Rebecka and Jared, young and in love

KAKA'AKO PARK
...love on the grassy knoll...March

I can't remember the last time I did a wedding at Kaka'ako, but I do remember what happened. There were TONS OF HOMELESS PEOPLE. We're talking tons! I remember sitting there in my truck, waiting for my wedding couple, and looking that grassy knolls which litter Kaka'ako. I saw these large rectangular objects littered on each hill and I thought to myself, "Man, they must have some type of art deco thing going on..." My wedding couple arrives, and we take a few steps into Kaka'ako and realize that the art deco display, isn't anything artsy whatsoever...it's homeless people, drying out their clothes on the hills of Kaka'ako!

They were there in herds because the new first class homeless shelter opened next to the park. And I'm not joking when I said first class. You can peer into this huge aircraft hanger from one of the hills and see the hanger's interior littered with high end cubicles. Then, on one end, there are plasma TV's, couches, and tons of computers that are hooked up with the Internet. There is also a place for kids to play, a place to work out. And hey, guess what, this entire homeless community is a close gated, with security guards!

Lucky for Rebecka and Jared, there were no homeless people. Apparently, the shelter got some washers installed, or else the result would have been the same with my last couple.

Flying in to make it official

So onto the wedding. Rebecka and Jared were introduced awhile ago by friends in Jared's home state, Wisconsin. They stayed together, then Jared, being in the military, got stationed here in Hawaii. He served one tour in Iraq, came back, and Rebecka flew down to marry this superhero.

I want to make a side comment about Jared. This young man is a hero, and it is no surprise why Rebecka would love a man like this. He is a hero's hero, as he is the crew chief for those medical rescue helicopters who swoop in under enemy fire, to save our soldiers lives in the heat of battle. This young man, is not only responsible for giving us the freedom that we all American's enjoy, he has no doubt, contributed to saving the lives of wounded soldiers. Incredible...just incredible.

Jared, like all of our active military, are true heroes and patriots

Jared and Rebecka chose my most affordable package, the patriot package, which includes 24 pictures, and minister. They also bought a few leis, so they could perform a lei exchange. For the photos though, I told Jared it would look better without the feminine purple leis on his uniform.

Those palm trees are actually pretty tall....they look shorter than my couple!!

Kaka'ako park was at once, a popular site for weddings. I still see a few Japanese weddings happening here every now and then, but I don't see them happening very often. I'm not sure why. Maybe everyone wants to get married on the beach these days? A really neat fact about this park is that this place used to be a landfill. They fixed the landfills up, planted grass, and low and behold, they created something very stinky, into something very slick and beautiful.

...I like this shot...

...like this shot too...

Well people, it's about 4:55am in the morning. Man, I better head to bed. I have two weddings this weekend, then one on Monday I believe. So I should have more wedding photos to put up next week.

I think as this blog went on-and-on, I made less sense....time to hit the hay. Or it could just be me getting older.

Oh did I mention I'm turning 32 on March 27th? Yikes, 32...wow, that came up fast.

Steve Young
The Hawaii Wedding Maverick
http://www.dreamweddingshawaii.com/