Lei stands also versed in weddings
• The Wedding Planner's Web log
By Tanya Bricking
Advertiser Staff Writer
Need some flowers? A limo? A dressmaker to design your wedding gown?
Pomaikai Chun probably knows somebody who can help.
Chun, a lei-stand owner's daughter, comes from a long line of lei makers who have outfitted many a wedding party with haku crowns, garlands of ginger, bouquets and sweet-smelling symbols of affection.
She works at Martha's Lei Stand at Honolulu International Airport, named for her great-grandmother, whose picture hangs in the rear of the shop next to snapshots from weddings and special occasions.
"My great-grandmother started it back when John Wayne was buying leis," Chun said. She might even have a picture, somewhere among the photos in the trunk of the family car of Hollywood greats who were patrons back in the day.
Lei stands are among the last mom-and-pop shops that add local flavor to Hawai'i's wedding industry. Even at the airport's strip of lei stands, a few still offer one-stop shopping for affordable bridal bouquets.
"I used to work at a wedding shop," Chun said. "I came back to the family business."
Like the aunties of old, Chun is a modern-day woman with connections. She can get you a limo, set you up with a seamstress, coordinate to your color scheme and give you suggestions about keeping your costs down.
At Gladys' Lei Stand, another stop on the airport row, each family member has a job. Charleston Umi runs the business side. His sister is in charge of wedding flowers. Weddings aren't such a big business for them anymore, but they're glad to do what they can.
"I try to be accommodating if I can," Umi said. "The price is pretty much competitive to downtown."
Even though it's a little harder to find parking in Chinatown, it's still the best bet for finding deals on bulk orders of lei or even boutonnieres.
If you want to give a lei to every wedding guest, Maunakea Street shops such as Flower Field and Lin's Lei Shop, and Kathy's Flowers & Leis on Smith Street, will do bulk orders of orchid lei for $3 a pop, ordered in advance. That's a dollar cheaper than the airport lei stands and half the price of most florists in town.
Kay Kadooka, president of Flower Field, will design gazebo arrangements, centerpieces and church decorations. She says she'll give walk-in customers the same prices as wholesalers.
You might not know it from their storefronts, but many Chinatown lei stands make a lot more than lei. Flower Field specializes in wreaths and funeral flowers. Pauahi Leis & Flowers on Maunakea Street does bouquets starting at $35, makes some elaborate arrangements and ships out fancy lei to the Mainland for pageants and things.
Chinatown favorites such as Cindy's Lei & Flower Shoppe (also on Maunakea) offer the same full-scale service for weddings as pricier florists.
"It seems like weddings are back in style," said Karen Lee, manager at Cindy's. "We do at least one wedding a week, and we have a lot of tourists."
Many brides and grooms tend to be impulse buyers who come in for same-day service on weekdays, she said, and some wedding parties come in at the last minute for lei when something else falls through.
The rule of thumb is to give lei stands two to three weeks' notice for weddings, Lee said. But if you walk in at the last minute, she'll see what she can do.
The mom-and-pop shops know they have to be accommodating to bring in business.
That's the way Pomaikai Chun's great-grandmother would have wanted it.
Tanya Bricking writes about relationships for The Advertiser. She's reaching the home stretch in her online blog — her public journal about her own wedding planning. The last journal entry will appear Nov. 21, just before she takes off to get hitched. Keep up with the blogs while they last, posted Tuesdays and Fridays on the Wedding Planner link at www.honoluluadvertiser.com.
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