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 TM
“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
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