Once I picked myself back up off the floor of devastation to start searching again, I found another gem.  This house is larger than the original, allowing us to ask more people to stay with us!  It actually turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because there are really no hotels near Waipio.  This new place is just 20 minutes from Waikoloa, which is jam packed with resorts for our guests to stay in.  Although it does not overlook Waipio Valley, it does have a great ocean view.

***Hint: click on any image within the tiled gallery to open an image carousel.

Because this house had 2 master suites, we were able to segregate the girls from the guys to avoid accidental sightings prior to the ceremony. After spending the morning at Hearts & Stars Salon, which provided amazing service, the ladies took the upstairs master suite.  I have the best friends!  When I took my dress out of the dress bag the morning of the wedding, I nearly cried when I saw how wrinkly it was.  Carrie and Aaron made a special trip to Target in Kona to buy a steamer, and then Carrie steamed my dress like a boss.  It was perfect, like it’d just come from being steamed at the dry cleaner.  She’s an amazing woman!  There were so many other things that she did that day….

The guys took the downstairs master suite to get ready for the wedding.  They’re so dapper!

Even though we were running late, we still managed to squeeze in a quick pre-ceremony photoshoot at the house before we headed for Waipio Valley.

The weather on the Kona side of Wiamea was perfect all morning!  The sun was shining, and there wasn’t a cloud in the beautiful blue sky.  As we crested the hill at Wiamea on our drive to Wiapio Valley for our wedding ceremony, the clouds set in and then it began to drizzle.  I began to stress about the weather, but our amazing photographer just kept saying, “Look!  There is blue sky over the sea.  The rain will be gone by the time we arrive.”  Even though I continued to stress, he was right!  The rain stopped just as we arrived in the valley, which is actually very beautiful and mystic looking in the rain.

Even over 10 months later, I look back at our pictures and think Wiapio Valley is the most perfect and beautiful place to be married.  As Ben and I were working with Kristan to develop our ceremony, we wanted to include traditional Hawaiian elements, such as a lei exchange and blowing of the conch shell.  It used to make me uncomfortable when Ben took pictures of weddings that we’d come across on the beach, but on my wedding day the additional spectators on the beach taking pictures or just joining our ceremony didn’t bother me at all.  My dad and I discussed as we walked down the beach that it was kind of cool that other people were interested.

Because we didn’t want to see each other before the ceremony, we had a quick photoshoot with all of our guests and bridal party immediately following the ceremony still in Waipio Valley.

On this day we we merged our names as we did our lives and were married as the Grantrobus’.

After the ceremony and photos, we all headed back to the house we rented for an 11 course degustation of Hawaiian cuisine and wine pairings on the lawn.  It was super windy out, but our amazing caterer (Aloha Mondays) did her best to keep the candles lit and prevent wine glasses from blowing away.

All photographs in this post were taken by James Rubio Photography.