Sarento's On the Beach in Kihei, Maui

Last night I had the pleasure of dining at Sarento's in Kihei with some wedding professionals/friends (Della from Dellables, Marie from Ghiselani Designer Cakes, and Mimi...a motivational speaker/writer). Aside from enjoying each other's company and conversation, we devoured our food.

Our favorites included the following: 
Calamari Fritti:  Crispy Calamari, Tomato-Caper Sauce & Lemon Aioli 
Salad Caprese:  Olowalu Vine Ripened Tomatoes, Homemade Bufala Mozzarella
Micro BasilLump Crab Cakes:  Olowalu Plum Tomatoes, Creamy Mustard Aioli, Drawn Butter
Kula Spring Greens: Toasted Pine Nuts, Blood Orange Vinaigrette
Wild Tiger Shrimp:   "Scampi Style" with Baked Potato Ravioli, Pancetta, Shellfish Bisque

Sarento's On the Beach

www.tri-star-restaurants.com
2980 South Kihei Road
Kihei, HI 96753-9602
Phone: (808) 875-7555
Fax: (808) 875-6695
Dinner Hours: Daily 5:30pm - 10pm
Lounge Hours: Daily 5pm - 12am

The many uses of wedding parasols...

Wedding Parasols are expanding their function...
They serve as a photographic prop, protection from the sun, aisle and ceiling decor, and a cute message for your thank you card.  They are colorful, decorative, and are available in a variety of materials and designs. Below are some photos we have collected that illustrate the many ways in which you can use your parasols. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Black and White Damask with Yellow Accent

Recently I presented at The Wedding Cafe in Honolulu about planning your wedding budget. You can view our packet provided to the many couples who attended this presentation at our site... http://www.hawaiianweddings.net/weddingbudget.html

I presented a budget friendly tablescape to coordinate with my topic. The $11.00 candelabras and $5 LOVE easels were purchased at Home Goods. I could not find a table runner to reflect the design I had in mind, but I found scrapbook paper at JoAnn's that was perfect! People had to touch it to decipher that it was paper... The black plates were from Target and the scalloped floral plates were from Macy's (all on sale). The yellow napkins were also on sale from Macy's. LED lights were placed on the candelabras and also purchased from Home Goods.

The black vase is actually a $3.50 bathroom cup from Target.  The $4.00 white garden planter and $19.00 glass vase were also from Target. The cute black and white booklet also came from Target.

The invitation, menu, place cards, and table card were custom designed by Tiffany at Calicards. The bling scattered on the runner is from Walmart. Flowers were provided by Always Flowers. The black satin linen was provided by Les Saison. The cake platter came as a set of 3 for $19 from Ross. Tassels were purchased at JoAnn's. The $1.00 black tins for the favors were purchased from JoAnn's. I had yellow ribbon that I tied around each one. I purchased the tiny white mints that cost $4 a bag at Walmart. I purchased the $2.00 packet of damask napkins and a $3.00 container of black and white paper flowers at Marshalls and placed a rhinestone at the center of each one (a sheet of these rhinestones are $.99 per sheet at Target).

BUTTERFLIES FLUTTER AT THIS WEDDING

Hawaiian Island Wedding Planners has the opportunity to work with a couple planning a plum and silver theme wedding. During my (Tori's) initial meeting with the couple, I overheard them saying something about butterflies. I offered to incorporate purple butterflies into the wedding, which they loved. So, since the colors are purple/plum/silver, I wanted to keep within the theme and their budget.

At the conclusion of the ceremony, we will have a butterfly release of 10 butterflies.

This placecard can be purchased at http://www.confetti.co.uk/product/view/63223-8646-0-Silver_lasercut_butterfly_place_card___10_pack_Place_Cards_for_Table.do

     

We are going to use these napking rings on the couple's napkins on their sweetheart table. http://www.remarkablerhinestone.com/category.php?id_category=19

The cake knife and server will have butterfly decor similar to this photo. These can be purchased at a store called Utopia, or ordered on line at http://www.cutiecollections.com/

The couple would like a 4-pole bamboo arbor with fabric and flowers for their ceremony. At the rear of the arbor, these butterfly garlands will drape in place of floral garlands. These can be found at http://cutiecollections.com/html/butterfly_decor/butterfly_dragonfly.html

  

The ceremony decor will also include flowy plum organza ribbon strips hanging from the chairs. In place of a flower cluster, we will use 10.5 inch purple butterflies. These are also found at Cutie Collections.

The butterfly cake knife and server set can be found at this link.

http://www.invitationsbydawn.com/ProductDesign.cfm?prev=1&TempPrev=0&blnPreviewRequestSubmitted=0&recordsperpage=0&CompletedOrder=0&sBasketID=0&iSubGroupID=1912&alogo=1&menu=none&morethanonepage=YES&HostDomain=www%2Einvitationsbydawn%2Ecom%2F&FirstTimeThrough=1&format=PP29895&vid=4FF03EF592

 

Cake decor will also include butterflies. We have ordered the mini butterflies from Cutie Collections to decorate the cake.

For the kids table, we will make a butterfly lollipop centerpiece. The lollipops will be purchased from

http://cutiecollections.com/html/butterfly_decor/butterfly_dragonfly.html

There are many sites out there on the web that offer so many butterfly options. These just happen to be some of the ones our clients selected for their wedding. Have fun with your butterfly theme!

CALICARDS.COM, INNOVATIVE CUSTOM INVITATIONS

I recently had the pleasure of participating on a panel for the Wedding Salon's Bridal Bootcamp. I was fortunate to have met Tiffany from Calicards...these cards are CREATIVE, PERSONAL, UNIQUE, and CUSTOMIZED! They are fabulous...check out the web site and blog for their gallery of designs. You will be pleasantly surprised and inspired to order your own. Remember that these are customized, so invitation designs start at $7.00 each and increase based on the design selected. Enjoy!

 

JAVA JAZZ/SOUP NUTZ MAUI

(Owner Farzad with wedding planner Tori Rogers)

One of my favorite places to go on Maui is Java Jazz/Soup Nutz. Located on West Maui, its eccentric decor, personable staff and owner, delicious food, and amazing local talent make this a MUST when I am on Maui. Regardless of what you order for breakfast, lunch or dinner, the food will not disappoint. A full bar and a diverse menu will satisfy anyone's culinary needs.

 

 

The owner, Farzad, is most passionate about his music, which you can see live on Saturday evenings.
My favorite ono grindz here include:

 

*the Goat Cheese appetizer (garlic, tomatoes, French bread, and goat cheese...soooo delicious!)
*the Ahi appetizer (ahi sashimi served with a cabbage/spinach salad and a delicious curry sauce)
*fresh soup

This restaurant was best captured in words in a recent article in the Maui Time paper. I have included it below. 
http://www.mauitime.com/Articles-i-2010-01-14-72122.113117_The_Farzad_Side_of_Java_Jazz.html

Arts and Entertainment; Music Scene
The Farzad Side of Java Jazz
From a jazz CD benefiting Iraq War veterans to his expletive-laced, stream-of-consciousness rants, Farzad Azad leaves an impression  by Anuhea Yagiwrite the author
January 14, 2010


The Java Jazz experience is an icosahedron of multi-sensory inundation. An icosahedron, for those unfamiliar, is a 20-sided polyhedron that occurs as both a natural viral structure and as the plastic answer-generator in the Magic 8-Ball. Similarly, Java Jazz has an organic ability to rest comfortably in a multitude of things.

As I venture out West to the venue's Lower Honoapiilani Road location, my intentions are purely musical. But by my return across the Pali—with the aftertaste of damned-good (flourless) chocolate cake in my throat and the musings of owner Farzad Azad still rattling around in my brain—I am happily befuddled, unsure what direction to take. Could this be an Arts & Entertainment piece with an element of Food & Drink? A straight CD review? Or is it something else entirely?


It is the impression of Java Jazz that has me inclined—resoundingly—toward the latter. The place can only be likened to that heady space in lucid dreams where all the objects, passions and minutiae of the day have accumulated into one, purgatory boutique.

From the décor to the dishes to the live or piped music, it is at once all my favorite travel memories—slides plucked from my mind's Kodak carousel and layered upon another to form new dimensional scenery. The walls are blanketed in fine art (mostly Azad's—my favorite, "Zoya," is a Peggy Hopper acid trip), Polaroid photos and Barbie dolls en masse (but don't get me wrong--it's chic, not kitsch)—kaleidoscope-lit by a gorgeous wine-bottle chandelier of Azad's design (installed eight months ago, a newer addition to this 10-year strong establishment).

Azad has also created a CD titled What's Your Function? Java Jazz Volume 1, solely for the benefit of his "Soldier Appreciation Vacation" program. Since 2007, Azad has brought Purple Heart-decorated veterans of the Iraq War (and their wives, of course) on seven-day, all-expenses paid vacations to Maui.

"We cannot delete the memory of the unwanted war from their memory bank but we can sure install new happy memories and that's the least we can do for our veterans," states the program's mission. To date, Azad's efforts and the sale of his CD have given new memories to 14 individuals.

Given the good cause, the six-track disc is a worthwhile purchase ($15). At its most superficial, it's a take-home version of the eclectic vibe of Java Jazz that can't be wrapped in a doggie bag. All tracks are orginals, written, produced, arranged, mixed and performed by Azad who is, impressively, self-taught (a fact that helps to forgive that the first and second tracks have a painfully similar self-produced beat—my only real complaint). The CD also draws on the talents of the Java Jazz 'ohana, including jazz pianist Renee Alonso.

Alonso leant his skills to the fifth track, titled "DeReggaed," and is on keys the night I visit the restaurant. In the white-edged mirror propped up over the piano, I watch his slender fingers rolling along to, as he describes, "another sad song." The saddest part is that his own CD (which I acquired for review at the same time as What's Your Function?) does ill justice to the soulful variety of his onstage work.

Meanwhile, for me to quote Azad in any way (save one word: "shaboomskie") would lend to inaccurate representation—as much on my behalf as on his. With an intent gaze from behind his glasses tipped low on his nose, he's all sailor-tongued stream of consciousness. Highly socially and politically charged, the entertaining rant flows from war to weed to his mom's eggplant azemat to Madame Pele to cum. So, though juicy, I'll refrain. A conversation with Azad is simply an experience best had for yourself.

Further on the topic of quotes and Azad is the CD's most notable feature: the mixing of historical speeches as the centerpiece of the music. "Special thanks to JFK, MLK, Einstein, Nixon, Clinton and George Bush for their great quotes," read the liner notes.

While Martin Luther King, Jr. laces the second track, "Dreamer," his words also add surprising closure to the bouncing, Lewinsky-inspired track, "Booty Call." Nixon, naturally, inspires the track titled "The Crook," with a gypsy-flamenco, spy flick-inspired riff.


The historical figures not only lend their quotes, but their images too. The disc's cover art features the heads of each attached to aloha-shirt and boxer-clad forms around a table, sharing shots of Jack Daniels while John F. Kennedy and a pack of Zig Zags roll one up on what appears to be the Constitution.


Inside, are 12 Commandments, "The New American Commandments as of January 1st, 2007."


It begins with (I.) "Thou shalt not be a hyphenated-American," (Azad is vehement about the irrelevance of being anything other than just American), and rounds out the middle with warm stuff like (VII.) "Thou shalt take care of teachers," and (VIII.) "Thou shalt take care of police officers and nurses too," (he's generous with his fare for those public servants).

But it is in the final few commandments—(X.) "Thou shalt not be scared into submission by the loss of our soldiers in any war," and (XI.) "Thou shalt not be afraid of the draft"—as well as with the final track, "America"—where the very tangible-sounding voices of soldiers who have benefited from the program are dubbed alongside John Wayne reciting the Pledge of Allegiance—that the essence of the CD and its goals crystallize.
The issues we face as a country are amorphous, and our responses—artistic and otherwise—should be, too. Birthed of a place like Java Jazz, Azad's CD and "Soldier Appreciation Vacation" are fine examples of this enduring truth. - MauiTime, Anu Yagi

Renee Alonso plays Thursdays, Farzad Azad on Saturdays



Java Jazz/Soup Nutz

Address: 3350 L. Honoapiilani Rd., Honokowai, HI 96761
Phone: (808) 667-0787
AMENITIES: Happy Hour
HAPPY HOUR: 4:00 pm- 6:00pm
HAPPY HOUR SPECIALS: 50% off appetizers, $3.00 Corona, Coors Light, $5.00 well
http://www.javajazz.net/

WEDDING EVENT DESIGN ITEMS

In searching for some items to design an upcoming wedding, I came across this great site. It offers some awesome decor items at reasonable prices.

http://www.decoratingstudio.com/Wedding_Bridal/centerpieces/index.html