Five Years Ago Today ❤

My maternal grandparents eloped, my parents eloped too; I have always been adamant that I would not get married in a courthouse, my fear was if I did, my daughter (should I have one), would elope as well. I did not break the cycle but I would not have wanted to be married any other way. ❤
This is The Old Lahaina Courthouse, isn’t it cute? It was built-in 1859, during the reign of Kamehameha the VI.

I did not get married there!!! I worked with a wedding coordinator online, we decided we were going to get married in South Maui; however, the previous weekend at the Hyatt there were weddings everywhere: the Great Lawn, the waterfall, the gazebo and the beach. Jack and I began to ask the locals if we should move our ceremony to West Maui, everyone responded the same way, they asked where we currently were going to be married and then they all recommended we stay with our original location. It was probably an hour drive to get there but when you live in Texas an hour drive is next door, so that wasn’t a problem; when it got scary, was when the road dropped down to one lane and the edge of the road was on my side. Passing oncoming traffic was very precarious. We pulled up to a wall, that is overgrown with vegetation and my initial thought was, “Uh-oh, what did I do?”; then I walked through the opening and knew THIS was where we were meant to be married! We were Maui’d in Makena Cove (Secret Beach), in a traditional Hawaiian Ceremony by Rev. Alalani Hill.



We dined at Sonz at the Hyatt Regency Ka’anapali after the ceremony, yes, that’s where we were staying but I did look into several places and it was highly recommended. It was an excellent choice, the wait staff was amazing, because it was not busy they really went out of their way to make everything very special.

You did catch that I said we eloped, right? Five years ago today smart phones were not as popular as they are now and I personally did not buy my first iPhone until the month after we got back. So these are the pictures that our family and friends back home woke up to in their email in boxes.

I must say we do have really great senses of humor but I was surprised at how many people thought we were kidding, so what if we had already been together for thirteen years and engaged for eight! I always said I wanted a long engagement. 😀
This is the picture that went out with the formal announcement when we got home.

❤At this point I would like to thank Sheree Giegling, she made it all happen and is by far an excellent wedding coordinator. I contacted her two weeks before the date and she managed everything so that we had a perfect day, she even managed to pull off getting the “mainland” flowers I wanted for my bouquet. 😉 The day before the wedding she called and asked what I was doing, when I replied, “I am about to snorkel off the coast of Lana’i”, she cracked up laughing and said I was the calmest bride she ever worked with. I had complete faith in her and for good reason too, it was the perfect day.
❤I would also like to thank Rev. Alalani Hill for falling in love with us, the way we did with her; we will always treasure your words and you have truly touched our soul.
❤Last but not least, to the woman who stopped us in the hallway of the Hyatt, asked if we were getting married, if my Mom was there and when I replied that she was not said, “Well come here and give me a hug! You need a hug from a Mom on your wedding day!” When I told my mother she wept tears of happiness, said your actions meant the world to her and because of how much they meant should she ever get the opportunity to she will do the same. Thank you!