WEDDING WEEKEND IN HAWAII

If you missed my blog post, Bachelorette Weekend in Vegas, you would have missed my best friends sister is engaged and now getting married! Over summer I went on the bachelorette and had so much fun. I am actually going to the wedding as an... amateur photographer. If you don't know, I shoot weddings as part of my job but purely on iPhone and majority is video content. I am very well acquainted with the iPhone camera.

That being said, for my European Summer trip I bought a brand new Sony ZV e10 to really level up my skills and personal content. It also didn't hurt I knew I would be photographing a wedding in Hawaii. I know basic camera knowledge from building my skills through the years on my Canon Rebel t5.

I have been asked in the past to photograph weddings and they are just such high stake events I never want to commit to something so important when I don't fully trust my skills, and so up until now I haven't.

I am deciding its time to just take the plunge and continue building upon my skills. I really insisted they hire a professional photographer.. for months... but they really were looking for something casual and simple, so alas here I go... nervous as ever but excited!

We are going to the Big Island, which I have never been to before. I have only been once and I went with my family to Oahu. Excited to see what adventures and trouble we get into on this trip!

We touched down and had some time to kill before checking into our VRBO. We got some lunch at Kona Brewing and hit Costco for some simple drinks and snacks. I was fighting getting sick the day before we left and so I was pounding Emergen-C's and anything else to get me on the mend.

Luckily I was feeling a lot better by this day but I was still staying on top of vitamins. The only non alcoholic drink I ordered the entire trip was a gingerade from Kona Brewing and it was actually really good. The more drinks I saw in Hawaii the more I saw how "inspired" GTS Kombucha was by the islands culture and drinks. Nonetheless by dinner, I was quickly moving onto cocktails. When on vacation, right?

For dinner we ate at On the Rocks and had some rainfall welcome us to our seats. The sunset still came out and was seriously unreal. My burger and fries were actually top tier, as well as the margarita! The photo of the lampshades are actually at Huggo's next door but I couldn't resist a little zoom in because they looked so good!

We were wiped from the travel day and knew we had to be up early the next day for the church rehearsal, so we went to bed right after dinner.

In the morning we went to the church for the rehearsal and took some pics and got a lay of the land. The wedding was at The Painted Church, which had a lot of history and beautiful views.

After rehearsal we went for breakfast/lunch at The Coffee Shack. There was abut an hour wait but it was worth it. Never in my life had I ordered a pastrami sandwich but for whatever reason I was called to it. The bread is freshly made here and you can tell.

We sat in a little room off the side of the restaurant with stunning views. Katie's dad insisted on eating here and taking home several desserts. Luckily for me I took home half my sandwich and had it the next day for lunch and we had some sweet treats to come back home to every night. I personal fave was the chocolate cream pie, as a chocolate lover I am a little biased.

We had every intention to have a full beach day after the rehearsal but breakfast plans had us a tiny bit behind schedule and the clouds rolled in. We infiltrated the bride and grooms hotel pool and made a day out of their pool and beach area.

Our bartender, a 50 something year old man, was really shooting his shots saying he wishes he was 30 years younger... He had not admitted his crush until we ordered our second drink, the Lava Flow, which was basically an alcoholic sweet treat. Delicious but something you only order one of.

While the flirting was... interesting we went to the beach for our last little seltzer we snuck in hehe. The Courtyard by Marriott King Kamehameha's Kona Beach Hotel had a small little beach but it definitely got the job done to chill and relax before having to head home and get ready for dinner.

Most of the guests had arrived Thursday so we went back to On the Rocks for dinner with everyone. I ordered my very first Mai Tai, ever. This Mai Tai was definitely my favorite one I had on the island. I also got the fish tacos and they were perfect. I also had to run back the sweet potato fries because they were THAT good.

Another night we went straight to sleep after eating dinner. We had been saying every single night we'll use the hot tub but we just never had it in us. The time change had us asleep early and waking up early.

Friday was our day to head to Hilo, which was about a 2 hours drive. Before heading out we stopped for coffee at Hungry Honu. I got the oat brown sugar iced latte and it was incredible. Before any adventures we ate breakfast at Ken's House of Pancakes. It was a classic All-American breakfast and definitely hit the spot. I am a bit of a snob for diner pancakes and these were authentic!

First stop was Akaka Falls. There was actually two waterfalls at this spot. The parking lot was $10 and entry was $5. You can avoid the $10 parking by parking just outside the entrance. The Akaka Falls was definitely the more interesting of the two, I didn't even take a photo of the second one.

It was a light walk with some stairs on the way back. We also saw these two little stray cats that I had to capture.

Our next stop, as we head back towards Kona, was Rainbow Falls. This waterfall was really pretty and you could get a bit closer. The top part has a more dangerous area that apparently a couple dozen people have died trying to explore.

Katie and I were on a mission to make it to the beach and have some true tropical island time. So we quickly made it back to the house and took an Uber to the beach. Everyone else stayed back to watch the Dodger game but it was game 1 so I had to prioritize the beach.

We made it to Magic Sands Beach with plenty of time to spare before sunset. We drank, we snacked, and we swam. Definitely needed a little more beach team BUT happy with the time I did get, considering we were there for the pure mission of the wedding.

Finally, getting home to soak in the hot tub. Right when we got home we were lucky enough to come home to delish Mexican food ordered in. I wish I had got the name of it but it was so good and local! While we ate, I subjected everyone to watching Blue Crush because Katie told me she had never seen it before. Admittedly I totally forgot the entire plot but it was a nice refresher.

Before jumping in the hot tub, we helped Kristin, the bride, make the welcome cocktails for wedding guests in nice to go pouches.

Wedding day was of course go go go, as they always are. It went so well and was so special to capture. Reception was at Kai Eats + Drinks, which was waterfront and had delicious food and drinks!

Our "after party" was at Don's Mai Tai Bar, which honestly the Mai Tai was better at On the Rocks. We watched the game and had a nice happy hour cocktail before heading back to the hotel.

At the hotel we had an irish coffee to wake up a bit and a little sweet potato fries appetizer.

We made it our mission to get some hot girl Hawaii pics, cause how could we go to Hawaii and get no pics?!

Then it was decision time, do we stay out or go home the night before our early flight? Logically, its wedding day, we must celebrate right?! So stay out we must.

Not sure the name of the next spot we ended up at but I ordered the Lilikoi Margarita. It was an interesting flavor and I didn't mind it buuuuuut I will stick with my chamoy rim mango margaritas.

We walked some more around town and hit another couple places with different vibes. As a group, we all wanted to keep things walking distance for the sake of time and keeping things simple amongst a big group of us. Sam's Hideaway was our final resting place. What a place it was. It was very much like a dive bar but had good karaoke vibes, even amongst the people shouting "F the Dodgers"... lol

Anyways all in all, our night ended around 4 a.m. leaving me with a mere 2 hours of sleep before having to get up quickly, pack, and get ready. This was quite literally one of the roughest travel days I have ever had. Fought for my life all morning but we survived. Slept the whole first plane ride and finally ate something at the airport before our connecting flight. Happy to be home and don't regret a single second of sleep lost! Hopefully I am blessed with another trip to Hawaii soon, I would love nothing more.