April 22, 2006
Kawela Bay - North Shore Hawaii

So this is the guy who I was talking about. The guy who actually had a shot to play in the NFL but blew out his knee and then became a regular joe like me. His name, Mike Marcs, and that's his beautiful wife Donna. Mike and Donna are a great couple and share a very unique chemistry together, even though by first glance they are complete opposites. Mike is pretty tall, she's a head shorter than him. But together, they compliment each other very very well.

Just as a side note. After marrying over 300 wedding couples in the last couple of years, I have developed a "sixth sense" or a "marriage barometer" to put it bluntly. Yes, I think I can actually tell if a couple will stay together forever, or...if I will see one of them again. Mike and Donna, I'm happy to say...will stay together. If they can keep laughing together, for the rest of their lives, hey...that's 99% of the picture right there. I believe the bible describes what love is the best when it says "love is blind, love keeps no record of wrongs..etc..etc.." basically its saying that love is commitment, not an emotion. And while you may experience the emotions of happiness, sorrow, and sometimes anger throughout a relationsihp, emotions will always come and go. Love should never come and go.

Now you're probably wondering, have I ever married a client, more than once. Yes I have, in fact, I married a client 4 times in the past three years. You know who you are, Mr...so and so. Stay married, don't call me if you need us again, we're not accepting anymore business from you beacuse you need to stay married this time! Regarding Mike and Donna, I don't think I'll ever see them again, as a client, and of course, that's a very good thing.

The abandoned building shot...

I really do enjoy my job as the wedding guy, but whenever I always get to talk a little about football on the job, it's always a little added bonus to me. But the really cool thing about Mike is that he actually bought me an authentic Donovan Mcnabb Jersey! Which I do wear around often, especially on Sundays.

I really like this shot...

Now Mike and Donna tied the knot at Kawela Bay, or as I like to call it, The Secret Cove at Turtle Bay. There are a lot of photographic opportunities there. Unfortunately, this summer, we had a huge summer swell, and guess what..the beach that was once about 20 to 30 yards in width shrunk to about 3 feet in width!!! Yes, it's practically gone. So since then we have moved all of our beach weddings on the North Shore either up to Sunset Beach or this beach that's just a skip and hop over from Kawela. I actually think it's still considered Kawela Beach. The pictures are still just as cool. And usually, if the couple wants, we hop over back to Kawela to shoot some shots next to the abandoned building and those banyon trees. Kawela Beach by the way has gotten approval to be developed. So it will no longer look like it once was. I'm all for a strong economy, but some things I think they should leave alone.

Well, I'm off to bed!!!

THE EAGLES LOST TO THE SAINTS BY THREE POINTS!!! and oh yeah, we had a 6.6 Earthquake.

Well, let me first start out by saying that everything is a.o.k. here on Oahu. I'm not sure about the Big Island. But everything here on Oahu is great. The power is back on, my phone is back on, and most importantly, my air conditioning is back on!

ALL UPCOMING WEDDINGS FOR THIS WEEK ARE A GO!!! There is no need to cancel your flights. Oahu has not become another Katrina. Although, six more hours without electricity, I did start feeling the bug to grab me a plasma from walmart...just kidding there. But again, all joking aside, everything can proceed as normal.

a landslide triggered by the earthquake. Found this on the net....but it's
not bad here on Oahu at all. I expect things to be back to normal tomorrow.

SO WHAT WAS I DOING DURING THE EARTHQUAKE? We'll, while the rest of the residents of Hawaii were panicing to buy generators, water, gas, and food for the day. I really didn't have to worry about any of that. When the power went out, I quickly hooked up my generator to my DirecTV Satellite Dish and LCD TV, so I was able to watch my Eagles lose. I had enough food for the entire day, enough ice, and gas...since well, I was prepared for the football game, not the earthquake. But let me just say this. Apparently, being a diehard football fan helped today as I was the only one in the neighborhood who could operate life...normally..... Trust me when I say this. If judgement day lands on a football sunday, it will be the tailgaters who will come to the rescue!!!

The worse thing about today was watching my Eagles lose by a touchdown. The Saints are not that great of a football team. We just played horrible.