If you like this guide, please vote yes below. Ever dream about getting married on a beach somewhere? My friend just did, and it is not hard to do if you do a little research. After a short engagement, they decided that they wanted to get married on a beach somewhere. They decided on Hawaii, the island of Molokai, an island seldom visited by tourists. It is the most Hawaiian of all the islands, only a 20 minute flight from Maui. When you arrive there, it is like being in another time, fifty years ago. There are almost no traffic lights, no chain stores, bananas growing wild in the jungle, and beaches with no people for twenty miles (no exaggeration). Saturday markets with tropical fruits of every kind, and great restaurants and local eating places….and of course fresh seafood.

What do you wear? They checked out web sites showing wedding pictures of beach weddings, to see what to wear. They found beautiful white linen, embroidered clothes to wear, white, floral motif on the groom’s shirt, very elegant. No need to worry about shoes, because they were barefoot.

How do you choose a place to stay? They looked at the big hotels, places with more than 300 rooms, and felt that it would be too impersonal, too many people and noise. They were also more expensive, many around $300/night. They narrowed the search down to very private hotels with less than 40 rooms, for around 200$/ night. Of course each of these hotels offered ceremony packages on their web site, with choices ranging from 600-900 $ for a basic ceremony to about 2000$ for a package that includes a photographer, ceremony, lei flowers, location, wedding coordinator, minister, champagne and an Hawaiian traditional protocol, complete with Hawaiian songs and chants and ancient traditions. It only took a few phone calls and discussions to put this together and to decide. They used the wedding coordinator at their hotel, which just made it easier, although there are many companies that do wedding arrangements outside of the hotels.

The fabulous thing about getting married in Hawaii is the choice of locations: a remote beach with waves crashing at sunset (what they did), a tiny church in the jungle, a mountain cliff. Wherever you can imagine, it is possible to do it. Imagine how easy it is to arrive on Molokai, spend the day at the beach, and pick the place to be married, two days before the wedding. Imagine being barefoot, laughing, having a great time, with no one but the bride and groom attending (in their case), or a few close friends and family. Imagine a stress free, sacred ceremony, with the ocean as your audience, and a million stars while you sip champagne. And have your reception catered in your room, on your private deck…

it was exactly 8 weeks to put the whole trip together…one of the most romantic and beautiful trips of a lifetime. thank you for reading this.