonderful. We are so happy with our video. Arabelle, you truly did a fantastic job. Thank you for patiently listening to what we were looking for and helping us make the right choices. Our wedding could not have been better! and we most definitely have you to thank for that! It took us awhile to find a wedding planner. But, from the first time I spoke to you on the phone, your feedback and suggestions made me feel comfortable and certain that you were the right person for us. YOU ARE THE BEST!! I would recommend you to ANYBODY thinking of planning their special day in Maui. Once again THANK YOU ARABELLE!
We will forever remember the ceremony and YOU for putting it together for us!! 🙂

All our Best!

Hawaiin Wedding referal

Louis and Heather

Arabelle
I just wanted to let you know that you did a fantastic job at pulling this together. Everything went smooth. Reverend Alalani was amazing you can tell she has a passion for her culture. Najone was so beautiful and charismatic while she was dancing the hulas and smiled I could not help but smile back. Vene was handsome and very relaxed. Jamie’s voice was beautiful and he performed flawlessly. We got the wedding video last week and it turned out awesome Craig did a quality job. Yolanda’s photos were beautiful and the slideshow turned out nice, everyone that saw it liked it. You have selected good vendors for your company. The family members that were with us were very impressed and all that have seen the video were wowed! All in all everything was perfect. I’m so glad that of all the wedding planners I contacted I picked you. I went with a gut feeling and it was right! You were very easy going yet professional at the same time. Your ability to calm any concerns and keep me on track was outstanding. I can’t tell you enough how happy we are with how things turned out. I am going to miss corresponding with you now that the wedding is over however feel free to contact me anytime. Because of you we had the perfect wedding. Please share our thank you’s to all involved and feel free to use me as a reference.
Thank you so much!

Maui Townley Wedding

Betsy and Rob

Aloha Arabelle!
Rob and I wanted to sincerely thank you for everything you did to help us plan and coordinate our wedding! We dreamed of a wedding on our favorite island of Maui and you transformed that dream into an absolutely magical event! You are truly the best at what you do-your recommendations for photographer, hair dresser, minister, florist, cake baker, musician and DJ were outstanding- everyone did a great job and was great to work with. We were amazed by every last detail. The flower arrangements and bouquet were unbelievable-I carried my bouquet with me on our honey moon until I was forced to give it up. Pastor Vance and the musician Ernest Puaa performed such a beautiful ceremony- I now tear up every time I hear “Somewhere over the rainbow”. And George Wolf took such gorgeous photographs of it all. Our guests had so many wonderful comments about the setting, the ceremony, the flowers… everything! It was such a memorable event in so many ways. So *Thank you! *Thank you for all your invaluable advice and assistance. Thank you for responding to our odd requests. Thank you for planning our event on top of your own family-wedding. Thank you for your hospitality to us and our guests. Thank you for keeping us all on schedule and improvising when some of us weren’t. Thank you for making our dream wedding happen. We couldn’t have done it without you. Best wishes to you, Arabelle We hope to see you again soon.
Mahalo nui loa.

Maui Townley Wedding

Robin and Ben

Aloha Arabelle!
We’re settling into married life here on the Mainland. We found it very hard to leave the beautiful island of Maui. We are already discussing coming back for our first anniversary!

We just wanted to let you know how much we loved our wedding! From the great weather, to the lovely Paipu Beach, to Shelly making me look beautiful, to Vene and his special conch shell blowing, to the lovely
officiating by Kimo, the the music sung by Halemanu, to the absolutely gorgeous flowers, to having Stephan webcasting our wedding, to Kevin our videographer and to the fun spirited photographer Kristin, the wedding was absolutely perfect!!

We couldn’t have done it without you. A big MAHALO for making it all happen!
If we know of anybody who wants to get married in Maui, we will definitely refer them to you.
Please feel free to use us as a reference!

Again Mahalo

Hawaiin Wedding referal

Karah and Mark

Aloha Arabelle
Once again, thank you for being so wonderful! You are great at what you do! How exciting it must be to do what you love and make people so happy. The wedding pictures by Yolanda Pelayo turned out fabulous. Also,
the video was amazing, Carl Rozycki did an amazing job. I’m so glad I had the ceremony video taped. He was worth everypenny! Everyone back home can’t quit talking about it. We had it playing off to the side during the reception and our guests just kept gathering around. Both Carl and Yolanda were super for getting the pictures and the vidoe to us before the reception with so little time.
Thanks again for all you did to make out day so fabulous!
Mahalo.

Fairy Tale Wedding

John A.

Our wedding planner, Arabelle Bottorff, was an absolute dream to work with. I cannot express enough how much we appreciate her. She had created perfection for our special day! From the first time I spoke with her I just knew she was the one to plan our wedding…she is passionate about her job, works with the absolute best vendors, makes the most incredible suggestions, and is sincere and genuine. She never misses a beat.. our phone calls and emails were ALWAYS responded to promptly. Her suggestions and ideas were creative and beautiful.. she listens to every idea, concern, and request and delivers perfection! I would recommend her to everyone who has the desire for a Hawaiian wedding!

Effortless & Relaxed

Briana S.

My husband and I got married October 2016 in Maui and we could not have asked for a better experience. It was important for us to find a coordinator that could provide an authentic, personal experience for one of the most important days of our lives! Arabelle’s vendors are top notch and provided outstanding hair/makeup, leis/bouquet, photography, and a fun and heartfelt ceremony. The best part is that Arabelle does all the coordination and communication so your trip to Maui is effortless and relaxed. As I was 8 weeks pregnant at the time, that was EXTREMELY important! I encourage everyone looking to get married in Maui to go through Ancient Hawaiian Weddings.

Arabelle – Life Saver!

Jessica P.

Arabelle was our coordinator for the event. Being from the mainland and not being on island to plan I had to trust that she would help make everything perfect!! I met with her in person once while visiting Maui and the rest of the planning was done via e-mail or phone. She was so easy to work with and was able to see my vision and make it reality! She helped recommend everything from the rentals to the cake and photographer! On the day of the event she made sure everything ran smoothly and made the event effortless to all involved! Arabelle was amazing and my wedding wouldn’t have been what it was without her help!

Everything Was Perfect!

Kim B.

From the first moment I spoke to Arabelle from Ancient Hawaiian Weddings I knew instantly that she was the planner for me! I wanted to get married in Maui, but I didn’t know what to do or where to start because I’d never been there and lived a long 17 hour flight away! She took care of every detail and gave me the best information and advice. I didn’t have to worry about anything! I just showed up and was in awe of how beautiful and easy everything was. Arabelle was so nice and easy to work with I would recommend her to anyone getting Maui’d! Mahalo Arabelle!

Amazing Wedding Coordinator

Wendy B.

Five years ago Arabelle planned our Maui wedding. She is an amazing wedding coordinator. She took care of EVERYTHING for us. She was very thoughtful, caring and detailed. Her recommendations were wonderful and we truly had a stress free, fun, and beautiful wedding!! We could not have asked for better service from her. We loved her so much that recently we visited Maui again with our son and decided to have a Hawaiian blessing for him. Of course we reached out to Arabelle who did a wonderful job once again. Everything was perfect!!! Having worked with her twice I would absolutely recommend Arabelle for anyone who is looking for a wedding planner or any other type of event planning in Maui, she’s truly amazing 🙂

OUTSTANDING SERVICE!

Betsy L.

We had such a great experience with Arabelle of Ancient Hawaiian Weddings- I can’t say enough kind words about her. We only met her once before our wedding, but she took a lot of time to learn about what we did/didn’t want. She brought a lot of great ideas to the table, and was very well networked on Maui – it seemed that she could handle any request we had, big or small. She was thorough, and covered every detail with us. And she was good about helping us stick to our budget. In the end, she followed through on everything – our wedding was PERFECT – there were no surprises. In addition, Arabelle is such a sweet person – she was wonderful to work with. I have absolutely nothing negative to say. I would HIGHLY RECOMMEND Ancient Hawaiian Weddings.

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