I'm going to piggy back on your thread if you don't mind.

Recently got engaged and am looking at a wedding in Hawaii next summer. We don't know too much about the islands other than we do not want to do Oahu. We will have approximately 50 guests total, mostly friends around our age (late 20's) and a few family members. We're hoping to do a real quick, relatively inexpensvie ceremony at a hotel and then maybe rent out a part of a restaurant for 4-5 hours for the reception. We'd like to find a hotel that will give us a group rate between $200-250 for rooms for our guests, we can guarantee a good amount of rooms. It would also be nice if there was an even more economical hotel nearby for those who don't want to spend that much. Here are my questions:

1. Which island? Everything I read/hear from people is that Maui is the best but also the most expensive. We want someplace that is fun and will have plenty of stuff to do, and ideally a little night life as well. From my understanding the Big Island is boring. That leaves Kauai. Thoughts?

2. We want to make sure we avoid the wedding "factories" we've heard horror stories about where they line you up on a conveyor belt and just marry you off in 20 minute increments.

3. What about having the ceremony at a restaurant? Does anyone have experience with that and have any places they would recommend?

4. What am I missing out or forgetting to ask questions about?

Any and all information is appreciated. Thank you.