Pilialoha Productions

About to be a year so I figured it's about time I wrote a review #islandtime Where to even begin...hiring Pili and the Pilialoha Productions team was hands-down the best decision we made! We were a California couple, planning a destination wedding so having a LOCAL and EXPERIENCED coordinator was a must. After picking our Kualoa Ranch wedding venue, she came highly recommended and we are so grateful to have had her guide us, support us and hold our hands through it all. From the start of the interview, my husband and I immediately clicked with her and our main takeaway was that she was 1) legit, 2) super experienced and 3) knew the ins-and-outs of Kualoa Ranch (especially our venue at Palikū Gardens).Trying to plan a destination wedding is stressful enough -- planning while navigating the pandemic was a whole another beast. Pili handled all our communications with vendors, which was a HUGE relief because everyone's on island time and she had the magic touch to get things done. Communication was stellar, through all the video calls, phone calls, texts, emails and DMs (not to mention my millions of questions) -- alleviated so much stress to have somebody on the grounds, updating us with everything and keeping us on track. The only time that communication was understandably slow was when she was in the hospital, pregnant with her third child (yes, not only is she the best wedding coordinator, she is also an incredible SUPER-MOM). Another bonus of hiring Pili was the discounts we received from other vendors, a fantastic perk of hiring somebody who's been in the event planning business this long!Fast-forward to the wedding day (because I have a max letter count). I am panicking about the weather because the weather app is telling me that a thunderstorm is expected during our ceremony. Thankfully, the rain held off during the ceremony and poured for a bit during half of our cocktail hour with clear skies afterwards. My parents told me afterwards that Pili and her team seamlessly swooped in to gather and move items out of the rain and ushered all the guests to the reception area to keep everyone dry (tg we had a tent). Endless praise from both our parents, family members and friends about how great Pili and her team was. Throughout the wedding, she kept us on schedule, encouraging us to eat during the reception (oops), and at the end of the unforgettable night making sure to shoo-away guests so we could savor our last dance together. Even after the wedding, she helped with getting a refund from one of the vendor's missing items.My husband would like to add-on that Pili was also great with stress management. Something about a wrong item on the day-of and Pili telling the groom "DON'T TELL HER I WILL FIX IT". So thankful I was blissfully unaware of this going on in the background.Truly an amazing wedding coordinator -- unmatched experience, stellar communication, incredibly down-to-earth, kind and caring human being. Pili absolutely enhanced our wedding and all our wedding planning dreams came true because of her! We are so so appreciative to have had her by our side. Mahalo to Pili and her team

We got married on December 27, 2015 at Kualoa Ranch (Secret Island and Paliku Gardens). Pili was our wedding coordinator. She was wonderful and self sacrificing! She would check up on us to see how we're doing. She took the time to get to know us even with our conflicting schedules. This resulted in a wedding that reflected who we are and what we wanted in a wedding. She was very detailed oriented and made sure that everything was taken care of ahead of time so there was less stress on us. We wanted a wedding to occur within two months and she made it happen! We really appreciate her caring and loving attitude as well as her commitment to making our wedding the best it can be! We would highly recommend her to any of our friends who are getting married! Keith and Roquel

We had our wedding a few months ago and made the huge mistake of hiring the recommended coordinator, Pilialoha Productions. We hired Pili and her team for full day-of-coordination services and had such a HORRIFIC experience.- Our contract stated we would have 2 coordinators on the day, but only 6 days before the wedding, Pili told us that she wasn't actually going to be at our wedding because she had "a bigger wedding Downtown" (yes that is exactly what she said to us while we were doing a site tour of the venue with our families). So since we only had 1 coordinator, she decided she would not co-ordinate the ceremony at all and instead go setup the reception. Well I'm pretty sure the main part of the wedding is getting the ceremony right. - We met our actual wedding coordinator the day before the wedding, when Pili insisted that we give her everything to setup the reception (not the ceremony because we had to set that up ourselves). We had to travel to meet her rather than them coming to us (ok fine, we'll go out of our way the day before the wedding to accommodate them). We gave her all the decorations, name cards, favours etc in ONE big box the afternoon before the wedding. When I got to the venue, I was told that the coordinator had lost the name cards which my maid of honour had painstakingly handwritten for our 100 or so guests. I could not believe how a ziplock bag that was packed into the one big box that we handed over only 12 hours prior, had gone missing. She also ended up losing my bouquet before the bouquet toss. - We noticed a woman who wasn't a guest, was with the wedding coordinator at the reception and did not introduce herself to my husband or I the entire night. The guests noticed she was taking food from the buffet in takeout boxes while they were still eating appetizers. I still don't know who that woman was. - We tried contacting Pili after the wedding but she never responded or contacted us to this day. I wouldn't wish this on my worst enemy.

If you are reading this, please do not go any further - you have found your wedding planner! Words can not describe how incredibly lucky and grateful my husband Justin and I were to find Pili and have her come on board as our wedding planner and day-of coordinator! We were going through an incredibly difficult situation when our original wedding planner cancelled her services on us only 16 days before the wedding (!!!) - as you can imagine, an incredibly stressful, disappointing and hurtful thing to go through for any bride and groom However, that same day Pili was highly recommended to us as an incredibly professional, organized, respectful and extremely talented wedding planner and day-of coordinator We were so grateful and excited to talk to Pili soon after and arrange for a first meeting where she ended up all that she was described as and so much more! She helped ease all of our doubts and fears and said one thing that helped me completely relax as a bride - "Don't worry, I got it! You will have the most beautiful wedding ever!" From that moment on, Pili was an absolute joy and honor to work with - incredibly fast at responding to emails, making calls, finishing up the timeline, arranging everything with vendors and the site, helping with gathering any wedding props, helping with all of the finishing touches while setting up and doing so much more... All I can say is that our wedding at Paliku Gardens at Kualoa Ranch not only exceeded our expectations and gave us the opportunity to celebrate our love with our family and friends in the most magical way, but we have also gained a lovely friend in Pili! We call her our "wedding angel" and we know that she is the right choice for a wedding or any other event you might have in mind! Thank you for everything Pili, we love you Ivana & Justin

Pili was a wonderful planner. Pili was very communicative, even with our 6 hour time difference. I was originally set to get married during the pandemic and Pili was able to help me move my wedding date twice. I highly recommend her services!

Pilialoha Productuions was a lifesaver when it came to planning my wedding! I was planning an Oahu wedding from North Carolina and thought I could handle it, but had to enlist the help of Pili when things got a little too tough at the end. She swooped in and helped with everything from florals to cake to venue management without batting an eye. And on the day of the wedding she was so helpful at keeping everyone in line - I felt like I could really focus on the things that were most important. I would highly suggest her to anyone needing help planning a wedding in Hawaii. Thank you, Pili!

Using Pili as our wedding planner was simply one of the best decisions we made when it came to planning our destination wedding! She was a thorough knowledge of local vendors, sites, officiants, caterer's etc, etc. She was able to provide us with many very good recommendations for our required services. Pili was organized, on time, and efficient with all aspects of planning our wedding, which was very nice as many people in Hawaii are on "Island TIme"... Pili made herself available to us whenever we needed her, from the beginning of planning, to the day of the ceremony. She kept us on track with timing, and was patient with us when we wanted to make changes. When it came to the day of the wedding, Pili oversaw things in a professional and courteous manner, and was there to handle our every need. We honestly couldn't have asked for anything more from her!We would recommend Pili as a wedding planner to anyone getting married in Hawaii, and especially to anyone tying the know at Kualoa Ranch, as she has an intimate knowledge of the sites and staff.

We planned a wedding in 7 weeks! That can be a little challenging if you are trying to do everything on your own. We were so blessed to have so many people wanting to help and in order to manage the vendors and help of friends and family, we knew we needed someone to manage all these moving parts. We contacted Pili with Pilialoha Productions and she made time to meet with us that week. We spent a good two hours over dinner going over the details and really gave us a bigger picture of all that goes into a wedding! :) Definitely saved us time and I know we would have been lost without this overview...from there we were able to get a better grip of what we had left to plan...in 7 weeks :) Pili worked well with our vendors and with all those that volunteered. I really think her being a local girl and having that Aloha spirit really brings something special to a wedding or any event for that matter in Hawaii.On our wedding day, I wasn't worried about a thing...just prayed for no rain :) Our wedding was more than I could have imagined, from beginning to the end, we just got to enjoy every moment and didn't even think about anything else; Pili had taken care of everything from paying the vendors, keeping the emcee on script...EVERYTHING! It was beautiful. We greatly appreciate you Pili! Kara and Brandon Ahu

I was very hesitant to hire a wedding coordinator and actually flew my cousin out from the mainland to help set up my reception site at Kualoa Ranch. After realizing that it might be a bit too much to expect my cousin to set up the whole place by herself, I asked Kualoa for their recommended coordinators and ended up talking to Pili! I hired her for day of coordination services only but she was available to me as often as I needed her throughout the whole planning process. She was a great resource and provided a lot of great advice and ideas that made my wedding absolutely beautiful. She was so wonderful during the reception and helped out so much; I am so happy that I decided to use a coordinator despite my initial resistance. It was definitely one of the best decisions that we made as she allowed us to be completely stress free on our wedding day so that we could just enjoy it. Her pricing is very reasonable and she even got me a discount with my rented linens! I highly recommend Pili to anyone looking for an amazing coordinator. She is absolutely lovely to work with and that is apparent from your first interaction with her!