This is going to sound weird, but after 7 years of dating, Dallas’s family and my family had never met each other. The thing is, we’re all spread out, living in 5 different states. So, I guess it’s not that weird. We knew that we didn’t want our families to meet for the first time at the wedding, so the night before the wedding, in liu of a rehearsal dinner or something like that, we had family dinner.

About 6 weeks before our trip, Dallas and I started brainstorming where to have dinner. Somewhere nice, but not too expensive. Good food, but not crazy food. Some place good for kids, since my nieces would be there. Our families are not huge, but there would be 13 people, so we needed a restaurant that could accomodate that. And it needed to be nearby where we were all staying in Poipu.

After going through every restaurant we could think of in Poipu and doing some internet research, we finally decided that Plantation Gardens would be the perfect place. They could seat us all in an open-air area overlooking the gardens, the entrees were moderately priced and looked delicious, they even had a kids menu, and they were located within walking distance from where we were staying. Done and done. I made a reservation.

So, we all met up at the restaurant that night. I already knew what I wanted to eat because I’d been studying the menu ahead of time! For pupus we ordered a few of the plantation-style samplers. This included a house-made bbq kalua pork manapua, shrimp spring roll, garden roll, and raw ahi tuna. For my entree, I got the chef’s trio, which was seafood lau lau, peppercorn rubbed skirt steak, and haku, a Hawaiian swordfish.

For dessert I had the baked Hawaiian, which was a play on a baked Alaska and was made of Lappert’s chocolate and macadamia nut ice creams on a fudge brownie crust with toasted meringue. Plantation Gardens also had some really tasty and unique tropical drinks. I remember liking the Lavendar Pina Colada (Lavender Cruzan Estate Rum, Absolut Karunt, Coconut Syrup, Island Fresh Pineapple Juice) and the Plantation Breeze (Absolut Mandrin Vodka, Crème de Banana, Peach Schnapps Passion Fruit & Guava Juice).

Turned out, dinner was perfect. The only thing I would change was mixing the seating up a little! My family sat on one side and Dallas’s family sat on the other side. One side of the table was really quiet and one side was really loud. I think you can guess which was which. But everyone got along and it was nice to get introductions out of the way before the wedding.

I was thinking about taking a photo of our families together but in the beginning of the night everyone was arriving and introducing themselves and it didn’t feel right. And then before dinner ended someone had to leave early to buy their wedding outfit! Nothing like waiting til the last minute! So, that would have been an incomplete photo. We got plenty taken at the wedding, so no matter, but here is one of Dallas and I at our house before we left for dinner.

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