Category Archives: Vacations

Hawaii Part 3 – Wedding Day!

Hi everyone!  Here are Jon, myself and a stop sign waiting for the party bus to take us to the wedding.  Aren’t our outfits lovely?  You can almost see all of them.  : )

Just reiterating what I said in the last post about every disastrous photo I am in.

I digress.

HERE IT IS!  The wedding post.  But first, another note about the photo’s before we begin.  Out of respect for the beautiful couple getting married, I’m only going to upload a few (a bunch) of my favorites from the ceremony and keep the rest just for them, at least until I get the go ahead from them and I’ll do a later post.

The day was perfect, even with the appointed resort photographer bossing everyone around and being as cheesy as is humanly possible.  He was the butt of everyone’s jokes for the rest of the night.  He also allowed me to appear completely competent, sane and totally awesome.  : )

Taylor and Amy were so gracious with wanting me to help document their day.  I really got my first taste of shooting a wedding and it was really really fun and addicting.  I was thrilled that they were so relaxed about the photo’s because it took a lot of the pressure off.  I tried to get the images I would have wanted were it my wedding while remaining as discreet as possible.

A few things I do realize:

I realize that I know them both, most of their friends and have met their families.  This makes things easier.  I also know that they are both attractive people getting married in Hawaii and that it’s pretty tough to mess THAT up.  What ELSE I realize (bear with me I’m about to compliment myself and it’s very hard) is that I have an ability to anticipate a shot and can wait to click the shutter until it counts.  I used to work for photographers who would shoot thousands of photos at a wedding, almost like a video, to be absolutely sure they didn’t miss anything.  To me, that’s not talent.  That’s risk management.  I am trying to believe in my talent.  For some reason it’s so so hard for me.  But I am so grateful to them for giving that tiny bit of belief to me.

Enough about that.  It’s wedding time.

The best part about this wedding is how relaxed and unpretentious it was.  Above we have Taylor’s beautiful sister Chelsea applying their momma’s makeup…on the bus…on the way to the hotel.  They’re both so adorable (love the yurman btw chels)!

The groom on the way to meet his bride.  Nerves?  Heat?  Both?  Who cares (have to give this photo credit to Jon…I had a horrible angle) it’s sweet.

Entourage.

Andy modeling like a pro in MY FAVORITE chairs from Restoration Hardware.  Love it.

I’m going to pretend they’re not talking about business. : )

That handsome guy?  He’s mine.  Sorry ladies.

Here we go!  Walking to the ceremony site…

My legs must look HORRIBLE for the amount the ‘photographers’ cut them out.

CUTIES!  Love them.

Ugh.  We’re truly less mental than this ‘looking every which way’ photo.  Sorry girls.


Here comes the Maid of Honor…

…here comes the bride…

It’s official!!The wedding took place a little way down the coast from Kaanapali in Wailea at Makenna Point.  I thought it was great they had the ceremony up on a bluff rather than your typical island wedding in the sand.  It provided such an amazing backdrop for their sunset wedding.After the ceremony we headed over to Duke’s for a intimate wine filled dinner with FABulous food.  The mens…as Leah would say.Oh weird!  It’s blurry and I’m in it!

Sister Love : )Amy’s beautiful sister giving a beautiful speech.Jon – Ryan – Taylor – Nick – Mark – AndyBonnie – Ali – Kelsey – Amy – Chelsea – Lauren – Leah – Janna

There we have it!  It was a great day with close friends that took place smack dab in the middle of an unbelievable vacation.  It was perfect.  Jon and I were so happy to be there with everyone, but we had some plans of our own that involved us flying out of Maui the next morning to visit Kauai for the first time!  Check back for some pictures of the MOST BEAUTIFUL of the Hawaiian Islands as well as the most beautiful hotel I’ve ever stayed in.

Aloha~

Hawaii Part 2 – Maui Continued…

Before we delve right in to part 2 of Hawaii, I have to make a note.  I had SUCH a blast with my new camera on our trip.  I was worried that I would spend all my time behind the camera and miss out on the vacation but that was certainly not the case.  It was so much fun to be able to shoot quality beautiful photographs that I couldn’t wait to get behind the lens.  I loved every minute of my time in Hawaii whether I was taking photos or not.  However, there is a downside to being the ‘photographer’ on the trip.  I am actually in less than 15 photos and most of them are sort of awkward, that is if they’re not super blurry.  No offense to Jon or anyone else that used my camera to get me in a photo because being handed a giant nikon and loads of pressure is no fun.  I only mention this because going through these posts I’m hard to come by.  It’s half really nice (because nobody likes being photographed) and half kind of a bummer (because who would know I even went).  I’ve decided to be better about asking for what I actually want in a photo as well as training Jon on how to use my camera.

ANYWAY…

As it is with a lot of weddings, the night before there was a hosted grooms/rehearsal dinner for all of the guests in Hawaii.  It was in Wailer’s Village and was really relaxed and fun.  We began the night at the condo some of our friends were staying in and ended the night with a few of the group skinny dipping in the ocean.  I’ve been quite selective about which photo’s I’ve included in this post : )

Mix Master RyGuySee what I mean about photos I’m in?

How many Mai Tai’s did we consume on this vacation I wonder?

Siblings.

Awww…so cute Nick and Leah!…see what I mean…again?

It was so fun to watch Taylor and Amy the night before getting married alternate between glowing bliss and giggling disbelief.  Adorable.

The morning of the wedding Jon and I took some time for ourselves to visit a couple of our favorite places from the last time we visited Maui.  It was an overcast day which provided amazing lighting for some fun landscape and close up shots.  We started the morning searching for a rumored blow hole that we didn’t find the last trip…or this trip.  Luckily the search takes place in some amazing places so we didn’t mind too much.

This photo can’t be blamed on anyone/thing except the camera self timer.  LOVE this photo of the waves.  The blue’s were so subdued that day.Favorite.  Framing It.Another favorite.  It’s so cool to see the splashes of orange in red in the sea of black rock.After our hiking in flip flops adventure we headed over to Honolua Bay so Jon could do some snorkeling in his favorite spot!  I was worn out from being in the water all week so I stayed on shore and…snapped photos!Jurassic Park.Obsessed with the trees at Honolua…One of my favorite shots of all time.  This little guy and I danced around for about 15 minutes until I snagged these shots.There you have it!  We’ve still got the wedding and Kuaui to get through…whew.  Think I can do it in two more posts?  Thanks for reading!

Hawaii Part 1 – Maui

I took 987 photo’s in Hawaii.  It would have been several hundred more had golfing, our boat tour of the coast and a helicopter ride not been cancelled due to monsoon rains.  I of course have the smarts NOT to post all 987 photo’s, but that doesn’t mean I won’t post a ton.  I’ve decided to do it in four parts so keep checking back for the rest!

The first part is going to be on our time in Maui before the wedding.

This was our second trip to Maui and we were relieved to see it’s just as beautiful as ever.

Above photo of black rock taken mid day, below photo taken at sunrise.  So beautiful…all day.We chose to stay in Kaanapali again this trip because the beach is truly unbeatable.

Kaanapali beach allows for any type of activity you want to do whether it’s snorkel, paddle board, boogie board, play football, people watch, bird watch, read, drink, or lounge.  We did them all.  Prove it you say?  I accept the challenge.

Snorkeling:

Paddle boarding:

Boogie Boarding (sort of):

Footballing:

People watching (enough said):

Bird Watching:

Reading:

Drinking:

Lounging:

I Win!

Aside from hanging out at the beach, there was business at hand.  This great group of people was lucky enough to enjoy Hawaii together because of these two kids getting married.

Amy and Taylor

Some friends of theirs rented a beautiful house and hosted a wonderful dinner early on in our stay in Maui so we could all relax, chow down and party.  The views were incredible.

Andy and Lauren

Ali and Jon

Leah and Nick

Janna and Mark

Amys lovely family.

Taylors lovely family.

The incredible scenery.

The Turano ladies : )

The Schwinkendorf Girls : )

Mother and Son

It was such a blast.  Check back for Hawaii Part 2 – Wedding Day!

Here we go!

We’re back! I have to admit it’s taking me awhile to get back into the swing of things around here.  We got back to our place at around 11:00 a.m. Tuesday morning after an all night sleep deprived red-eye and just today am I finally getting my head on straight.  I spent most of Tuesday yawning, unpacking and laundering.  Yesterday I got our place in order, stocked our cupboards and refrigerator and even managed to cook dinner!  Slow and steady. I’ve got lots of blogging to catch up on including my monthly recipe for February (which just flew by).  I thought maybe I should post one photo from Hawaii every day and then my weekly post quota would be met for all eternity!  I won’t do that, but I will make you wait a little longer for Hawaii photo’s.  I took a lot and I need to get them downloaded and organized first. Alright fine just ONE: So while we all wait with baited breath for Hawaii pictures, let’s talk about something equally as exciting:

AMERICAN IDOL!!!!

Yes I am a geek and no I don’t care what you think.  Every year Jon and I say we’re never watching the show again.  Every year we get sucked right back in.  This is because of several things:

1.)  It’s great reality TV with good stories.

2.) Jon and I both love music and especially ‘live’ performances.

3.) Jon and I are extremely competitive and gamble on the outcome every year.

4.) I can’t bear to be out of touch with pop culture/what people are talking about.

So we watch. The episode in which they announce the top 13 commences a very serious ritual in our household.  We separate ourselves and secretively hunch over our notes to rank OUR top 13 top to bottom (please excuse the crappy photo quality).  Jon uses the evernote app on his iPad. I take a more sophisticated route using wine and post it notes (I won last year). Marlo silently judges. The prize is made up of three parts:

1.) Bragging rights.

2.) I hate taking out the trash and don’t do it.  He hates changing the litter box and WON’T do it.  The loser does the others least favorite chore for a month.

3.) Winner gets a $150 shopping spree paid for by the loser.

The stakes are high this year : )  What I want most of all are the bragging rights. I’m assuming most of you have stopped reading by now due to compete lack of interest, but if you haven’t I will explain the rules.  We rank them 1 to 13.  If we guess an elimination correctly it’s +3 points.  If we guess the winner correctly it’s +7 points.  If we guess the wrong elimination, it’s minus the amount of points until their actual elimination.  Pretty simple. Here are the top 13 this year:

Jeremy Rosado Shannon Macgrane Elise Testone Jermaine Jones Joshua Ledet Heejun Han Erika Van Pelt Deandre Brackensick Colton Dixon Skylar Laine Hollie Cavanaugh Phillip Phillips Jessica Sanchez I conveniently put them in order from my number 13 at the top to my number 1 at the bottom.  Keep in mind these are not our lists for who we like the best, it’s our lists for how we think the voting will go.  I guess I thought maybe it would be fun for you guys to keep track of our little competition.  The resulting devastation when one of us loses to the other is something you’ll wanna stick around for. Feel free to play along!

Ali’s Picks

  •  1 Jessica
  •  2 Phillip
  •  3 Hollie
  •  4 Skylar
  •  5 Colton
  •  6 Deandre
  •  7 Erika
  •  8 Heejun
  •  9 Joshua
  • 10 Jermaine
  • 11 Elise
  • 12 Shannon
  • 13 Jeremy

Jon’s Picks

  1. Joshua
  2. Jessica
  3. Colton
  4. Hollie
  5. Phillip
  6. Jermaine
  7. Elise
  8. Skylar
  9. Deandre
  10. Heejun
  11. Erika
  12. Shannon
  13. Jeremy

Shopping and Dreaming.

I know I promised this yesterday, but Jon and I had an engagement dinner Saturday night for some great friends of ours (pics to come).  The happiness was swelling, the laughter was abundant, and the drinks were flowing.  Less eloquently, I was hungover and exhausted the day after(Sunday).  It’s my first blogging blip and and I’m certain it will not be my last.  Alas, here are some of my favorite recent acquisitions, where to get them, and my current lusts.

The first is a long awaited, two years in the works, WORK OF ART by Grace Bonney of Design Sponge (one of my favorite blogs of all time).  This is a beautiful hardcover book full of DIY projects, before and afters, entertaining ideas and much much more.  The website is clean and easy to navigate but the book is really something to behold.  I can not wait to finish bookmarking my pages and get a real start on our condo.

I picked this book up in Anthropologie about a million times, but the roughly $50 price tag was just too much to justify given the extensive and thorough website.  It’s been recently discounted on the Antrho website to $35 but I got it for a steal on Amazon for $16.50.

Speaking of steals, I bought this scarf at one of the most up and coming clothing stores in the country…Target.   I saw it from about 30 feet away and it was love at first sight. They have it in a few other patterns and shades in store.  Here’s what is great about this scarf.  I could make you touch it, tell you it was form Michael Kors, and you would envy and believe me.  I got it for $15 and it’s PERFECT for my upcoming Hawaii trip.  It’s worn, soft, beachy and perfect.

Speaking of my upcoming trip – I’m constantly on the hunt for cute and reasonable accessories to brighten up an otherwise plain outfit.  The scarf was one and this recent steal from Anthropologie is another.  I bought these earrings in one color (Hawaii appropriate turquoise) a few weeks ago and went back for the other color (gold and diamond) right before new years because of the great price.  I couldn’t find them on the website but I know there’s still some in the store.  I paid about $14.00 per pair.

Another recent Antrhopologie steal was this adorable little clutch.  Well I’m making it a clutch – I believe it’s actually meant to be a make-up bag.  Whatever it is, it’s incredibly well made with beautiful detailing and the perfect size.  Again, I can’t find it on the website to link it for you, but I know they had quite a few for sale in store in both blue and red.  I got it at an additional 20% off sale price last weekend for around $17.00.

Finally, my last steal to mention.  I’ve been on the hunt for one of these since Jon and I got engaged.  I have to give my mom props because she found it first and bought the dog version for my Aunt Megan for Christmas.  It is a bedside jewelry dish and it is whimsical, adorable and only $10.00 (!) at Anthropologie.  I love mine.  Aside from serving a practical purpose (aka not giving Jon a heart attack by placing my rings on the edge of my bathroom sink) it is a subtle and sweet accessory to a room.

Even with all of those recent purchases (steals!) what is life without a couple of lusts.  Here are my current two:

Can’t get off the Hawaii planning train – it’s where my brain lives.  This coverup is perfect for jumping from beach to boat and back:

Jon and I were out for Sushi Friday night and this was playing on all the T.V’s.  It reminded me of my Grandpa Pete as it stars his favorite band.

Sacha Baron Cohen NEEDS to play Freddie Mercury in a movie.  He’s PERFECT!  Great voice, great band, GREAT classic music DVD.