Kauai Island Weddings "could" ruin your wedding day.

Kauai Island Wedding Contract:

* Wedding service to be performed at "The Point" w/scripted monologue (We chose

     the Hawaiian/Christian blend w/ lei exchange)

* 100 Professional photos

* 2 purple orchid lei's

* 1 purple orchid head piece

 The Wedding:

     The wedding was contracted to happen at The Point near Poipu. We drove down the day before to get familiar with the area. The morning of the wedding, we called Mike Hough owner of Kauai Island Weddings several times. We got his voice mail. We headed to The Point site 1 hour prior to the 6pm starting time he had set up praying he would even be there. He did call us back en route at which time he wanted to change the location, something about watering the lawn at The Point or lawn restoration? I found out later from a local minister who also does weddings at The Point, that the lawn watering story was a fabrication. We detoured blindly as requested to the new location. Admittedly we were approximately 14 minutes late due to Mike's location change. 

    There were two other weddings already rapping up when we arrived so Mike suggested we climb a hill to the cliff overlooking the ocean. I mentioned that other people were already up there, but he said not to worry.  We walked past the other weddings ( both already finishing up), walked past what looked like a homeless camp, and scrambled up a goat trail in our wedding clothes, finally getting to the top. It was already getting dark and we hadn't even started. As he fiddled around with positioning his gear, the last of the couples standing there (newlyweds) wandered off.  Mike took a few quick photos of us, then to my surprise he called the newlywed couple back to take their picture. After wasting  time with that he rushed through our service omitting the most beautiful part, the lei exchange. As he took more pictures he muttered how he should have brought a tripod for taking low light pictures, but that he forgot it at home. Several times he stated  that he could fix any problems with the pictures so we should not worry. In the end he took 37 images with the last ones being taken next to the parking lot posing us in his cars headlights. If you brighten it up a lot you can see the chain link fence behind us. In the parking lot were a group of young men yelling over loud music hammering down beers. All in all a very unprofessional and disappointing experience. We followed all his instructions and recommendations all the way through as he sold himself as a professional who did this all the time and we were constantly reminded of that by him as things unfolded. I thought, well it wasn't perfect but we are married now and as long as the pictures come out as he promised they would, I could let the rest slide. When the pictures did arrive weeks later we looked at each other and decided to ask for a refund. We would need to do the whole thing over again to re-capture that moment.

Back to the contract:

1.     We contracted Kauai Island Weddings to perform a scripted wedding service. Mike took it on himself to omit the lei exchange an integral part in the wedding service failing to fulfill part 1 of the contract.

2.     The smallest photo package Kauai Island Weddings would sell was 100 pictures. We contracted and paid for 100 pictures. He took 37 images. He then sent them to us in color and again in black and white to give the illusion there were 74. That fails to fulfill part 2 of the contract.

My Wedding Rant:

      Mike Hough and Kauai Island Weddings failed to meet any of the terms of our contract. Where we live in Washington state it got dark at 7:30pm so Mikes suggestion of a  6pm starting time sounded reasonable. Little did we know it got dark @6:30. By the time we started after being diverted from the agreed upon location, waiting for Mike to make up his mind what we were doing, after which we had to climb to yet another location only to fart around for several minutes, it was dark after the first 1 or 2 pictures.

     We arrived Saturday evening after dark and the wedding was on Monday. We had one full day, Sunday, on the island before the wedding. We trusted in Mike's expertise as according to him he has done hundreds of weddings. He sold himself as a professional, he lives there and should have known better. He might have just squeaked it out if he hadn't wasted so much time and had the proper gear with him. My cheap ($150) camera will take 8GB photos in the dark and make them look like daytime. His camera stopped working when the light began to fade. For a guy who calls himself a professional, his gear did not fit the job.

     Mike justifies wasting time schmoozing a newlywed couple standing nearby saying he could be fined for asking them to leave if they complained. If he knew this could happen, he should have scheduled extra time for such a contingency. The couple was already walking away before our wedding started and only came back at Mikes insistence. He wasted 14+ minutes moving the location, 10 minutes having us climb the hill, 10 minutes chatting up an uninterested couple, 5 minutes climbing back down the hill, and several more minutes fumbling around with his gear. He toggled between hitting on ( trying to kiss her on the lips at one point with some worn out line about "one for the wedding official" ) and berating my sister for taking her own pictures saying they would never come out as good as a professional like him could take. He should have brought a tripod in anticipation of the possibility of low light conditions.

     Mike could never have taken 100 quality photos, delivered the promised ceremony, and finished by night fall which was at 6:37 that day. Mike took 10 minutes to get his barrings ( get his gear together, realize the beach was taken, and discuss the hill climb), 10 minutes to climb the hill ( four of us in our wedding clothes tripping along a goat path and up a steep embankment), 10 minutes to stow his gear and photograph the uninterested couple. We arrived at 6:14 because of Mike's location change. When did he think he was going to perform the service, and take 100 pictures? In our case he managed his time poorly, was not equipped properly. He was trying to do it all himself. How do you take pictures of a wedding you are the minister of?

     Instead of admitting he just had a bad day which we could all understand, he "re-adjusts" his story to rationalize his shortcomings and blames us for everything. As he has told his story to first the BBB, then the Attorney General, and finally Visa it has morphed into a wedding story I don't even recognize as mine. Please beware of Kauai Island Weddings promises. Kauai Island Weddings has a slick website as ex advertising people, but in these cases didn't live up to their own press.

We have now been contacted by a second couple who felt disappointed. See their story Another Opinion it will make steam come out your ears! 18 people flown in for their wedding only to be, well please read . Are there more victims are out there? 

Love of money is the root of all evil for sure, but we always hope for better, don't we.

We are fighting to get our money back. The contract was not honored so feel we deserve it.

Please send information to:

 gardners9@yahoo.com