So this is the double life that I lead. I am a wedding planner by day, a die hard football fan at night. I try not to plan any weddings on weekends during the football season, for obvious reasons, but since investing into my trusty high-definition Directv DVR, I've been a lot more flexible. My only rule I tell my wedding couples is that if your wedding falls on game day "DON'T TELL ME ANY COLLEGE OF NFL FOOTBALL SCORES!!"

Or I swear I'll...... Just kidding....

Now September 8th had to be one of the most exhausting days of my wedding slash arm chair quarterbacking career. I had three weddings on this day, not to mention, a University of Hawaii football game to root for when I got back home. So I know what you're telling yourself. "Steve, three weddings...how in the hell do you pull that off? Isn't that triple the stress?"

The answer is, "No, it really isn't." See, all of my weddings are on the smaller side. And if I can puff out my chest a little, I'm just that good. haha.

So here's the really strange thing. All three of my wedding couples had something very similar in hand. First off, all three groomsmen, were in the military. One was in the army, another the marines, and the last, the navy. They all served honorably and bravely in Iraq, and they all had beautiful brides. Hey what hero doesn't deserve a babe on his arm right?

Dolly and Roy
Ko'olina Beach: Lanikuhonua
September 8, 2007 9:00am

My day started out with a very small wedding with Dolly and Roy. Roy was on a short two week vacation from his tour in Iraq, and elected to get married here on Oahu. I thought that was pretty cool. My first couple of the day booked the patriot package from me, which consisted of 24 pictures shot on consumer grade film, and a minister. Although the package was small, Dolly still invited a lot of her friends and family to her wedding. I think in total, we had about 15 people at the beach altogether!!!

The wedding, of course, went very smoothly. Dolly and Roy were relaxed, and ready to get married. Because the package was rather small, time flew by fast. They were married, pictures done, within the hour. For those wondering what consumer grade film looks like compare to pro film, well, the difference can be quite different. This show below is shot on consumer grade film.

Sheena and Derrick
Hitachi Park
September 8, 2007 11:30am

After Dolly and Roy's wedding, I walked back to my car to catch a few minutes of shut-eye. I had trained a little at boxing the previous night, and I was just exhausted. I then drove down to Sand Island Beach park to meet Sheena and Derrick to take a few beach photos, before heading to Hitachi Park for their wedding.

I really never took any shots at Sand Island Beach park for wedding photos and I truly don't recommend going their for a wedding. But it was basically the closest place we could think of where I could get an ocean setting similar to Lanikai. Here are some cool shots, but don't think much of it. I'm shooting towards the ocean, not to the left or right. To the right there's an abandoned baseball field, to the left, barges and a run down playground. This background is great for fashion modeling shots, not so great for a place to get married.

Now if you think Sheena and Derrick are young, you're correct. Yes, they are very young. I believe both are hovering right around their early 20's. Is it too young to get married? To me, personally, I say no...not at all. I just wish more young couples would exercise their maturity. In our days, where Paris Hilton is the role model to many younger kids, younger kids just want to have fun and no relationship. They are not thinking about marriage, or raising a family. They are just getting together because that's what cool people do. Well, to me, Sheena and Derrick, are extremely cool because they are just "that much" more mature than the rest of their generation.

So after our quick fifteen minute picture taking extravaganza at Sand Island, we jetted off to Hitachi Gardens; also a first for me and my minister. Hitachi Garden or called "Moanaloa Gardens" is a private park that is own by the Hitachi Corporation. (I believe...not sure) Yes, it's same guys who make all those air conditioners, cameras, LCD's, you name it, this is their park. This park was made famous because Hitachi used these large monkey pod trees for their logo at one time. The park is very nice, but sucks at the same time.

Why is it nice? Well, because it's beautiful, very photogenic, quiet, and a great park to have a romantic picnic in. What does it suck? Because the place basically operates like something out of Red China. There are places where you can't go to take photos, you have to check in to have your wedding there, you can't set up chairs, arches. Hmm.. You can't bring in soda, water, coolers, or any barbequeing supplies. But more so, you cannot play any type of physical sports on this beautiful grass. You can toss around the football, but if you start being a little more serious, they'll stop you and take away your football. Hence forth, that's why this place sucks.....

But for weddings, especially, this park rocked. We had a sweet ceremony for Sheena and Derrick. Her father gave her away. They didn't have customized vows, and just opted to repeat the sweet words that were repeated for years past.

Stacey and Bryan
Ko'olina Beach: Lanikuhonua
September 8, 2007 4:00pm

So the day went on. I had a nice two hour break before my next wedding so I pulled into Safeway to grab something to eat. I flipped on the TV in my truck to watch a few Mike Tyson DVD's and fell asleep for a couple of hours. Even though the first two weddings were easy, my body was still recovering for the previous night's boxing workout. More so, my next wedding included reception coverage till around 10 or 11pm, so I was looking at at least seven more hours of work.

As I closed my eyes, I basically reflected back on all my previous weddings of the day. One by one, they got progressively harder. And even I had to keep myself creatively in check, to make sure I didn't screw up for any of these weddings. What do I mean by screwing up? Well, it could be anything from not shutting the camera back on my camera completely shut, making all of my film useless. It could be something simple as not loading any film into the camera. Little mistakes would be huge mistakes. For small weddings, paying attention was easy. But three weddings in a day, capped off with reception coverage. No mistakes could be made.

I woke up, and dragged myself to my next wedding. Lets be honest. I really wasn't looking forward to shooting Stacey and Bryan's wedding. I was just beat. But then as I turned the corner into Ko'olina Cove, I saw a similar face. See, I had met Bryan and Stacey before their wedding since they lived on the island and they were a very cool couple. Bryan was very much laid back, and you could tell he loved Stacey tremendously. But he was also very cool to talk to as well. And being a special forces Iraq veteran, he has a lot of cool stories to tell me as well. So I turn the corner, and I see Bryan dressed up his Navy Whites, decorated with all of his medals, purple hearts, you name it and I tell myself. Thank God, for my last wedding, I have the cool couple.

So some pretty cool things happened at this wedding. When I arrived at their wedding, to my surprise, there was an archway, chairs, the full aisle setup. We performed the entire wedding there, Bryan and Stacey opting for a spiritual wedding rather than a Christian one. Which is 100% a.o.k. in my book. After the wedding, Bryan tells me, "Man, this is a nice setup you got here for our wedding, thanks."

I turn to him and say, "My setup? I thought this was yours?"

It turns out that it was the setup from a previous wedding. Bryan and Stacey just lucked out.

The reception went well. It was really cool because it was filled with special forces people, almost all had a war story. All heroes there. What was really cool too was that their DJ was a Philadelphia Eagles fan! And Bryan's neighbor, whose an actor for Lost, I think his name is Frederic something...but anyway, he sat next to me and we had a great conversation about Hollywood. Taking pictures at receptions are rather easy. You just have to be in the right place at the right time. You really can't take that creative pictures since there is not much lighting to play with. You just have to make sure that you have to be there, when something happens. Usually, it's the photographer who directs what goes on at a reception, if he's good. The table captian will come to the photographer when it's time to cut the cake, toast, do the garder belt thing. The photographer basically runs the show...because nothing can go on until the photographer is ready to shoot. Some DJ's try to take control of the show by making the entire party particpate in silly games. But that's just what they are...silly and cheesy.

Now, usually for a reception, it's all about roasting. For those of you who don't know what roasting is, basically, it's embarassing those on stage when they can't do anything. So you have a bridal party who the MC can roast. Usually you have a bestman and a maid of honor who will tell the story of how the couple met, and then...they roast them with embarrassing stories. Fathers come up to do the toast, to roast his son or his daughter. It goes on and on. Receptions are all about embarrassing moments coming out to the forefront.

But Stacey and Bryan really didn't have any of this. There were no bestmen or bridesmaids, no mc. Bryan actually said that he was going to MC his own wedding, and he was rather nervous. So I helped him through a bit...telling him the jist of what to talk about. But he had a page full of notes, and really great personality. So once Bryan started talking about how they met, how they fell in love, everything just fell into place. The coolest part of the love story. Well, before he set out on his mission in Iraq, he wrote a love letter to Stacey confessing his love to her. It was one of those "emergency letter" that he would carry with him throughout all of his missions just in case something unfortunate happened. Well, something did happen to him, luckily, though Bryan was okay. But when he came back to America to see Stacey, he finally took out that letter that he carried around, blood stained and everything, and read it to her. He then proposed to her, and of course, she said yes. Till this day, Stacey carries around that letter.

Isn't that awesome?

AND FINALLY...THE FOOTBALL

Bryan and Stacey's wedding ended at around 10pm, which allowed me to get him in time to see the Hawaii/Lousinana Tech game. During the wedding, I overheard a couple of guys talking about how Hawaii just wasn't playing great, and that we were losing. I didn't want to hear it, because I was going to watch the delay with my dad back at home. So I get home, tired from my day of three weddings. And lets be honest here, I'm not looking forward to watching Hawaii lose.

Hawaii did play horrible in the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd quarter. I think we were down 14 points going into the 4th quarter. Then suddenly, Hawaii comes back! We take the game into overtime...and we win! Amazing....just amazing.

And by now, you know the entire story. We're in the BCS Sugar Bowl now.