Early in 1998, I first got the idea of calling our proposed Maui weddings business, which was still then in the planning stages, by the name: “Maui Me.” Everyone was using the phrase, “Just Maui’d”, but because that was past tense, I thought, why not call our Maui wedding planner service Maui Me as in “will you Maui me?”

We have had several couples who have come to Hawaii and have us perform their Maui wedding ceremony and not get the play on words until after the wedding. There have even been a number of locals who just didn’t “get it.” I remember one night when Susan and I went out to eat at a restaurant in Lahaina where Bennie, one of our musicians (who has played for a number of our weddings), was performing live.

When he saw us in that sea of unfamilar faces, he introduced us to everyone saying, “These are my good friends . . . ” and then he named our company, and the light turned on for him for the first time. “Oh, I get it!!” He smiled to the entire restuarant, “‘will you Maui me?’”

We went on to apply for and were awarded a U.S. Trademark back in 2003 for the words “Maui Me” as our tradename. Because our name is so much a part of what we do and are as a wedding company, we have had to insist that our competitors not use this two-word Maui Me trademark on their websites both to protect our tradename and also to keep couples from being confused about which company was really Maui Me.

At one point we began to produce a promotional video in which we had an attractive young couple play a guy asking his girlfriend, “Will you Maui me?” When we shot that scene in a restaurant, the guy got down on his knee and opened up that little box with a diamond ring and popped the question? To me, it was such a romantic scene.

Although we never had the time or energy to finish the video, and it still languishes in our vault, I’ve always wanted to hear that some guy would actually pop the question using that great line.

It seemed when the idea first popped into my mine to be an absolutely great play on words. Couples could use the saying both to propose (as in “will you marry me?”) as well as to announce to their intended, “will you go with me to romantic Maui to get married?”

I’ve always thought that “Will you Maui me?” would be a perfect words for a man to use to woo his woman. What more romantic thing can you say? I want to marry you and I want to sweep you off your feet (literally) by flying you off to paradise to tie the knot. Women love those dramatic gestures.

In the last couple of years we have actually have several couples tell us that they used this question to propose. I don’t know how many of them were motivated by reading our site first, but on more than one occasion, we heard something like this: “That’s exactly what he said to me when he proposed! And then when we were search on the Internet for a company who coordinated Maui weddings, we saw your website and read your company name, and we knew we just HAD to use you as our Maui wedding planner.”

If you are reading this and haven’t yet popped her (or him) “the question,” and you’re also thinking about coming to Maui to tie the knot, please, you might seriously consider using “will you Maui me?” I would certainly love to hear that story.

I’m always asking couples how they met. And I would love to hear someone’s romantic description about using popping that question. If you do that, you can be assured that your story would end up right here in this blog (if you are willing to let us publish it).

We often have couples send us their pictures so that we’ll know what they look like. If you get engaged by asking, “will you Maui me?” you would just HAVE to send us some photos of the two of you so that we could put them right here in this blog.

That’s an idea. After you pop that question, you could have her come read the blog post about it right here on the Will You Maui Me blog!

I can’t think of anything more fun for us than to be involved not only in tying the knot for you when you come, but also in helping the two of you making your initial decision to get maui’d!