Maui Wedding Planning Trip: Time in Kihei

Are you ready for more of our exciting Maui Wedding Planning trip? We thought you were! Now some of the information at the beginning of this post may not seem as exciting as some of our other posts, but it's information you will be happy to have next time you are on Maui. But, just you wait! The middle has all kinds of juicy tidbits. Now sit back and enjoy another exciting installment of our Maui Wedding Planning Trip! Kihei style!

After our time in Iao Valley we headed to Kihei for the next couple days. Our first stop was to hit 808 Deli. We originally were going to go somewhere else, but I wanted to get a sandwich and I am so happy that I did. I looked up best sandwiches on Maui on the ol' iPhone and lucky for us it said the best were just down the street, so we headed straight there.

We ordered their Southern Squealer of pulled pork, Hawaiian BBQ sauce and cheddar cheese topped with cole slaw on a roll with a side of Maui onion potato chips and potato mac salad. It was all very tasty and we were happy I had a hankering for a sandwich instead of going to the original place we had planned. This is one of those places we plan on eating again when we go back in July and recommend to others. 

Get a Southern Squealer! 

After stuffing our faces we headed over to our timeshare to see if our room was ready so we could check-in early. It wasn't, but they did have a hospitality room to hang out in until our room was ready. We didn't stay there for long. Just long enough to change into our swimsuits before hitting the beach right across the street.

Kamaole Beach I

For some reason, many times I was all gun-ho on jumping in the water, Drew wouldn't really be feeling it. Which was pretty much every time we went to go swimming. I'd usually have to persuade him to go in with me since he was just wanting to sit on the beach. Crazy talk, I know. Of course, every time I got him in there he was happy to be in the water and we would stay in for a good amount of time. How could we not? Doesn't that water above look absolutely divine? 

Once check-in time hit, we headed back to our timeshare to get ready to meet with our kahuna (Hawaiian priest) who would be performing our wedding ceremony. He recommended that we meet at The Shops at Wailea since he was doing a wedding at The Grand Wailea right before that. It's a good thing he suggested this place or we probably would have never gone there. 

Before getting cleaned up we stopped to enjoy the view from our room. 

We wanted to meet with the Reverend Pia Aluli before the wedding to make sure he seemed like a good fit for not only our wedding, but also for us. It's important you jive with the person who's going to be marrying you, right? Right! 

Well, lucky for us we liked him right away! He had a very gentle nature to him and was extremely friendly. We got to know each other, as well as went over some of the things we wanted for our wedding ceremony. We were very happy with finding Pia and we knew we had successfully checked another wedding to do item off our list. 

What did we do to celebrate? We went and got yummy Hawaiian influenced ice cream from Lappert's! Thanks Sarah for the tip to try this place out! We loved it! I especially loved the Caramel Coconut Macadamia Nut ice cream that I got. My only complaint is that I couldn't eat it fast enough as it was melting all over my hand. 

Oh, caramel! Nomnomnom!

After we ate as much of the ice cream as we could and had washed our hands of all that stickiness, we decided we should at least look in some of the stores. It was a good thing that we did. Not only did we find the perfect book for our wedding guestbook, but also Drew's ring. 

Yes, you read that right! We found Drew's wedding band while on Maui! Wait until you see it! Drew even said he can't wait to wear his wedding ring. So sweet!  The ring is beautiful. No, you will have to wait until the wedding to see it, but we can let you know that we got it at Martin and MacArthur. Another great check off the wedding to do list! Not bad, for one day.

And how did we celebrate finding Drew's ring? We went out to dinner, of course. Ok, you got me. We were already going out to dinner. We even already had dinner reservations at Sansei Seafood Restaurant & Sushi Bar.

We highly recommend this place when you are on Maui. With 2 locations, you can't miss it. They also have some great happy hours with 25% off all food ordered before 6pm Tues-Saturday, 50% off all food ordered before 6pm on Sunday and Monday and 50% off all sushi and appetizers with drink specials during late night karaoke starting at 10pm Thurs-Saturday. Some great ways to save a little cash while on Maui.

Their menu looked great and there was so much to pick from. We went with panko crusted ahi sashimi sushi roll (maki),  Sansei's shrimp dynamite, matsuhisa style miso butterfish and seared ahi salad. We were happy with everything we got. All topped off with tempura fried macadamia nut ice cream. Thanks Brea for the recommendation!

Seared Ahi Salad

Panko Crusted Ahi Sashimi Sushi Roll

Sansei's Shrimp Dynamite

Matsuhisa Style Miso Butterfish

Tempura Fried Macadamia Nut Ice Cream

It was another busy, but beautiful day on the island of Maui. We were happy to get back to our timeshare to see the tiki torches flaming and to crawl into bed. Another night falling asleep to the sound of the waves. Yes, life is hard while on Maui....

What will tomorrow's adventures bring? Stay tuned for another day in our Maui Wedding Planning Trip to find out! 

What items have you checked off your wedding to do list lately?

Kamaole I & II on Dwellable

All photos are personal photos.