So for those of you who have the wonderful opportunity of flying in ATA airlines, and checked out their magazine, you probably noticed that I was interviewed for their inflight magazine! Here's how it looked:

I believe I was interviewed for this article around March or April of this year. And although 99.9% of my weddings, as you can see, are beach weddings, the author still wanted to more information on resort and private estate weddings. So I gave my honest advice in this article on which resorts and private estates were a great pick, even though I rarely used them myself for weddings. Most destination weddings are small, sometime just the couple, there is no need to book a resort or a private estate. The other funny thing is that they didn't use my other recommendation for a private estate, which is the Bayer Estate (http://www.bayerestate.com) so here's my little plug for them.

Other things they didn't put in here. Hmm...me ranting on how other vendors can be rather dishonest when advertising on the internet, conveyor belt weddings, how the HVCB (Hawaii Visitors Convention Bureau) supports companies on their websites that are not registered businesses in Hawaii and virtually pays no state tax on their revenues because they, the illegitmate wedding companies, legally don't exist. They are cash only businesses.... I was trying to spill the beans on the corrupt wedding industy that exist not only in Hawaii, but throughout the world, but I guess their magazine isn't really made for hard hitting news...

But other than hard hitting wedding news, I had a lot of other great advice on how to pack your wedding dress, how to get your marriage license, what makes a great videographer, photographer, sunset weddings, you name it. But they really didn't put that in there either. The author though was very interested in what I had to say. Don't worry though, I promise, by the end of this week, my new articles section will be done, all of what I spilled to this author, I will spill to you.

Notes on the author though. She was really great. Great personality, listener, great writer. If it sounds as though I'm trying to bad mouth her, I'm not. She did a great job, great article, and wrote a really perfect piece for an inflight magazine. I know, given the opportunity, say if she'd work for a big newspaper, she would have jumped at the opportunity to use the information I spilled to her. In this case, great author, wrong magazine.

Lastly, an update on my health. I went to the doctors on Saturday and they said that I don't have the flu, just a common chest cold. Great news, but it will take 10 to 14 days to get better! D'oh!

So I'm feeling a bit better, but guess what. I OFFICIALLY LOST MY VOICE TODAY! So that means I won't be answering the phone on monday, so try emailing me if you really need to get ahold of me. But my cough has subsided, and I'm not hallucinating anymore. I have a few more days to get healthy for my wedding this week. Wish me luck. And also, to those who have been emailing me your home remedies to get well...thanks! I'm trying them!

Labels: Hawaii Weddings

Hey there everyone. Sorry, but I'm down with the flu. I got sick on Tuesday right after one of my weddings, and I'm slowly getting better. This is my 3rd day down with this cold! I've been coughing a lot, spewing up that oh so great phlem. I'm hoping I'll be ready to go by the 1st, as I have a wedding on that day.

But in the meantime, it may be best to contact me via email than phone for the next couple of days. I''m just low on energy, and this slight fever has me hallucinating! This morning I thought I was a optimus prime from the Transformers, I was half awake and half dreaming.

If anyone has any rememdies...do tell me as well!

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 :)