So I start off this blog by saying, nice guy's finish first. And it's not just in Jay's case, but in all of my groom's cases. They were all nice guys, and they all landed hot looking women. In this love story, Jay, an excellent hockey player, was an extremely nice guy who had girl-friends who wished "that he'd meet a girl who was just as nice as he was." Well, in stepped Taryn, an extremely energetic, extremely nice, and extremely beautiful woman, who just so happened to really like Jay. The rest, as they say...was history....

The moral of the story? It's the nice guy who always gets to go home with the girl, and it's the jerk who gets left alone in the dark.

Taryn did 99.9999% of all the planning for this wedding, like most brides. As some advice to men, this is the way it should be. Let your woman do all of the planning, all you have to do is nod. All you have to do is make sure she doesn't go over budget. Interesting fact here about women and men when it comes to wedding planning. If you ask a man, "How long have you been planning this wedding?" He'll usually answer...hmm...about a year or so. If you ask a woman the same question, she'll answer..."All of my life!"

Now for some advice to women. If you want your man to be creatively involved with picking out your wedding dress, colors, going shopping with you,....I'm sorry, that won't happen. Why? Because your man isn't gay. If you want to marry a gay man, there are plenty of gay men out there still willing to stay in the closet.... All men care about it the bottom line budget, and that you don't plan your wedding on the Superbowl.

FAILED ASPIRATIONS
So Taryn called me about a year ago telling me about her aspirations to tie the knot in Hawaii. Taryn had spent some time researching online for possible locations, and she came up with "Da Pink House." I had heard of this place before, seen pictures on the web, and all I heard were good reviews. I told Taryn I would check out this place for her just to be on the safe side. It's a good thing I paid a visit. "Da Pink House" should have been called "Da Scary House."

Nice in the picture, scary in person!

Kawela Kai Nani Properties, one of the four backyards

Booking the Kawela Kai Nani properties was not cheap, but since her friends and family stayed in some of houses, it help alleviate the price for her somewhat. The plan for Taryn's wedding was rather simple. To use one backyard for the dancing, one for the buffet, and one to dine at. The extra backyard could be used as a setup area for the kitchen. I setup Taryn with Elmer Guzman, a really great chef here in Hawaii, and he handled her catering and tenting for her. From there, all I had to worry about was the usual (Minister, photo/video, flowers).

Everything on Taryn's wedding day came together well and there a couple of reason why this happened. One, she booked with me (ain't I humble). Secondly, Taryn is very organized. Thirdly, she had a friend who really helped put things together, and to make sure Taryn stayed on track.

About 50 to 60 guest showed up for their wedding...

For the ceremony, Rev. Elias performed a civil ceremony with a few Hawaiian traditions thrown in: a lei exchange for the couple, their parents, and a sharing of the breathes, along with a Hawaiian chant. (I have a video of their wedding which you can take a look at in a blog following this post. You can view that blog by clicking here)

The ceremony ran around 15 minutes long, but it didn't seem that long. None of her guest sat, but stood. It's much better for pictures if your guest stand, not to mention, a lot cheaper!

Somebody is going to cry...

Taryn's Parents watching her seal the deal...

Here's an interesting fact about Taryn. She's a South-African born Chinese woman who lives in Canada. Say that ten times fast. Her parents lived in South Africa before, and actually lived through apartheid. Wow.

Jay's Parents watching him seal the deal. Why is Jay's dad holding the bouquet?

and the deal is sealed with a kiss...Everyone claps, except the photographer (me!) I gotta work.

Happily Married!

So I usually don't do big weddings. I'll try to put as easy as I can, but they can be a pain in the a__! But, Taryn's was a walk in the park because they were fun and laid back.

See those stairs, they are actually crooked in real life...that's not a camera trick

Cloudy skies can make for great effect shots

So here's the only bummer throughout the wedding. Unfortunately, storm clouds chased away the blue skies right after the ceremony. The good thing? The storm clouds didn't stay for very long, and all night, Taryn and Jay had clear skies. That's a really good thing since they didn't order any tenting!

This was the closest thing I could get to a sunset

Good view of the dress

I think Taryn's waist is smaller than 10 inches.

I like this shot...looks like a professional took it. Oh wait...I am a professional?

Hmmm.... are you going to eat that poi?

I was really surprised at the food selection that Jay and Taryn picked out. It was completely local, along with poi! So, Taryn and Jay did try the poi, which...they hated. I don't know if poi is an aquired taste. All I know, is that it rocks...and if you don't like it, you can give me ten dollars! Actually, Poi should be treated like rice. You're supposed to eat it with something salty, as it neutralizes the saltiness of Hawaiian food...

another view of the reception

Candid shot of Taryn...I like this one...

A toast!

Will they be nice?

Yeah, they were nice...

Final verdict from Steve "the wedding guy," This wedding was fun. During the ending of the reception, I bascially hung around my DJ friend, and danced behind the DJ booth. This wedding was a lot larger than most of my weddings that I plan. As you know, most of my weddings are small ones that happen on the beach. While I can do large and gala weddings, I tend just pass on those because big weddings come with high maintenance brides. But Taryn was not high-maintenance at all.

Congrats to both Jay and Taryn! May you have many babies...

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

This is Taryn and Jay's Wedding Video!

This is what 3 camera coverage looks like. One camera shoots the couple and the minister, one camera shoots the bride, the other shoots the groom. There are no retakes, or reshoots, with my videos. It's just the ceremony, straight through! I know that may sound boring to some, but it really isn't. My philosophy is that a wedding video should document the wedding ceremony in it's entirety.

Too many wedding video companies have made it a habbit to turn wedding videos into five minute music videos. The result, a nice montage of shots, with most of those shots being setup and fake shots, and very little actual wedding documentation going on. I just have a much different philosohpy when it comes to wedding videos than the wedding companies out there....

Steven Young
The Hawaii Wedding Reporter
http://www.dreamweddingshawaii.com

Hey everyone....Steve here writing from the comfort of my blue truck. I'm in the parking lot at ko olina, resting a little before my MORNING WEDDING here. I have to be honest, i'm really not a morning person. Getting up early sucks...haha. It really doesn't help that I'm a little under the weather as well. Last week I had a headache for about three days, a real bad one. When that got done, my stomach started to feel rather nauseated...is there such a word. And guess what? Now my throat has a hard time swallowing, I have some sort of tonsilitus or something....THIS SUCKS!!

I believe I should be better by the end of this week.

I promise to post more wedding stuff this week.

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

Can you tell it was pouring when this shot was taken?

STORMY WEATHER, PERFECT COUPLE
...Patrick and Nicole...

Patrick and Nicole tied the not on April 19, 2009 at a popular wind surfing spot called "Backyards." It started out as a great day, blue skies, gentle trade winds...everything was perfect...

It was a rather normal day for me. I arrived to the location an hour early to prepare my equipment and to rehearse out some shots for the day. But as I peered out to the horizon, I saw trouble. A HUGE storm front was moving in, fast. Thinking quickly, I ran to my truck just before the floodgates of heaven opened up. IT WAS POURING! Huge pelts of rain, rocked the exterior of my truck.

I checked the radar weather map on my phone, and didn't like what I saw. A huge storm front was moving over me, and it didn't look like it was going to let up anytime soon! I called Patrick to see where he was. He and his fiance were running late, and that wasn't good either, because the rain was probably going to get worse over time.

I offered Patrick an option of getting married the next day, but he told me that probably wouldn't be an option since his relatives were leaving the islands the next day. So, they would get married, rain or shine. When Patrick arrived, I showed him my radar map and described to him how I believe that we would have a break in the rain..and when we did get that break, they should get married. Patrick and Nicole agreed....

So the rain stopped, we all got out, ran to the beach, and performed a quick ceremony. But right when we got to the ring ceremony, the skies opened up again! The happily married couple exchanged rings, kissed, Stan, my minister, pronounced them man and wife, and they were happily married...IN POURING RAIN! THAT HAS NEVER HAPPENED!

NOTE ABOUT FILM: If you take a look at the headlining picture of this article, that picture was taken when the rain poured the hardest. Film, even if you're not shooting with infrared film, has some type of infrared abilities such as cutting through glare, haze, and even rain. If I would have shot that headlining picture with a digital camera, it would have probably been rather white. More so, my digital camera would have died in the rain.

At Ko'olina, the day after their wedding...

I told Patrick and Nicole that since it rained on their wedding day, I would shoot the other half of their role at Ko'olina, so they could get some great blue skies pictures. I did this at no extra charge. This is something I do for all couples if their schedule permits and I'm confident that I couldn't get at least one great picture due to extremely bad weather.

Ko'olina always has great weather...well most of the time...(knock on wood.)

So how did Patrick and Nicole meet? Patrick's best friends girlfriend was Nicole's good friend. Read that ten times over. And they met basically just through going out as friends.

Well peeps, that my wedding for the day. Talk to you all soon! I better get back to video editing!

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

Weather held up for their wedding

A WAIMANALO BEACH WEDDING
...Tim and Elosia make it official....

I don't do many weddings at Waimanalo Beach. It's really not my favorite place as it's usually windy there. BUT... I do favor Waimanalo Beach over Lanikai Beach because it not as crowded, plus...at Waimanalo, there is no snobby rich old woman! Snoobby rich-old woman? Oh yes.... there's one that tries to break up weddings at Lanikai even if you have a permit! BUYER BEWARE. Plus, there's this rich crazy old man who calls himself the mayor of Lanikai Beach who loves to come up to people and name drop the celebrities who he met. Tim and Elosia, had originally decided on tying the knot at Ko'olina, but they fell in love with Waimanalo when they were driving around the island.

Moving locations wasn't a really big deal for me. Ko'olina and Waimanalo are about equal distance from my house, so it really wasn't that much trouble for me.

Photo by Steve...Flower walk way by Tim...

Now I have to be quite blunt here. I believe in my short wedding career of a life, I've planned, shot, videoed, whatever, over 700 weddings in total. Not once, now hear me, not once have I EVER met a groom like Tim who was more concerned over the wedding plans, than the bride. Haha. No, Tim was not a GROOMzilla, he just was very particular in what he wanted. In fact, he was very laid back about everything. He just came very much prepared with his own rose petals to lay, his leis, idea on the ceremony, everything, even his own idea on how Elosia would enter the beach, and not see him.

I let Tim lay down his plan of action, and listened to him, then calmly told him, "Hey Buddy, I got it from here." He nodded, and with a wink and a smile, put his trust in me as he he marched over to Elias and anxiously awaited for Elosia to enter.

Getting Tim's trust was awesome and fairly simple. After that, it was all about logistics. Since Tim's back was facing away from Elosia, I was able to sneak her up to the starting point of his flower isle. Then, on my cue, Elias started his Hawaiian chant, Elosia started walking, and Tim turned around. No problemo.

Getting Anxious?

Tim and Elosia's ceremony was great. You could really tell that this was meant to be. These lovers met back in high school on a school bus. They knew of each other, but didn't really talk to each other back then. Funny...who would have thought. They met again in college, and like they said, the rest was history.

Waimanalo Beach....better than Lanikai...remember that!

A note on the weather at Waiamanalo Beach, it is usually windy, and there was no exception on Tim and Elosia's day. In fact, it was windy, and there were rain clouds moving in. Rain is not the norm for Waimanalo, but wind is. So if you want to get married at Waimanalo beach, make sure you either put a lot of hairspray in the "do", or wear your hair up.

Well Hawaii Wedding aspiring brides, I am outta here. I have a wedding tomorrow. By the way, the weather is HORRIBLE right now. Rain rain rain. I'm just hoping it doesn't keep up like this for tomorrow's couple. Pray for good weather ok?

Steven Young
The Hawaii Wedding Reporter
http://www.dreamweddingshawaii.com/

Just a quick blog.

Hey everyone, sorry I haven't updated my blog with new weddings. I think my last update was on Friday night. I have a handful, maybe five weddings to write about. I've just been rather busy editing wedding video footage and shooting weddings. On Sunday, I had a simple wedding on the North Shore and it ended up storming like you wouldn't believe. The couple bought the patriot package, which includes 24 pictures. Since it was raining, I told the couple I would spend 12 shots for the ceremony and the other 12 we would take the day after at Ko'olina, so they could get some blue sky shots. So I just shot their wedding yesterday afternoon, and yes, we got some blue skies! I'll write more about their wedding this week.

Anyway, I've been up all night burning the oil, trying to get all this stuff done. I'm heading to bed. I'll have my cell if any of you need to get a hold of me. Just wake me up... :) I'll get up. Don't mind if I'm a bit groggy. If I'm comatosed though, I probably won't answer the phone. This wedding guy has been working too hard! Luckily, for my sakes, I don't have a wedding till the 24th!!! You know, I was thinking about writing a bit more about what I do during the course of a day... Some may find it interesting!

Well, I'm outta here everyone. I'll blog more tonight when I'm more coherent

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

After seven years, making it official

WEDDING ON THE ROCKS
...Same location, different place....

Before I begin, let me first tell my past brides: Taryn, Stacey, and Faye, that I will get around to posting your wedding on my blog by next week. It's just that your packages include video editing and I'm just not done with your stuff yet. But I'm close real close! Just need to get all of your slide shows done and then I can post your blogs with video!

So, back to my couple of the minute, Tim and Jill. Funny story. I meet Tim, and pretty much I'm stereotyping this guy from the get go as he looks like that prototypical movie-star war-hero. Well, I got half of it right. He's not a movie-star, but he will eventually be a war-hero because just recently, he enlisted into the Army. Important note, he currently is in the Army reserves. What do I remember about Jill? She had one of those bright sweeping smiles that could light up the room. She's some type of biologist and currently is looking for a great job that would deal with animals.

Anyway, I meet this couple, and Tim is just full of creative ideas. I take him to the cove at Ko'olina where I do most of my weddings, and he throws this wild idea at me and I agree. He wants to do his wedding on the rocks. I turn around to talk to his father, and he jets off with Jill and the minister to pick a location. And I swear, when I mean jet off, he took off. I turn around, and he's gone! I find Tim over the ledge, near the water, next to place that I didn't know existed at Ko'olina!

Yeah, kissing on the rocks...sweet shot huh.

Their ceremony was a Hawaiian Christian ceremony, complete with lei exchange and sharing of the breaths. Elias does a great job at those. But when it came to the ring ceremony Tim said he only had one ring, which was for Jill! We asked him, "Where's your ring?" He told us that he didn't get one. Instead he got a tattoo with Jill's name around his forearm. Apparently, it was a huge ring. Why did he get that? Well, he said that in combat, soldiers are not allowed to wear jewelry, so he got the tattoo instead. That's probably one of the coolest things I've seen at a wedding. So when it came time for the ring exchange, Tim gave Jill the ring, and Jill blessed his "tattoo."

Probably the most unique ring shot out there

Tim and Jill met seven years ago while working together at a gas station. Imagine that. Gas station love. There's a little more to Tim though. Tim, who is athletic as your professional athlete is actually a miracle himself. See, a long time ago he injured his back playing soccer to the point where there was a chance he couldn't walk. Now, with the hard work of doctors, and no doubt himself, he's back to normal...and even better. You could not tell that he had a bad back....

Tim's idea to shoot on the rock. There's that smile of Jill's

No bad back here

Well everyone. I'm out. It's about 1:30am on a Saturday morning and I'm about to park myself in front of the tele so I can watch some good ole Neil Cavuto and Glenn Beck "The Hemorrhoid with Eyes..." (Those who listen to talk radio know what I'm talking about).

Talk to you all soon!

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

JUST SOME THOUGHTS OFF OF MY HEAD
more on my birthday, Easter, and some weddings

HAPPY BELATED EASTER! Hope your egg hunting, Peter Cotton-Tail, Jesus Ressurection Day went well! I had a pretty cool Easter. I went to church in the morning, did a little Bible studying there, then headed to the Polo field to watch some pretty rich people try to hit a ball while going 40mph on a horse. I have to say, there were some exciting plays on the polo field. And I also have to say from my purely speculative observation, horses do poop a lot.

LETS START WITH SOME RANDOM THOUGHTS...
I'm kinda feeling off the cuff tonight, so I'm just going to let the fingers do all the typing here.

A LITTLE BIT ABOUT THAT CAKE, PICTURE ABOVE...
That picture above. That's a cake my really good friend, Kat, made for me. For those of you who don't know, I'm a huge Eagles fan. Huge.... So big, I basically miss church every Sunday so I can watch them play! Kat on the other hand, is not a football fan at all. In fact, she knows nothing about football. But she did her research and made me a little football cake, equipped with an Eagles helmet candle to blow out, and an Eagle's truck, which really looks like my real truck. Funny thing, is that she managed to make a full sized football field, with the yellow goal post, but her mom unknowingly ate half of the cake, and the goal post! D'OH!

So, what you see, is what's left....oh well... But hey, this is still probably the coolest thing anyone has done for my birthday! Thanks Kat!

NAVY SEALS SAVE THE DAY AGAIN!

GOOD NEWS, THE SOMALI PIRATES ARE DEAD, AND CAPTAIN RICHARD PHILLIPS WAS FREE'D ON EASTER! What a great Easter day story. Obama stepped up to the plate, allowed our military to do their job, and the Navy Seals shot and killed the men holding Captain Richard Phillips hostage. Obama deserves some credit, and so does our entire Military operation. The pirates have vowed to avenge the death of their "friends..." so it may get interesting from here. Lets all pray Obama does the right thing and kills all of the pirates out there.

Did I tell you that one of my clients is a Navy Seal. Really cool guy, very emotional guy. I wonder if had anything to do with this? But I remember going to the reception and being in the room filled with Navy Seals. That was a pretty awesome feeling. I have to say, they are a pretty loud group of fellas.

Okay, not onto some weddings.....

TINA AND KEN
...night club magic...

Tina and Ken got married on August 8, 2008. I'm not sure if I put up their wedding pictures...but here are Tina's favorites! Tina and Ken met in a night club of all places. Who said meeting in a night club can never lead to life long romance? Well, actually, a lot of people! But hey, they defied the odds, and they are happily married.

I remember the WED DAY at Ko'olina on August 8th. I had six or seven weddings at Ko'olina, and one on the North Shore. At the end of that day, I was so pooped, I just wanted to go sleep. But instead, I flopped into my car, and drove to the park to pay football with my friends! Hahah.

Tina said this was one of her favorite shots!

Doing back to back weddings is rather strange. It's just go-go-go, and there is no room to screw up anything. It's not like I screw up anything during weddings. But there cannot be any delays of whatsoever. Brides have to be on time..etc..etc... I usually don't do more than one wedding a day. At most, two. One in the morning, one at sunset. You know, shooting weddings, planning them, really doesn't feel like a regular job until you're stuck at the beach doing seven weddings. This year, the big day is 9-9-09 and I am getting booked up for that one as well. I guess next year it will be 10-10-10. Guess what though...I did marry someone on 6-6-06!!!

So lets move onto the next wedding... I mean, vow renewal.

Lupita and Alberto, their 11th year anniversary!

A VOW RENEWAL
Making it eleven!!

I always love doing vow renewals. It's nice to do weddings, but to hear the stories of ever lasting love is great. I remember talking to a couple who renewed their vows after 50 plus years. I asked the husband, what's the secret to being together for so long. He told me, "After day three of meeting her, I went deaf!" Hey, who is he kidding. Relationships are extremely hard, and marriage is extremely tough. Being together takes more than just love, but common goals, interest, and morals.

Lupita and Alberto decided after eleven years, to renew their vows. Lupita always bugged Alberto to renew their vows after ten, but things did get in the way. So when they planned their trip to Oahu, Lupita told Alberto they were getting their vows renewed right away!

The family....

Now, for most vow renewals, there is usually some element of surprise. But Elias and I never imagined who we'd be surprising this time around. The secret whom we kept the vow renewal ceremony from was none other, than their daughter Paola. See, Paola, had been snooping around the house, and had stumbled onto her parents wedding album. I guess she had wish she could have been there. Well, she got her wish.

Yup, Paola was surprised....great family shot

We kept the secret from Paola by playing along with her parents story. According to her parents, they were all just going to the beach for a photo shoot. Well, I met them at their car at the beach, we walked over to the beach to take a few pictures, but Elias was standing there with his bible. Elias broke the news to Paola, and she couldn't believe her ears. She was all smiles.

See, this is why I love vow renewals. You really can't do surprise weddings right? Well, I guess you can...but geez..that would be wrong. But surprise vow renewals, they are pretty sweet.

What really made Lupida and Alberto's vow renewal special is that they got their vow's renewed on my brithday, March 27th! I didn't tell them though. I didn't want to steal their thunder.

putting a blessing on the entire family....

I still have three weddings which I have to blog about, but I don't think I'll get to them till the end of this week. They were wedding with video, so right now, I'm working on editing them altogether. I'm not sure if I'm going to post all of their wedding videos online. I'm still debating. I actually have to figure out how to embed those video files....

On bigger news, I will be turning my patriot package into a digital package. I'm making the halfway leap to digital. I'll be picking up my new digital camera, a 14.7 mega pixel camera, this week. It's small, not really a SLR, but it has all the manual override features, a hot shoe for an external flash and sync...basically everything a film junkie like me could want. I think there will still be learning curve with that thing....but for the most part, it'll be okay.

The big question, is digital better than film? To me, no. The most colors a digital camera can get is 256 colors...with film, it can see more colors than the naked eye. Because digital cameras onlyi get 256 colors, a lot of times, the lattitude just isn't there. While digital may be sharper than film, it doesn't have the saturation, or the the color of film.

Well peeps, I'm outta here.

Steven Young
The Hawaii Wedding Reporter
http://www.dreamweddingshawaii.com/

AASo here is an experiment. I'm actually blogging on my cell phone while I'm here at borders waiting to meet with a wedding couple. I'm writing on my Motorola q, which is something very similar to the blackberry. The only crappy thing about blogging on my cell is my lack to upload photos...if I can figure out that, ill try to upload something.

Well, today is good Friday, but ironically, the weather isn't too good. in fact, its probably the worse weather that I've seen in awhile here on Oahu. The entire island is raining! luckily, I don't have any weddings planned today or this weekend.

So a really good question would be...what would I do if if did have a wedding today. Well, my first instinct would be to check for beaches which had great weather. Usually, when it rains, it does not pour, so I can runaway from the rain in most cases. But if there no running away, I would call my couple to ask if they wanted to move their wedding to a different day. If they still wanted to get married on today, rain or shine, I would pick the least rainy beach and go for it.

Shooting photos on days like this are rather difficult. Say goodbye to blue skies, sunsets, and blue oceans...photos will literally look black and white in this weather. In sunny weather where using the flash is a great idea, for overcast stormy days such as these, a flash actually works against you, unless you're using it for some special effects shots.

well, I better get ready for my meeting now. I'm outtie

----------------------------

Okay, so this is an addition to my blog for today. I'm on the road right now, in the passenger seat to my father's van. writing from my wireless Internet laptop. Car pooled with him today as he was heading to the west side Oahu (anything to save a little gas right?) So, I'm back on the windward side of Oahu, man is it raining. It is raining raining raining. I'll be posting some pictures from today.

Also, I have some new news on the photography front. I'm thinking about going digital for a certain shots in my wedding package. There's a great camera out here, the Canon G10, the quality looks good. It's still not where I would like it when it would come to film, but still, it's really close. Overall, the advances in digital technology is looking awesome. Digital in most cases is sharper, as there is no grain involved. But, the ease latitude of film, and color saturation of film, still goes unmatched. Digital photos, especially with flash, still looks rather dead if the photos is not color corrected. And digital photos, while sharp, still lack a true shallow depth of field...causing the photos to look rather flat at times.

I'm thinking though, that I will change my patriot package to a full digital package, with 24 digital shots taken with the Canon G10. I also think I will use the G10 to shoot family portraits, and the marriage license signing shots of my wedding couples.... That way, I can reserve more shots on the roll of film for the hard to shoot sunset shots....

Just more of my two cents....okay, I'm outta here again.

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

IT HAPPENED ON THE SCHOOL BUS
What adults were doing on the school bus, I have no idea...

Alex and Marea tied the not at Sunset Beach on March 20th of this year, seven days before my birthday! One word can describe this couple...FUN. They call Montana their home, where the winters are cold, and the summers are what they call "mild" but to this local boy, it's still freaking cold! What brought them to Oahu? The weather, the WARM WARM weather, the beach, and the opportunity to say their vows on with their feet buried deep in the sand.

Alex and Marea met on a school bus, of all places, during college. I had no idea that adults still rode school buses in college, but apparently they do. They weren't really sure why there were on the bus. I guess that class that they were taking really wasn't that important! Or were they even taking a bus. Where were they going? Even they don't know. They were just busy flirting with each other. Hey,what can I say, I can't blame Alex or Marea for remembering. In my high school bus riding career, I can't really remember why I rode the bus as well...or half of what my teachers taught me back then.

Turquoise Waters at Sunset Beach...

Alex has one of the coolest jobs in the world in my eyes. He works for DirecTV and gets all the sports packages for free. This works out well for him as he's a die hard Viking's fan. It's really too bad he's a Viking's fan, as my Eagles had to eliminate them from the playoffs this past year...but hey, that's life right? hehe. Marea on the other hand is just finishing up her degree in Sociology, or something like that. She's not much of a football fan, but does cheer on the Vikes. What a good wife.

one of my fav's from the Alex Marea collection

One thing you may notice from these pictures is that they are probably not as sharp, and the colors are not as vibrant as my other posted pictures. The reason? They lost some quality from scanning them into the computer. Since Alex and Marea didn't order scans, I had to literally scan their prints on my scanner. It's never as good as the drum scans, which are directly high-resolution scans made directly from the negative.

I'm telling you this because I want you to take a close look at the water in these pictures. I didn't notice this until I took a look at their pictures. But the water, is actually turquoise like the weddings I did in Laniaki and Waimanalo! So, all-in-all, it is very possible to get the nice light blue water at north shore beaches...it's something that not limited to Lanikai and Waimanalo! The water in these pictures are very much...light blue!

Wedding pictures are all about making out pictures...always believed that...

Alex and Montana, I'll call them "the white rafting couple," flew down with a handful of friends, no family, to watch them get married. Funny thing, this couple doesn't snow board, even though they live in a place where God says "let it snow." They are hard core white water rafters. They go down rivers that can kill you! But I think that's kinda like me, a local boy who mountain bikes in Hawaii, and doesn't surf!

Alright peeps, brides, and fellow NFL fans, I am outta here. Time for me to start inputting wedding video footage into the computer and answering some email! Till next time.

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