Vintage and Lace Event Design

We had such an amazing experience with Rachael for our ²⁄₂₉ wedding at the Fairmont Orchid. She designed the overall look of our wedding and set up the ceremony on Turtle Point and our reception in the grand ballroom. The look and feel of our wedding was wonderful! I saw in the other reviews that people had difficulty reaching her but I urge you to be patient because she never misses a deadline! And the communication will be constant as you approach your wedding day. I found that we were communicating hourly in the two months before the wedding which is crazy as I live in Washington, DC.
Rachael has amazing contacts with vendors all over the island and she was able to meet our budget for flowers, candles, and linens. She also lent us her signs and countless other decorations. We loved working with her and would refer her to all of our friends. Thank you thank you thank you for all your help!

Wow. Rachael more than exceeded our expectations. Every single detail we put together for her, she blew out of the water. We are so greatful for vintage and lace and for having Rachael on our side when we had to plan a wedding in a very short amount of time. And the officiant she recommended (Thomas) was not only incredible during the ceremony but a pleasant surprise afterwards at the party where he was the fire dancer!!! It was such a life of the party moment and at the end of the fire dance he brought out our marriage certificate to sign. Everything about our day was more than special. Vintage and lace went above and beyond everything we would have ever expected. If you’re planning a wedding on the big Island I more than recommend them above anyone else. And if you use them choose Rebecca Arthur’s as your photographer she is incredible as well. So personable and sweet just like Rachael and Thomas. Can’t say enough about how well our perfect day went. Thank you a million Rachael!!!

We are so happy that we chose Rachael to help us plan our wedding. Being all the way in Alaska and never having visited the big island of Hawaii before would have posed some major challenges if we had not had her help. She was quick to find vendors that fit with what we wanted, and her decorations are just so beautiful. I will never forget the table setting at our reception dinner – just amazing. Thank you Rachael at Vintage and Lace for everything you did to make our wedding such a beautiful, relaxing day for us and our families/​friends to enjoy!

We were continuously disappointed with Rachael’s lack of responsiveness in even trying to get her to issue a contract to us to get the process moving, having met with her face to face at our venue. She missed two planning calls, without explanation, and had her «assistant» Miriam (who is her sister based in Colorado) follow up with excuses days after.
Having interacted with several vendors, they expressed their own frustration with Vintage & Lace. Needless to say, we decided not to sign the contract that was eventually issued for design, coordination, and planning for a large wedding.
Responsiveness and responsibility are cornerstones of quality event planning — we were concerned that in even trying to land business ahead of contract, none of these basics were met.

I’ll get straight to the point: Rachael is a fantastic stylist, but she’s in no way a ‘coordinator’.
She went MIA several times during the six months that we planned our wedding, and strangely enough, three days before our wedding we were unable to reach her for over 24 hours. She always had an excuse, and was very nice about it all, but we were much too patient.
Sounds familiar? Indeed several reviews below mention exactly the same thing – I saw these much too late. In the end, I booked several vendors by myself as I knew I couldn’t rely on her. As mentioned, we had some issues to be resolved with our caterer three days before our wedding (re location of dinner at the venue), and so we had to call each vendor individually to fix the problem. Even the vendors were quite astonished that we had to do that ourselves – one of them offered to come on the day of, in case Rachael didn’t show up as promised.
Rachael did explain half-​way through our wedding planning that she was going through a divorce – we of course felt sorry for her and I realized later on that her husband was a partner in the business, so perhaps that explains her behavior. But had she not been able to honor our contract, she should have said so and referred us to someone else.
I’m really sorry to have to write this review as Rachael really seems to be a nice person, but I wouldn’t want anyone else to have to go through the unnecessary stress we went through… that’s why we paid someone in the first place!
PS we ended up not paying Rachael for the full fee we had agreed upon – she did not object, thankfully.

I am so happy I chose Vintage and Lace to help coordinate and design my wedding. I honestly can’t think of a single thing that I would have changed to make our special day more perfect, and that really is a true testament to Rachael’s recommendations, vendor relationships, and attention to detail.
Rachael took the ideas I had and turned it into something truly magical. I can’t wait to see the professional photos, because the pics that my friends and family took seriously don’t even begin to show how perfect I remember the detail of the event to be. Rachael had clearly put a lot of thought into everything, and it showed, because I had numerous guests tell me it was the most beautiful wedding they had ever attended.
I did learn, however, that you must exercise patience and trust in the planning process. I had a full 2 year engagement, and I had booked Vintage and Lace at least 18 months before the wedding. I am a project manager professionally, and it was sometimes difficult to wait when I was excited about the planning process and wanted to get a head start on my to-​do list. In the early planning months, email communication was a bit sparse, which felt a bit stressful at times because I wasn’t sure if it was a sign of disorganization or lack of attention to detail. I can assure you, however, that that’s not the case. Rachael and her team are busy all year long with weddings, and they have to prioritize those events coming sooner. Try to be patient during that time, if you book your event far out like I did.
Another key learning for me was that making decisions too early in the process can lead to changing your mind or second guessing your original ideas. We booked the venue, photographer, and catering far in advance, but most of the other details really didn’t start getting finalized until 1 – 3 months prior to the wedding, which felt like the last minute to me at the time, but now I realize it was just right. Ultimately, I had to place trust in Rachael that it would all come together flawlessly. In the end, I’m so glad I just tried to relax and put my faith in her, because the final output was simply amazing.
In addition to the look and feel of the event, it shouldn’t be overlooked that the whole day ran like clockwork. Rachael and I worked to establish a timeline to ensure we were able to get through everything in the 6 hours I had the photographer booked, and it worked out perfectly and nothing felt rushed.
One final note related to budget. Rachael worked with me up until the very last minute to ensure that we could maximize my budget with the best event possible. There was a bit of back and forth on options (and in the end I did decide to exceed my original budget), but I was extremely pleased with the final result. We had numerous exchanges with the equipment company in order to get the best outcome for what the (somewhat oddly shaped) space could accommodate and also fit within my cost parameters.
All in all, I couldn’t be happier with how everything turned out, and it was a pleasure to work with Rachael!

Rachael was amazing! She was responsive, sweet, understanding, professional and her designs were beautiful. Even more impressive was how she handled herself day of. We had a number of random things go wrong (all of which were totally out of her control) and she flawlessly and tirelessly worked to switch things around and make sure the day was still perfect. Thanks Rachael!

I have to tell you I was incredibly, continuously disappointed with Rachael. She missed a meeting with NO phone call or notification for days to follow, did not respond to emails or phone calls, if she did respond it wouldn’t be for days or weeks later, she did not answer questions and did not produce any real work at all. It took her 3 weeks to return my husbands phone calls and emails. I had to follow up 2−3x on just about everything. Also, there were continuous excuses provided– a trend I found in other brides reviews. I experienced the exact same dissatisfaction expressed in every other review written here. I wish I had taken time to do my research on this vendor.
The worst part of it was she disappeared for 2 and a half hours during my wedding, when I paid her for day of coordination. She claimed she thought it would be okay to take a dinner break– for 2 and half hours? Really, Rachael?! Do you think I’m stupid?! My guess is she double booked another wedding. She showed up ONLY 1 hour before the ceremony– My friends had to arrange the chairs and ceremony setting because she was no where to be found. When I called to ask where she was, she didn’t call back and instead sent a text– COWARD, disappeared and told no one that she left as soon as the ceremony started. When we needed her to help with photos, speeches, organizing, she was gone. My guests were running around the property looking for her, and a valet had to tell us that she had left. One of my guests had to step in and run coordination for the whole thing after witnessing me having to get up and try to keep events flowing, while trying to enjoy myself. She showed up again after 2 and a half hours when we were finished eating, and I was so irate I had one of my guests ask her to leave.
I trusted that this recommendation coming from a hotel would be sound, but it was the worst experience ever. I have never been so disappointed, and it put a damper on a day that was supposed to be so special for me.
On a positive note, she did not argue my dissatisfaction and did issue a fair refund.
Brides– do yourself a favor and pass on this vendor.

I learned about Vintage and Lace from their Instagram. I loved all of their photos and I knew I wanted to hire them to plan our upcoming wedding on the Big Island. To cut straight to the point, I was completely disappointed by the lack of professionalism and communication from this business.
We exchanged a few emails, but when it came time to talk on the phone, something always «happened» and Rachael would break our plans. I called and left messages for our designated meeting and no one answered or ever called back. After a few days of waiting around, I finally got an email in response from the assistant.
Then, we set a time to even meet in person at a specific time. I called, and called, and then called from a different number, but that time came and went and I heard NOTHING from Rachael. A few days later, she emailed me saying she lost her phone…
I wanted so badly to work with her because I just loved how beautiful her events appeared in her photos. I gave her so many chances to redeem herself. Even after the phone calls, and missed meetings, I still offered to try again and find a new time to talk on the phone. Yet again, time passed and she did not respond.
I eventually emailed her saying this clearly wasn’t going to work. I am absolutely not willing to pay $ 1,000s for a wedding planner, when she does not have the decency to professionally communicate. I completely understand being busy, but this is in no way how your treat potential clients. I am a small business owner too, and customer service and communication are absolutely the most important piece of running a successful business; unfortunately, I lost confidence in this business due its extreme lack of this courtesy.
I read the wonderful reviews of this business on here and I am happy to see that she can follow through with some people. But it shouldn’t just be «most» or «some» potential clients that can say positive things– it should be every single client! The things mentioned in the negative reviews are extremely similar to what I experienced, which tells me this is far too common.
Note: Rachael did finally respond to my final email and claimed that she is going through some things that made her unable to communicate well. I completely understand, but wish she would not have made plans with me knowing she would not be able to follow through. I hope this review can be constructive for a positive future.

We hired Rachael and vintage and lace for my daughters wedding in January 2015. I was extremely disappointed with their work.
Firstly there was very poor and untimely communication from Rachael during the last month prior to the wedding. However it was the problems on the day that ruined the wedding experience.
Firstly, on the day of the wedding Rachael never called the house where we were getting ready, to see if things were going well or if there were any problems .The brides flowers were late arriving and we had to find out where they were. Rachael did not answer our phone calls .Our first contact with Vintage and Lace was at the hotel venue and to our surprise Rachael was not there ‚(as she had said she would be at the rehearsal the day before).She had sent an assistant coordinator and her husband Ben
Next, the guest seating cards were put incorrectly on the tables. I found the mistake. The cards were replaced BUT incorrectly again and we did not have time to fix it again. Also, the table design was not done correctly. We had a theme of orange and natural linen and had decided on no menu cards at each seating. Somehow these tacky, cheap Menu cards that we had never seen, were on each setting. I found the mistake. The hotel had printed them but since Rachel wasn’t there Ben and the assistant must not have known their own design and that we did not have menu cards.
We had ordered low tables and chairs (for older guests) and high tables, for cocktail hour. The low tables were missing so older guests had difficulty remaining at the cocktail hour.
We ordered a bar at the cocktail area and it ended up in the dining area instead, so guests left the cocktail area.
The musician for cocktail hour was not moved into the cocktail area and remained where the ceremony was conducted 1000 yds away. We could have just had piped music
Vintage and lace were not attentive to giving us a heads up that the speeches would be in a few minutes The father of the bride was just thrust the microphone in the middle of his dinner. They also did not announce the cake cutting and did it just with the bride and groom. I the mother of the bride never saw my daughter cut her cake
Rachael never contacted me (who had the wedding contract with her) after the wedding to apologize for the mistakes .
Vintage and lace asked for the final payment at the rehearsal prior to the wedding. In retrospect I should not have paid until after the event as they did not fulfill their duties
I asked Rachael for a small refund due to the mistakes (particularly the table cards, menus and cake cutting) She dismissed the request .I have spoken to a number of event planners since the wedding and they are shocked at these mistakes.
Finally Rachael and her staff are very personable however it appeared to me that they may have too many things going on to pay attention to detail and communicate in a timely fashion .The problem is we paid quite a bit of money and had big mistakes that Rachael never apologized for. In fact she made excuses and distorted the facts for every mistake. I may have been happy with just an apology but Rachael implied that there were no problems at the event.
I will never have Some big memories like seeing my daughter cut her cake because of Vintage and Lace.
I do not recommend Vintage and Lace

Really Rachel… really?
In response to your comments from my previous review… If you remember correctly, because I was doing most of the arrangements myself, I wanted something custom from you. You suggested that we go with the Romantic Coast Ceremony Dinner package, as it would work out approximately to the value of what services I wanted from you. Your reluctance to customize a contract for me should have been the first sign for me to not hire you. It’s my fault that I trusted that you would be true to your word.
Why would have I picked the Romantic Coast Ceremony Dinner Package when I did the majority of it myself? The services we had discussed were day off coordination, a few vendor suggestions and assistance pulling the décor together. How can you say you fulfilled the services outlined in that package for me?
— You did arrange the officient and the musician. Both were excellent… thank you.
— Yes you showed up the day off… and yes you brought the small vases from one location to the other.
— You had suggested the restaurant, although I made all my own arrangements with them.
— I chose the ceremony location and obtained the permit prior to ever meeting you.
— I obtained the marriage licence and made my own appointment with the agent without any assistance from you.
— I chose and booked my photographer prior to meeting you.
Regarding the leis, I made my arrangements for this through the florist. We ended up having extra. I’m still not sure you if supplied them. I paid for what I needed through the florist.
And yes, the florist did provide the table runners, because at the last minute you wanted to substitute for something else, something that we never discussed. Annie from Bliss In Bloom went above and beyond to ensure I received what I wanted.
I did speak with Passion Flowers one time, for about two hours. It was disappointing that what we discussed was not in the follow up information she sent and a contract was never offered for me to sign. I wanted to tie this up months before my wedding, not weeks! Not knowing what I was going to receive and how much it was going to cost weeks prior to my wedding was very stressful. Thank goodness I was able to find a great florist who was able to encapsulate what I wanted and was able to provide a storyboard and contract immediately. When I was dealing with a professional it did not require 188 emails and multiple phone calls. We were able to finalize what I wanted in about an hour! If it were not for her, my vision wouldn’t have been realized. You provided very little help when it came to décor, except for telling me that I could use some of your décor items, but in the end not even doing that! To suggest that she simply executed what we discussed is insulting to her.
And suggesting that my cake was too large for your stand, and to suggest this was communicated to me in writing is simply not true. I have it in writing that you confirmed this and you confirmed it again in person at our final meeting. I was also surprised and disappointed that the cake was not on display at the restaurant. I had to ask the restaurant staff to bring it out. If you remember, the entire room was arranged to have the cake as the focal point. Considering you brought the final items back to the restaurant, I thought you would have asked the restaurant staff to bring it out to complete the set up.
At the end of the day, I think you played games with me and with the florist. If you think that arranging an officient and musician and bringing up some SMALL vases to the reception is worth $ 750, then yes, I guess I did get my money’s worth. But dealing with you was like pulling teeth. Again, you don’t answer your phone and you do not respond to email. I also think most of this would have been avoided if you would have prepared the appropriate contract for my needs. If this is a business of your heart, then be a professional and treat it like one.
For the people that have written the wonderful reviews, I am really happy that they were able to have a positive experience you. Although it’s mind boggling how my experience could be so polar opposite from many, but if you dig a little deeper… not all.

Our wedding date was 01÷28÷15.
If you want your dream day to look like the weddings put together by Vintage & Lace, you need to work with Rachael!!!
As a bride who wants to create the perfect wedding experience not just for ourselves but also for everyone attending, that’s the first question I asked myself. It was a dreamy day for all guests and they couldn’t stop complementing how gorgeous everything was.
Vintage & Lace was referred to me by the planner of a best friend who got married in Oahu about 5 years ago. After browsing their website, I immediately decided to hire them –all their weddings look AMAZING!!! on the websites. After seeing mine for real, it felt even better than the pictures.
Unlike many brides who plan their wedding days almost a year ahead, mine only had a lead time of about 5 months — which includes searching for the bridal gowns … crazy huh? Bear in mind, they are really popular and busy so not all inquiries can be accommodated. Since we wanted to have our wedding in our favorite island and my love for Rachael’s rustic and elegant design concept, we managed to choose a date based on Vintage & Lace’s availability … I have to say EVERYONE including my husband, who was not much involved in the planning, was amazed by how the day turned out. Many guests thought it’s PERFECT and the most UNIQUE wedding they have ever attended. That certainly made me very proud …
I totally understood the stress that most brides may experience during the planning process, and making it happen on a remote island esp if neither of you have traveled to doesn’t help at all. I got married last week so memories are still fresh… With that, I want to say that you will need to trust your planner. Rachael knows the venue and all the vendors so well. She will be confidently helping you select and work with all of the them to make your day perfect. I’m glad that I placed the trust in the right directions — all my vendors were amazing whether they were chosen by myself or by Rachael. I will also leave some well deserved reviews for them as well.
Regarding how to work with Vintage & Lace, based on my experiences, you should rely on their recommendations for vendors or let Rachael choose for you i.e. hair stylist, equipment rental etc … As the bride, you should also do your part on time to avoid last minute rush or stress, create the stationary set, share your vision of the wedding day (mine was a chic beach wedding design — Rachael made it so much better than I could imagine), search/​design other wedding decorations like guest book, ring pillow, coasters, signage … anything you want Rachael to incorporate into the design of the ceremony and reception dinner. If you have months ahead of the big day, I am sure you will do a wonderful job on your side. Mine was a bit rush towards the end as wedding planning in the US is totally ‘strange’ to me. I had no idea what should be included in a wedding here. (I moved to CA from Shanghai last year) But Rachael did a superb job incorporating my stuff (a driftwood guestbook with design of love birds in a tree, bird nest ring holder, customs designed bar menu) into the overall design. Adding special musician (ukulele) or performances (fire dance) will help spice up the day. They are small cost items.
The day went by in what felt like seconds… but thanks to Rachael it was such a dream come true. All my girlfriends either want to get married again or start planning their day too!

First off, I was extremely surprised to see the negative reviews of Rachael and Vintage & Lace. I had talked to several very well reviewed and very reputable vendors (for catering, photography, and venues) on the island prior to deciding that I needed a wedding planner and Rachael was the most frequently recommended. I didn’t go on word alone though, I then proceeded to stalk V&L on Wedding Wire, Facebook, and Instagram, and checked out their blog in addition to doing a Google search (yes, I am a stalker) before taking the plunge and booking her, and I’m so thankful that I did.
I could go on forever about V&L but for the sake of staying within a word limit here are some highlights and hopefully helpful fyi’s for prospective brides:
–Rachael has amazing style. Period. I’ve found that people who have a great sense of what looks great and what doesn’t are usually strongly opinionated and was a little fearful that what my vision of my wedding day would be would turn into her vision of what my wedding should be… SO NOT the case with her. She listened made great suggestions and never once did she dismiss anything I presented, said I wanted to try, or made me feel like what I wanted to do wouldn’t work with the design of the wedding.
–Rachael (and her husband Ben) — were as communicative as I needed them to be. I’m retail manager (i.e. I work like a slave for as many hours as I need to run a business successfully) have 2 gigantic and energetic German Shepherds, I was remodeling a house during most of my planning process, and in between it all had to bend over backwards in order to spend time with my fiancé (now husband) who also works like a slave for a huge tech company. Basically, I am busy all the time so I fit in time to talk to Rachael whenever I could. The way that worked best for me was sending an email with days/​times that worked for me and coordinated our calls based on her availability. I NEVER had to wait more than 2 – 3 days for a reply or a chance to talk, and when we did talk I was never rushed.
Communication is clearly super important when working with your planner so I’d recommend on letting her know in the beginning of the planning process how often you prefer to touch base in addition to letting her know how involved/​uninvolved you want to be, ask questions, follow up, and check in whenever you feel like you need to. Also, I found it helpful to send an agenda of things I wanted to talk about prior to our scheduled calls.
–Rachael has GREAT relationships with her vendors. I didn’t realize how important this was until a few days before my wedding. She and the vendors she helped assemble (every single one of whom exceeded my every expectation) for me worked as a team to coordinate my wedding day and at no point was I worried that something would fall through the cracks or be forgotten.
I could seriously go on forever about my wonderful experience but I think it’s pretty clear that I was more than satisfied! Take the time to do your research beyond Unilocal reviews– check out Instagram, Facebook, as well as her blog to see the events
she has designed and executed and if you’re not convinced or on the fence, definitely reach out some of the better reviewed caterers, photographers, and florists on the island and see what they say about V&L– from experience I can say that you’ll find that she’s very well respected by her industry peers.

Before booking with Vintage & Lace I read all of the reviews, and weighed the pros and cons. Despite some bad reviews, I decided to go with them. I got the intimate wedding package.
I’m in grad school right now and I really needed someone who would listen to what I wanted from a wedding and just run with it. Rachel did exactly that. We had a phone conference where we went over my pinterest board and what I liked and didn’t like. I described everything from what type of seating I wanted, to what type of decorations I wanted. Communication was scarce sometimes, but everything was booked and they were always very easy to work with. She recommended some amazing vendors, and I was very happy with all of them.
When the wedding got closer Rachel and Ben were very responsive. The day of the wedding went smoothly, and Rachel was very kind and calming. She definitely stayed below the budget that I had. Everything looked great and I was really pleased with how everything turned out.
In the end, if you can be relaxed about wedding planning, and trust that they will come through with an amazing wedding you will be happy. They are very busy, and do a lot of weddings, so I was understanding about them running on island time. They really did pull through for everything I needed.

Long overdue review! I was married in Kona back in May and hired Vintage & Lace to help plan my (small!) Hawaiian wedding. I chose the Romantic Coast Ceremony and Dinner, a simple beach wedding and dinner after that Vintage & Lace helped to plan. I do agree with some of the other reviewers, response times can be slow but hey it’s Hawaii. And I had a simple wedding that didn’t require a lot of back and forth. I was a little concerned about everything coming together but thankfully it did in the end! I was very happy with all of the vendors that were recommended to me and Rachael even let me and my husband borrow her umbrella as it ended up raining on us after the ceremony (during our pictures). Overall I do recommend V&L for your wedding planning, just be sure to stay on top of your own planning/​notes if you have a smaller event like mine.

I’ve read the reviews (bad and good). We still booked with Vintage & Lace because all we wanted was a simple sunset ceremony. We booked our own officiant and our own photographer because we wanted to interview those vendors to make sure we were comfortable with them. I went in with an idea for a simple ceremony on a beach. We elected to not have any friends or family with us so that we could have an intimate experience.
:I will say that we did not communicate with Rachel directly. Our communication was mostly done with her assistant (Hanna) and her husband (Ben). They recommended the venue. My expectation was they would handle all of the permits and scout the locations for our sunset wedding.
They did a fabulous job! They confirmed date and time with our vendors and communicated with me up to the day of our wedding. On the day of our wedding (October 30, 2014), Ben met us was waiting for us at the venue. He gave us several choices for our ceremony. He quickly set up our site and away we went. We could not have been happier with the V&L team! Their description of the venue matched what we wanted! The ceremony went off without a hitch.
Rachel did follow up with us after our ceremony and conveyed her congratulations to us.
We would recommend them for planning your sunset ceremony! We will use them again when we decide to renew our vows!

These guys are horrible!!! My friends just booked with them and they totally drop the ball!!! If they don’t refund their money! 20 more 1 star review are coming

If you are looking for a wedding coordinator that is communicative and timely, I recommend you do not book with Vintage & Lace. I had one disappointing experience after another with V&L, specifically Rachael in planning my July 2014 wedding.
After a phone interview, I booked services for full wedding planning, including day of & design, every service provided by V&L. To secure services I sent my deposit for half the total bill (about $ 2300/​$ 4600) deposited immediately (7÷13÷13). I sent my questionnaire and did not hear back from anyone for over a week. When I asked if this was customary, I got an excuse with another wedding’s emergency & a guilt-​trip that if it were me, I would want the same attention.
Excuses were common with Vintage & Lace
*Another example: 2 months later I hadn’t heard from anyone re: a request for quotes for a rehearsal dinner location after a request, follow-​up, and reminder in about 3 weeks time only to receive a quote for the incorrect date. Easy mistake, but it took weeks to get, along with it, an excuse (I’m copying and pasting from their email); «We are just coming out of the peak season of weddings for the year and unfortunately, that does mean that sometimes there is a delay in responses for weddings that are later out in the year. Without further excuse, please accept our promise to absolutely do our best to improve communications and be much more prompt with our responses for you as we move forward with your wedding plans.»
* At this & many other times I threatened to fire Vintage & Lace (one of the only ways to get a response), and more than once I wished I had trusted my instincts.
* She blew off a phone convo re: design in March for which the date/​time was set 2 weeks in advance. I waited for a call on our scheduled day & when it didn’t come, I called & left a message. The next day Rachael informed me that she took a last minute trip to Australia but promised to be in contact throughout her time there. Needless to say I did not hear from her at all & had to send another email 2 weeks later, the response of course included an email she «sent» that must have been lost in the atmosphere (no records in any of my email accounts & this has never happened before.) On her Facebook page I found a picture, «Taken with my silly little point and shoot at the Great Barrier Reef on my birthday! BEST. BIRTHDAY. EVER!» Last minute trip?
Poor communication, no follow-​up, & getting replies to emails took far too long.
* It took about a week to receive a forwarded email from V&L. Notice I said, «forwarded email», meaning a vendor would email V&L, & they waited a week before hitting the forward button to send it to me. Example: I made a (follow-​up!) request for info on caterers 11÷14÷13, received on 11÷15÷13 a forwarded email sent from the vendor to the planners 11÷7÷13. A week to forward an important email, & I had to ask for it? I can’t call that timely or responsible.
V&L puts on a good show and will pitch services they don’t follow through with one, a «Master Wedding Planning Document» that I had to specifically ask for 7 months into planning with only 5 months to go, though it was part of my contract.
The only thing V&L ever appeared to be proactive on was asking for their money.
I received my 1^st text message (ever!) from Rachael 2 days before the wedding. The 2^nd text came the next day asking if I received her request for payment, sent to me via email 4 days before the wedding, earlier than our contract stipulated, with a reminder email the day before. In other words, she began nagging me for her money before she was supposed to be paid. Awful. I was embarrassed for myself, and for my family, for hiring such an unprofessional organization.
I honestly do not feel as though I received anything close to what V&L pitches in their design services. I’m not sure what the vision or inspiration was, and while I was happy with my end product (mainly because I married the love of my life with my friends and family in tow), I can’t say that it was because of or in spite of V&L, and not just luck on my part for picking good vendors.
Now multiple weeks after our wedding was over, I have not heard from V&L Not a «thank you» or a follow-​up to ensure that everything was done to our satisfaction. It’s hard not to be insulted. All this being said, I absolutely cannot recommend Vintage & Lace. The only thing they seem to do quickly/​ahead of time was cash checks or ask for money.
One last story-​The day before the wedding we had a walkthrough with Rachael and her husband to view the site and get everyone on the same page. They described to us their plan, which they were making up as we went along. My future husband asked, «Wait, is this the first time you’ve ever been here?» Their answer: yes. Were we surprised that the «ultra lounge» they said they would set up by the ocean wasn’t there on the day of our wedding? Nope. We were just happy to get married, but we knew we got taken for a ride.

I have never seen a movie a didn’t like. Never eaten at a restaurant where I wouldn’t clean my plate. I tip the shittest waiters 20%, minimum. With that in mind, here is my review of Rachael–
After I sent her my deposit and questionnaire she asked me to fill out, she said we would set up a video conference the following week to get acquainted. Never happened. She told me at the time we were so far out that I shouldn’t worry about losing out on vendors. I had to e mail her 3 times about my date to get a confirmation response that it worked for her.
I told her being that my side of the family is from the east coast I needed save the dates with a location a year in advance… she said she understood. In January I asked her to get quotes/​proposals from venues. I e mailed her 2 more times about this. Did not get a response until 3 weeks later after I threatened to fire her if I did not hear back ASAP– this enticed her to reply.
At this point our first choice was booked. Not only was it booked but she had her husband/​business partner (who was actually a really nice guy and the only person we were ever able to speak with on the phone) break the news to me instead of calling me herself. She assured me she would be more responsive and get me some proposals immediately. I sent the other half of my payment hoping this would make her want to work harder for me.
5 weeks later I had not heard from her once (other than her husband e mailing me to say he got my check). My mom spoke to her husband briefly who assured us she would call the following week, my mom offered to bet him 100 $ that she wouldn’t– he declined to take the bet which was smart on his part because of course she never called. My friend is a wedding planner in Charleston and her office has a 72 hour policy, even if no progress has been made, they reply with an update to that effect. She said no response over 5 weeks is absolutely ridiculous and anyone at a company would have been fired well before that.
I have seen her posting tanning pictures and «day off» pictures on Instagram so I know she isn’t drowning in work. After 5 months, I had not seen one proposal for a venue, or anything else for that matter. We contacted the hotels ourselves and received a handful of proposals in 48 hours. One of which said they wouldn’t be willing to work with her as they have had bad experiences with her in the past.
A third of our engagement passed without any updates on venues or vendors, despite our many attempts to get ANYTHING at all from her. We were sitting across the country with zero idea of what was going on. I do not expect much from a wedding planner– but when you are a destination wedding planner communication is KEY and I got damn close to none whatsoever.
Needless to say we fired her and are 6 months behind on wedding planning and had to change the date as vendors were booked. I was really looking forward to working with her because I like her aesthetic a whole lot– but 5 weeks without even a reply to let me know she was looking into it after promising me she would be more responsive was the last straw. The one good thing I can say, to her credit, she refunded me in full.
DISCLAIMER: If for some reason Rachael has some personal issues going on that are preventing her from being a competent advisor I sincerely apologize.

I highly, highly recommend hiring Vintage & Lace (Rachael) for your wedding in Hawaii. If you are going to get married on the Big Island, your first call should be Rachael. Not only is she an absolute pleasure to work with, she is extremely organized, flexible, very affordable, has great resources for vendors, ideas and décor. She will give you a lot of time and work with you to design/​plan your dream wedding. She has great relationships with all of the vendors in the Islands and helps to coordinate everyone in a very productive manner.
I am so grateful for her and everything she did to execute our wedding in a seamless manner. She was the best thing for our wedding and because of her, everything went smoothly on our wedding day. Do yourself a favor and hire Rachael! She is the BEST!