Emily and Brandon met in San Francisco in August 2017, on her first weekend in a city where she knew nobody, and they married eight years later on an oceanfront lawn on Maui. The brief they set themselves was color, local flowers and a dance floor placed in the middle of everything. Dmitri and Sandra Photography perfectly covered a day that ran through the hardest light Hawaii produces.
Location: Maui, Hawaii, USA
Style: Vibrant, Whimsical, Retro
Time of planning: 1 year
Number of guests: 75
Setting: Oceanfront
Season: Summer
Emily had just graduated and moved from outside Boston to San Francisco for a job. She knew nobody in the city and met Brandon her first weekend there, at 22 to his 24, and the connection landed immediately. Their relationship has run on humor since the start, and they describe each other as best friends before anything else. In December 2021 Brandon lost his father to cancer, and the two of them came out of that closer than they went in.
Billie, a golden retriever, arrived in December and rearranged the household completely. Brandon proposed on May 11 in San Francisco with their closest friends around them and Billie in the middle of it. Neither of them is especially demonstrative in public, which is part of why the whole day functioned as a reveal for the people who know them best. The wedding was filmed by Drew Williams Visuals.
Welcome Party
The night before ran on the resort lawn under strings of pale globe lanterns, with bamboo folding chairs, sage linens and low arrangements of ginger and dahlia set out across the grass. The signage carried the same coral line drawing as the invitations, a couple mid embrace under two palms, which set the retro Hawaii graphic language before the wedding day even started.
Opihi Love built the welcome night to run cool and low key ahead of the hotter palette that arrived the next day, which is the kind of multi day pacing that keeps two events from reading as one repeated idea.
Bride's Morning & Fashion
Emily got ready in a large bridal suite with her bridesmaids and bridesmen, a full breakfast and champagne, and her bridal party handed her a book they had made with a page written by each of them. Her dress was the Lucia gown from KYHA Bride, cut in matte triacetate with internal corseting and a softly scooped neckline that drapes across the bodice. She wore it with Nina block heels. Lokahi Collective Maui handled hair and makeup with BlushedxAna on bridal makeup, and the direction stayed polished through long glam waves rather than anything pinned.
Her jewelry stayed small with dangling baroque pearl studs from Adina Eden, and her scent was Libre from YSL. The stationery is where the entire graphic identity of the wedding began, drawn by Brandon’s mother, who is an artist, and built out of retro Hawaii references including vintage postcards and old travel graphics. That thread carried through to a postcard seating chart and to the fonts on the signage from Design Mine. Maui Wedding Dress Pressing took care of the dress before any of it started.
Groom’s Fashion
Brandon spent the morning in the ocean with his groomsmen, and the balcony above had a clear view of the whole group diving into the waves. He wore a dark brown suit from Suitsupply in a summer wool silk linen, a fabric chosen for a full day in Hawaii sun.
First Look
The first look happened under the plantation canopy before the ceremony, which for a couple who keep public affection to a minimum was the one private stretch of the day. Dmitri and Sandra Photography shot it with room around the couple.
Ceremony
The ceremony sat at ground level on lawn that runs straight to the water, staged entirely horizontal with a wide aisle. Florals from Bella Bloom ran along the aisle in coral, peach and cream and stopped at knee height, and paper parasols went out across the seating to solve the midday sun while doubling as costume for every guest in frame. The arrangements pulled from a garden vocabulary of dahlia and ranunculus laid over the native red ginger and heliconia of the setting, an imported palette sitting on top of a local.
Emily’s brother officiated, and he called Brandon’s family ahead of time to collect stories before building the whole thing around them. He landed jokes at the right intervals, gave marriage advice that guests repeated afterward, and at one point stopped everything to make the couple turn around and take in the 75 people sitting in front of them. The vows were the center of it, written over a long stretch and read out with both of them crying more than they had planned for, and guests kept telling them afterward that they were the best vows they had ever heard.
Brandon’s father John, who died in 2021, was honored in the walk down the aisle, set to an acoustic version of Harvest Moon. John was a Neil Young fan and the song has been one of the couple’s favorites for years, so the tribute sat inside the ceremony rather than beside it. The Olowalu Plantation House does most of the visual work on its own, with lawn running straight into the water and waves loud enough to become part of the audio.
Moments Together
Dmitri and Sandra Photography staged the group portraits the way a fashion team would, loose and off center with the water sitting directly behind, which turns a wedding party picture into something closer to a campaign frame. Drew Williams Visuals covered the same hours on video, and Maui Social Media worked the behind the scenes angle for everything that needed to move fast. Spotlight Photo Booth handled the stretch of the night where guests take over the documentation themselves.
Reception
The reception ran oceanfront with the tables set in a U shape around the dance floor, a layout decision that puts dancing at the center of the night from the first course onward. Both of them are heavy music and concert people, and the plan was to keep every guest within a few steps of the action. Artisan Event Rentals and Rio Event Design supplied the structure, Set Maui handled tabletop and BBJ La Tavola brought the linen, with florals from Bella Bloom running low along the tables so nothing interrupted a sight line across them.
Cutting Edge Catering served short ribs and a local catch, and Maui Bars ran the drinks. The cutting cake was a heart from Frosted Mermaid, and dessert then turned into a shave ice truck from Gus Shave Ice that nobody saw coming. The transition into dancing was engineered on purpose, with waitstaff walking out carrying tequila shots, limes and espresso martinis at the same moment, and the floor filled instantly. Next Level Entertainment held the room from there.
The after party ran into the hotel pool, where more than a dozen friends were still swimming past four in the morning. Brandon lost his wedding ring in the water at some point, the entire group turned into a search party until it surfaced, and somebody watching from a balcony filmed the whole operation. Maui Tours and Transportation and Aloha Maui Limo moved everyone between all of it.
Advice from the couple:
• Make your wedding day about the two of you.
• Don’t stress about trends or getting every tiny detail “right.”
• Make decisions that reflect your relationship and the people you love, and it will naturally feel meaningful and uniquely yours.
• Prioritize the moments you’ll actually remember, skip anything that feels like a checkbox, and trust your gut.
PHOTOGRAPHY Dmitri and Sandra Photography | PLANNER Opihi Love | VIDEOGRAPHER Drew Williams Visuals | CONTENT CREATION Maui Social Media | VENUE The Olowalu Plantation House | FLORALS Bella Bloom | SIGNAGE Design Mine | HAIR AND MAKEUP Lokahi Collective Maui, BlushedxAna | CATERING Cutting Edge Catering | BAR Maui Bars | CAKE Frosted Mermaid | SHAVE ICE Gus Shave Ice | RENTALS Artisan Event Rentals, Rio Event Design | TABLETOP RENTALS Set Maui | LINEN BBJ La Tavola | BRIDAL CONCIERGE Maui Wedding Dress Pressing | PHOTOBOOTH Spotlight Photo Booth | TRANSPORTATION Maui Tours and Transportation, Aloha Maui Limo | DJ Next Level Entertainment
