KEN IGE / KIGE@STARBULLETIN.COM Wedding planner
a romanticSusan O'Donnell still gets a
thrill on every client's big dayI'm a wedding consultant. Our firm, Aloha Wedding Planners, offers services on four islands, but primarily Oahu. There's a staff of three, including myself. I'm the president, but we all basically do the same thing. We sell, consult and coordinate wedding services. We all handle different sizes of wedding groups for a mix of local and inbound parties.
About 25 percent of our business is local and about 75 percent inbound. Some of the inbound parties are former residents who either don't have much family here anymore or don't want to bother them with planning. Our out-of-town business is mostly from the mainland, with a handful each from Canada and Europe.
I had worked in the food and beverage industry since the late '70s. In 1991, I had the opportunity to buy this business. The owner wanted to move to the mainland and was ready to sell.
I was working at a Waikiki hotel when it came up for sale. The previous owner knew my cousin. She and I bought the business together.
It wasn't necessarily that I had always envisioned myself being a wedding planner, but I wanted to be my own boss. That was really the motivation. But from the beginning, I enjoyed the party planning aspect of the job.
I had the food and beverage background and my cousin had sales and marketing experience. We ran the company together for about three years. Then she went on maternity leave and the following summer I bought her shares. I've been sole owner since 1995.
I think the business is terrific. There's a lot of stress that goes with it, but I'm a romantic at heart. It's still wonderful the day of the wedding to see the bride and groom and how happy they are in that moment starting out.
What always surprised me in the very beginning and continues to surprise me is the stability of wedding trends. Most people still want what we'd think of as the traditional wedding. There's a floral component of some kind, there are formal invitations. Even with the popularity of the Internet, not many people are doing e-invitations. They still want that stationery. But as far as the flavor of the event and the details are concerned, every couple is different in their vision of the day. That continues to be exciting. The individual personalities make for a unique twist every time.
We had a senior couple we worked with in February that sticks in my mind. They were a local couple and they both had been widowed. They had known each other for a number of years and they had found companionship and love and that was very touching.
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