The following advice will provide you just the info necessary to make the best selection for your Hawaiian wedding coordinator company.

1. Find a wedding company who has a decent website.

An attractive thoughtful website will give you a good clue as to just how busy and professional the wedding company really is.

A good website should provide you lots of information so that you can make an informed decision about a wedding company before you even call.

2. Choose a wedding planner who gives you their names, business address and phone numbers directly on their website.

In every wedding market, there are inevitably a number of companies who seem to like hiding behind their website. Sometimes, they have worked at making their identity hard to find because they don't enjoy too much contact with their clients. They will cover up their contact info, offering no personal information. This is a red flag that you are looking at a fly-by-night company or one who is only a middle-man, hiring another company to perform their actual weddings.

3. Consider the way a wedding planner handles you on the telephone.

You will want to do business with a company who treats you with respect. If someone is abrupt, do you really want them coordinating your wedding? How you are handled on the phone is a good indication of how you will be treated on the day of your wedding. If a wedding planner doesn't bother to get back to you in the beginning, before you have even booked, how easy will they be to work with after they have your cash and you're "stuck" with them?

4. Find a Wedding Planner who has experience.

Over the course of time many young women have told us that they see coordinating weddings as a dream job. Here on Maui, there are many who have thrown up a quick website and begun to spread the word that they are now a Maui wedding coordinator. Do you want to be someone's first (or second) wedding? Experience is so paramount, especially here on Maui where there is so much to learn, including wedding locations, legal questions, types of flowers, the difference in wedding vendors, which ministers and photographers are the best, etc., etc.

5. Establish that your wedding planner will actually be at your wedding.

There are cut-rate wedding companies who only perform front office services. They book a minister, a photographer and maybe a videographer for your wedding, but they don't provide an on-site planner to organize everything, because that would mean they would have to raise their prices and cut down their competitive edge.

If no on-site wedding planner will be at your ceremony, who will make certain that any of the key players knows what they're doing? And if for some reason, one vendor (like the minister) is late or heaven forbid, does not show up at all because of some mix up, who will pull everything together and get a backup? Unless your wedding includes just a minister, and no one else, you want to be certain that a wedding coordinator will be in attendance when your wedding is performed.

6. Get a wedding planner with the spirit of Aloha.

"Aloha" means love in Hawaiian. Those of us who reside in Hawaii enjoy the mentality that is here and which comes, first and foremost from the native Hawaiians. We want to talk to you like you're family (or ohana, as we say here). It is so important to find a wedding planner who truly treats you like you're part of the family.

7. Choose a wedding planner who is a member of the Better Business Bureau.

This seventh point is likely our most important tip. In any industry there are always people who do not deal with their clients well. Even people who have been in business for years. In Hawaii there are several wedding companies who have a long list of unhappy or semi-happy couples. The best way to avoid such planners is to research them with the Hawaii Chapter of the Better Business Bureau. Rest assured that a company with a number of black marks will rise to the attention of the BBB. A member company offers you one more guarantee that you will go home happily "Maui'd."

John has been a licensed and ordained minister for 41 years. He has served as wedding officiant for over 1,000 Maui Weddings with his wedding planning business, Maui Me Inc. All of his ceremonies are written by him and he performed his first wedding 35 years ago. John has written almost 50 Christian books (which have been translated into eight languages). In addition to performing wedding ceremonies, he shoots most of the photography.