1 Choose your island. There's no point in finding out prices for weddings on Oahu when really you want to get married on a less densely populated island.



2 Choose your wedding planner. There are many ways to go about this but the most important thing is how you feel talking to the coordinator. Check your stomach, your nerves. Do you feel comfortable or nervous? If you feel relaxed and/or excited you have found your wedding coordinator! You will spend a lot of time dealing with this person and you do not want to feel in any way awkward with them. If you get a sense that you are asking too many questions you have NOT found the right coordinator, then keep making more calls.

You can drive yourself mad comparing apples to watermelons as you go through website after website doing price comparisons on unequal packages, but it's necessary to do this a little to get an idea of the company's prices. Don't waste too much time here. Sort out the most expensive companies (really, sometimes the mark up on a Kauai wedding is just outrageous!). THERE IS NOT USUALLY A NOTICEABLE QUALITY DIFFERENCE between the very expensive and the midrange prices for Kauai weddings. A QUALITY KAUAI WEDDING DOES NOT NEED TO COST SO MUCH.

3 Start putting down deposits. Once you have found who you think you want to work with, don't waste any more time and mental energy. Put down the deposit and save the date and time with the person you can connect with. You'll kick yourself later if someone beat you to it and the date or person is no longer available.

4 If you haven't already, pick your wedding photographer. The wedding photographer is one of the most important people for you to choose. You want to feel comfortable with them, because if you don't, your pictures will turn out posed and fake looking. You want someone who you can share stories with, someone you and your fianc'e can laugh with! Check out their work if style is important to you and then call them. Make sure they are the person you want to work with by talking to them. Make sure to ask if they are willing to do free phone consultations of exactly what you want out of your photo shoot. If you feel comfortable talking to the photographer and like their work and prices, you've found your person. If not, pick up the phone and call the next one whose online photo gallery you liked.

Don't waste time on details like below until the important stuff is in place!

5 Pick your location site. Unless you will be using a hotel there is no need to rush on this step. There is also no need to pay a lot of money - there are a lot of beautiful places where you can have your wedding inexpensively or totally free.

6 Decide on any other extras you might want, i.e. music, chairs etc.

7 Decide what flowers you want.