Tag: Hawaii

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The Day After the Wedding

So the day after the awesome wedding, my high school friends and I had planned to go swimming with sharks. I know, I’m insane in the membrane, and when I asked Ray to come with us, he just laughed.

But we went, and I was a little scared, understandably. However, once we got on the boat, I had committed myself to the activity, so I just made up my mind to have fun.

And it was so much fun! The bumpy, speeding boat ride over choppy waters out to the cage 3 miles offshore was fun. Waiting for our turn in the cage was exciting, because we got to see an Iwa bird (a frigate bird) come by and snatch a fish right out of this girl’s mouth.

Now, the only thing that was partially scary was that when I was climbing down the ladder into the cage, a big swell hit the boat, and I lost my footing. I was hanging onto the side of the boat for dear life, sort of swinging out, half over the cage and half over open water.

Of course this all happened in a few seconds’ time, and the captain quickly grabbed me and pulled me to safety. I then continued down the ladder, refusing to let it bother me, and after the captain ascertained I was okay, the boat pulled away from the cage.

It took me a couple minutes to acclimate myself. The water was nice and warm, which was good. And as soon as I felt comfortable breathing in the snorkel, I just parked myself in one end of the cage and just watched.

And there was nothing scary about the sharks. I mean, I didn’t feel compelled to reach out and pet one (which they tell you not to do anyway, duh), but it was like the aquarium. Well, better than an aquarium, because we were much closer. But I didn’t feel scared, and that was great.

After we got back to shore, I called Ray, and he met up with us at a shrimp shack on the outskirts of Haleiwa, which only had two things on the menu: shrimp scampi (with extra garlic), and shrimp with hot sauce, complete with a sign that says, “Warning: very hot! No refunds!”

A couple of my friends ordered the shrimp with hot sauce despite the dire warnings, and nearly burned their lips off. I opted for the much safer scampi, and since Ray was ordering it too, I didn’t have to worry about the garlic too much.

After lunch, Ray and I headed back to the bungalows, while my UHS friends did some sight-seeing. One of my flower girls, my cousin Samantha, turned 3 the day after the wedding, and her parents (my cousin and his wife) threw her a party on the beach (basically with all the leftovers from the rehearsal BBQ).

The party was lots of fun, and it was great to see Samantha get along so well with my MoH’s daughter, Camille (my other flower girl). They’re about 6 months apart, and they were best friends by the time the weekend was over.

The next day (Monday) was my aunt R.’s 65th birthday (we picked quite a weekend, didn’t we?). So all the family on my mom’s side went to the swanky resort on the North Shore called Turtle Bay resort to have lunch. Lunch was good, but for the prices they charged, I wasn’t really impressed. In fact, both Ray and I agreed that although Turtle Bay seems to have all the luxury one could ever want, we would much rather be in the real earthy world of Haleiwa and the North Shore, with all its grit and personality. Everyone had a good time, however, and they took lots of pictures of my mom and all her sisters (except for one sister who couldn’t make it).

After that, everyone kind of went their own separate ways. A bunch of my high school friends stayed a few more nights in Waikiki before returning home. My dad went to the other islands to visit Peace Corps friends. So Ray and I were left in peace to enjoy the North Shore by ourselves for a super relaxing honeymoon.

Anyway, the rest of the trip was awesome, but pretty relaxing, so no stories to tell there. The next post will be about the NJ reception.

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The Day of the Wedding

So a month and a half later, I’ve finally cleared off my desk enough that I can get back to the wedding story. I told you what happened the day before, but now I’ll let you have a peek into the day of the wedding, from Bridezilla’s point of view.

The morning of the big day started out fine. I hadn’t scheduled anything until 10 AM (breakfast), but because I was still jet-lagged, I woke up around 5 AM, much to Ray’s chagrin (he actually can’t complain, though, because he was just as awake as I was). So we lazed about for a few hours before really getting up and having breakfast at 8, and I was psyched to be ahead of schedule.

I had just gotten out of the shower when my MoH arrived at the bungalows. She was on the phone with Jan, who was at the flower shop in Honolulu, and there was some problem with some of the flowers (they had supplied one haku lei and one boutonniere instead of two haku leis for the two flower girls). I handled it pretty quickly, wrapped in a towel and dripping, basically telling Jan that if they don’t have two haku leis, then I don’t want just one, and they have to refund me the money. Somehow, another haku lei (albeit not the same color) magically appeared! Isn’t it funny how that happened?

So the only other snafu of the day was the weather. We should have known when we decided to get married in a rainforest that it would rain. Actually, we did know, which is why we had the Butterfly Pavilion as a backup plan.

The ceremony went by in a blur to me. I kept trying to hold onto all these memories, and they are still all there, but it’s so hard to put into words. My mom ended up playing “O Promise Me” on the violin while we did the lei exchange. A peacock walked into the middle of the Butterfly Pavilion during the ceremony. And the flower girls had so much fun dropping flowers they decided to follow me and Ray after we went down the aisle, dropping more flowers.

By the time the ceremony was over, the sun came out, although there were intermittent showers. It was a Hawaiian blessing, the officiant told us. Also, one of the butterflies we released ended up on my bouquet, so there were lots of pictures of my bouquet with the butterfly.

At the reception in Hawaii, which was also at Waimea Falls, just at their catering area (the Pikake Pavilion), my dad decided to surprise me with a band. We had planned on not having any DJ or anything, just a bunch of MP3s playing, you know, to save money. But my dad went and hired a band, unbeknownst to me or Ray, and I was totally shocked. I actually think it was the best gift he could have given me, though, because while he was totally nervous around my mom’s family, as soon as he stepped up to the mic and started playing and singing with the band, he was totally cool and comfortable. Everybody loved him, and everyone loved the band, too. I even sang a few songs, as did my brother Mike!

So both the day and evening were a success. I was really happy, and I couldn’t have asked for a better day, rain and all.

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What Happened the Day Before the Wedding

So for those of you who didn’t go to Hawaii (or for those of you who did go and have forgotten about it already), I’ll start with the adventures before the wedding. I’ll spare you the little details of a bride going crazy (those stories are a dime a dozen anyway), but I will tell you that I was one of those neurotic, overplanning brides (for those of you who know me, that shouldn’t come as a shock at all), and I had even put together a database complete with a schedule of who is going to do what. The master list, printed out as a report, was about 28 pages, and I also had a secondary list that separated out the tasks by person, so each person only got about 1-2 pages.

Of course, since as my friend Grant put it to me, “Weddings are a series of catastrophes strung together,” the first catastrophe started when my in-laws decided not to go by the schedule. Now, they don’t know me very well, so I can kind of see how they would think this isn’t such a big deal. But it was, and it got me hopping mad on the day of my wedding rehearsal.

We all arrived, according to schedule, at the front of Waimea Falls Park at 11:15 AM, and it was pouring rain. Our wedding coordinator suggested we rehearse in the Butterfly Pavilion, our plan B in case of rain. I said, “Great, let’s go. Is everybody here?” We quickly realized that Ray’s parents weren’t there, and we then spent the next half hour trying to find them (calling the bungalows, trying to reach someone else at the bungalows), all of which was very hard because there’s not very much cell service at Waimea Falls.

Finally, when I’m about to say, “Okay, you know what? Let’s just do it without them,” one of the women working the front desk pipes up that she saw an elderly couple come in at about 10:30 and make their way to the Upper Meadow.

I then make the executive decision that we’re all going to go to the Butterfly Pavilion while Ray and the wedding coordinator get in the truck and drive to the Upper Meadow to get Ray’s parents. Of course, not five minutes have passed when who should come ambling down the hill in the rain? RAY’S PARENTS.

Oy. I could have torn my hair out. I should have figured that of all the people to not follow the schedule, it would be Ray’s parents, because A) they don’t realize how anal I actually am about schedules, and B) they always show up early when they’re not supposed to.

But all’s well that ends well. Ray returned with the wedding coordinator, we started the rehearsal (an hour late), and ran through everything without incident.

We then went back to the bungalows for our rehearsal BBQ (Ray didn’t want to have a rehearsal dinner; instead he thought just throwing some burgers on the grill would be sufficient).