Dream wedding came to life!
I just recently got married on 6/8/2023. Since getting engaged on 12/24/2021, I was searching for a planner in Oahu for a couple of months and was not having any luck. I had spoken to 10 planners and was either told my budget was unrealistic or was just simply ignored because of the number of brides searching at the time in Oahu. Living in Texas, I was getting more stressed of not finding one since I knew I would be planning 100% remote and had no time to travel to the island before my own wedding day. I had booked my venue of Kualoa Ranch in early Feb 2022, which the venue was gracious enough to provide their list of preferred vendors. Sure enough, that list included the wonderful Lauran Yard from Weddings by Forrest and Lauran! After having a consultation in late Feb 2022, I looked no further because Lauran gave me the confidence that I can plan the wedding remotely and within the budget my fiancé and I wanted to stick to since we were paying for the wedding on our own. She gave me so much advice on where I should spend money and where I can save money, helped come up with some DIY ideas for my decorations, and even graciously allowed for me to ship some of my décor items to her so I wouldn’t have to travel with it! She also met up with my sister (maid of honor) whenever she went to Oahu on vacation and guided her through the venue and catering tastings. I want to say that I don’t think we had over 10 meetings throughout the year and were able to figure out so much and confirmed items in every one of our 1-hour planning sessions. I do want to warn you that I’m a simple bride and didn’t have a highly decorated wedding so maybe more time would be required. However, I felt that I could’ve easily just emailed Lauran and set up a session within the planning package I paid for. I also feel Lauran was way more affordable in my wedding budget, but to be honest she’s worth way more. I can’t thank Lauran enough for lending me her house for storage, letting me borrow frames, easels, or décor she had on hand from previous weddings, and even printing my menu and signage for me. I would like to proudly say that the day of my wedding was not stressful at all, and it’s all due to Lauran and her team. Working with her was a dream, and I felt sad when the journey was over. Thank you so much Lauran for making one of my special days something to remember and love forever!