Sarah's Wedding - April 12, 2012

Hawaii is such a beautiful place for a wedding!  I've never been part of a destination wedding but I can see how appealing it is.  What I liked about Sarah's wedding, besides the spectacular location, was that our group was small.  A nice initmate group of 14!

We met in the hotel lobby where we were provided with the location for the ceremony.  Orginally planned for Hanelei Bay, the location changed to Anini Beach.  Matt, Nicole and I headed off first but somehow managed to arrive last, which alarmed Sarah just a tiny bit.  Sorry about that Sarah! We took a couple of wrong turns and that was enough to get us to the beach after everyone else.  We should have followed the procession. Oh well.

Father and Bride

The service was magical. Shannon picked a lovely quiet section of the beach.  It was tucked away from the main part of the park so no one else except our group was there.  Perfect!  The minister (or officiant?) conducted what I imagine was a partially traditional Polynesian ceremony while her husband took photographs. Ironically, quite a few of the guests were avid photographers, so I'm sure between the official photographer and the rest of us we've capture every single moment of the ceremony!  LOL!  It was a teary event.  Even Sarah had to pull out a handkerchief mid-ceremony.  I'm so happy for Sarha and Shannon.  They make such a wonderful couple.

After the ceremony, we headed off to the Kaua'i Beach Resort (which was next door to our resort) for the reception.  We were ushered to our own private dining room where we all mingled for about an hour driking cocktails, noshing on some appetizers and enjoying each other's company.  The room had a large open air window overlooking the resort's garden. Just beautiful.  And since we were such a small group (perfect size as far as I'm concerned), it was easy to mingle and talk with everyone - each of us having a chance to enjoy a chat with the bride and groom.

Sarah and Shannon

Dinner was fantastic, very cozy and lots of warm feelings all around.  And the food was exceptional!  No rubber chicken or dry roast beef here.  I enjoyed a perfectly prepared rib roast with the most amazing mashed potatoes.  I couldn't identify the herbs used in the potatoes (must try to find out!) but the flavour was quite unsual and so delicous.  There was also Mahi Mahi on offer and another main I can't recall at the moment.  Of course we had wedding cake for dessert.

The reception ended around 10:00 pm which was really 3:00 am Toronto time.  I was pretty tired (and a bit drunk).  Everyone clearly had a wonderful time, I even made new Australian friends!  We finished off with hugs all around and headed back to our condo.

I am so happy and grateful I got to be part of Sarah and Shannon's day!

I'll post more photos of the wedding on my Smug Mug site.