Our Hawaii Wedding and Honeymoon for Under $6,000
I want to start this blog post out by saying we spent $6,000 but we could have easily spent way less but we did a lot of activities, ate out a lot at nicer restaurants and didn't watch our money as well as others could if they were trying to stay on a stricter budget. Plus we stayed for 13 nights, so if you stayed for just a week you would save a lot.
Deciding to get married in Hawaii wasn't easy. We didn't want to hurt our families feelings by going away to get married. But I am a lover of all things party planning so I knew if we had a wedding it would get big and very expensive fast, so I asked my then fiancé if he would be okay with just the two of us going to Hawaii and getting married and having a long honeymoon. He of course was concerned about our families but after talking money and how much we would save he got on bored pretty fast. My husband and I already had a almost 2 year old so for me I just wanted a nice long vacation and getting married was a plus.
Get ready to have your socks blown off!!!! Our wedding coast $995. Yes you read that right, under a $1,000 to get married. That was the preacher the photographer, and the videographer total coast.
For everything else wedding related. My wedding dress and sandals were $150 (that my parents paid for). My husbands pants, vest and tie were rented and coast us $45 but we had to mail it back to the store the day after the wedding and that coast was around $25. His shirt and shoes we bought and paid $30. My vail, I made for $15 and my bouquet I also made while in Hawaii with Hawaiian flowers for $20. My jewelry was $40. I had my make - up and hair done for $160 and I didn't really like it. I thought it was to much make - up and my hair didn't look like someone did it professionally. Our wedding bands were $240 (not including my engagement ring). My grandmother bought my wedding band and it was $140. Our cake was $95 and it was so GOOD. Yes it was small but it was just for the two of us. Also we wanted to keep the top of our cake so we shipped it back in a cooler with dry ice in it for $98. Yes thats a lot for shipping the top of the cake but I really wanted to have it on our one year anniversary. A year later it still tasted really good. I mean as good as a year old cake could be.
That pooch around my belly area isn't a baby its a donut stash.
Now for our reception dinner. This was very, very, very, EXPENSIVE. It was just the two of us but I thought since it is just the two of us lets so something BIG. So I hired a private chef Alan Wong, to cook us a 6 course meal on the beach. It was so romantic and amazing! It hit us in the wallet though at $600. But that is wwwwaaaaaayyyyyy less than people spend on their reception so we thought, why not. Im pretty sure that is the most expensive meal we will ever have in our life's. Still glad we did it because it was a wedding and meal we will never forget. Also my in laws threw us a reception at home before we left.
Our marriage license was $65 and we bought these shirts that said "just mauied" and they were $25. We went to Hawaii on the 15th of October (off season in Hawaii) and got married on the 18th. So we had three days before the wedding to get things done and meet with vendors so there was nothing on the wedding day that we had to worry about AT ALL. I even said "this day was kinda boring compared to others days" because we did so much everyday but our wedding day. Not sure how many people could say that.
We didn't spend the most on where we slept because we knew we wouldn't be there but at night and a little bit in the morning. Don't get me wrong we were on our honeymoon so we spent our fare share of time in the condo but it wasn't what we wanted to spend our money on. It was $98 a night witch we thought was amazing for Maui, Hawaii. So the total coast after 13 nights and a cleaning fee was $1,374. I found this condo on Vrbo.com and loved it! It was simple and had everything we needed and was across the street from a beautiful beach that we walked on almost every night. The condo had a pool, hot tube, places to grill (witch we did a couple times) and a balcony that over looked the ocean. It was perfect for the price!
We rented a Jeep from Dollar rental car company for........ $265 for 14 days but returned it a day early. I called our insurance company and they said they would cover the rental car if anything happened so we were able to turn down the insurance Dollar offered and saved a lot! Boy did we use that jeep. We drove around the whole island. I recommend not doing that though because there is a lot of dangerous roads on the road to Hana and on the east side of the island. There were times that I closed my eyes and just prayed! I was so scared. But on one of our drives around this beautiful island we saw this sunset and I promise the picture does not do it justice! We pulled over and just stared at it... Also we spent just at $200 on gas.
Side note.... I had shirts made for our trip. On the way there they said "Groom" and "soon to be Mrs. Martin" and on the way back they said "Mr. Martin" and "Mrs. Martin". They were $65 and they were worth every penny. On all our flights there and back we got free meals and free wine/beer. The flight attendants made announcements that we were on our way to get married and everyone clapped and cheered. They also let us off the plane first so we could catch connecting flights. It was like we were famous for the day. It was so nice!
We tried to do as much as we could while we were in Maui. One of the best things we did was a submarine ride. It was $95 and well worth it. I was nervous but it was really fun. A bout takes you out into the ocean and then out of nowhere this huge submarine comes out of the water. It went down 180 feet and the things you see that fare down was amazing! I would love to do it again one day.
We did a Luau because lets be honest, how do you go to Hawaii and not. Well we thought it was just okay at best. It said it was the best Luau on the island so we went and for the price I thought we could have done something better worth while. It was $120 and the food really wasn't all that good. If you have to go then go but if you want to save $120 then move on to something else. I would like to do it gain with my kids but after that I don't thing I would ever again.
Something we did that that I did not want to do was snorkeling. I have the biggest fear of sharks and I do not get in the ocean. Well my husband wanted to go and if you know me my first thought was the worlds largest shark is going to eat me whole. He promised I would be fine and I wouldn't get eaten so, I went. My second thought was I hope there is someone else on that boat that can swim slower than me because I will be gone. And to this day I tell my husband I love him more than he loves me because I did it, I went into the ocean. It was called white water rafting aka you got on a boat and it went really fast to this little island and you get splashed in the face with water. Not sure why it was called that but whatever. I was the last one off the boat and I don't think my heart could of beat any faster. It was really fun and so beautiful but one of the guys that worked on the boat dove down really deep and saw like a sand shark or reef shark or something like that and when he said "everyone get back to the boat, saw a small shark" I swam like Michal Phelps in the 2004 olympics. It was $85 and I would actually recommend it to anyone that does not have a fear of getting eaten by sharks or a heart condition. We even rented scuba gear a day later and went on a small private peach and loved it.
One of the activities I loved most was a dinner cruise. It was amazing and very romantic. It was a big ship and we sat on the top and had dinner and wine. We sat with another couple who were so nice. It was $100 and worth it. The food was really good and it was nice seeing the island at sunset.
We spent about $240 on buying groceries and fresh Hawaii fruit from the locals. I made sure to find a condo that had a kitchen so we could cook some of our meals to save a little money. We also packed our lunch so we could eat at the beach. As fare as eating out we spent around $700 not including our reception dinner, the luau or the dinner cruise but that includes alcohol as well. Again we went to some nicer restaurants and could have done a little better but we were having fun. As seen in these pictures. Oh and the shaved ice! We had it everyday and the Maui chips, oh the Maui chips. SO AMAZING! For our anniversary I bought $50 worth of them and had them shipped to us. My husbands face when he opened them was worth the money.
Other than activities, sightseeing and relaxing on the beach we shopped. All the stuff they have is amazing. Half of it is handmade and all there food and candy was to dye for. We spent around $300 on souvenirs from the ABC store and locals that made things.
One of the BEST things was the beaches! Talk about beautiful and relaxing. We went to every beach we came across. We were the only ones on almost all of them and boy to we take advantage of that.
As fare as airfare goes, we flew for free because I worked for the airlines. So if you went around the mouth we did (October) it would coast $1,587.60 total for 2 round trip tickets. So if you spent what we did on our trip it would coast you about $7,000 but again there were so many ways to save and we chose against it because we could.
Totaling everything up, wedding, condo, rental car, food, activities and all, was well under $6,000. I do admit I am a frugal shopper and I look around for a deal. So if you are anything like me then good luck, it is worth it.
For us this was perfect. We got everything we wanted for under $6,000 and couldn't have asked for more. I mean how can you beat 2 weeks in Hawaii. Well 13 nights, we changed our flight and left a day early because we missed our little man. Also if you are planning a Hawaii trip you need at least a week on the island if you don't want to just be tired the whole time from the traveling.
Thank you for reading and I hope this inspires others to save some money on their big day.
God bless y'all!
