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Beach permits for Maui weddings are being approved with little difficulty, according to numerous Maui wedding companies. We submitted thirty or so permits about a week ago along with required maps and location designations.
Yet to be determined by the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) is how to deal with people on the beach. While a ‘permit’ allows a wedding on a beach, nothing in the language of the permit indicates authority to ask a group to vacate a permitted location to accommodate the permitted event.
Even if that language did exist, I won’t ask a group of locals to move fishing poles, coolers and hamburger grills (or anyone else for that matter). That would engender bad blood with those the wedding business shares the beach with and, possibly, result in my dangling on a hook attached to an ulua pole. Our company policy will be to simply move to another spot (not another beach) and maintain the “aloha” spirit with all concerned.
Another question raised, mainly by photographers and videographers, concerns a wedding held on county or private locations which don’t require a permit. After the ceremony the bride and groom are often taken to a beach for more pictures. Does this require a permit?
According to Steve Molmen, the DLNR’s Property Manager for the Division of Boating and Ocean Recreation, the answer is, “I don’t know.” Mike Knowles of Millennium Films Maui posed the question to SM. Mike then called the Maui County Film Office and asked the same question. The answer?
“We don’t know.”
He then asked if a bride and groom would be ticketed if the wedding was not held on the beach. They said they would not be ticketed.
These are, I believe, minor difficulties that will smooth out over time. While the state does what states do everywhere, regulate and complicate, they are attempting to streamline the system.
Aloha,
Ron Winckler
Pacific Island Weddings Ltd
because maui and las vegas are oceans apart®
