Yes, I have slaid the mummy....by making that face...

Keziah and Nathan
March 12, 2005

I remember waking on up on the morning of March 12th to extremely gloomy weather. I live on the windward side of Oahu, near the bottom of the Ko'olau mountain range, and the cloud cover was so thick, I couldn't see the mountain. I literally prayed for great weather, but when I opened my eyes, the coulds were still there. In fact, it started to rain cats and dogs! Keziah's wedding was about eight hours away and I hoped, by the start of her wedding, I was hoping the best for at minimum, an overcast wedding without the rain.

The day before, the weather reports had all said that we should expect thunderstorms, but I refused to believe them. After all, they were never right in the past, why would today be exception.

Hours rolled by and the weather got worse and worse. I called up my minister, Mark, and asked him how the weather look on his side. He replied, "Not too good Steve. In fact, it's starting to pour."

I called Nathan, to see if he wanted to move his wedding to the 13th. Keziah's then fiance and optimistically, he said, "If it rains, hey, we'll get married in the rain. It'll be fine." I shrugged my shoulders and called my crew and told them everything was on.

But as time rolled by, the clouds began to push eastward, leaving nothing but clear blue skies behind. It was a complete miracle. God had cleared the skies for their wedding day. By the time their wedding had rolled around, there were blue skies from horizon to horizon.

Coordinating Keziah's and Nathan's wedding was a lot of fun. They didn't want to see each other before the wedding so I had to get Keziah's bridesmaid and her two groomsmen, to block Nathan's view as she made her way onto the beach. Everything, of course, turned out just perfect. And their pictures...wow. God literally gave me the bluest sky to work with.

Keziah and Nathan are really happy go lucky people; always laughing always optimistic. When met them at their hotel the next day to drop off their photos, they were sprawled out on the couch of the hotel lobby, laughing, with their head buried in the armrest.

"Steve, you have to check this out!" Keziah said. "These old Japanese men came by wearing nothing but thongs and were practicing their golf swing here in the lobby. I got some video and I got some pictures!" And lo and behold, they did. We all cracked up laughing. We all really hit it off well. They invited me to join them for drinks, but unfortunately, I couldn't go because I had a pervious engagement. So...I told them that I would call when I would head to Arizona in the next month or so.

Keziah and Nathan told me they would send me their journal of their experience. I'll post everything on this page once they get it to me.

---------------And here is their journal! ----------------------------------

ABOUT KEZIAH
I'm a true AZ girl, born and raised. My dad raised my brother and I and gave us the values we would raise our children with . My mom taught me to always be myself and to live life to it's fullest.

ABOUT NATHAN

Nathan was raised by his wonderful Mom, and she taught him compassion for others, how to love and to be loved. He is the type of person that will always be there for you even if you move half way around the world.

HOW WE MET
Nathan and I met each other through Estee Vozza. Nathan and Estee have known each other since 7th grade. I met Estee when I worked with her at The Little Gym. Nathan and I were friends for a long time. I hooked Estee and Brian (now her husband) up on a blind date, and 2 years later they decided to get married in Vegas. Nathan and I were both in the wedding party. Well after a night on the town in Vegas.... Nathan kissed me... I have to admit I was caught off guard... But hey it's Vegas, and man was he cute! We hung out the rest of the weekend and he even went shopping with me (for shoes of course). When our weekend was over we didn't know what would happen when we got back to Phoenix. As Lady Luck would have it... I forgot my new shoes in Vegas when I left, and Nathan (My Prince Charming) brought them home to me, and we have been together ever since....

WHEN WE GOT ENGAGED January 20, 2004

HOW IT HAPPENED
It was a day that I will never forget! Nathan and I decided to go to Segovia, Spain. We had been wanting to go here even before I left to Spain. When we arrived at the Castle in Segovia I got the most wonderful surprise of my life. Nathan asked me to MARRY HIM!!! I was more than surprised because I thought it would still be another year or so until he would ask me. I thought at first that he was kidding and I still didn't believe him until I saw the ring, and then I was in shock and couldn't say a word. Of course I said YES but it took me a minute to speak again. :O) He was going to ask me at the top of the castle but it was closed that day. Go figure, we went on a Tuesday and the top is closed only on Tuesdays. It must be the Garrett Good Luck. After a lot of kissing and hugging we did go inside the castle and it was just as beautiful as always. (I've been there 3 times now, but this time was SPECIAL) We walked around the rest of Segovia and bought some wine specially from that area of Spain for our wedding day.

A TRUE ELOPING CEREMONY!
March 4, 2005

It was a funny thing when I was booked April's wedding because I actually thought I had booked a gladiator. I mean, come on, with a name like "April Justice" what can you expect right? All kidding aside, April was one the sweetest brides out there and her now husband, Jason Sphar, was extraordinarily cool. They both were from Dallas, so I asked them if they were Cowboy fans. They confessed that they were more Dallas Maverick fans. In fact, they saw a Maverick game at the bar playing on the way to their wedding and they were tempted to stop to watch it!
April and Jason tied the knot at the Secret Cove at Ko'Olina. The waves that day were rather large and made for a few interesting backdrops. They actually eloped, running away to Oahu to tie the knot and myself and my videographer were the witness. I always enjoy simple weddings. Couples are a lot more relaxed, a lot more...because, to be honest, they don’t have to deal with relatives who try to double as creative consultants slash wedding planners.

I chuckled back that I only knew of one place that could possibly fit her criteria, and that would be Kualoa Beach Park. I told her that I had never done a wedding there and would welcome the opportunity. I knew the park rather well, after all, the park was only 10 minutes from my house, and I fished there on a regular base...we'll, when I had the time to fish. The only thing that I told her would be risky, would be the weather factor. The reason why I had resisted on doing many weddings here is that I would rarely find a "great" day there, and the risk of rain would be rather high on the windward side of Oahu. Jeannie, didn't care...she wanted to go for it. I told her I was game.

So her wedding day flew around rather quickly, and Jeannie had a great weather day thank god! The service was completely awesome as well. I believe Jeannie and Matt had known each other for eight years. They also lived together for eight years...and they were both happy to finally tie the knot. Elias, one my ministers, performed a great Hawaiian chant during the lei ceremony for the father who was Matt's bestman.

The challenging part to the entire Kualoa Beach Park experience was that the beach there wasn't that nice. I guess a few weeks earlier storm surf had washed up seaweed, that literally made it look like there were a million turds on the beach. To combat this problem, I positioned Jeannie and Matt's ceremony on the hill overlooking the water and shot all of my photos and video from a low angle, thus using the hill to block out their view of the sand. Getting low with the camera, limits your ground horizon, and you can hid a lot of imperfections in the ground with this technique!

For the pictures on the beach, I literally picked up the seaweed and tossed it in the water to clear a nice spot for us. We also got a great mountain shots of the Ko'olau mountain range for Jeannie. There was a slight sea mist or haze in the mountains when I took these shots. A lot of photographers use a polarizer or different filters to get rid of this haze. To me though, the haze adds character to the mountain and makes the foreground pop more.

Now here's the kicker to this entire experience. During their reception, they noticed that I wore Van's shoes and somehow we got onto the subject of mountain biking. It just so happened that Jeannie and Matt, and her maid of honor, Olivia, and Oliva's boyfriend, Peter were all hardcore mountain bikers. In fact, Olivia and Peter had flown their bikes down to hit a few trails. We really hit it off from there and I immediately invited everyone to come biking with me. Jeannie and Matt though didnt come. Apparently Jeannie didn’t want to take her husband on the trail called "The Widowmaker." Olivia "Livy" and Peter though came along.

Livy and Peter joined my friends with me on two trails: The Widowmaker and Cambodia. We hit speeds on our mountain bike that literally made my heart stop. I have to say though, these two trail rides were the best that I've been on because of the company. Livy and Peter by far, were some of the best mountain biking buddies I had ever encountered. Their personalities, mixed together with my friends we were very much so like one big happy bike family. In fact, we plan to tour Europe together next year, and to hit them up in Altanta an North Carolina, for a great ride.

See, this is why I love my job. I love meeting new people!

Jeannie and Matt will be writing to me hopefully soon to fill everyone in on their adventure in Oahu. Matt, by the way, lost his wedding ring while snorkeling on Maui! Jeannie joked with me "That's why I bought him a cheap ring!" And every picture that featured Matt's ring she would jokingly heckle "Hey, there's the ring you lost."

Me, (Steve Young), and my Mom (Torsie Young), who was a former coordinator.