These two are adorable. And not just because they threw one seriously breathtaking wedding in Maui. No, it’s because after meeting 15 years ago and working side by side for three, they realized that true love had been right there in front of them this entire time… and that they were sooo meant to be. It’s the type of story you usually only see on the big screen, but for these two lovebirds it’s an absolutely amazing reality; one followed up by an uber-stunning wedding planned to perfection by Belle Destination Events. See it all captured by Wendy Laurel in the full gallery.
From the Bride… I fell in love with Maui the first time I travelled there when I was 6 years old and as Maui became a family favorite spot to visit, I dreamed of getting married in Maui as a little girl. I fell in love with the beach, ocean, sand, palm trees, and romance of Maui. Jeff and I went together for the first time in 2010 as a couple and he fell in love with the island just the same. When Jeff proposed on Wailea beach inNovember 2011, I immediately wanted to get married on the island and I think Jeff secretly did too. However our ideas of our Maui wedding were a bit different. Jeff wanted to elope or just have immediate family and I wanted a bit bigger wedding with our closest friends and extended families. Jeff gave in and planned (yes he did most of the “work”, with my consultation of course), the most beautiful, memorable day I could have ever asked for with 54 of our closest family and friends.
Jeff and I met in 1998 at a trade show (yes, i’ll do the math for you, that was 15 years ago). I worked at a local sporting goods store and he was the Sales Rep! I had my eye on him from the moment I saw him. He was attractive, smart and funny, but much to my disappointment, WAY to old for me. Looking back, there was no way in a BILLION years, I would have ever said, “i’m going to marry that guy one day”… how things can change after 10 years of having a secret crush on someone. After 6 years of working at the store, Jeff and I went for lunch one day when he came to the store to visit. To make a long story short, it turned into a bit of a business lunch and Jeff’s compnay hired me to come work for them running a clothing line. Could you believe that I now got to work side by side my secret crush? Well, another 3 or so years went by of working next to and crushing on Jeff and before i knew it, we had a little office romance going. It all started with us talking over beers at a local bar downtown. Jeff and I started to hang out quite frequently outside of work as he was super fun to hang out with. Jeff decided to take up one of my dreams, which was snowboarding and during the winter, this became a common activity for us to do together. In the summer, because we both love wakeboarding and surfing this too became a common activity for us as we spent many weekends on the lake with our friends, something I hope we continue in the future. We became best friends quickly and fell totally in love with one other.
We didn’t do much ourselves, we brought the wakeboard as our guest book. We chose the wakeboard as our guestbooks as wakeboarding is the connection that brought Jeff and myself together. He sells Wakeboards for a distribution company in Canada and I stareted at worked at the little watersports shop selling wakeboards when we first met at that trade show.
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Wedding Photography: Wendy Laurel + Assisted by Jeffrey Oltman | Venue: Hale Honu | Wedding Planners: Belle Destination Events | Floral Design: Bella Bloom Florals | Wedding Invitations: Be Marry | Calligraphy: Miss B Calligraphy | Wedding Dress: Paloma Blanca | Groom’s Suit: Custom Coppley Suit | Bridesmaid’s Dress: Melissa Sweet | Catering: Aloha Events Catering | Bar: Garnish Events | Cake: Maui Sweet Cakes | DJ: DJ Del Sol | Musicians: Vance Koenig + Don Lax | Hair + Makuep: Mira Carmen | Officiant: Pia Aluli | Rentals: Pacific Isle Rentals | Limousine: The Limo Company