Many to ring in
new life together
A popular spot for tying
By Stephanie Kendrick
the knot, the isles may
see a millennium boom
Assistant Features EditorMike Sarna gave Kathy Herman a little pineapple with a diamond ring around it when he asked her to marry him come New Year's Eve 1999 at the Kahala Mandarin Oriental hotel.
He was pretty relieved when she said yes, having paid for the wedding and travel arrangements more than a year ago, on Herman's birthday.
"If she'd said no, I guess I'd be getting married by myself," said Sarna.
The idea of a millennium wedding in Hawaii appealed to Sarna as both unique and cozy.
"We didn't want a big traditional wedding," he said. "I thought it'd be nice to go away somewhere nice and warm and to bring in the new millennium with your closest friends and family."
Home is not warm in January. The Canada couple runs a country hotel in Fisher Branch, Manitoba, population 500. They have known each other for 15 years and started dating about three years ago. "We started off as really good friends and just kind of went from there," said Herman.
Both Sarna and Herman have been to Hawaii before, but not together.
They are expecting 20 to 30 guests. "It's more than just a wedding, it's the holiday and it's the new year," said Sarna. "You get a vacation at the same time."
So far, their friends and family are not running into exorbitant travel prices, but some are having trouble getting return dates, said Herman.
The couple made arrangements through Hume Travel in Vancouver, and Susan's Weddings in Paradise in British Columbia. The latter company's Hawaii contact is Eleanor Hagedorn, president of Creative Planners of Hawaii Inc.
Hagedorn said she had some trouble finding vendors to work the wedding. "Everybody wanted to be with their families," she said.
Each month, Hagedorn gets 100 or more inquiries from couples interested in getting married in Hawaii next year, and in 2001. The numbers are not unusual, she said, but more of those inquiries are turning into bookings than is normal.
While some Hawaii wedding venues expect a wedding boom in 2000 - the Kahala Mandarin is looking at a 16 percent jump from 1999 to 2000, and Haiku Gardens in Kaneohe expects to be about 8 percent busier - most said numbers are holding steady.
Debbie Cravatta, owner of Paradise Weddings Hawaii on the Big Island, said she had anticipated the millennium would generate more business, but she hasn't seen that happen.
"People will run off and go to exotic places to get married, but if we're too expensive, they'll go elsewhere," she said.
She does have two weddings booked for New Year's Eve. One is a couple from Europe, the other is a couple from Eldorado Hills, Calif., Bonnie Floyd and Michael Kehoe.
Deep-sea fishing brings the couple to Hawaii four to five times a year, so it seemed the perfect place for their wedding, according to Floyd, and New Year's Eve seemed the perfect time.
"It's the end of the old and the start of the new," she said.
The ceremony will be at the Hilton Waikoloa lagoons and the couple expects some 25 guests.
Floyd described the dresses she and her attendant will wear as elegant, but sexier and more sparkly than the traditional wedding costume.
"It fits the millennium party theme," she said.
Instead of a traditional wedding reception, the party will head over to Roy's Waikoloa Bar & Grill for a New Year's Eve party at their favorite local restaurant, said Floyd.
A group of local wedding planners with an eye on the already-married market is working with the state's Year 2000 Commission to lure Hawaii fans like Floyd and Kehoe back to the islands for the millennium.
They are planning May wedding renewal ceremonies statewide, according to Susan O'Donnell, owner of Aloha Wedding Planners Inc.
"With a broader-based market for renewals, we thought this would be a good opportunity to get people to come back to Hawaii," she said.
Preliminary plans call for a ceremony each weekend in May 2000, first on Oahu, then on Kauai, the Big Island and Maui.
Local residents also will be invited to participate.
