This Maui Wedding Was All About Fashion—and Engagement Photo Shoots in Two Countries
If you play your cards right, you may just meet the love of your life. And for Xiao Linda Liu and Matthew Carter Penny, that idiom couldn’t be more true. In her first year of law school at Yale, the two met over casual games of poker with mutual friends. “He came across as very thoughtful, and I probably came across as ruthless, because I called all of his bluffs,” Xiao tells BAZAAR Bride.
What began as a friendship eventually evolved into much more. “I realized that Matt really ‘got me’ when, as a birthday gift, he gave me a hot pot cooker,” says Xiao. Liu was born in Chengdu, China, and while she had spent the majority of her life, like Matt, living up and down the East Coast, the gift allowed her to prepare the spicy hot pot meals she grew up eating at home in the comfort of her dormitory.
After they began dating on campus, it was their first far-flung adventure abroad that cemented it all. “I realized we were a good fit when I dragged him to Paris—and then to Petra—on a whim,” she recalls. “I wanted to travel everywhere in the world, and he more than obliged as the most wonderful travel companion. Through all of our trips and misadventures, I fell in love, slowly, and then all at once,” Xiao says.
Matt echoes his wife’s sentiments, recalling another trip that played a pivotal part in their relationship, and took their connection to another level. “We spent a few months hunkered down in New Haven studying for the bar exam, after which we traveled through Asia together on a ‘bar trip,’ making stops in Japan, South Korea, China, Hong Kong, Laos, Cambodia, and Thailand.” Xiao knew that if they could survive such a whirlwind trip as a couple—traipsing all over the continent on a shoestring budget and living out of a pair of carry-on suitcases—they could probably take the next step in their relationship with ease. “We both love to get out and see the world, and have found perfect adventure companions in one another,” Matt adds. “When we got back to the States, we moved into an apartment in the Lower East Side of Manhattan together.”
Two years later, Matt (now a litigation attorney at a law firm in New York City) and Xiao (a management consultant) took a red-eye flight home on December 31. Exhausted and craving a night in, Xiao just wanted to head to bed, but Matt was insistent that they celebrate New Year’s Eve by watching the fireworks. “I was grumpy, but caved when I saw that he had already packed blankets and sparkling cider—I’m allergic to alcohol,” Xiao says of his plans to take her to Central Park in the freezing winter weather. “I should have seen the signs. After the fireworks, we walked to a bench overlooking a pond, sat down, and then Matt caught me by surprise and proposed.”
Though the engagement was a surprise, the engagement ring was not. Early in their relationship, Matt and Xiao visited the Alexander McQueen “Savage Beauty” exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and discovered London-based jeweler Shaun Leane—a frequent collaborator of McQueen’s who had designed much of the jewelry on display. “I was struck by the organic, wild forms that Shaun had created. Nothing shy or subtle, all sharp edges and thorns,” Xiao recalls. Matt remembered the impact Leane’s work had on Xiao years later, when he selected a cherry tree-inspired ring to propose with.
During their three-year engagement, the couple decided to book multiple engagement photo sessions and felt that a trip to Hong Kong and Chengdu would be the most meaningful and fun. Thankfully, BAZAAR Bride top wedding photographer Sarah Falugo (who would be documenting the wedding weekend) and Xiao’s makeup artist, Megumi Sekine (whom Xiao had first become familiar with because of her work with the Hong Kong Ballet), were up for the adventure as well.
The couple and their team spent a couple of days in Hong Kong to soak in the cityscape views, from the top of Victoria Park and the deck of The Dukling, one of the few Chinese “junk” boats that still sail around the city’s iconic harbor. For the former, Xiao chose a simple off-the-shoulder top by Ellery. But she couldn’t resist two amazing gowns for the couple’s photo shoot on the boat, like a Naeem Khan red chiffon dress with a trailing cape. “I had no idea that the dress would look so beautiful against the backdrop of the boat’s sails or Hong Kong’s skyline, but it just did!” Xiao shares. The bride then changed into a sheer Valentino number embellished with intricate sequin work, accessorizing both showstoppers with a two-finger sapphire ring by Maison Margiela. Matt donned suits by Hickey Freeman throughout the photo sessions—smart, sartorial options to standout but keep all eyes (including his) on Xiao.
In Chengdu, the duo stayed at and took photos at the exquisite Temple House hotel. Xiao wore a silk Roland Mouret dress in a lush emerald green, which she noted is her favorite color “of all time.” The expertly draped dress paired beautifully with the hotel’s architecture, which combines historic details with modern elements. Xiao and Matt also booked the Mi Xun Teahouse before it opened, so they could have it to themselves. The bride had been looking for a qípáo to wear at the wedding and reached out to Hong Kong designer Blanc de Chine, which creates modernist takes on traditional Chinese garments. One option the brand presented her with was a lovely silk creation with subtle floral designs. Instead of wearing it for the wedding, she chose to don it for a photo op at the teahouse, as well as a Giambattista Valli white silk dress that fluttered with every move she made.
With the help of Xiao’s parents and some of their friends, the couple found a beautiful, old restaurant in the city with unique accents (like a stage built around a massive old tree in the courtyard), and the bride-to-be slipped on the red Naeem Khan dress again for more dramatic shots. They stopped at a few historic sites, too, including Du Fu Thatched Cottage and Wuhou Temple with its famous curving red walls; their final stop required a trek outside the city to the bamboo forest near the ancient town of Pingle, merging their love for adventure and travel with the classic Chinese tradition of high-style, produced engagement photos.
From the start, Xiao and Matt knew that they wanted to have a destination wedding. They’d each traveled to more than a dozen countries before they’d met, and after only dating for a few months, they had ventured all over the world together. “We wanted to share our love of travel with our family and friends—and not so subtly nudge everyone to take a vacation and travel with us,” Matt explains.
For a few months, they casually researched venues across the globe. “Haiku Mill [in Maui] was one of the first we came across,” Matt says. “We immediately took a trip, and it stayed at the top of our list.” The island of Maui was one of their favorite places because of its natural beauty, relaxing vibe, and delicious food. After a site visit and weighing their options, it seemed like the perfect destination to “drag” their loved ones to. Xiao echoes Matt’s assessment of their venue hunt. “We found Haiku Mill on day one of looking for a place to have our wedding, and we compared every subsequent option to it—nothing could beat it,” she says.
In choosing their venue, the couple also found their wedding planner, Elements by K.H & co., whom they worked with for a year to design and plan their destination wedding weekend. “Kimiko Hosaki and her entire team were our master orchestrators, our arms, legs, and eyes on the ground in Maui,” Xiao says of planning a wedding from across the country.
The wedding took place over the course of three days, with the happy couple and their families arriving on the island a week early to spend time together. The couple checked in to the Andaz Maui at Wailea Resort and made the most of their time, driving the Road to Hana with their parents, relaxing under the famed banyan tree in Lahaina, and enjoying a lovely dinner at Merriman’s in Kapalua with a view of the sun setting over the nearby island of Molokai.
After relaxing for a few days, the schedule shifted to focus on the wedding—but not before another photo session with Sarah Falugo. Knowing the wedding day itself would be hectic, and based on what they’d learned from doing an engagement photo shoot in China, Xiao and Matt felt it would be beneficial to have a day to themselves to focus on photography, without being rushed or having to adhere to a wedding timeline. The Wednesday prior, the couple and their photographer; makeup artist; and hairstylist, Sarah Hosaki, joined forces for a pre-wedding photo shoot in two highly picturesque locations on the island.
It turned out to be a great call, as the pre-wedding images are some of their favorites. “I first saw Sarah Falugo’s photography in 2017, about a year before I reached out to her about shooting our wedding,” says the bride. “I loved everything about her photographs: the editorial style; the authentic, candid moments she captured; how she captured true emotion between the couples; the details she focused on; the compositions and color palette; and how she wasn’t afraid of powerful images, hard edges, and angles.”
The day began at sunrise at Makena Beach, with Xiao in a pink satin Narciso Rodriguez slipdress that practically glowed in the morning light. She also donned a white sequined Prabal Gurung gown with cold shoulders and a thigh-high slit “perfect for running up and down the beach.” Xiao’s final look for the seaside setting was a sleeveless Dior top paired with an organza Toni Maticevski skirt. “When I first tried this outfit on at the beach, we realized that we had to improvise—the top was a bit too long and the organza a bit too revealing. So, we took a pair of scissors and cropped the top, which I now use for all of my high-waisted skirts,” Xiao says.
For more photos at golden hour, it was off to the back side of Haleakala Crater—a more remote spot with sweeping views, flowing lava, and the ocean all meeting at mind-bending angles that Xiao says make it seem “like the world is tipping over.” Xiao wore the pink satin number one more time to echo the palette of the setting sun in the sky, but also embraced color with two other ensembles, including a deep-green Rosie Assoulin caped dress. “Rosie is a New York–based designer whose work I have always admired. While searching for my not-red qípáo dress, I found this gorgeous dress that she had designed, and it looked like it could have come straight from the set of a Zhang Yimou movie. The dress had heron patterns in the silk-satin material, the frog fastenings went up and down its sides and could attach to a sweeping cape. And then, of course, there were the high slits along the skirt,” she explains. Xiao then changed into a vintage Christian Dior silk dress with ruffled layers and a bejeweled torso, its soft blue hue beautifully mirroring the turquoise waters.
On Thursday, after loads of family dinners and photo ops, it was time for the wedding festivities to begin. That evening, immediate family and two friends who took part in the wedding joined the couple for an intimate dinner in the garden of The Restaurant at Hotel Wailea. Perched atop a hill a short drive up from the Wailea beaches, the scenic spot played host to sunset views that everyone enjoyed as they sat down for dinner under strands of cafe lights. The decor was simple and all about the setting, which is what inspired Matt’s attire.
“I wanted to use the rehearsal dinner as an opportunity to wear something a bit more Hawaiian,” he explains. “So I picked a Tori Richard long-sleeve, tone-on-tone white oxford shirt with a textured floral design woven into the fabric.” He paired it with an Etro peak-lapel navy blue blazer and light gray suede Tod’s loafers. He and Xiao both wore hand-made leis as well.
For her rehearsal dinner ensemble, Xiao found inspiration in her Chinese heritage. She happened upon a sleeveless, lace Givenchy gown that had a mock turtleneck and slim silhouette—it felt very qípáo in style. While not the traditional red, its lush fuchsia tone still provided a splash of color and paired well with a pair of dangling gold earrings and a jade bracelet that had belonged to her late grandmother.
After dinner, the couple and their family met the rest of their guests for cocktails by the pool, which was aglow with floating lanterns. Everyone got a taste of Xiao and Matt’s favorite Mauian foods, as they were greeted upon arrival with banana leaf-wrapped welcome packages that each included a loaf of banana bread from Sugar Beach Bake Shop.
The Friday itinerary was intentionally left empty. The couple’s goal was to have the most low-key day possible and spend most of it with their families. They checked in to Haiku House on the North Shore, strolled through the gardens, took a dip in the pool, and had a casual home-cooked family dinner (with a Milk Bar cake shipped from New York City for Matt’s sister’s birthday). Meanwhile, the rest of the guests had a chance to enjoy the beauty of the island however and wherever they wanted.
When the wedding day, Saturday, rolled around, the couple only had to cross the street to reach their wedding venue, Haiku Mill, a former sugar mill with its crumbling stone walls now overcome by greenery. While most ceremonies at the property are held on the stairs at the back of the mill with guests seated in the central courtyard, the couple opted to set their vow exchange on the opposite end—a first for the venue. Why? To accommodate Xiao’s dress, which had a sizable train.
Just as she had for the photo shoots and events preceding the wedding, Xiao was very intentional in her selection of fashion designers for the wedding day itself. Overall, she opted for a combination of well-established houses and up-and-coming designers hailing from all across the globe. After much research, Xiao donned two gowns by Krikor Jabotian—one for the aisle, the other for dinner and dancing.
Xiao had spent all her downtime in the year leading up to the wedding trying to find The Dress. She went to multiple trunk shows and boutique salons, and sent a ton of photos to her friends for advice. She happened upon Krikor’s work through a story about beaded gowns here on Harper’s BAZAAR. At the time, the designer had only one bridal collection, and Xiao loved it all. Though there was one dress she kept going back to: a timeless ball gown adorned with intricate embroidery and a train that seemed to go on forever. “It wasn’t what I had envisioned for myself at the beginning, and I had tried on so many dresses before. But there it was, the dress that I had been dreaming of my entire life, but had no idea until I saw it,” she admits.
So she reached out to the designer and his team in Lebanon to see if they had the dress or a sample. It turned out they still had the original dress that the model had worn in the photo shoot—but there were two big concerns. To start, the gown was constructed to the measurements of a fit model who was 5 foot 10—and petite Xiao was far from that height. Secondly, the dress was in Beirut, while Xiao was based in New York City. Over the course of a year, Krikor, his atelier, and Xiao connected through video calls, and the dress was tailored to fit Xiao’s five-foot-one frame. One month before the wedding, she flew over to Beirut to meet the designer and his team for her final fitting.
“Krikor is the consummate perfectionist. He and his team tirelessly worked with meticulous care and attention to detail to make sure that the wedding dress felt like my wedding dress once it was reconstructed. As a part of the customization process, the team helped personalize the veil. Our names are embroidered near the edge in beautiful script. To secure the veil, I wore an ornate headpiece, also from Krikor,” Xiao says.
On her dress choice, Xiao acknowledges its importance in her wedding planning, despite a bit of unconventional thinking. “I know that people tell you to choose the venue before the dress and pick the dress to fit the venue,” she says, “and knew it would be a bit tricky to get the dress, which had an eight-plus-foot-long train, weighed about 30 to 40 pounds, and fit in a box the size of a refrigerator from Beirut to Maui. All that aside, I knew that this Krikor Jabotian dress would work and that Haiku Mill would be the perfect venue for it.”
The bride rounded out her ensemble with a pair of black Tahitian pearl earrings from Tiffany & Co.; she started the day in five-inch heels from Ralph & Russo but anticipated the heels sinking into the ground, so she changed into a pair of platform Stella McCartney creepers for the ceremony itself. She safely navigated the descent to the ceremony and stepped onto the elevated platform built by Artisan Events Maui, which seamlessly blended in with the space. There, she joined Matt, clad in a made-to-measure Tom Ford shawl-collar tuxedo in a lightweight midnight-blue fabric, with mother-of-pearl studs and cuff links from Jan Leslie.
During the ceremony, the couple exchanged rings—another Shaun Leane design for her, which she describes as “an organic, flowing, powerful ring that looks like I cold punch someone with it,” and a David Yurman band for him that combined 18-karat gold and meteorite. “I wanted something unique but durable, and I’ve always been fascinated with all things outer space—so, when I found out I could wear a piece of a space rock for my wedding ring, it was an easy decision,” Matt explains of his choice.
After walking back up the aisle as a string trio played Van Morrison’s “Brown-Eyed Girl” with an upbeat energy that matched that post-ceremony feeling, the newlyweds and their guests moved outside by a giant mango tree for cocktail hour. Cutting Edge Catering passed around an array of local specialties, including ahi tuna poke on crispy black tapioca crackers. Garnish Craft Cocktail Catering served signature drinks customized and named by the couple: an As Yuzu Wish (nodding to Xiao’s favorite cocktail ingredient and Matt’s love of The Princess Bride) and a Watermálà, which incorporates the Chinese word referring to the numbing and spicy sensation from a Sichuan peppercorn.
Guests then moved back into the open-air courtyard, which had been transformed for the reception. The main vision for the celebration was candles, candles, and more candles. Wedding planner Kimiko Hosaki worked with floral designer Mandy Grace Designs on long tables covered in light gray candles of alternating heights with Sichuan peppercorns filling their bases, and asymmetrical white floral centerpieces in between. Strands of white orchids laid out across (and in some cases above) the tables complemented the look. As for the lighting, the couple was inspired by a light installation they’d seen at a botanical garden and wanted to create a similar effect of light falling from the night sky for their reception.
“They gave us a sneak peek before anyone else saw the reception area, and I most definitely cried seeing everything come to fruition,” Xiao says.
Guests found their seats thanks to bilingual escort cards by Written Word Calligraphy and Design, which also designed the menus that boasted black vellum illustrated with loose florals. The plated dinner began with an amuse-bouche of a seared scallop under a crispy noodle nest, topped with a Sichuan glaze and cilantro confetti. For the main course, attendees were offered a choice of local tuna or beef tenderloin.
Before cutting into the three-tiered Cake Fanatics wedding cake and dancing to Neil Young’s “Harvest Moon,” Xiao changed into a second Krikor Jabotian dress—one that allowed her to move and dance all night. With intricate pearl details down the back and along the neckline, plus hundreds of hand-pleated folds, she knew that she could “twirl around with perfect abandon” in it—so she let her hair down and slipped on a floral crown to do just that. She paired the look with white satin Manolo Blahniks before hitting the dance floor to the sounds of DJ Scott Harding, who played tracks including Cheap Trick’s “I Want You To Want Me (Live at Nippon Budokan, Tokyo)” after a more subdued dinner playlist featuring artists like Frank Sinatra and Okkervil River. “We totally used the wedding as a fantastic excuse to spend an inordinate amount of time piecing together several playlists of our all-time favorite songs for different parts of the weekend,” explains the groom.
The revelry continued back at Haiku House, though it shifted to a more low-key vibe. People slipped off their shoes, enjoyed a local take on Chex Mix, as well as Milk Bar desserts, and simply relaxed. The newlyweds slipped into comfortable clothing (a long-sleeved dress from ATM Collection for Xiao and a Hawaiian shirt for Matt), although most of the guests stayed in their glamorous attire.
Per the serene ending to their wedding night, the next day was all about sleeping in, jumping in the pool, and relaxing on the patio eating starfruit. As for their honeymoon, the couple couldn’t resist returning to Hawaii as soon as they could—heading to Oahu for a minimoon months later. To bring their memories, photos, and video from Ohana Films back to New York City with them, they had one more way to commemorate the occasion: adopting a puppy they aptly named Maui.
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