Hau'oli Makahiki Hou

I figured since we spent New Years this year in Hawaii at a local wedding that the title of this entry is appropriate (Happy New Years in Hawaiian). Rich's co-worker and friend, Eric, got married to this fabulous girl, Lesley, on New Year's Eve and the wedding was absolutely amazing. The location of the wedding was the most beautiful wedding spot I have been to (even trumps our own!) Lesley is local haole (and a teacher) with generations of her family being from here (and all Punahou grads) and Eric is originally from California but has been here for about five years. They are a great couple and we enjoy seeing them at work parties and functions and felt very honored to be invited to their wedding.

We thought the wedding was at Kualoa Ranch on the other side of the island but ended up being across the street from the ranch at Hale Moli'i. We drove up and saw this huge white tent for the reception and found out that we had to get on little boats to get to the actual wedding ceremony site. We got in the boats which brought us across the body of water and ended up on this private little beach where they got married at and then we took the boats back to the reception site. So cool! We learned that parts of Lost was filmed here as well as the wedding from the movie "You, Me and Dupree". I already told my sister, Lindsay, that this is where she should get married!

Joseph was a champ throughout the night and was loving hanging out in the carrier. Best part of the night though was during the wedding ceremony he was starting to move around a bit and was due for a feeding so I decided to go and find a place to feed him. There were a bunch of picnic tables set up right next to the ceremony but felt that this was a little too close to all of the people so I walked down the beach and found a piece of wood on the ground and sat down on it. I thought it was a perfect little spot...until the wedding ended and the entire bridal party ended up standing right behind me. I guess this was the "meet after the wedding to get ready for pictures spot." The bride walked up first and just says to me, "I am so sorry Lisa!" Then Rich comes running down the beach and says "I'm so sorry Eric!" We were all laughing and luckily Joseph is a good little eater so didn't even notice when we stood up and walked a bit farther down the beach for some real privacy!

Lesley danced a beautiful hula for Eric and the reception was great! It was a wonderful way to ring in the New Year!

The view of the reception area from the dock on the other side-the boat in the middle is what we had to take to the other side

Once we got off the boat we had to take a little path to the other side of the island to the beach

The bridal party getting ready to walk to the beach

The wedding ceremony

The view on the boat on the way back to the reception

Rich, Eric, Paul and Kevin (all PCL guys)

Joseph at his first wedding