2 Days in Maui!

So the original plan was to fly to LA to shoot my wedding. Then fly back to NY for a day. Then fly down to Belize for my next wedding.

But a day or two before my flight out to LA, Miss Rebecca asked me if I wanted to crash her cousin's wedding in Maui with her. And Maui is a relatively easy flight from LA. And it's much more fun to go there than back to New York for a day. (Plus I would have had to deal with grabbing my car from the airport lot, driving back into the city, driving back to the airport, RE-parking my car.) PLUS Delta now does upgrades from LAX to Hawaii which they previously did not do.

So after thinking about it for a few minutes I decided YOLO and called Delta and had them reroute my flights so that I flew to Maui from LA and then back thru LA on my way to Belize (which also allowed me to pick up Danny, who would be joining me on my Belize adventure).

So Sunday morning after my Malibu wedding I hopped on the 8am flight to Maui which landed me there around 11am which gave me pretty much a full day of sun and fun!

Rebecca picked me up in a pretty rental convertible that she decided to splurge on. She sure knows how to spoil a giant! TREAT YO SELF! 

The weather was perrrrfect.

We cruised up the coast to our hotel.

 The Westin Maui Resort and Spa. SOY BEAUTIFUL.

Our lobby had a lagoon with waterfalls and flamingoes!

We walked along the beaches. 

Reba also gave me a pretty shell necklace to welcome me. LOVED it. 

Then we met up with her cousin and fiancee and family. They were a group of HILARIOUS crazy Miami girls.

We swam in the pool. Ran on the beach. Went down the waterslide (yes yes our hotel pool had an epic one). And had, of course, pina coladas.

These girls were soy funny.

And they LOOOOOOVED to twerk. 

I made Matt and Randi (the bride and groom) do a mini 2-minute engagement session on the beach. 

And she decided she wanted to stomp and kick children's sandcastles...HILARITY. 

Awwww cousins!!!!

The sunset was SOY BEAUTIFUL.

I forced them to come back outside for a quickie photo that I thought would be pretty...and it was. 

The pool lit up at night and was pretty also.

We LOVES Hawaii. LOVE LOVE LOVES!!!

The next day, Monday, Rebecca had set up a resort tours for us at some of the local resorts. (Resort people/wedding coordinators are always soy excited to meet with her since she is the editor of a little wedding magazine called The Knot) and so they took us around and showed us all their pretty things and amenities in hopes that one day she will feature their property or tell people to go there and get married.

Then we took a little drive to the northern coast of Maui.

And posed for a pic with our pretty little convertible. (Yes we were those awful convertible people playing music and screaming at the top of our lungs.)

Then we stopped by the giant banyan tree in Lahaina for a quick bite before the wedding.

Around 5pm it was wedding time!

It was a small wedding. Only about 18 people. But it was set up right next to the beach and it was soyyyy pretty. Everyone was so nice and welcoming to me. (It was just close friends and family, so I was a big-time wedding crasher.)

Randi looked gorgeous...

They exchanged rings and leis. 

This is I think the only wedding this year that I'm going to be just a guest at, it was nice to feel zero pressure to perform. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE shooting my friends' weddings. (Plus, we loves getting paid.) But this was a nice feeling too!

But I mean...I can't witness something so beautiful and NOT take pictures!

Matt did a little just-married heel kick when he was exiting...I hope their official photog got it!

Randi was the coolest bride. She actually ASKED if she could lay down and roll around in her dress. I WISH my brides would want to do that. Most people (understandably) don't want to get dirty!

So cute!

Hawaii is just soooo beautiful.

Congratulations Randi and Matt!

 After the ceremony, they took off to take epic pictures with their photographer lady, so Rebecca and I did a little detour on our way to the wedding dinner and stopped at the fabulous Montage Resort Maui for sunset drinks.

YUMMMMMMMMMM

This place is posh posh gorgeous posh. (But still not as posh as Sandy Lane.)

We loves a Hawaiian sunset!

And we stumbled on yet another bride and groom!

I forced them to take a photo, but they were like who are you and why and ok. 

 

Then we went across the street to the Pineapple Grill...

Just in time to greet the bride and groom...

And then we sat for a delightful alcohol-fueled dinner.

With a hula dancer and ukelele man.

They were playing covers of random pop songs so I asked if they knew any Britney Spears and they looked at me like I was crazy.

Then we got drunk and asked her to teach us how to hula.

The men tried too.

I was the worst. (And tall.)

The FOOD was GOOD.

And the happy couple did their first dance.

This chicken, or what I remember of it, was EXCELLENT.

Speeches!

Drunky!

And then the night mayyyyy or may not have ended with taxi-van tires screeching as the belligerent bride screamed, "I will burn you and SET YOUR FAMILY ON FIRE!!!!!!!" at a bouncer through a cracked-open window as her helpless husband restrained her... (She had forgotten her ID and he was making no exceptions, wedding dress or no wedding dress.)

Yup. It was THAT kind of epic.

On Tuesday morning we played in the pool and waterslide and waterfalls.

Then I hopped on a plane to Belize via LAX and ATL.