The Fairmont Orchid, Hawaii Reviews

Review: ★★★★★

Our wedding at Fairmont Orchid, specifically at Coconut Grove on the beach, was an absolute dream come true, thanks to the exceptional efforts of Aria and the entire team at the resort. Since childhood, I had envisioned exchanging vows on a picturesque Hawaiian beach, and Fairmont Orchid exceeded every expectation, making my childhood dream a breathtaking reality.

From the moment we began planning, Aria demonstrated an unparalleled level of dedication and expertise, seamlessly managing all aspects of the event, including vendor contracts and billing. Her meticulous attention to detail and unwavering support made the entire wedding planning process remarkably stress-free, allowing us to focus on savoring every moment of our special day.

On the morning of our wedding, as we were getting ready on the top floor of the resort, an unexpected 6.2 earthquake struck. Aria's immediate response to ensure our safety and well-being during this unforeseen event truly exemplified her exceptional professionalism and genuine care for her clients.

The catering team at Fairmont Orchid also deserves high praise for their outstanding service. Despite my numerous food allergies and celiac condition, they flawlessly accommodated my dietary restrictions, crafting a wedding menu that not only met but exceeded my expectations. I still find myself reminiscing about the exquisite wedding cake, a testament to the culinary excellence of the resort.

Beyond the impeccable service and stunning venue, the resort itself exudes unparalleled beauty and charm. The lush surroundings and picturesque beachfront provided the perfect backdrop for our special day, leaving us eager to return and relive the magical memories created at Fairmont Orchid.

Moreover, the entire staff at the resort went above and beyond to ensure that our wedding week was nothing short of extraordinary. Their warmth, hospitality, and attention to detail truly enhanced our overall experience, making our wedding celebration an unforgettable journey filled with joy and love.

In conclusion, I wholeheartedly recommend Fairmont Orchid to couples seeking a dream wedding destination. Aria and her team's unwavering dedication, coupled with the resort's unparalleled beauty and exceptional service, make it the perfect choice for creating timeless memories that will be cherished for a lifetime. We are immensely grateful to Fairmont Orchid for making our wedding day an unforgettable experience beyond compare.

My husband and I held our wedding and reception at Coconut Grove - it was absolutely amazing! Mew and Sara (with Jots of Thoughts) brought to life exactly what we'd hoped for. The staff on the Fairmont campus are SO accommodating, prompt, and around to ensure your happiness and comfort. The pool is great as well as the overall grounds.

My husband and I did a lot of research on the different resorts on the Kona side of Big Island, interviewed 4 hotels and asked a ton of questions. We ultimately chose Fairmont Orchid because of its location and size, its amenities, its beauty, its price points and also because of our wedding coordinator, Hannah Bahm. Hannah supported us, answered all of our questions and was on top of everything from our very first conversation about the wedding until the conclusion of our big day and beyond. Hannah was responsive, professional, organized, flexible and made sure that all of the details of our wedding (and there were many!) were given due attention and were smoothly executed so that my husband and I could focus on our priorities. We were in very good hands. We held all of our wedding weekend functions at the Fairmont and were so impressed by how versatile the resort and catering services were in making each event unique in terms of space, ambience and food. Besides the wedding events, our guests who stayed at Fairmont enjoyed the pool area, the beach and the lagoon where they could snorkel and paddle board. There is also a nice coastal walk past the Coconut Grove where we saw sea turtles and someone net fishing. The food/drinks at the restaurants on property were delicious (with good number of veggie options) but definitely pricey -- but everything on Big Island just seemed to be pricier than even New York City prices. That said, there is a Foodland about 5 minutes drive, an Island Gourmet about 10 minutes drive, and a Costco in Kona about 45 minutes drive, from Fairmont. We did not feel "trapped" in Fairmont at all given its range of amenities, and its location between Waimea and Kona gave us quite a bit of options with a car. The downside is that it is far (2.5 hours one-way) from the Volcano National Park, so we will have to go back again! All in all, we were very very pleased with how everything turned out during our unforgettable wedding weekend.

My destination wedding @ Fairmont Orchid on the Big Island was amazing!!! The pictures on their hotel website do not do the hotel enough justice. The hotel is beautiful–the grand entrance, the marble lobby, the giant beautiful and delicious smelling gingerbread house in the lobby (we went right before Christmas), the décor, the beach & snorkeling (we saw so many turtles!), the landscaping, and clean guestrooms!

On top of the hotel being beautiful, the service was also super friendly and efficient! From the bell staff, to front desk, to housekeeping, the staff was some of the friendliest and most polite hospitality staff I have ever met. We had a destination wedding, and I had no idea the quality of service they were going to provide, and so I’m surprised to say they exceeded my already high expectations.

Big THANK YOU to Mew Lan, our Catering Manager at the hotel for helping to plan and communicate everything! Mew worked so well with her hotel staff and alongside my wedding planner effortlessly. I could tell that the hotel prepared for my group arrival, worked as a strong team and the result is that we were all truly pampered. Mew is very quick to respond to your requests and concerns, experienced, and easy to work with!

In regards to my wedding day –the set up was perfect at Coconut Grove (had my ceremony & reception there), the banquet staff were efficient, the AV was set up correctly for my ceremony, my cake design was absolute perfection, and the flow of the event went well.

I just can’t thank them enough for giving me the best day of our lives!

Note: this has nothing to do with the hotel, but be careful of having your wedding outside in December. It can be VERY windy–the sound quality of the speeches will be effected and the cake might topple over!

I couldn't have asked for a better place to get married!! It was everything I had ever dreamed of and so much more!!! We got married right on the beach, and also had the reception on the beach!!! It was perfect! No one had to wear shoes and they took care of everything for us!!!! MewLaw was our coordinator and she helped us through every step of the way!!!!

Absolutely the best place on the islands of Hawaii to get married. We had the most beautiful wedding because the Fairmont Orchid is the most beautiful resort ever! Thanks to all the staff for making our wedding absolutely perfect.

My husband and I are so glad we went with the Fairmont for our ceremony and reception venue. Ashley Kojima, our wedding coordinator was helpful and professional, working seamlessly with our wedding planner, Haunani of Weddings by Le'Amana. Additionally, the hotel staff were consistently pleasant and responsive. Our wedding ceremony and reception were beyond what we expected or hoped for.....thank you so much to the staff at the Fairmont for a magical wedding experience for ourselves and our wedding guests. We went to a 5 star hotel on another island for our honeymoon - and they did not hold a candle to our experience at the Fairmont.

Thanks so much!
Lourdes & Brian

They were awesome to work with. Especially our wedding coordinator Ashley. They made our dreams come true and our wedding was absolutely beautiful.

Planning our wedding through the orchid was perfect. Jasey and her team handled everything prior and made sure the wedding day went smoothly. They went above and beyond to ensure that the day and night were perfect. This wedding was a dream come true!

We could not have been happier with how perfectly Katie and the rest of the amazing staff at The Fairmont Orchid, Hawaii, executed our wedding. The setting (Coconut Grove) was magical and the food was described by many of our guests as the best they had ever had at a wedding. Every aspect of our wedding -- from the flowers to the musicians, from the fruit tree to the photographer -- was perfect. Katie handled every request and every detail, including details we hadn't even thought of, efficiently, flawlessly and professionally, and the entire staff at the resort made us feel like the most important people in the world. Our wedding was absolutely amazing, and we couldn't have asked for anything better.

Reading all these fantastic reviews wasn't a surprise to me. The Fairmont Orchid did surpass all our expectations for our wedding and it helped greatly that the Orchid was not only our only choice, it was the choice from the very start.

However, I never realized out of 4 or 5 of the reviews here, all mentioned a special someone who also touched our lives in so many ways - Ashley Kojima. Ashley have been our very pillar of support and help throughout the planning and running of the wedding. She is easy to talk to, great to work with and during our special day, she even came in whilst suffering from a bad cold. She took all my random, incoherent and at times, massive dump of ideas and group them into a tangible delight. Ashley put such a smile on our faces, and such love towards her that it was really sad to even let her leave at the end of the night.

And don't forget the banquet staff. Your wedding will never be the same without the staff (and we do mean ALL the staff at the Fairmont Orchid). From the valet guys to the kitchen staff, you just want to embrace all of the at the end of your night and say a massive 'thank you' that can never quite be enough.

The Fairmont looked great online and we were NOT disappointed. The grounds were amazing, and we had the most beautiful wedding I could have imagined. The food and service was great during the wedding. We used the Coconut Grove location and everything was spectacular and gorgeous, just like the pictures online. It is difficult planning a destination wedding, and overall there are so many questions. Since we have never been married before I had a ton of things that I didn't know, or wanted specifications about. I think overall the only downside was, being such a beautiful resort with a TON of weddings going on, the responsiveness to questions sometimes left us waiting on answers. I did notice as our special day got closer, all of my questions ended up being answered and all the details were ironed out. I am the kind of person that likes things planned way ahead of time so I struggled a little with this, but about 2-3 weeks before the wedding is when all of the details were being sorted out. I honestly just think that they do a TON of weddings and the priority goes to whose wedding is coming up sooner. The Fairmont staff was SPECTACULAR. We felt so cared from from the moment we showed up to the moment we left. The grounds are AMAZING. We stayed at the Fairmont for 5 nights and then moved to The Westin (due to having Marriott points), and what a let down it was. I am absolutely sure that no other resort could compare to the Fairmont. The people are the Valet were so nice, the people that checked you in were amazing, Mew you were so sweet! and even our housekeeper was just beyond anything that we could ask for. Literally every part of our stay was amazing. Loved the fact that we had a room block for our wedding but there was no minimum amount of guests we had to have. They upgraded us to a 1 bedroom suite which just was fantastic! You do not have to use their vendors - just a fee to use your own but probably more cost effective to actually use your own. We just absolutely loved it overall - would totally do it again. How much did we like it? Well we could go back to Hawaii and basically stay for free at any Marriott property, and we would literally choose to spend the money to stay here. Are we are looking at going back for our 1 year anniversary and staying at the Fairmont again. Just a phenomenal experience.

Our wedding coordinator Mew, was incredible. She responded back quickly and professionally answering any and all questions we had. We wouldn't of had the beautiful wedding we did if it wasn't for her. The day of our event was perfect. Everything rolled smoothly minus the usual small stuff. All in all our day was better than we could of ever imagined. The rest of the staff was great to work with as well. We did have a few hiccups with customer service upon check in for some guests and in the dining areas as well. Mew quickly sorted out the issues without hesitation. We're so thankful we had her to help us during the planning process!

Wonderful. Ashley Kojima, the wedding coordinator took care of everything! We didn't have to lift a finger the day of the wedding. Never once did the words 'we may not be able to do that' come out of her mouth. Highly recommended, beautiful location.

I worked with Mewlan to organize my destination wedding at turtle point followed by reception at the knoll at browns beach house. There were many details to coordinate, from flowers, minister, location setup , browns food and much more and 99% of things were perfect. The day was lovely and the venue easy to work with remotely. They were expensive but the service impeccable. Food at browns was fantastic. Florist was easy by email and using their Facebook page. Only criticism I wold have is that the sound at the ceremony was poor due to the wind and ocean sounds the back row (only 3 rows!) couldn't hear and I wish they had warned me about it and arranged audio but otherwise the day was perfect and memorable! The cake was beautifully decorated with fresh flowers and a hand drawn monogram. Great flavor too in lilikoi poppyseed with calamansi curd. Florals were gorgeous, orchids, roses so both tropical and romantic. I especially loved the archway with the florals and gauze, the bouquets and centerpeices. The boutonneires could have been better , more different between groom and other men. Spa without walls did fantastic job on makeup.. normally I don't wear it and Margaret and Cherie made me look so natural but also very appropriate to the setting with orchids in my hair,

Poor.....Planning our wedding through the orchid was horrible. We decided to use the Waikoloa Hilton instead. We could trust that the wedding coordinator could get the job done.

This is a hard comment to write. The property is stunning. One of the most beautiful places to get married in the world, I believe, and a smaller hotel that doesn't feel like it's a wedding machine. It's a great place for families because of the gentle beach and the good snorkeling. In addition, the servers at the reception were wonderful, although the general level of customer service at this hotel lacks in comparison to the Four Seasons Hualalai as well as the large high-brand hotels on Maui (Four Seasons, Fairmont, Andaz, Waldorf). But the service offered by the wedding planning department was TERRIBLE. After going to superiors to discuss the hiccups in service, and after they reduced the price of our wedding because of the service issues, there were STILL snafus with the planning--lack of coordination with the pastor in terms of what we were doing in our ceremony (lei exchange, which meant that the pastor, who was an amazing professional, had to alter his service in the middle after discussing with us), and they didn't clean up the beach where we had our ceremony--there were still cabanas and chairs all over the place and MY FRIENDS moved them after the wedding planner would not. Thank the lord that I was not present when they were moving the chairs.

My advice would be: 1) Be very upfront with the planner about how they plan to coordinate with vendors, and what you need to be doing, and what they will do. Be very clear from the beginning and get it in writing, have a very clear separation of duties. 2) Do not expect that the follow through will occur, so still expect to do it yourself! 3) Expect them trying to upsell and nickel and dime you. Nothing huge happened at the wedding that was terrible, and the food was INCREDIBLE, but generally speaking it was a bad experience planning my wedding with the hotel. Getting married in the location was AMAZING, so if you can deal with the stress of planning then I would recommend it. it is so beautiful.