3 Months, a Vision, and a Curator

A full-service Hawaiʻi wedding that started with a childhood backyard, a cooler of drinks, and three months on the clock.

Most wedding planning advice tells you to start a year out, sometimes longer. Emma and Evan came to me with three months left on the clock. I knew it could be done in three months, but I had to make them believe in that too.

At the time they found their way to Priscilla Bella Events, they'd booked exactly one vendor, a caterer, and that was it. No seating plan (or seats). The bar plan was a cooler and a stack of cups, guests grab their own. They were planning for a traditional, relaxing evening with friends and family.

The more I learned about Emma and Evan's unique love story, the illusion of a traditional backyard celebration transitioned into something far more beautiful than even I could have ever imagined.

Who are Emma and Evan?

Emma and Evan aren't the kind of couple who dreams in mood boards. What they wanted was simple on paper: something relaxed, homey, more focused on their guests having a good time than on any single detail being perfect. Nothing that felt like a performance. If the florals were a little imperfect or nobody had an assigned seat, that was fine by them, as long as everyone they loved was fed, comfortable, and having fun.

That's exactly the instinct that had them planning their wedding in their own backyard, around a family friend's catering and a cooler of drinks, and meaning it. Easygoing wasn't a fallback for them. It was the actual goal.

So when they invited Priscilla Bella Events in, with three months left on the clock, it wasn't because they wanted someone to change their vision. It was because they wanted someone who could hear all of that clearly, and build an unforgettable evening that truly felt like them.

What full-service meant for them

For Emma and Evan, full-service simply meant paying attention to the elements that were both already decided and completely unknown.

One example of this was with their caterer. This caterer, a dear family friend, took the time to put together a tasteful menu of traditional backyard favorites. But we saw an opportunity to go one step further.

So I asked Evan one question. What do you actually love to eat? Chicken karaage, no hesitation. This one interaction transformed how Evan saw this menu, from an everyday, every-occasion menu into one that he felt reflected him and would remember.

The father of the groom had one ask of his own: a suckling pig, because in his words, it's a celebration. The caterer made it happen. Between the two requests, the menu stopped sounding like a default backyard spread and started sounding like the actual people it was for.

This is how we see full-service. Not just handling what's missing. Noticing what's already there, and making sure it actually belongs to them.

How Priscilla molded their vision to truly be them

Priscilla Bella Events transformed their family home into an editorial evening. Yes, the home was beautiful on its own, the family had put years into that backyard, but the difference wasn't in what got added. It was in what didn't. Our team accentuated what was already there instead of layering on anything that didn't belong.

A ledge by the pool became the processional aisle. The garden path was lined with photos from Emma and Evan's own relationship, so every guest walked through their story on the way to the ceremony. Wooden cross back chairs, chosen to match the house. A few floating orbs in the pool, just so it felt like part of the day instead of background scenery.

None of it needed replacing. It needed someone to truly see it, and to add what was meant to be there.

“It wasn't what we added. It was what was already there, buried in the details of the day, that made the real difference in their celebration.”

Take the outfits. Emma and Evan planned to wear the same aloha wear as their guests. They didn't want anything to feel too formal, too serious, like they were putting on a show. I understood that instinct completely. But if your guests are dressed exactly like you, you disappear into your own wedding (and that will absolutely NOT happen on my watch). So we found a version of dressed up that still felt like them. An Anthropologie dress for Emma. A white Tori Richard shirt for Evan, his favorite brand. The bridal party in coordinating Tori Richard aloha wear. Still relaxed, still Hawaiʻi, but the two of them were impossible to miss in a single photo.

Take the small stuff. A purple lei instead of the traditional white, because Emma simply liked how it looked against her dress. Floral cupcakes matched to the exact flowers on the tables, for Evan's mom. A decorative metal chicken by the reception, a nod to the family's own chicken business. None of it was in a Pinterest board.

Even the bar got a rethink. A cooler and a stack of cups isn't wrong, it just wasn't the whole story yet. So the cooler became a full bar with custom his-and-hers cocktails, plus a proper whisky selection for the father of the groom, his personal favorites. Same easygoing spirit they wanted, just carried by someone whose job it was to think it through, instead of a cooler in the corner nobody planned past.

Homey, but elevated

That's the phrase Emma and Evan used before I ever touched a single detail, and it's the same phrase I'd use to describe the day they truly had. Nothing about it stopped feeling like their backyard. It just stopped feeling like a backyard that happened to have a wedding in it.

By the final walkthrough, they'd stopped asking me to explain my choices. They just kept saying, “that's exactly it.”

Three months, a vision they hadn't fully said out loud yet, and someone whose job was to notice what was already theirs and leave the rest alone.

At the end of the day, it is Emma and Evan and their families who will live with how this day is remembered by the people they love, not us. That is exactly why I take every detail as seriously as I do. My job is to make sure that when the couple, their families, and their friends look back on this day, they are brought right back to how it felt: surrounded by love, intention, and beauty.