Dear Captain Howie, Wade, Fernando, Arturo, Jodie, Sara, and anyone else we forgot!
Just as we are settling in back at home from our honeymoon, I put “write thank you to Captain Howie” on my “to do” list. And surprise, we were thrilled to receive the CD in the mail today with our photos! That was fast!
We want to thank you so much for making our Hawaii Wedding Day so wonderful and special. We know you do this every day – sometimes more than once a day! Still, you made us feel as if it was as important a day for you as it was for us!
When we knew we were going to have a Hawaiian wedding , I started looking for information on how to go about it. I found some places on the Internet but then saw the website for Above Heaven’s Gate in a guidebook. As soon as I saw the website, I loved it and knew that was where I wanted our wedding to be! Captain Howie’s soothing voice and gentle, friendly demeanor on the video portions of the website made me want to meet him! From that day on, I spent hours on the site, checking out every part, reading it all and watching the videos. Everything was very clear and easy to understand. The clincher was the photos! I looked at entire albums of many couples, imagining Andy and I in them…in the garden, on the beach, and on that lovely romantic, four poster bed!
In January, we came to look at the Hobbit House, the grounds, and the beach — of course, we had to see it for ourselves! Everything was just as beautiful as the photos and we booked our wedding that day! Chrissy and Jodie were always so friendly whenever we spoke on the phone… the ultimate Hawaii wedding coordinators.
After much anticipation and planning, finding all the right clothes and accessories and worrying about the weather, our special Day arrived on July 11! I had been quite crazed for weeks before as I was moving from New York to Hawaii, arriving just a week before our wedding. Even the day before was full of unexpected snafus. But, as we set off in the dark of night from our hotel to Angels Bay, we were full of excitement. Even at 4am, Captain Howie was up and cheerfully directed us.
I was struck by the beautiful smell of Andy’s ti-leaf lei as soon as I entered the room where I had my hair and makeup done. Two hours flew by as Wade worked his wonders on me with his hair and makeup artistry! I had so much fun chatting with him as he did the work. When I looked in the mirror, I was so pleased to see that I looked as pretty as I felt! Then Captain Howie brought in my bouquet! It was so beautiful and colorful! I was so happy I stuck with my original choice for the flowers (Ocean Sunrise). All the fun colors caught my eye from the start. Andy joked that it looked like Fruity Pebbles! For months, I debated whether or not to change and then I just couldn’t because it had turned into our little joke and we had to have the Fruity Pebble bouquet for our wedding. I absolutely LOVED it. I must tell you that we went for lunch at a hotel in Waikiki, then walked around a bit, went to the airport and flew in our wedding clothes. During that time and while checking into our hotel, we received many, “Congratulations!” from people, many followed by compliments on my flowers and how pretty they were! We also brought the rest of our yummy liliko’i cake with us on our honeymoon and enjoyed it.
At 6am we started our photo session. I had been looking forward to this part so much! Photographs are so important to me and would be the visual memories that we would look at forever to remember one of the most special days we would ever have. In addition, since we decided to have the ceremony with just the two of us, the photos would be what we would have to show family and friends. I was so happy to meet Fernando, as I was such a big fan of the work I had admired for so many months! We had so much fun taking the pictures! Fernando and Arturo were funny and friendly and we soon got used to hearing, “Look at me, look at each other, kiss,” for the photos we took in each place! It was obvious what care Fernando took to make each photo perfect as he waited for a cloud to go by or pulled a stray leaf out of a plant before taking the pictures. I really appreciated his attention to detail. Even though he has done this job hundreds (thousands?!) of times, it felt wonderful that he seemed to know how important these photos would be to us and did everything he could to make them look the best they could possibly be. Next to actually getting married, the photos were the next most important part of the day for me. Luckily, the sun was shining and the sky and water on the beach were every shade of blue imaginable, just as I had pictured it in my mind 1000 times. We had so much fun looking through all the photos. I had sent the preview photo you sent us out to friends and was told, “Your skin looks flawless!” - part Wade, part digital Botox, no doubt! Now comes the work of choosing which ones to send out to everyone and how we will do our album.
Captain Howie, thank you so much for a lovely Hawaiian beach wedding ceremony. It was so nice to be just the two of us with you, barefoot on the beach, sand in our toes, the sound of the waves, with the colors of the beach as the setting for such an important moment in our lives. You are amazing blowing into that shell! We loved the words you said, speaking about the commitment we were making to each other and keeping that commitment in the good but also, any rough times that inevitably come along in any marriage. We laughed later about the analogy you made because it absolutely applied to us! Andy loves shopping at Costco and I love eating the samples and we both love cheese! But honestly, what you said about the indescribable quality of love – how there are just no words for it – it is just so true! Nothing is better, nothing can compare to it, and there are just no words for how it feels for us to love and be loved by each other. We had such a nice time talking with you afterwards and then we set off for a lunch and then flew to Maui for our honeymoon!
Everything was perfect and went flawlessly because of all the behind-the-scenes work by you and your staff. We are so happy we chose Above Heaven’s Gate. We will remember you and our wedding forever! Thank you again for everything! Everything was absolutely perfect for us. There was not a thing we could think of that could have made the day better.
Nanci and Andy Dehring
Married July 11th 2011
Dear Captain Howie and gang,
