Dear Captain Howie and his crew!

How can we even begin to say thanks for all you have given us and done for us? With your assistance, every one of our Hawaiian wedding dreams (and then some) have come true. The wedding honestly went better than we even hoped could be possible. When we look at the pictures, it’s still so hard to believe that our ceremony was so beautiful! Justin and I owe it all to you. Thank you so much for everything.

In particular, Capt. Howie’s ceremony was incredibly inspiring. We had a mixture of religious beliefs at our wedding (Jewish, Christian, agnostic, atheist, Buddhist, Shinto), and somehow your sentiments touched everyone perfectly. A retired family friend came up to us after the wedding and stated that this was the first wedding she’d ever been to where she actually agreed with and enjoyed the sentiments. Justin and I – having had a few family tensions that arose after the wedding – keep laughing and asking ourselves “How could Captain Howie have known our ship would hit rough seas so soon?”

I wanted to share with you a comment from the husband of my best friend. They got married almost two years to the day prior to our wedding in a traditional wintery ceremony in Connecticut. Their ceremony was very different from ours, but also very beautiful. After our ceremony, Joe commented to us that “You know, I honestly thought there was no wedding in the world that could be as beautiful as ours. Yours, though, was absolutely amazing!” We only have you to thank for making our wedding in Hawaii as beautiful and touching as it was.

Enclosed are some emails from friends I thought you’d enjoy. We have sent the online photo gallery to many friends, so I apologize for the extra traffic! In the meantime, all the best to you, Deva, Jenny, Chrissy as well as the parrots, cats and your beautiful dog Shark. Best wishes and Aloha for 2009.

Kirsten and Justin Laufer
Gainsville, Florida
Married – December 8th 2008