My Life Blog

What a day! Getting married in Kauai was supposed to be without the usual stress of a big mainland wedding. However, just as I was closing up yesterday’s relaxed weblog, the weather turned South.

We figured the only thing that could really ruin our day was if we had a rare persistent rain storm. Well…sure enough about 1pm or so it started raining and it didn’t stop until probably 5pm or so.

In the midst of the rain, Suzanne had to get her hair done in town. So at around 2:45pm she set off into town over the winding mountain-side road. I lounged around reading a book while watching the CNN Katrina coverage. However, my own stress started to build around 4:15pm when Suzanne became overdue. Given the kind of road she had to travel on, I had feared an accident or something since I knew she’d want to be back in time to comfortably prepare herself for our wedding.

So when I called her, she was actually in Princeville, a nearby neighboring city. As it turned out, the local grocery marts in Hanalei did not have the kind of flowers she and the hair dresser had planned to put in her hair. So she was in Princeville buying flowers and getting them placed in her hair with the hair dresser who had followed her into that town. This ate up much of her time, but I was glad to know she was okay.

She finally returned at about 4:40pm. We were to meet our wedding coordinators at 5:30pm and had targeted at 5:20pm departure time. Just what a girl wants, just over 30 minutes to do her makeup and put on her wedding dress. I on the other hand had no trouble. But I knew this was very stressful for her.

In the end, we got there and the rain gave us just enough of a window to proceed with things. So we hurriedly gathered on the beach and got quick instructions for what to do. Unfortunately, it’ll probably look a bit rushed on the video as we were very unrehearsed and raw. Perhaps that’s the way it should be. Considering it Kauai Wedding Unplugged.

But things got going quickly. The native Hawaiian officiate, Leilani, started some chanting and blessed the sand that I was standing on and we were off and running. I wish I could tell you all the things that she said, but things were pretty much a blur. Your head starts to spin when you are having a big moment.

When we got to the repeat-after-me stuff, I did pretty well through the first few lines and then I lost. Yep, that’s what I said, I lost it. There’s was an excruciatingly long (for me) pause while I welled up with emotion and then cried the lines out. I was quite surprised and it definitely sent Suzanne on an emotional turn. But in the end, we both got through our lines and were pronounced Man and Wife. It was beautiful.

As we completed the official service, we looked up at the skies and they were quite threatening. We were just sure we were about to get more rain. So the photographer put us through a sprint of photographs. I’m fearing that they did not come out so well since we were on a dead run to get them all in. In addition, I’m worse than crash dummy about getting into posed positions. I’m sure I look so unnatural.

We closed the night in Princeville by having a nice dinner at La Cascata in the Princeville Hotel. The food was wonderful, though the service was interesting — our waiter’s name was Sequoia, so just imagine.

Since Java Kai has limited bandwidth this morning, I’ve only been able to upload a few new pics, but you should be able to see them by clicking on the collage below.

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www.flickr.com More of bill_eisenhauer’s photos

Well, you know the world is changing when you blog on your Wedding Day…and from your Honeymoon as well.

As it turns out, she, who will be my wife later today, is getting an “emergency” massage to remedy some neck pain that she’s developed in the last couple of days. Hopefully, she’ll come back cured and won’t be distracted during the festivities later in the day.

I sit here in Hanalei at a Java Kai which is more or less a Starbucks. This is the first Internet access I’ve had since leaving on Friday and so I’m catching up on a few things. I must say that this is the way to get married — on the beach in a beautiful locale. Highly recommended if you have the means.

But while all is going smooth now, it did not start out that way. On Friday, we made it to the airport just fine and filed up to board First Class. As we were about to provide our boarding pass, we were held back by a VIP. It was none other than Samuel L. Jackson! And of course, he sat in First Class right along with us. Sounds smooth enough so far, but we were delayed close to an hour on the ground while a circuit board was replaced in the cockpit. And since we had only a brief layover in Oahu, this threatened the second leg of our trip.

The flight went very smooth. I mostly read and Suzanne watched a movie and read her Harry Potter book. Along the way, we continued to observe Samuel L. with intrigue. He was traveling with a body guard and the two hardly spoke. He did dig out a script and read that for quite some time — the script looked very stereotypical as it was type-written in Courier font and bounded with brads. This is just the way I imagine scripts to be. Otherwise, he slept for a bit and listened to his iPod. I would have loved to have known what was on his Playlist.

Upon landing in Oahu, we rushed to catch our connecting flight. We were successful and we landed on time. However, our bags didn’t catch up with us for about an hour an half or so. In that time, we picked up our rental and waited at the airport. Our bags were a bit more important this trip since they were carrying wedding stuff.

With our bags packed away in the rental car, we made our way to the north side of the island which was about a one hour drive. We ate dinner at Bubba’s Burgers and then walked across the street to get the key to our rental house. We were to punch in a code and access our key using the after-hours drop box. Unfortunately, the key was not in there!! Thankfully, our cell phones had service this trip and we quickly summoned somebody using the emergency number. We got the key and successfully found our place.

So on Saturday, our first full day, we shopped for a while in Hanalei since we had to be there to finalize our marriage certificate. Later in the afternoon we went to Tunnels beach for a couple of hours before calling it a day.

On Sunday, we went to Queen’s Bath and Hideaways Beach. Entry into each requires a bit of a hike, so that was a bit challenging for us — well, more challenging than walking down a beach, I guess. Queen’s Bath was amazing this year. Last year, it was inaccessible due to high tide. This year we were able to get in and really enjoy it. As extras this year, we saw several turtles and a large school of dolphins swim by.

And that brings us to today. We had thought we were going to get married on Tunnels Beach, however our wedding consultant urged us to scout another location. So we checked out one of her suggestions today and we are getting married there instead. It figures to be beautiful and hopefully I’ll have pictures later in the week.

I am adding pictures to my Flickr account and some random ones are pictured below:

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I’ve been admonished for not posting with such a momentous event approaching.  So here is my attempt to mitigate the admonishments, but more importantly focus on the event and what lies ahead.

On Friday August 26th, Suzanne and I fly First Class to Oahu and then catch a quick flight to Kauai to return to our favorite tropical destination.  In fact, we have even arranged to stay at the Kuraoka House once again.  However, this isn’t just a vacation — we’re getting married!!

The big day is August 29th.  And yes, we know its a Monday and that that is an odd day.  But since we are getting married on the beach, we have been advised that Mondays are actually the best day to do such a thing.  We are truly getting married Hawaiian style complete with a native Hawaiian officiate.  The service promises to be beautiful and memorable.

We will be in Kauai two full weeks this time.  Obviously, after the 29th, we will officially be on our Honeymoon.  As such, I’m taking all manner of electronics to capture the event.  The Mac, the Nikon digital camera, and the new digital camcorder are all making the trip.  Even the iPod gets to go!  With any luck, there will be more pictures and small movies to post on the weblog.  And beyond that, I’m hoping to create a wedding video since no one will have been there to share the event with us.

And so upon return, marital bliss will ensue.  Suzanne and I have been rehearsing that as she moved in on 7/28.  So far, so good.  The house looks great with mostly her furniture now.  Some of mine got deservedly kicked to the curb (literally).  And I’ve hung probably many things on the walls — probably in the teens by now.  There’s been no fighting and no real lifestyle skirmishes.  We’ve each compromised pretty quickly.  About the only tense time we’ve had so far is every time I’ve had to install something I go full blown into Tourette Syndrome.  What can I say, I’m not used to having an audience when I drill errant holes in ceilings.

And lastly, upon return, I’m hoping to reboot the weblog.  That probably means a site redesign along with content that’s more frequent than once a quarter.