When a bride thinks of her perfect wedding day, this usually involves blue skies on a bright and sunny day. For this bride, the weather may have not been ideal, but that didn’t stop the smiles and love from brightening up their wedding day.

To start off the day, I stopped at the bride and groom’s airbnb to take photos of them getting ready. The women were having their hair and makeup done on one side of the house and the men were getting dressed on the other side. I photographed the men first, taking shots of the Groom and his groomsmen. 

As I waited for the women to finish getting ready, I took some photos of the rings and the invitations. Once the ladies were done, I took a few photos of them as a group before, during, and after the bride put her wedding dress on. I always love seeing the mom of the bride and the bridesmaids ooh and ahh over how beautiful the bride looks with her dress on.

After this, I hopped in my car and drove to the ceremony and reception venue. This location was set in Holualoa, which is up the mountain side near Kailua, Kona on the Big Island of Hawaii. I’ve been to a few weddings in the area before but this location was way higher than I expected. After the long and slow drive up the steep hills, it was neat to see the beautiful wedding venue appear out of the tall trees. Once there, I gathered my camera gear and took a variety of venue shots.

As the bride was on her way to the venue, the rain started to pour from the sky. The couple waited for about 20 minutes before deciding to use the covered reception area to do the ceremony instead. As the music started and the bridesmaids walked down the aisle, everyone gathered with smiles on their faces despite the rain. And when the bride finally walked to the aisle, the groom had happy tears in his eyes as he saw her walk towards him.

I tried my best to get photos of the bride and groom from different angles while not disturbing the loving atmosphere. I continued to fire away as vows were said and the final wedding kiss took place. Instead of a recessional, the audience cheered as the friends and family members gave excited hugs to the lovely couple.

Once the family portraits were done, we walked a little further up the road to take photos with the wedding party. Luckily, the rain stopped right around this time, so we were able to take photos under a cloudy sky, which I actually prefer for photos with natural lighting. This is always my favorite part of the day. The bride and groom get to have some time alone and as the photographer, I have the opportunity to bring out the love and happiness so that it shines brightly in all of the photos.

With every wedding, there is always something unique about the couple. With this bride and groom, they love motorcycles. The groom was able to ride his bike over to where we were taking the couple’s portraits and it was a blast to take photos of them with the bike. 

After the bride and groom portraits were done, we went back to the venue to start the reception. It was a lovely night filled with delicious Hawaiian food, dancing, laughter, and lots of love. 

The bride and groom continued the night with a few of the common wedding traditions, such as cutting the cake, their first dance, and a few other traditions that a lot of local Hawaii people practice.

As with all of my clients, I like to take both photos and videos to add to my wedding photography and videography experience. As this couple only purchased photography, I mostly focused on their photos but I was still able to get a lot of great videography shots to make an instagram wedding video.

I had a great time photographing this wedding and I hope to continue to work with couples as wonderful as this one.