KAHALA — A tiaraed, wedding-dress clad Primrose Valdez sat carefully in a nicely appointed room in the Kahala Resort overlooking the ocean. Her bridesmaid, Nelia Visitacion, picked up a piece of sushi with chopsticks and popped it into the bride-to-be's mouth.

"Cucumber?" Visitacion asked.

"No, I'm OK," Valdez said, smoothing a bathrobe over her dress to keep it sparklingly, blindingly white.

Then she confided to the latest visitor, "I just don't want to drink any water ... " and cocked her partial up-do in the direction of the adjoining room, her curly tendrils dancing up and down. She'd already had a full lunch. This was just a snack — and no, for the record, nerves were not keeping her appetite at bay.

It was a few moments before the big event for Valdez, who with her fiance, Sunghoon Alex Cho, won the Parasol Events Wedding Giveaway, presented by The Honolulu Advertiser. The wedding, valued at $35,000-plus, was about to begin, and she was afraid to think too hard about the moment. When she did, her eyes brimmed with happy tears.

"Watch your makeup!" Visitacion warned.

Even though she wasn't nervous, "I couldn't sleep, I was so emotional," Valdez said. "Even little stuff makes me cry."

Her sister and matron of honor, Sheryll Domingo, laughed in agreement, catching sight of her flower-girl daughter, herself a vision in frothy white.

"Say hello," she urged the tiny sprite.

"Hello!" Kiana Domingo said, then held up two fingers in answer to the next question, about her age, of course.

Preparations for all this — the tiara, the hairstyle, the perfect makeup, the form-fitting strapless, hoop-skirted gown — began hours earlier, Valdez admitted.

Downstairs, her beloved, Cho, stood square-shouldered in his dinner wear, a white tie and white brocade vest beneath the elegant black suit. He admitted that his get-up took about 10 minutes of prep time.

"Guys, it's always easier," he said, then added: "I'm not very nervous at all. No butterflies. I got to look at my bride and she looks beautiful."

Beautiful was the buzzword as the Kahala sunset set the backdrop at a gazebo at the far end of the resort. The mothers of the couple looked beautiful. The reception area looked beautiful. For a free wedding — well, except for the extra 30 guests, at about $110 a pop — theirs was a picture-perfect wedding.

And top of the line. The dinner menu at the banquet area of the Kahala included roast sirloin, a seafood medley and crusted fish, as well as scallop salad and a roasted duck salad with apples and seedless grapes.

The cake, from Cake Lava, looked as if it were dusted with gold and bore the theme of cherry blossoms with sugared blooms so real you'd be tempted to smell them.

The flower arrangements were architectural marvels with the aforementioned cherry blossoms, lilies and Ecuadorean roses as big as an infant's head.

The ceremony itself mixed elements from Valdez's Filipino culture and Cho's Chinese heritage, including wrapping the couple in a lace veil (to remind them they are being clothed as one) and encircling them with a jugal, or silken cord, to symbolize the bonds of marriage. They also had their mothers light two separate candles, which they then used to light a central "unity" candle.

In an update on another of Valdez's Filipino traditions — when a man is given coins to pledge to provide for his family — they'd chosen for him to hand them to her as well, to show an equal partnership.

During the vows, Valdez could hold back the tears no longer.

"I cried when she cried," said the mother of the bride, Minda Valdez of Waipahu, still dotting the corners of her eyes with her fingers.

After the ceremony, the couple was whisked away to take photos and video footage as guests made their way to the reception area, where punch and appetizers were served before the buffet was unveiled. A video/photo booth allowed them to take the guestbook concept a step further, leaving a photo message or even a 30-second video.

Sherwin Bocobo of Waipahu, one of the many Valdez cousins on hand, remembered the last family wedding, held in the backyard "with plenny people" in Wahiawa.

"But this," he said, "was outside on the beach! And it was" — warning: that word again — "beautiful outside."

Bocobo knows that the couple had to pare back the guest list.

"If our family was all together, this place would be packed already."

Then he thought for a moment and added:

"With a beer in hand."

Perhaps the funniest moment, however, came as groom Cho watched the videographer attempt to direct a scripted, poignant moment.

"Now, you walk up here, and put your hand here," the fellow began, leaning in to the bride.

"Hey! Don't give her a kiss, now!" Cho loudly ordered from his spot yards away.

Instinctively, the poor fellow moved away as the bridal party giggled.

Valdez just beamed.