The wedding of Joel and Rachel (May 20 '09)

I can't believe it's been a year since I received an email from a lovely bride wanting to hold her wedding day on the sandy shores of Oahu. A perfect idea complicated by the small fact that she and her fiancee live in Missouri. She heard of us from a couple of friends at our church who moved here from Missouri, and she wanted us to provide officiating and photography. It is always a blessing to be able to work side-by-side with my husband, Scott. We do a fair number of weddings on our own individually so it's a real treat for us to be able to team up.

This sweet young couple (I'm starting to feel old at thirty years of age) were so excited about their Hawaiian wedding. Joel and Rachel are fun, carefree, and wanted to make their commitment solidly planted on their shared love for God.

Rachel and Joel didn't want a big fussy much-to-do wedding. Rachel had only three small requests.

1. To get married on Kailua Beach
2. To have an arch on the sand
3. To have a bouquet of her favorite flower, plumerias

That was it, all she asked for. Let see...

#1. To get married on Kailua Beach- Kailua beach, gorgeous. But for the past two years, Kailua beach has been suffering from drastic sand erosion, even unearthing old walls once hidden under the dunes of sand. She was a trouper and chose Lanikai beach, just a step farther down the same shore and one of the most beautiful beaches in Hawaii (some people might put it at #1 but we are a little biased).

#2. Arches are absurdly expensive to rent. Sigh...no arch.

#3. A plumeria bouqet. I admit it now. I was the fool who tried who even advised her against it. Plumerias are gorgeous but the most fragile flower ever. I've seen tons of weddings with plumerias as the accent flower but never as the primary bouquet, because they wilt so quickly and drastically. Rachel had an exquisite bouqet of plumerias nestled in baby's breath. It took some extra caution in preserving it the night before but it was breath-taking. It was handmade (well, I guess all bouquets are handmade huh) by Pauline of Weddings By Pauline. If you are interested, contact us for details on how to purchase.

I think you can learn so much from a couple by watching their emotions play across their faces. They were joined only by Rachel's parents, Richard and Ramonda, with the rest of their family and friends at home unable to make the long trip to Hawaii. And even though it was a Wednesday afternoon, the beach was shockingly busy, with tons of beachgoers planted on the sand, canoes (a fave local sport) sliding across the water in the background...yes, even a canoe with six young boys flipping in the water right behind the couple during the ceremony. Rachel and Joel were sharing their vows all while the boys could be seen in the distance bailing water out of their canoe. But Joel and Rachel only had eyes for each other and they couldn't even wipe the smiles off their face. It was heartwarming to watch, and their love and joy was so obvious. Their unintentional wedding guests, the fellow beachgoers, all watched intently and shouted out "Congratulations" to the newly married couple.

I would also like to say CONGRATULATIONS!!! As my husband likes to say "Marriage is wonderful, I highly recommend it to anyone." And come back to Hawaii soon!!!

The local canoe club unwittingly became wedding guests...

Not your typical church aisle...and the bride's procession was heralded by young beach-goers


Joel had this giddy smile he couldn't shake...even when I was trying to get him to take a serious pic. =)



Look for that smile again.

Plumeria bouquet from Weddings By Pauline.

I fell on my ass today

I've been told to blog more...so, Dina...this one is for you. And you best be leaving some sort of acknowledgement, sistah.

I'm deliriously stumbling in Unmotivated Land here, folks. I have emails to return, wedding pictures to process, baby slideshows to finish...a house to clean. and that job thing. Ugh, i want a free assistant.

Today I had to testify in court...quick and out of there. But i couldn't find my regular court shoes so I had to wear the only other nice pair (I had my black pair break on me), which was the white heels with fake bling bling that I wore on my wedding day. Since they are kind of low and my pants are kind of long, I had vague concerns about tripping and falling on my face in front of the jury. I kind of highstepped it to the stand which probably looked insane but kept me upright. Hah, you thought this was going to be a great story of utter humuliation before a honorable judge. Nope. How did my court appearance go? My verdict...um, I'm a perfectionist, I wasn't thrilled with my testimony. Talked too much, went into too much details. There has to be a nice balance.

No the real fun happened when i returned home to find Scott chilling with his best bud, Mike, and my best bud, Haley. I think I might have made some offhand comment that I wished my hammock chair (lying in a crumpled heap on the living room floor) was up and twisting in the wind outside so I could rock away. Two men to the rescue. They spent quite a bit of time, grappling with problems like an inadequate rope, a place to hang it, it being too high and too low. They finally called me out and unveiled the hammock chair hanging from the mango tree...the seat probablly a good 4-5 ft off the ground. I tried to jump up into it and managed to get one knee on top but then I was swinging on my knees facing backwards. I want to twist around but I'm also swinging erratically at some insane height off the ground. I think I'll try to do a quick, jump, twist. So I grasped the ropes and tried to jump off my knee and twist...and...

...bammm, i'm suddenly transported to the a heap on the ground with the broken swing now on top of me. One of the ropes gave out under my monstrous weight (sheesh, boot camp, kick in soon) and the chair literally disappeared under me. At least, Mikey pulled the swing off of me...Scott was too busy doubled over in laughter mumbling something about "oh, if I only had a camera...if I only had a camera." I asked him how come he didn't rush to my side and he gave some excuse about holding Haley or something like that. So I stood up and looked at my ex-chair swing-now a cushion dangling by one cord from the tree branch and i see the culprit...they used zip ties to bind the chair hook to the metal chain. That's what you get when two grown men decide all of the sudden they are MacGyvers.

But I can't complain, because after much time and effort, my green hammock chair now swings softly from the porch beam and I spent 20 minutes swaying in the wind...nursing my bruised ego. All is well with the world.

New to the World: 2nd portfolio building newborn session baby Gabriel

Hello folks. I'm back. I can't believe it but tonight is the last night on my midnight shift. I'm actually switching next week to regular business hours at work and thus the concept of ....SLEEPING AT NIGHT. Whoa...shocking. I'm super excited and super nervous because I have a big wedding in less than two days. So I took some time to finish up the session for baby Gabriel's newborn session.

Who: John Victor Gabriel
Proud parents: John and Whitni
Birth Stats: 6.13 oz and 18 inches long on a blistery Hawaiian Thursday (maybe not blistery) in April
Lifetime Achievements: MORE hair than most grown men
Session Age: (7 days old)

I recruited friend, Abby, to take me to photograph Gabriel's newborn session on-location at his home on Kaneohe Marine Corps Base. We were greeted by sweet smiling, but slightly tired mommy "Whitni." It seems that little Gabriel loves eating and did so for hours and hours the night before. She said he just fell asleep an hour or so earlier. She fed him a little more and than brought him down. I hadn't had a chance to see him (only through cell phone pictures) because of my persistent cold, but he was even cuter than the pictures. Thick silky dark hair and his mom's nose. He seemed to be awake but didn't want to open his eyes, instead he just yawned and smiled as if he was telling himself non-stop knock-knock jokes.

We were joined by our other friend (man this house is social and busy for 8 in the morning), Stacy, who lived nearby and just walked over. She's majoring in photography so she brought her film SLR. We only managed to get through half the poses because when we started to reposition him, little Gabriel decided he was ready for meal number 7 of the day. He started knawing on the blanket and chewing away with his little adorable gums. "Um...Whitni...I think he might be hungry again."

Behind the scenes: Now this is the second newborn session I've tried to practice with. And they are tough!!! I so need more practice. Hmmm, who else is giving birth soon that would trust their 8 day old baby with me. Kacie is the next on but her baby girl isn't coming until the end of summer. There is a variety of poses that are like this one

http://www.flickr.com/photos/kelleyryden/3488001710/

So unreal. Newborn photographers do it all the time. Apparently you have to have a newborn under the age of 10 days because they sleep really deeply and can fall asleep in these poses. I read to use a beanbag and I bought one (hard to find)...but the first newborn kept sinking. I found a tip to use a rubber band to make the beanbag more firm. All set to try it again. Except, Gabriel was hungry so as soon as I tried to flip on his stomach, he started chewing the blanket. Session over. I don't know if I'll ever be able to master this area of photography. Kelley Ryden is amazing though.

Here's my faves from the day. I hope they captured how sweet and easy-going he is. He already shows such a sunny disposition and smiles away the day. (BTW, check out the new logo)












*(the second is one of my favorites. Look at him chomping on his fingers!!!)

(this one was all John and Whitni's idea...pretty creative on such little sleep)