Smile And The World Smiles Back

I love the saying, “Smile and the world smiles back”. I try to practice smiling as often as I can. If a child looks up at me from the grocery cart, I smile and they smile back. If someone needs some help with something, I smile at them before I lend a helping hand. If you are at a luau show in Hawaii, you can tell which hula dancers are the best, they are the ones smiling! That little secret applies to everything. If you enjoy what you are doing, sports, hobbies, cooking, etc., you are going to be good at it. That principle also applies to being photographed at your wedding. Sarah and Steve were such a fun couple. You can just tell from these photos how much fun we were having. Hawaii is a fun place to get married. The people have a great sense of humor and the island culture is laid back. If I had to give only one piece of advice for a couple coming to Hawaii to get married, I would tell you to start smiling right now and never stop!


1500 Weddings Milestone

I am celebrating a milestone this evening. I performed wedding number 1500! It is hard for me to believe that I have prayed the prayers and pronounced 1500 couples man and wife. It was a very special wedding. There were 40 guests at Kumukea Beach at the Four Seasons Hualalai. Almost everyone was from Japan. The pianist who played as the bride walked the aisle is a concert pianist who was flown in from NYC named Eric. He was really cool. Everyone had a white orchid lei on their chair. The arch where we stood was covered in white flowers. Everything was so beautiful. The bride cried and cried. It took her make up artist several minutes to redo her after the ceremony. I am truly grateful to all the couples, hotels, wedding coordinators, photographers/videographers, musicians, banquet servers and other team members with whom I have had the privilege to work. I am especially grateful to God who has allowed me the wonderful honor of standing on the shore as the sun sets over the Pacific Ocean and everyone tears up at the wonder of God’s gift of love and family.


May Day Is Lei Day In Hawai’i Nei

My wife is a kindergartner teacher. Every year her school does the most wonderful May Day Program. This year the program opened with the children singing the doxology in Hawaii. It was so beautiful, I started crying. Each class comes to the front, says a prayer and then performs a song or hula. The last performance was to one of my favorite songs, “You Dance Over Me”. After all the performances each child lines up to put their lei on the cross to honor the King. The entire program overwhelmed me. Every year I am so inspired by the keikis. I wanted to post a few photos because I’ll be inspired by the program for a long time to come.

 


“I do two”

Brian discreetly approached me after I had performed his friend’s wedding and said, “I would like to do a renewal of vows with my wife while we are on the island, but she doesn’t know anything about it”. Without anyone knowing, we set the whole thing up in a matter of minutes. The next evening, Brian and Lynelle were walking hand in hand at Waialea Bay (Puako beach 69). When Lynelle saw me, she looked very dazed and confused. She knew right then that something was going on. Brian dropped to one knee and asked her to marry him again. They had only been married a little more than a year. You don’t have to wait 5 years, 10 years or 20 years to celebrate your love with a special romantic moment!