Hey there everyone. First of all, let me begin by apologizing by not updating this blog more often. It seems that evertime I pop on here, I try to post a recent wedding, but things always just get in the way...mostly more weddings.

So the new news...well, lets see. I'll be putting up some articles that I have been working on. It'll include everything from travel tips to weddings tips. Of course, all of them will be an entertaining read. Not boring pieces of literature that you can throw away. As you can probably imagine, 7-7-07 was a busy day for the wedding indsutry! 8-8-08 is next years busy day, so if you're looking to book it...call me soon! Surprisingly though, it wasn't as busy as I thought it would be. I really was expecting that every beach would be literally peppered with weddings, but it wasn't at all. In fact, it felt like a normal day at the beach. For me, I only booked 3 weddings that day. Some companies took on 8 or 9, but those companies, well they specialize in conveyor belt weddings. I don't.


NOW FOR THE WEDDING UPDATE!
Al And Kaori!!
Willows Restaurant
Okay, now I know what you're saying. Al and Kaori got married at a restaurant. Yes...they did. But it's a very nice restaurant that happens to have a wedding chapel tucked away in the middle of it. For more information on willows you can click here http://www.willowsrestaurant.com/ They did not pay me for that plug by the way.

So how in the world did they end up at Willows? Great question. Well, originally, we had planned on having their wedding at the Secret Cove at Ko'olina. But the decision was made to have a church wedding due to Japanese customs. I really don't do church weddings, so I referred them over to a friend of mine who worked at Watabe Chapel. Now for those of you who don't know, Watabe is the largest wedding company in the world, not just Hawaii. And they own tons of wedding chapels, very nice ones I may add, across the world.

Are outside vendors allowed, such as myself, in these chapels to help with the wedding service? NO, not at all.

I then referred them to another company, who I thought was a friend of mine. I knew he had a few contracts with wedding chapels, and that he could help them out. Well, a few minutes later, I get a call from "my friend" telling me that he booked my photography services on "so-and-so"the same date that Al had been inquiring. I tell him, "no you didn't." And he insist that he did. I asked for their name, and he tells me it's Al and Kaori!!! Of course I know that my so-called friend is lying through his teeth.

Al then calls me and I told him what happened. Then Al explains to me that he only inquired about the location of the property, and that my friend immediately started to upsell other items to him. Al then said that he always wanted to work through me and that he didn't even book anything with my so called friend. He just inquired about a certain property.

Drama in the wedding industry...Well, it just goes to show you. You really have to watch who you call a friend these days.

How do you create depth of field with everything in focus. Make sure you have an obvious vanishing point. In this case it's the chapel!!

So I start looking for the a location that would fit Al's budget. We finally stumble upon Willows. A cute chapel that's photogenic, and perfect for them. Al books the location directly with Willows, and I come in to fill in all the intangibles: minister, flowers, photography, and video. Everything came out perfect.

A little about Al. He's from Minnesota, and Kaori, she's from Japan. Their two families met, I believe, for the first time here in Hawaii! How they met was very cool. Al traveled to Japan to teach Japanese, only planned on staying there for a short while, but he found Kaori, and he's been there for the last 8 years.

We took so many family pictures that day, I thought I had to make a fun one. So this is yes...posed. But it's funny right? The other posed one is on my front page of my website...

For their wedding, we took pictures at a Willows. I included the pictures here as it's a little different than what I usually take (beach weddings) Then after we exhausted all photographic opporunities at Willows, we headed to Magic Island to take some beach shots.
For the family portaits, we shot a few standard pictures, but then we threw in a few fun ones. Yes, these are posed. But given my movie background, I was able to give the familiy enough directions to make them fun "anti-cheesy" and memorable.

It was pretty windy that day. An example of a candid shot. Sometimes you're in the right place at the right time.

Well, people...that's the jist of my latest wedding. See you got to hear it all. The drama that goes on behind the planning, the love story, and the wedding process. As for my so-called friend in the wedding industry. I really never would consider him a friend, but he's an associate. I did find out that that he is a pathological liar. Oh boy, does he talk a big story...I'm not naming names on the internet. But if you ever want to find out who he is and which company he belongs to, you can just give me a call and I can tell you...haha. But I did gain a friend throughout this journey. Al was cool, and we still make it a point to talk every now and then on skype.

Take care everyone...and see you soon!

This was on the front page...now it's here :)