Paxton and Shelley, right at sunset

OH WHAT A FEELING!
The Hawaii Wedding of Paxton and Shelley

Remember back in the day, there were those Toyota commercials that played on the box that ended with a satisfied customer jumping off his feet yelling "Oh what a feeling...Toyota!" Well, I wish they'd still run those jingles, because it would fit Paxton and Shelley, like a glove. See, Paxton and Shelley, currently work at Toyota, and met while working at a car dealership (not sure if was Toyota), and fell in love. Nine years later, they chose the island of Oahu to make everything official, but a wedding guy who owned a Toyota Tacoma. Fate....what can you say....

Rev. Elias making a funny face during their wedding, just kidding.

Paxton and Shelley are an extremely cool couple, and made my job feel as though I was on vacation. They not only got married at Ko'olina, but also stayed at the JW Marriot Hotel, which is just a walk away from where they got married. Paxton and Shelley actually paid Rev. Elias and myself a visit the day, at the cove, the day before they were going to tie the knot, just to say hi. How cool is that! It was rather funny, but the next day, when I met Paxton and Shelley in the lobby of the JW Marriott, I almost walked passed them. Paxton, I swear, had darker hair than I remembered, and I didn't recognize Shelly in that cool looking sleek wedding dress.

Renegade Shot#1:On the grounds of the JW Marriott Ihilani

So there was a little bit of twist to the photo shoot for Shelley and Paxton. Instead of shooting all of their photos at the cove, since they were at the hotel, they elected to snap a few shots there. Now, I don't have permission to shoot at the hotel, and Shelley and Paxton, sure didn't pay any $1000 shooting fee. So, we decided to shoot the shots, renegade style...which just happens to be my favorite style. I quick broke out my camera, and shot off four or five shots, in five minutes. They came out looking extremely nice.

Renegade Shot#2: Kissing without getting caught.
Kinda like kissing behind the bleachers in high-school huh?

Non-renegade shot....

So there wasn't a clear sunset on Paxton and Shelley's wedding day, but you have to do the best with what you have right? Theses are the shots I were able to pull off, and I think the cloudy effect worked well... I actually prefer cloudy sunsets to clear sky sunsets. There are more colors when you have just the right amount of clouds.

This brings back memories for me. I'm going to go off on a tangent here, but I remember a bride I had about a year ago, who was so disgruntled at me because her pictures didn't have blue skies in the background, that she wanted a 100% refund of her pictures. I took a look at the pictures, and thought that although they didn't have blue skies that day, the pictures came out very well. In fact, they came out so well, I had no problem posting them on my website for everyone to view. I didn't blog about that couple since the bride would qualify as a bridezilla, but I dunno.....some brides think I can control the weather. I'm just a simple photographer slash wedding guy peeps....

These high altitude clouds always reminded me of 4x4 tire tracks....

I wrote down in my notebook here that they are both God fearing Christians, and that pretty much stuck with me. You know, it's one thing find a partner-in-crime who you click with, but it's also another thing to find someone who share the same political and religious beliefs with you as well, and I think it's cool.

There's this verse in the Bible that is read over and over at all of my weddings, even if they are civil weddings. It starts off with "Love is patient, love is kind, love does not envy and love does not judge...." You've heard it before. This poetic set of words always gets my couples, and this is when the tears usually start to flow. This verse basically describes what love exactly is. That it is a commitment, not a feeling, not an emotion. Feelings come and go, turn off and on, but love is always there. I've heard the cliche before that starts off with "I have this love hate relationship with.. (fill in the blank). But every time I heard it, I always thought to myself, "Well that cliche is completely wrong, because love is a commitment, hate is an emotion. Love is not the opposite emotion of hate..."

I think it's extraordinarily cool that because Paxton and Shelley are both Christians, and that they understand the biblical definition of love. That makes me confident that they'll be together forever. Oh what a feeling? I think it's more about "Oh what a commitment!"

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