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“The Pop- Up”The Ultimate Romantic Vacation Judy Babcock Wylie You are off on a romantic holiday with your main squeeze, buckled into your seats on a plane heading for some deliciously romantic location, when the cabin attendant arrives at your seat with the drinks cart but doesn’t ask what you want to drink. She simply puts down two mini-bottles of champagne. Your significant other has slipped out of his seat and he’s kneeling in the aisle: “Marry me!” he says with sincere devotion in his eyes. “Yes, When?” you blurt out.. “When we get there!” he warbles.
Congratulations, you’re now part of a romantic wedding/honeymoon travel trend: the “Pop-Up.” “Pop-Ups," according to savvy resort wedding coordinators, happen when the man pops the question on the plane bound for what the woman thinks is just a romantic trip. Or sometimes he asks for her hand the first night after they arrive, or even the next morning at breakfast. In any case, he has usually spoken to the resort wedding coordinator in advance, who takes it from there, arranging the minister, flowers and paperwork right at the resort. If he hasn’t, he can still pick up the phone and the wedding coordinator will begin to arrange it after they arrive. The wedding itself can happen as early as the next day. The coordinators I spoke with reported “She always says yes!” The "pop-up" is most popular with couples over 25 or those entering second marriages.  I first heard about Pop Ups at The Orchid at Mauna Lani , a luxurious hotel/resort on the Kohala Coast on the Big Island of Hawaii.. Guest Relations Manager Lehua Bray told me she has done dozens of Pop Up weddings, many quite elaborate. “Often it starts with a surprise phone call from a guest room. ‘We want to get married, can we do it tomorrow? ‘ a man’s voice will say.”
 “ I tell him they sure can. I can arrange for the license, location, flowers, minister, and wedding dinner or party. In fact I can do it in three or four hours and still make it special. With a little more time I can create an experience complete with a dinner set up at a private table in the middle of nowhere, with hula dancers, twinkle lights and satin linens. We can even arrange to have the couple taken by outrigger canoe to a private bay for a champagne and caviar and left alone for a few hours to watch the sunset, then have them picked up and paddled back.”
Not all of the Pop Ups Bray has handled have been last-minute affairs. Paul Cantor of Los Angeles planned his surprise proposal for six months on the phone with Bray. He wanted to pop the question on a yacht Bray arranged, during a sunset cruise. Then he and his intended had a private dinner in the resort’s presidential suite decorated with $1,000 worth of roses. The wedding was held the next day, with just the two of them.  Most Pop Up weddings are a bit more modest. The simplest package, at the Orchid at Mauna Lani is called Simple Elegance, and includes a wedding site, an appointment for the marriage license, bride’s flowers of either a lei or a wedding bouquet, a groom’s boutonniere or lei, a traditional lawn lei, a musician to perform the traditional Hawaiian Wedding song, a bottle of champagne with keepsake toasting goblets, and a wedding cake with a floral cake top. The cost: $1,500.
 At the Four Seasons Hualalai, also on the Kohala coast, guests can opt for a wedding or vow renewal ritual that includes the bride being paddled into a private lagoon in a traditional Hawaiian canoe, with a service given on a floating raft, performed in Hawaiian and English by a Hawaiian minister. It includes a torch lighting, conch shell call, and can conclude in a dinner in the resort’s elegant beach side restaurant, Pahu 1’a.
  At the Hilton Waikoloa, nearby, you can get married in their tiny wedding chapel overlooking the water. You reach it by walking through elaborate gardens and over a footbridge where green turtles swim below. They have as many as 50 weddings a month. One wedding package includes a ride around the lagoons of the resort on a small motor craft, with a “Just Married” sign on it.
  At Kona Village Resort, thatched roof hales or cottages, lagoons, and lots of beach line make it seem a if you have been shipwrecked on a tropical island. You can get married on the beach, on an island in a lagoon, or anywhere you like on the property. The wedding packages range start at $795, which includes flowers, license, leis, minister and champagne, plus a wedding coordinator for the day to make it go smoothly. September is the best time for a Pop Up at Kona Village because it is the month no children are permitted at the resort.
 The Pop Up phenomenon is not just for couples headed for Hawaii. At Cobbler’s Cove in St Peter’s Parish on the island of Barbados, General Manager Hamish Watson says they permit only one wedding a week, ensuring it is private and special. “We only broke our rule once. One of our guest couples saw another couple getting married, and they were inspired to get married too, right then, but they were only staying three more days, So we made an exception. They were married in our gazebo, on the north patio. It was private and lovely, with a minister who talked directly to the couple, not the congregation, as there wasn’t any!”
Thee Orchid at Mauna Lani (800) 845-9905 www.orchid-maunalani.com
Four Seasons Resort Hualalai (800) 332-3442 www.fourseasons.com
Hilton Waikoloa Village (800) 445-8667 www.waikoloavillage.hilton.com
Kona Village Resort (800) 367-5290 www.konavillage.com
Cobbler’s Cove Hotel (246) 422-2291 http://barbados.org/hotels/ccove Back to TravelLady Magazine |
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