To my faithful blog readers, all four of you...just joking. The wave of humidity swarming through my home has announced the arrival of summer. I will be revising my webiste and pricing (effective June 1st), so grab the opportunity the next few days to book your wedding or portrait package under the current pricing. I've streamlined some of the offers and I've added some new options that I'm really proud of.
I can't believe it's been a year since I received an email from a lovely bride wanting to hold her wedding day on the sandy shores of Oahu. A perfect idea complicated by the small fact that she and her fiancee live in Missouri. She heard of us from a couple of friends at our church who moved here from Missouri, and she wanted us to provide officiating and photography. It is always a blessing to be able to work side-by-side with my husband, Scott. We do a fair number of weddings on our own individually so it's a real treat for us to be able to team up.
This sweet young couple (I'm starting to feel old at thirty years of age) were so excited about their Hawaiian wedding. Joel and Rachel are fun, carefree, and wanted to make their commitment solidly planted on their shared love for God.
Rachel and Joel didn't want a big fussy much-to-do wedding. Rachel had only three small requests.
1. To get married on Kailua Beach
2. To have an arch on the sand
3. To have a bouquet of her favorite flower, plumerias
That was it, all she asked for. Let see...
#1. To get married on Kailua Beach- Kailua beach, gorgeous. But for the past two years, Kailua beach has been suffering from drastic sand erosion, even unearthing old walls once hidden under the dunes of sand. She was a trouper and chose Lanikai beach, just a step farther down the same shore and one of the most beautiful beaches in Hawaii (some people might put it at #1 but we are a little biased).
#2. Arches are absurdly expensive to rent. Sigh...no arch.
#3. A plumeria bouqet. I admit it now. I was the fool who tried who even advised her against it. Plumerias are gorgeous but the most fragile flower ever. I've seen tons of weddings with plumerias as the accent flower but never as the primary bouquet, because they wilt so quickly and drastically. Rachel had an exquisite bouqet of plumerias nestled in baby's breath. It took some extra caution in preserving it the night before but it was breath-taking. It was handmade (well, I guess all bouquets are handmade huh) by Pauline of Weddings By Pauline. If you are interested, contact us for details on how to purchase.
I think you can learn so much from a couple by watching their emotions play across their faces. They were joined only by Rachel's parents, Richard and Ramonda, with the rest of their family and friends at home unable to make the long trip to Hawaii. And even though it was a Wednesday afternoon, the beach was shockingly busy, with tons of beachgoers planted on the sand, canoes (a fave local sport) sliding across the water in the background...yes, even a canoe with six young boys flipping in the water right behind the couple during the ceremony. Rachel and Joel were sharing their vows all while the boys could be seen in the distance bailing water out of their canoe. But Joel and Rachel only had eyes for each other and they couldn't even wipe the smiles off their face. It was heartwarming to watch, and their love and joy was so obvious. Their unintentional wedding guests, the fellow beachgoers, all watched intently and shouted out "Congratulations" to the newly married couple.
I would also like to say CONGRATULATIONS!!! As my husband likes to say "Marriage is wonderful, I highly recommend it to anyone." And come back to Hawaii soon!!!
The local canoe club unwittingly became wedding guests...
Not your typical church aisle...and the bride's procession was heralded by young beach-goers
Joel had this giddy smile he couldn't shake...even when I was trying to get him to take a serious pic. =)
Look for that smile again.
Plumeria bouquet from Weddings By Pauline.
To view these images and more from Rachel and Joel's special day, please visit www.keaosphotography.instaproofs.com and enjoy.
Hello folks. I'm back. I can't believe it but tonight is the last night on my midnight shift. I'm actually switching next week to regular business hours at work and thus the concept of ....SLEEPING AT NIGHT. Whoa...shocking. I'm super excited and super nervous because I have a big wedding in less than two days. So I took some time to finish up the session for baby Gabriel's newborn session.
Who: John Victor Gabriel
Proud parents: John and Whitni
Birth Stats: 6.13 oz and 18 inches long on a blistery Hawaiian Thursday (maybe not blistery) in April
Lifetime Achievements: MORE hair than most grown men
Session Age: (7 days old)
I recruited friend, Abby, to take me to photograph Gabriel's newborn session on-location at his home on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. We were greeted by sweet smiling, but slightly tired mommy "Whitni." It seems that little Gabriel loves eating and did so for hours and hours the night before. She said he just fell asleep an hour or so earlier. She fed him a little more and than brought him down. I hadn't had a chance to see him (only through cell phone pictures) because of my persistent cold, but he was even cuter than the pictures. Thick silky dark hair and his mom's nose. He seemed to be awake but didn't want to open his eyes, instead he just yawned and smiled as if he was telling himself non-stop knock-knock jokes.
We were joined by our other friend (man this house is social and busy for 8 in the morning), Stacy, who lived nearby and just walked over. She's majoring in photography so she brought her film SLR. We only managed to get through half the poses because when we started to reposition him, little Gabriel decided he was ready for meal number 7 of the day. He started knawing on the blanket and chewing away with his little adorable gums. "Um...Whitni...I think he might be hungry again."
Here's my faves from the day. I hope they captured how sweet and easy-going he is. He already shows such a sunny disposition and smiles away the day. (BTW, check out the new logo)
*(the second is one of my favorites. Look at him chomping on his fingers!!!)
(this one was all John and Whitni's idea...pretty creative on such little sleep)
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