Stay cool, after all, it’s only your wedding (I’m being sarcastic!)
HAWAII WEDDING DAY BLISS
Or is it, Hawaii Wedding Day Stress?
It doesn’t matter if you’re eloping or planning a gala wedding, you’re going to experience a bit more anxiety as the next chapter in your life begins. It’s 100% normal for you to be a little bit more anxious, over-emotional, and even irritable during this time. Now, I’m sure you’re wondering what the hell your wedding day will be like, and I’ll get to that. But why don’t we back the time machine up a bit, and start this story when you first step off the plane.
*Quick disclaimer, this Hawaii Wedding Journey only applies to my company, not others*
DAY ONE: THE DAY YOU ARRIVE
Congratulations! You made it to Hawaii in one peace. Don’t worry, that thick air that hit you at the airport will soon come to past. That’s our local humidity, and if you lived in the South, it’s not that bad.
There a couple of rules you want to remember while you’re here in Hawaii.
- Don’t leave any valuables in the car, especially in the seating area. Break-ins are not common, but it happens enough to be a concern, especially when it comes to tourist cars at beaches. (Buy travel insurance as it covers this!)
- Don’t get sunburned! This is just not for your wedding photos, but also for the entire trip. A bad sunburn can ruin your entire vacation/honeymoon. The best sunscreen you can buy is the spray at target. It’s long lasting, goes on light, and the spray stream is nice and wide. Click here to check it out. I get no commissions from that plug. I use it all the time when I’m out in the sun.
After you get your car, you’ll want to check-in to your hotel and then get your marriage license at the Department of Health, preferably in that order. Again, it’s the theft issue. I want you to get your bags into the hotel room before you get your marriage license. It’s not as though Hawaii has a HUGE theft problem, but it’s better to be safe than sorry. If you can’t get your marriage license on day one, don’t worry, there’s always day two. The worst thing that can happen is that all of your luggage gets stolen on day one.
When you get settled into your hotel, give me a call to let me know you’re here. Sometimes flights get delayed. We’ll quickly go over your package and instructions on how to get to the wedding location. By now, I will have sent you either a yelp or google map link that will let you easily navigate to the location of your wedding.
There are no rules to a Hawaii Wedding – absolutely none – well, except to have fun
DAY TWO: REST DAY, ODDS AND ENDS
Jet lag works in your favor if you’re coming from the U.S. Mainland as you’ll gain time. If you’re coming from Australia or anywhere West of Hawaii, you’ll be losing time, so jet lag may have an effect on you. This rest day is just to get you settled into Hawaii, to get the gist of our roads, and to bring your internal time clock closer to Hawaii Standard Time.
A couple notes:
- If you didn’t get your marriage license, it’s time to do it today. If you’re not aware on how to get your marriage license, click here
- If you didn’t get make dinner reservations, nows the time to do it. If you did make dinner reservations online, nows the time to confirm it. If you need recommendations, just ask.
- Don’t get sunburned, whatever you do. Please! Photoshopping out tan lines is tough and will make your photos more expensive.
- If we didn’t connect on Day One, we should connect today, on Day Two. We don’t need to meet in person at all, we just need to talk over the phone, or email, just to make sure you know where to go. It’s usually a real quick conversation. If you want to meet with me in person, there is a charge, purely because it will have to compensate for time loss taken away from me doing a wedding. Meeting in person is not essential. I’ve planned over 6000 weddings, and probably only met with 10 of them before their wedding day, just to calm their nerves.
- If you need to connect with any vendors that you booked outside of my company, it’s good to contact them just to confirm everything is on track.
DAY THREE: YOUR WEDDING DAY!
The key ingredient to creating a perfect Hawaii Wedding is “ironically” not expecting everything to turn out perfect. If there is rain, there are certain things we can do about it, by moving locations. Weather concerns me as much as you, and if we have to move, I’ll let you know my recommended plan-of-action, way before Day Three If I don’t address the weather, it’s not a concern for me, so it shouldn’t be for you. Here is an article I wrote about bad weather and your Hawaii Wedding.
There are two things you need to remember to bring to your Hawaii Wedding:
- Your rings
- And your marriage license
And you need to bring all of that, your fiance and yourself, on-time to your wedding location.
Oh, by the way DON’T WEAR SUNSCREEN TO YOUR WEDDING DAY!
Taken at Ko’olina
Once you arrive at your wedding location, I will be the first thing you see when you get out of the car. I’m not sure if that’s a good or scary thing! haha!
If you show up early for your wedding, that’s not a problem. But if you’re game, and are not superstitious about seeing each other before the wedding, we should start taking pictures immediately, because that’s when you look the best. Especially if you are a cryer! If you arrive right on time, we’ll just head straight into the ceremony. But I’ll ask if you are a cryer before then. If you are, I will still insist we take some photos before the ceremony.
After we get some of the standard photos done, we will transition into your wedding ceremony after a quick consultation with the minister to customize it if necessary. After the ceremony, there are more pictures to be taken. The length of the photoshoot depends on what package you picked.
This entire process will take one to two hours. It’ll fly by really quick.
And then, you’re off to your reception!
DAY FOUR AND BEYOND!
Your wedding will be over, but that doesn’t mean the work has ended.
- THE MINISTER – will submit your license to the Department of Health and they will process your license and turn it into a marriage certificate.
- An online copy should be available within about three business days that you can download. You can use this for most legal name changes.
- The official marriage license will arrive in the mail a few months later
- PHOTOGRAPHY AND VIDEO – This is where post-production hell begins for me. That’s all the color correction stuff, etc..etc… to make the photos look better. If you want to learn more about it, click here. Long story short, it’s tedious, but it’s an essential step for getting great looking work. This process can take a while so be patient.
Now that your wedding is over, and your vacation has officially turned into a honeymoon, you can let your hair down and relax. Same rules apply though. Don’t get sunburned and don’t get leave your valuables in the car.
Here’s a recent wedding we did at the Officer’s Club at Hickam Airforce Base on Oahu. Something different than the usual beach weddings.
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Steve Young
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