Reveal: Mahalo Brunch Invitation

Or How to Throw a Morning After the Wedding Brunch

Let's just jump right into the big reveal for our Mahalo Brunch invitation. I think I owe all of you that not being around for the past couple days. But, that's what happens in the life of a bride. Sometimes you just don't have time to blog.

What's a Mahalo Brunch you ask? Well, it's the same thing as a day after the wedding brunch. We just wanted to give it a different name with it happening in Hawaii and all. Like we did with so many of our other wedding activities. Like the Wahine Party.  With the idea of it giving us one more reason to say thank you to our wedding guests for traveling all the way to Maui to celebrate with us, Mahalo Brunch it was named!

Brunches the day after your destination (or any) wedding can be a wonderful way for your family, friends and wedding party to gather for a final farewell before everyone parts their separate ways. It also gives you the perfect opportunity to rehash the memories from the day before. Your wedding day can go by so quickly or at least it will most likely seem like it has. So the morning after the wedding brunch can give the bride and groom a little more time to mingle and say thank you to everyone who attends.

Many times the brunch is held at the hotel where the majority of the wedding guests are staying or even at the wedding reception venue. Sometimes they are held at the home of a family member. Since we are staying at the same place that we are having the wedding at and some others are, too, we will be having our Mahalo Brunch at Mom's place.

There aren't really set standards on who hosts the brunch. It can be either the bride or groom's family or even close friends. Many times it is the bride and groom who host the brunch. Considering we wanted to have this brunch as one more way to say thank you to everyone, we knew that we'd be hosting it right from the beginning.

Even though we are hosting the event, Mom is helping us out with it by having it at her condo out on the lanai (Hawaiian for covered porch). That way we can purchase all the food for it and set the menu, but Mom and Amanda will be setting it up. Isn't that nice of them?

They knew how important it was for us to have a Mahalo Brunch for everyone, but that it wasn't in our budget to take everyone out to breakfast. We had worried that we'd be too exhausted from the day and night before to get up the next morning and make breakfast so they took it on for us. I love how our wedding  is coming together to be this amazing event with help from so many awesome people. xoxox

Something we will be doing to have the brunch look nice, but not cost us anything extra, is to use the flowers and decor from the wedding. Everything will be moved to either our place or Maid of Honor, Nicki's, after the wedding. We'll just have to walk it over to Mom's. It'll give us a nice tie in with the wedding, too.

If you want to have a morning after brunch for your wedding, but don't think you can afford one, there are things you can do to make it really cheap. Just arrange for some muffins and juice or something else very reasonably priced. It may not be a full breakfast, but it will feed your guests while giving you some more time with them. That's the pint, right? To spend more time with them? Besides, it's the thought that counts.

There's so much you can do with the menu for a brunch the day after the wedding. We don't want to give anything away, but we will be pulling inspiration from the islands while putting together our menu. In other words, laid back and casual with lots of love put into it. There will certainly be Kona coffee and tropical juices on hand. We are hoping for some leftover champagne from the day before to make some mimosas with. Then there will be an assortment of breakfast food from eggs to breakfast meats to breakfast breads. Wait until you see what we will be doing with all of it. YUM!

A nice extra we will have at out Mahalo Brunch is our photographer. I know this isn't something most would be able to have so be sure to bring your camera with plenty of empty memory and a fully charged battery. This will be a great opportunity to get some wonderful photographs with guests that you may have missed the day before.

Keep in mind that this brunch should be relaxing and a special time with those who are able to attend. It will give you the opportunity to mingle in a more relaxed atmosphere than the wedding day might provide and catch up some more with those you don't get to see as often. Enjoy getting to be the guests of honor one last time while taking in all of the loving company that surrounds you. Before you know it, you'll be leaving for your honeymoon destination. (Or in our case, our weddingmoon.) What a fun and warm way for a send-off before having some time alone!

Have you thought about having a brunch the day after the wedding?


*All photos are personal photographs.