I don't get hired for many local weddings. It's really not by choice, but it's because I don't advertise my services locally. My advertising for Dream Weddings Hawaii consists of making sure my website falls on the 1st page of Google. Local Brides usually book through wedding shows, and don't use the web as much of a research/booking tool as often as destination brides. But as of late, that trend has been reversing. Enter Justin and Tamara, a local couple who found me on the web.

Justin and Tamara met me at one of my favorite fast food restaurants, Taco Del Mar, to talk about their wedding plans. Tamara immediately told me that she wanted to keep everything simple, that she and Justin just wanted to tie the knot with a few family friends around, on the beaches of Ko'olina. It sounded pretty straight forward and easy right? Wrong. A few days later, Tamara called up and told me that her and Justin's entire family wanted to be there for the wedding, which amounted up to a total of a few hundred people in attendance.

Tamara and Justin kicked around a few different ideas for wedding venues and finally decided to get married at Justin's father's workplace. Justin's father owns some type of industrial commercial business that has to do with landscaping or something very similar. His complex consists of large open parcels of flat land that is dedicated to housing his equipment. On one parcel though, a neatly landscaped area was made for family gatherings. This area is where Justin and Tamara decided to get married.

Although the wedding site where Justin and Tamara got married was well manicured, the rest of surrounding land was very industrial looking, making it very difficult to take pictures. I really couldn't get much of a clean shot, and my angles were very limited. If I moved too much to the left or right in some shots, I would get a bulldozer in the background. I came to the conclusion that I really had to utilize the surroundings, and make do with what I had.

The happy couple met through friends and grew closer as time went by. They did, like I would like to say, the new-fashioned way. They got kids, got a house, then got married. Isn't that way it's done most of the time these days?

Justin and Tamara's wedding I believe, did not cost them that much, despite having a rather large gathering of family and friends. A typical local wedding will run a couple anywhere between 15k to 35k. Yes, I know that's a lot! I couldn't imagine spending that much money in one day. But I believe Justin and Tamara spent only around 3k to 5k for their wedding, or maybe even less.. How'd they do it? Well, they got friends and family to help them with everything from food to entertainment, to chairs, and tenting. So that should be a good lesson to all you brides out there planning a wedding in your home town. If you want to save money, get your family to help out.

Opposites attract, and that's the lesson learned from Justin and Tamara. Tamara is the talkative one, Justin, is quiet. But one thing they both have in common, their both great parents.

I wish you my best.

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