Maui Beach Wedding Permit – the ‘goose’ is simmering

Our website

In an earlier post (“Ahab and the whale“) I alluded to the state’s propensity to ‘off’ the Golden Goose with the implementation of permits for beach weddings. A meeting between the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) and Oahu wedding professionals held yesterday (Monday, August 11) bears this out.

The goose, still honking but trussed (with permitting requirements), is in the pot and the heat has been turned up.

Jill Carl of the Maui Wedding Association attended this gathering and reported the outcome yesterday morning.

“It was as we suspected,” she told me. “The state is moving ahead with more restrictions placed on the wedding industry.”

The restrictions, according to Carl, include banning the use of ‘props’ such as wedding chairs, arches, dinners on the beach, wedding cakes and cake tables. Laura Thielen, interim director of the DLNR ticked off her list of restricted items, all the while repeating, “We’ll work with you (the wedding industry).”

Industry reps were visibly upset. Questions to Thielen about the draconian nature of increased regulation prompted a visibly angry Thielen to respond, “Have we turned down anybody’s request [for a permit]?”

She suggested companies whose clients desire chairs, or even a cake table, do their wedding at a resort or on private property. She didn’t suggest how couples would pay for a resort wedding.

I’m meeting with Jill Carl and other wedding companies this week to discuss this unfolding issue. Something needs to be done to curtail increased regulation by the state. In many areas, not just weddings, the DLNR is throttling not only local businesses, but the multiple thousands who travel to Hawaii each year as well.

Conservation is important. I’m all for protecting Maui’s natural resources. But weddings are among the most benevolent activities that occur on Maui’s beaches. Even surfing schools have caught the gaze of the stern ’schoolmarm,’ Lauren Thielen. With a severe rap to their knuckles, she has approved the teaching of this HAWAIIAN art, but not the use of surfboards. Surfboards are, apparently, a “prop” as well.

The state, along with the DLNR seem determined to recreate the experience travelers have enjoyed for many decades. They want to turn this place, it’s trails, beaches, waterfalls and lava flows into a museum. You can look, as long as you stand behind the rope.

Who knows what the future will bring? Maybe a ‘virtual’ experience -online only- hosted by a mothering, “protecting the aina” department of the state.

In closing:

The wedding industry throughout the state will be meeting to discuss possible action regarding beach wedding permits and regulations.

The DLNR is holding a meeting on Maui in early September.

I’ll keep you informed.

Aloha,
Ron Winckler
Pacific Island Weddings Ltd.
because maui and las vegas are oceans apart®

Maui Beach Weddings – Ahab and the whale

Our Website: click here

The much anticipated confab of state officials and Maui wedding professionals, re beach wedding permits, happened this morning (June 23, 2008).

Morris Atta, Land Administrator for the Department of Land and Natural Resources (DLNR) presented the State’s, alleged, ‘pilot program’ for wedding permits. It quickly became apparent that “pilot program” was not exactly the right term, unless one accepts a blind pilot with no discernible flight program as righteous. 

The ‘program’ basically consists of the state enforcing outdated regulations that have been on the books for years. Up till now, Hawaii’s DLNR have followed a policy of benevolent neglect, turning a blind eye to the business of beach weddings. As of August 1, 2008–they say–that will change.

“…beaches are a public resource,” said Atta. “You’re asking for free use. We’re [the state] trying to find something that works.” Apparently what “works” is filing a permit, with a diagram of the wedding setup, including accurate reporting of square footage to be used at 10 cents per square foot.

Not too bad? It could get badder. 

The state also wants at least one week advance notice (the archaic permit regulation, as written, required 45 days notice). Many wedding companies, including ours, receive calls for wedding services with no notice (a few margaritas, one too many sunsets then a trip to the license agent). In addition they will require reporting guest counts, beaches used for weddings and more. In short, they threaten to regulate the ‘rom’ out of ‘romantic’ leaving hapless lovers with only a bureaucratic antic.

Telling a bride that her wedding dress is “awfully tight” isn’t smart. Telling a room full of wedding professionals that they have to twist and turn to do their jobs in a shrinking market is equally ill-advised. Especially with Mexico and other locales effectively competing for Destination Wedding business.

One coordinator, a cast on her foot, clomped to the dais berating the unsuspecting Atta. Like Ahab on the back of his whale, she flung one verbal harpoon after another. Other harpoons soon followed from angry wedding professionals. The business of love was getting testy.

Taken aback by the room’s response, Atta (I gotta give him credit, other state reps were visibly shrinking into their plastic chairs, leaving him to face the firestorm alone) back-pedaled on the August 1st permit deadline. Unequivocally equivocating, Atta agreed to reconsider the deadline. We’ll see. I have a feeling that most companies will ignore what amounts to unenforceable, ill-considered attempts by the state to add unnecessary hoops to the process. 

One coordinator, having plowed hours of labor into co-sponsoring a workable permit process, asked Atta what happened to the original proposal the state tentatively agreed to. (A proposal of a yearly, blanket permit issued to Maui wedding professionals for use of [most] any beach at any time.) Atta’s response?

“We’re considering that.”

Along with the murder another of Hawaii’s endangered species, the Golden Goose.

I’ll keep you informed.

Ron Winckler
Pacific Island Weddings
because maui and las vegas are oceans apart®