The Royal Hawaiian was fantastic! We reached out to them a few months before the wedding after hearing that our previous venue would be closed for renovations. Working with Jillian Tamaru was extremely smooth: she is organized, kind, and seriously on top of things! When new Hawaii gathering restrictions came down the pipeline, she worked with us and our wedding planner to figure out what to do next, and secured a wonderful outdoor venue for our reception while also helping us organize two waves of reception service and getting us an alternate menu that fit closely to the original!

On the day of the wedding, everything was perfect. My guests raved about the beauty of the Ocean Lawn, the drinks, and the food, which some swore was the best food they had at a wedding. The cake also tasted amazing. We were super satisfied with the service and the warthm everyone showed both before and during the wedding, and we are greatly looking forward to staying at the Royal Hawaiian in the future!

Ever since we saw the art film “Punch Drunk Love” by Paul Thomas Anderson, my husband and I knew we had wanted to see the Pink Palace in person. On our first visit, we instantly fell in love with the location and history, and we began speculating what it would be like to have a destination wedding there… Little did we know we would actually pull that off two years in February 2020 to the day after our first visit.

At the Royal, we worked with Banquet Manager Bill Hedgepeth, who realized our dream better than we could. Bill and wedding planner Laura Lewis of Parasol Events worked together to get us the suite of our dreams to stage our pre-wedding preparation, and also planned a delicious banquet buffet that didn’t break the bank. Bill also worked around our dream location, helping us nab the coveted ocean-front lawn garden space for the entire day.

While the Royal does not allow Open Bar events, the Banquet Captains kept us honest at our Host Bar and alerted us when the threshold we set to shift to the cash bar was met. Everyone was pleasant, professional and warm. Every single one of our guests was not only impressed with the venue, but also the delicious regional Hawaiian menu and the care of the staff. Our only regret was that we were having too good of a time to eat our own wedding meals, but I am sure had we asked staff to set something aside in our room for us, they would have.

We celebrated our wedding ceremony and festivities at the Royal Hawaiian, a Luxury Collection Resort last month. We truly could not have been more pleased with the service, attention to detail, and countless personal touches. If you want the PERFECT wedding (or planning a special occasion), Kelly Striph is the person to work with. As the catering manager, she was in constant contact with our wedding coordinator and us. She made sure that every detail was executed smoothly and strived to give us a truly “Royal” wedding.
Whenever you reminisce about a wedding, service, food and drink always comes to the forefront. Chef Colin Hazama and the banquet team blew our food and drinks out of the water. We served signature cocktails including the Royal Hawaiian’s famous Mai Tai and customized a hibiscus-infused drink. Our guests loved the drinks and made favorite props as they posed with Diamond Head and Waikiki Beach as their background. Chef Colin created our perfect buffet menu; guests cannot stop raving about all the food including the steamed fish, prime rib, loaded mashed potatoes, fried rice, and bread pudding. He even created a gourmet tater tot bar per our request for late night snacking! The food was truly amazing and memorable!!
All of the Royal Hawaiian staff went the extra mile to make our weekend the best time of our lives. We left as extremely satisfied guests and the happiest newlyweds! Without a doubt we will always come back to the Royal Hawaiian for our special occasion needs. If you want a wedding for the ages, then the Royal Hawaiian is THE place to be.

Beautiful location! Service was beyond wonderful!!!

My husband and I were married at a very small ceremony at the royal hawaiian. The service provided by the wedding/catering team was exceptional! Everything was perfect! The flowers, officiant, harpist, photographer, dinner venue (azure), coconut grove ceremony site.. It was all coordinated so professionally and everything was beautiful! I could not have asked for more!! I would highly recommend the royal hawaiian for anybody getting married in waikiki.

This wedding venue couldn't have been more perfect. My husband's parents met here at The Royal Hawaiian and the setting was just picturesque! Kealoha and her staff did an incredible job at catering to our Pakistani style wedding. The food was AMAZING and so were all of our accommodations. The bridal suite was first class all the way and our wedding day exceeded our expectations.

My wife and I met with all of the top prospective venues around the island, and ultimately decided on The Royal Hawaiian to host our wedding. This turned out to be one of the best decisions we have both made in our lives!

The Lawn cocktail area, ballrooms and hallways leading up to these areas were luxurious, immaculate and tastefully decorated with adornment. Tropical flora and the well-kept, maintained areas of the grounds instilled a Hawaiian sense of place with a relaxing, yet luxurious, feeling. The beach and view of Diamond Head from the Lawn, and Monarch Ballroom, took our breaths away, as we are sure it did as well for our guests. Recent floor, wall, lighting and stage renovations to the ballroom were fabulous and added to the grandeur of the venue.

The availability of a variety of cocktails to service our guests and wonderfully delectable dinner buffet salads, entrees, desserts, and other items were thoroughly enjoyed by all. We still receive compliments and accolades on the quality and taste of the food items to this day.

The koa wood intricately-carved doors, brightly floral carpet and framed photographs on the walls of the hallways leading to the guest rooms were very moving, and communicate and preserve the venue’s history and importance in the local culture and society. My wife and I are proud to now be a part of that.

The rooms and suites were stunning and very comfortable with wonderful views of the mountain range, ocean and grounds (nightlife, as well as, daytime activities) from the windows and nicely furnished with the latest technology (air conditioning, flat-screen televisions, phones, wireless internet, etc.). Our stay at the hotel with key members of our bridal party was thoroughly enjoyed by all, and we were all very impressed with the appearance and features of our rooms.

Complimentary pink lemonade and kukui nut lei provided upon check-in was a service unique to The Royal Hawaiian, and enhanced our feeling of being special and important, which we really appreciated. Brunch and complimentary drinks at the Royal Hawaiian’s seaside restaurant and bar the morning following our wedding were outstanding, as well as, the beach loungers and umbrellas.

Kealoha Giugni was paramount in the planning and perfect execution of our event. We would like to extend our most gracious appreciation and thank-you to Kealoha, who was extremely integral to the success of our wedding in every aspect, and made the planning up to the event, as well as, the night itself, a gorgeous, comfortable and stunning evening that was truly a wedding to remember for us and our family, friends and guests. Her patience, understanding, initiative, loving demeanor and helpfulness truly placed my wife and me at ease, and made our event problem- and stress-free. Coordination between her, us, the staff and our vendors was achieved with minimal problems. Kealoha is highly effective, conscientious, and respected by her staff. Kealoha also listened well to our requests, desires and concerns and was very accommodating to what we needed and asked for.

Julene Davis was also very helpful and key in providing our out-of-town guests with pleasant room accommodations at the nearby Sheraton Princess Ka‘iulani Hotel, as well as, arranging for a beautifully-arranged bridal party sunset cocktail and pupu hour at the Rum Fire Waikiki in the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel the night prior to our wedding. We would like to thank her for all of her coordination and participation in these events and arrangements.

We would also like to thank The Royal Hawaiian staff (valet, bellhops, front-desk and concierge, banquet workers) in general who, through their courteous and combined efforts on the evening of our event, was instrumental in the success of our wedding.

Our entire event experience was absolutely exceptional and completely exceeded our expectations in each and every aspect. The Royal Hawaiian venue and its professional, highly competent staff made our wedding the perfect, once-in-a-lifetime experience that my wife and I have always dreamed about and desired. Our family, friends and guests were also deeply impressed with our wedding, which some our friends facetiously refer to as “The True Royal Wedding” (since Prince William and Catherine Middleton also got married that same weekend, a couple days prior to our wedding).

Without a doubt, we will be recommending The Royal Hawaiian to our family, friends and colleagues to host their similar events with the highest regard, trust and confidence.

Aloha Me Ke Pumehana,
Mike & Kristen Nishimura

Negatives:

The main entrance and vehicle turnaround provides an important gateway to any hotel, and is one of the most impressionable characteristic features of an establishment. The front, main entrance at The Royal Hawaiian is very space-constrained and prone to major traffic congestion as occurred on the night of our wedding (also probably due to a concurrently on-going “Spam-Jam” celebration event in Waikiki that may have caused lane closures in some main thoroughfares for the area). Additionally, the hotel entrance traffic turnaround was too small and restricted for our wedding limousine to negotiate and after several attempts to maneuver the vehicle to pick my wife, me, the bridal party, the photographer, and the videographer up at the hotel entrance, the limousine driver had to ask all of us to inconveniently walk out and meet him further out on the entrance road.

Also, early on in the planning process (about a year prior to our event), my wife and I experienced very unpleasant and inattentive service by the valet employees, who all stood around talking to each other at the valet stand while we waited for several minutes next to our car for their service. We actually had to get out of our vehicle to flag down one of the 3 valet workers on 2 separate occasions during visits to the establishment. My wife conveyed her concerns to Kealoha after the second occurrence (we dismissed the first time to an unfortunate aberration; however, the second time indicated a regular recurrent problem), and the problem was promptly resolved. When we visited the hotel a third time in the planning process, a fourth time for a weekend getaway, and the day prior to our event to check-in for our wedding, the valet workers were very professional, cordial and quick to act.

These two items should be of great concern and importance to The Royal Hawaiian since the entrance and valet employees are the first two experiences that guests encounter at the hotel. They could very well set the precedence for guests’ entire stay with the hotel and any bad impressions invoked so early-on in the visit could be difficult to overcome by the guests and result in undesirable repercussions and consequences (such as, customers booking with other alternative hotels and venues). The Royal Hawaiian may consider prospective improvements to mitigate/alleviate these two items.

Additionally, the guest and public parking structure is relatively and inconveniently far from the hotel. However, this concern is secondary compared to the two aforementioned issues discussed above.

Additional Comments:

My wife and I look forward to future and continued relationship with The Royal Hawaiian and Sheraton Waikiki for vacation getaways and perhaps maybe even other events and banquets. Due to our highly positive experience with the venue and its staff, we plan on recommending The Royal Hawaiian to our family, friends and colleagues to host their similar events with the highest regard, trust and confidence.

Great location, iconic venue, great views, beach front wedding, helpful staff, expensive.