Our Maui Wedding Ceremony and Reception at Gannon's

In what seemed like a blur, I made my way to Gannon’s for our wedding ceremony after a day of snorkeling and getting ready. Gannon’s is a restaurant at a golf club in Wailea, and it was recently featured on “Top Chef.” It’s a beautiful and relatively affordable venue for a wedding on Maui.

My coordinator, our guests, the groomsmen and Graham were there waiting. Graham had decided to make the lei-giving part of the ceremony and it was captured nicely in our wedding video and photos.

Reverend Kahu Kamuela blew a conch shell once to signify that it was time for the bridesmaids to start walking down to the Lower Wedding Knoll at Gannon’s.

Then he blew on it twice to signify that it was my turn. My nephew and I tried to remain calm as we walked to “Over the Rainbow.” He was so sweet and I’m happy I asked him to walk me down the aisle.

There had been some concern that it would rain in the days leading up to the wedding. But it was warm and sunny — maybe even a little too warm. The guests were troopers about dealing with the heat.

Graham and I were emotional from the moment we saw each other. We began the ceremony by exchanging leis.

Reverend Kahu Kamuela made sure to keep us focused on each moment. He asked us to look at each other and listen to the music and his words. We kissed several times during the ceremony and stopped to listen to “Chasing Cars,” performed by our musician, Jamie Lawrence. (I would highly recommend him as a wedding musician.)

As Jamie sang, we took it all in.

It was absolutely perfect — exactly what we envisioned.

After the ceremony we took family and friend photos as Jamie played more songs, including “I’m Yours.” Then Graham and I went to a nearby beach with our photographer, Jana Morgan. Four sunset weddings were taking place on the beach but she managed to find a secluded area for us. The light was amazing!

We returned to Gannon’s for our dinner reception and a warm welcome from our guests. The restaurant accommodated my request for a pescatarian meal, while the other guests had filet of beef along with fish. The vegetarian options included pasta primavera.

Cell phone photos don’t do it justice.

I had worked with Susan from Gannon’s via e-mail for months, and she was always so helpful. We had toured the venue a couple of days before and discussed the rain policy, which gave us a backup ceremony location. I really appreciated that. Luckily we didn’t need it!

The wedding cake was chocolate with Tahitian vanilla frosting. It was delicious, and I now wish I had more. We even had a little left over, which we devoured the next day.

I handpainted our cake topper. You may notice that a tiny flower had fallen off, but I am proud of it.