Another fabulous Magic Island wedding! I had such a good time with Gracie and Ken who traveled from Chicago to elope in paradise! They were so easy to work with and they looked fantastic! I was especially enamored by the golden floral pattern on Gracie’s dress and the stitching detail in Ken’s suit. After the ceremony and a few shots around the park, we headed to The Modern, the hotel where they were staying, to take some portraits around the pools. As you’ll see in the images below, this hotel was true to its name and had some really cool decor. My favorite design element was the planters hanging on the walls! So fun!
Sophie and Jesse are from the San Francisco area, but they decided to elope here in Honolulu. The ceremony was just the two of them, the reverend, and myself; so intimate! We started the morning at Magic Island Park, and it was a beautiful, warm day. Jesse had a ‘Mad Men’ type of vibe going on and looked very sharp in his black suit. The light blue in his striped tie was a perfect complement to the majestic skies and ocean! Sophie looked fantastic herself and had the most amazing dress which was custom dyed and fitted. It was designed by one of her friends, and was created with yards and yards and yards of silk! It flowed so beautifully.
Jesse and Sophie are urban people, so instead of your typical Hawaiian beach pictures they wanted to do something unique and different in the city. After the ceremony and park shots, we went downtown to explore Chinatown. Fun, right?! For me, the experience was a funny mixture of feeling like I was on a date with them and at the same time like a paparazza, but it gave me the most creative photo opportunities! I absolutely loved it! As an added bonus, they both have worked at farmer’s markets and have an incredible knowledge of some of the more obscure fruits and vegetables, so I got to learn about some of the vendors’ offerings. Chinatown was awesome, but we didn’t stop there! We followed up that outing with a trip to the Shimazu Store, a hole-in-the wall shave ice shop! The vibrancy of the syrups was also a treat to shoot (pun intended :). Check out some of my favorite shots below:
Congratulations again, Sophie and Jesse, and thanks for such a fun and creative shoot!
I hung out with Will Smith from Philadelphia yesterday! ;) This ‘Fresh Prince’ brought his beautiful bride, Schanaee, all the way to Waianae Beach Park to get married. We were worried about rain at first, but it ended up being a beautiful, overcast afternoon! I just loved how the entire wedding party dressed in all white. This allowed red, the bride’s favorite color, to really pop with the beautiful chair bows, leis, and flowers. Congratulations Schanaee and William!
It’s so funny how life works out sometimes! The day before the wedding of Madelyn and Randy (my previous post), my parents and sister, Lexi, were in town and we went to watch the sunset at China Walls. It was beautiful as usual with the waves crashing, people rock jumping, and boats gliding by. What we didn’t expect to see, however, was a wedding there on the rocks! Naturally, Lexi and I, being wedding photographers, were intrigued and snapped some shots as the wedding was starting up. We quickly realized that the couple had no photographer for the wedding! There was just someone taking cell phone shots! We were shocked so we decided that we should offer to take some portraits after the ceremony concluded. After the big kiss, we went over and introduced ourselves and met the sweet and shy couple, Octavia and Greg. They thought portraits would be great so we started snapping! It felt so good to do a random act of kindness, plus it was a great warm-up for the following day! :) Here are a few of my favorites:
My oh my, what a fantastic celebration! It was a picture perfect Hawaiian day for this impeccably styled Hawaiian wedding! All of the festive details came together to epitomize the aloha spirit including the kalua pig, lush leis, Tahitian dancing, and the perfectly-timed rainbow at the end of the ceremony! Madelyn was flawless in her Galina gown and Randy was quite polished and dapper himself. So much love was in the air and it was very apparent that all of the attendees had a fabulous time. Thanks again Madelyn and Randy!
I was beyond blessed to have my sister in town visiting the weekend of this wedding, because we got to tag team the shoot! She is the incredible talent behind Lexi Moody Photography based in Phoenix, AZ. It was such a treat to shoot with her, because I admire her work so much and we had never worked together before. She was a HUGE help, and taught me some new tricks! Thanks so much, Lex, you’re the BEST! Below are some shots she took of the evening’s dancing festivities…
Per the recommendation of a friend, I checked out Koko Crater Botanical Garden this weekend. It’s quite large with 200 acres of a desert-type of landscape. The land isn’t fully developed, but I still loved walking the paths and discovering new plants I’d never seen before. If you’re ever on the east side of the island, you should definitely check it out, especially because it’s free! Here are a couple of my favorite shots from the day:
The plant shown in black and white below looked like it was just a weed, but I thought the little pods were so cool.
They reminded me of Trivial Pursuit game pieces. :)
Baby K is five and a half months old now, and is such a little charmer! He has the best smiles and giggles. It’s so fun seeing him grow up! Just try and tell me he’s not the cutest…
raspberries from Dad
Puppy really wants to lay some kisses on baby boy :]
Last week Bonnie and DA (as in dee-ay, not dah :) had their 5th year wedding anniversary! To commemorate the occasion, we started the shoot at Leonard’s, the famous malasada bakery here in Honolulu. (For those of you who are unfamiliar with malasadas, they are Portuguese donuts without holes in the middle.) Anyway, the reasoning for having the shoot at Leonard’s was because Bonnie and DA had malasadas for their “wedding cake” five years ago. Cute, right?!
After Leonard’s we went downtown to find some greenery.
Meet Noa, the shy, sweet, and adventurous cutie-patootie that I got to hang out with on Sunday morning. We romped around Moanalua Valley Neighborhood Park finding millipedes, counting magic rocks, and preparing swords (sticks) in case we ran into bad guys. :)
I love this tender one of Noa and his mom.
We had some laughs when he tried to balance a rock on his head.
I had a great time shooting portraits of Marcella and James last week. Such a sweet couple. I had to do a double take when I met James. I couldn’t put my finger on it at first, but then I realized he looks just like Zac Brown, the country singer! Am I right?!
I thought it was sweet that Marcella wore this beautiful necklace carved out of black shell that James gave her as a gift.
The iridescence and details were quite incredible.