Rehearsal + Luau

Paul and I had a very small wedding party. 

My sister Molly was my maid of honour. Paul's mate Dan was his best man. We also had three gorgeous flower girls, and a dapper ring bearer. Two of the flower girls were daughters of Dan & his wife Amanda. Our third flower girl & ring bearer were our friend Kieran & Amy's son & daughter. The handsome ring bearer is also our Godson. Kieran was our emcee, which is a very Aussie thing to do. He told jokes, kept things moving and introduced each mini event along the evening (you killed it Kieran). I also had my two girls Katie & Justine as personal attendants. For us it was best to keep the wedding party small and intimate.

Thursday before the luau we had a quick rehearsal. 

Getting the run down from the planner.

Paul walked Vanessa down.

Molly & Dan.

Here comes Will.

There goes Will.

Charlotte & Sienna quickly became BFF's.

Daddy & I.

There they are, minus one flower girl. 

Little Hayley broke her arm at the beginning of the families holiday. 

She got in a little later than expected with her Mumma.

Thank you to my niece Haley for snapping the rehearsal pics for us :)

After the rehearsal Paul & I invited all our guest to join us for a Luau. A fun time was had by all! There was a buffet, drinks were included with entertainment to finish the festivities. 

There was a great turn out. Almost everyone was able to make it.

Grandma & Paul were the cutest couple at the wedding.

Flower divas!

Thanks Mummy for the smile from Will.

Katie's wearing a kitschy honeybees flower crown :)

These two in their Daddy's sunnys just kills me.

Can you spot Kieran & Dan being good sports up their with their daughters learning to hula.

and just before the entertainment this happened...

All this time I thought Mara wasn't coming to the wedding. I put on a brave face, but I was devastated. On the night of the luau I looked up to see my friend Jimmy walking towards me. He had "just flown in", a little behind him I caught a glimpse of Mara, and I lost it. They worked together to surprise me with her. Julie was in on the surprise and she got photographic proof. 

Look at Will & Mummy watching the pretty ladies twirl fire.

We had a spectacular time. If we make it back to Hawaii I'm sure we'll attend another luau. The food was a buffet, so you can't expect fine dining. But the entertainment was a once in a lifetime experience.

Thank you to Julie, Kieran, Molly and Evan for the luau pictures :)



Mr. & Mrs. Forsyth

We did it! We finally did it! 

Three weeks ago, already, my how time flies. Paul & I made our relationship street legal. We are now husband and wife...forever & ever. I couldn't be more happy or more proud to be his wife. It is truly one of the greatest feelings in the world.

About 50 of our loved ones made the journey to Maui to help us celebrate this momentous event. Let me tell you, it's very humbling to have so many people go above and beyond to make your day special. We feel so lucky to be surrounded by so many amazing people. Not all of our nearest and dearest could make the treck. Unfortunately, both of our Mother's couldn't be there, but we know they were celebrating for us from afar. That was always the inevitably unfortunate parts of having a destination wedding, and being an intercontinental couple. 

Hawaii was the ideal solution for us and our guests. Maui was the closest to a middle point that we could find. Luckily for us Maui is an amazing place to convince people to travel to. 

Paul and I arrived a week before the nuptials. That way we could get over our jet lag before the big day. We could also take that time to spend some quality time with our guests before the big day & our honeymoon.

I'm going to break these blogs into a few, because there are too many photos to share! We'll start with the pre Mr. & Mrs. and work our way through.

We shared a hotel with Paul's younger sister, Vanessa. It was so fun to get some time together. Ness lives in Perth (about 3,000 miles from us), so our visits are never long enough.

Our first day on our way to dinner.

On our second day we took a little drive in search of a hike.

Once we got to the hiking destination the rain had come in. We had to wait it out in the car for about thirty minutes or so. Word to the wise: If you every go to a 'forest' type area in Hawaii be sure to have bug spray. We stood outside in the rain for no more than five minutes and I had at least twenty very itchy bites.

It ended up being less of a hike than we anticipated. 

But there were plenty of beautiful sights to be seen.

A few days before the nuptials and after a swim we took a walk down the beach. We decided to sneak a peak of the ceremony spot while we were there.

I did a terrible job of getting photos of our gorgeous Godson, Will. He must have been very annoyed with the camera flash at this point. He shares the same birthday with my brother. They both celebrated their birthdays on Maui. Later this night we celebrated on his behalf with his Mummy, Grandad a couple bottles of wine and lots of laughs. No photographic proof though! 

My Poppa Bear and little Bro Josh arrived on the day before Josh's birthday! We celebrated by leaving them for an appointment for our wedding certificate. Kidding! Kind of, we had an early morning appointment, but after that we celebrated with coffee and a delicious lunch.

That mega babe to my right is Katie. She's one of my dearest friends. She also moved away from home a couple years before me, because of that we click on so many levels. We also just happen to really enjoy each others company. She and her awesome husband Evan joined us for a little lunch that afternoon.

A few days later we took a ferry boat to the island of Lanai. My Aunt Molly, her two sons and my Grandma all live on Lanai. My Aunt Jenny was there already visiting from Minnesota. Jenny gave us a little tour of Lanai. We got to see where both Grandma, Molly and the boys live. We also popped into a friend of my Aunt's shop, The Local Gentry. It was absolutely beautiful. If we weren't there with the boys I could have spent hours in there. After shopping we grabbed some lunch together then we were off to the stables. My Aunt runs a beautiful ranch there. We were privileged to take a horse back ride guided by my Aunt through the trails while we were there.

 

Going riding was absolutely wonderful. I hadn't been riding since I was about ten years old. Paul and Vanessa hadn't been riding in ages either. Tom back there used to ride all the time, so he was also keen to join. Lanai is a very small, but very beautiful island. We ended up with a little less than a full day there. I would have happily stayed much longer had we planned better. Another hot tip: If you decide to ferry to Lanai from Maui you do need to book ahead.

Beach on Lanai.

Post Lanai sunset in Lahaina on the drive home.

The next day my homeboy Rob got in! Almost as soon as he got there we went straight to the water for some snorkeling. Paul and Rob did a fair bit of snorkeling, while I watched from afar. 

More quality time with Ness. While Paul waved from Black rock. Rob and Paul did a little cliff jump from Black Rock. I opted out, on the off chance I injured myself. I'm pretty clumsy and not a very good swimmer, so that was an irrational but real risk!

More pics to come! Unfortunately, we missed pics with a lot of people and we didn't document everything we did. But that just means we were having entirely too much fun! 

Next up our rehearsal and the Luau.

To be continued...

over three under two

Three weeks<Two weeks

We are now under three weeks, but over two weeks out...

Ahhhhh!

By the time most everyone is heading to Maui, Paul & I will already be there.

The best way to contact us will be via facebook messenger, and by us, I mean me.

Paul doesn't check his facebook very often.  Because our phones will be without service we won't be able to check frequently. However, should anyone have questions I will make it a point to log into some sort of wifi at least once a day. 

We will be staying at the Maui Eldorado Outrigger. 

We plan on doing a bbq by the pool most nights. 

Any and all of our guests are welcome to come hang out! 

2661 Kekaa Dr, Lahaina, HI 96761, United States

Just quickly checking in with everyone to recap some of our plans.

Thursday October 1: Luau at the Royal Lahaina Resort, gates open at 5:30pm

We have made a reservation for about half the wedding group. If you'd like to join in on the fun please let me know. I'd be happy to add you to the reservation!

Saturday October 3: M&P wed, ceremony begins at 4:30pm also at the Royal Lahaina Resort in the Villas Lawn, reception to follow in the Hale Piilani Room.

Sunday October 4: Brunch again at the Royal Lahaina Resort at their Royal Ocean Terrace Restaurant. They offer a breakfast buffet until 10:30am. We will be there at 9am. Again, we have reserved for roughly half the wedding group. If you would like to join for some brunch give me a shout & I'll add to the reservation.

The Royal Lahaina Resort, 2780 Kekaa Dr, Lahaina, HI 96761

Please feel free to give  Paul or myself a shout over the coming next couple of weeks should you have any questions/concerns. We are beyond thrilled to have you all there will us to celebrate our special day & to experience beautiful Maui together!

xo, Meaghan & Paul

Dinner time

Forsyth family dinner.

Paul recently had a work trip to Perth (nothing new), but I hadn't been to Perth since just before Easter. For all those that don't know, we live in Melbourne. This is about a four hour flight from Perth, where most of Paul's family is, and where he's from. We decided this was the time for me to tag along and see the family once more before the wedding.

Being a destination wedding it's tough for everyone to make the journey. Paul's sister Vanessa will be there with us on the big day. But the rest of the family can't make it. Mick (Paul's bro) and Krystal are expecting their first baby within weeks of the wedding, yay! 

Paul's Mum organised a family dinner for all of us to get together one last time before nuptials and newborns take over! We had good food, and even better company.

The girls.

The boys.

We're really creeping in on the big day now. 

The gift of giving

Aloha, just a quick note to all our lovely guests regarding gifts.

While Paul and I very much appreciate the thought, we absolutely do not expect any gifts.

Due to the geographical nature of our wedding, we do not have the capacity to coordinate travel with gifts back to Australia. Something as simple as a card is much appreciated.

Your presence is present enough for us.

In other news: 

We are now just a mere seven weeks out!

Two month countdown!

Aloha!

Just thought I'd drop a few lines for everyone with some wedding related goodness.

Aussie guests:
You will need to apply for an ESTA: https://esta.cbp.dhs.gov/esta/
This is pretty straight forward. I'm sure most of you already hold one, or have previously.
If not though, please let Paul or I know. He's VERY used to filling out these applications :)

Car Rental:
The wedding itself is about an hour or more from the airport. We highly recommend renting a car, even if only for one day to get yourself to Lahaina. A cab will likely cost more than a rental. Some friends recommended using: www.discounthawaiicarrental.com as they are very friendly on the pocket book. There are plenty of other options as well. This just happens to be one we've heard good things about.

If you plan on driving up the mountain, be aware that it's quite a windy road. Once you arrive at the top, you have to reverse and turn around to get back down. This isn't a huge deal, however, just something to be aware of, if you have a huge rental car.

Luau:

Paul & I have made a reservation for thirty people for the Luau held at the Royal Lahaina on Thursday the 1st. The reservation is under my maiden name (Meaghan Smith-Bollum).

If you plan on joining & haven't let me know, please do! I'll add you to the reservation :)

http://www.mythsofmaui.com/

Golf:

Paul & some of the boys are hoping to get in nine holes of golf on Friday the 2nd. Most of the golf courses have some sort of dress code. It will likely end up being at: http://www.mauinuigolfclub.com/  But we will keep you posted if anything changes. Once again, if you want to join and haven't already let me know, tell Paul! The golf outing is his one wedding job! 

Ceremony/Reception:
The wedding is being held at the Royal Lahaina resort on Saturday October 3rd, at 4:30pm on the Villas Lawn.

The reception will follow in the Hale Piilani Room. There will be a three course plated dinner.

Brunch:

We are still sorting out details for a brunch to follow the wedding on Sunday the 4th. It looks like the restaurant at the Royal Lahaina closes at 10:30am. I don't know about you, but I plan on sleeping in at least a couple hours on Sunday. Stay tuned for more brunch details.

I have no doubt there's plenty of info I've forgotten about. I'm at the stage where I can't seem to retain information.

Please don't hesitate to reach out and ask if there's anything you don't already know. We are getting very excited, and feel so lucky to have all of you there with us on our special day.

Wedding activities!

Aloha to our wonderful friends and family attending the wedding in just a couple short months!

P and I have been discussing putting together some group related activities. We'd love for everyone attending the wedding to join. But there is absolutely no pressure either.

The Royal Lahaina (the place we'll be married at) hosts a very high rated Lu'au. We are planning on attending the Lu'au on Thursday 1st with as many as our guests care to join. I've heard very good things from people that have actually been to this particular Lu'au.

Lu'au info

We would also love for as many of our guests that care to join us for a breakfast the day after the wedding, again at the Royal Lahaina Resort. They offer buffet/menu dining.

Breakfast info

Please let us know if you'd like to join the fun, as I need to make reservations for both activities! Of course, there is no pressure at all! We realize this is also a vacation for everyone.

xoxo, Meaghan & Paul