Sometimes all the elements converge to satisfy every aesthetic urge I have at a wedding. I am rewarded by some wedding muse with variable but excellent light, great style, chemistry and ease with the people and I feel like the couple and I are feeling the same exact mood board in real time. For the last two years I’ve had to fly from Hawai’i to Tuscany to shoot in the magic of olive groves so imagine my excitement when I discovered that a Tuscan villa and working olive farm were available as a wedding venue in Kula, upcountry Maui, right near my kids’ school. It’s a different world up there at about 3000 feet above sea level. The climate is Mediterranean and the light is often much softer than what I’m used to below in tropical Maui, thanks to the lei of clouds which form over Haleakala almost every afternoon. This wedding day was no exception to the usual pattern and we enjoyed a perfect golden hour just before sunset in addition to a rainbow with a smattering of Kula rain. The ceremony was a blend of Greek Orthodox and Roman Catholic traditions. In all the many weddings I’ve photographed I’ve never before this seen the lovely silver crowns joined by ribbons over the bride and groom’s heads. These ones came from the bride’s native Greece. The dress was a lace and tulle Rosa Clará design fresh off the plane from Barcelona. Katy Roberts of Vows Maui did an impeccable job with design and planning. (Full vendor credit list below.) Nate of Sunlit Films was wonderful to work with, as always, and Dellables delivered on the bride’s floral dreams. At twilight the couple entered the reception with their first dance and were soon after joined by the whole family for traditional Albanian dancing and then dined under the stars overlooking the vineyards and olive groves on the slopes of Haleakala. I gratefully ate my dinner on the porch, finished dancing coverage, uploaded my cards to an external drive on the way down the mountain and boarded a red-eye to Vancouver with a smile.
