Reflections... our crazy wedding story pt 2

... So we had decided to look into Hawaii.
*You can read part one here *

My family had been several times and found the islands to be such a relaxing place. We had no idea what availability would be like or the prices of flights at the last minute, so after deciding on the island we wanted we started looking things up online.

The Big Island of Hawaii. Kona is located on the left.

I love Kona on the Big Island. It is very low key, with no high rises or over commercialised tourism. We found a condo resort in our favourite location and gave them a call to check their availability. Turned out the recession had hit them hard and they had many rooms open. They were also going for a great price - $80 a night for a one bedroom with a full kitchen, living room and lanai.
We then proceeded to check into flights and found the same thing, great deals. Flights for around $400-$500 round trip from Seattle. Awesome!

Kona. See how tiny it is? That's why I love it so much.

We called up all our guests. Sadly, not everyone was able to reschedule at the last minute. Some were not willing to travel with what was going on, others hadn't wanted to risk wasting their vacation time and had booked other trips and some just preferred to stay home. We totally understood everyones decision. It was stressful for all involved, not just us.

But we really appreciated those who stuck with us and trusted our judgement on the new plans. I don't think you will ever understand how much your support meant to us at that time. Your phone calls, your emails, you kept us sane!
A group of us went ahead and booked the trip to Hawaii - approximately 48 hours before we were to leave. We still had no idea what we were going to do as far as a wedding ceremony, photographer, flowers, reception, anything.

Once the flights and condos were booked, we talked it over with my dad and decided that he would be the one to marry us. He already had a legal licence to do so, so it just made sense. We also decided to sign our papers here, as it would have been too complicated to go through all the necessary steps once in the States. We only did the legal part of it. No ceremony, no vows, no hype. Just sitting casually in my families living room. In the eyes of the government we were now legally married. But in the eyes of us (& God) we were not.

We started to pack our bags and think about what we were going to do about everything else.

...to be continued...