For Stephanie and Chris, Maui is home. Steph teaches art to little kids, and Chris is an executive chef at a local restaurant. Between the two, they created a wedding that was artistically creative and infused with delicious food. About 70 family members and friends flew in to add to the 30 locals for this larger-than-usual Hawaiian destination wedding. Finding a venue that could accommodate the guest count (without resorting to, well, a big expensive resort) was their first challenge. Luckily they discovered a private property smack in the middle of the Coffee Farms Estates – it’s up the mountain from downtown Ka’anapali, surrounded by lush coffee fields with a panoramic ocean view. The house is gorgeous, with beautiful landscaping all around and an infinity pool that sparkled like a glowing gem after sunset.
Stephanie’s charming, accommodating personality made my job SO easy, and even though Chris is not a huge fan of photos he really made an effort and honestly I think he had a great time in spite of himself. Stephanie had grand plans of shuttling the whole bridal party around to multiple locations for pre-ceremony formals; as a local she knew exactly where she wanted to get shots taken. Even though we got lost in the coffee field maze, we managed to hit up each spot with time to spare.
The wind was consistently gusty at 30-40 mph, but Stephanie’s short hair and the ladies’ up-dos made the shoots possible. And then there was the rain… well ordinarily the rain and wind would really put a damper on things, but everyone’s spirits were high and we just rolled with it. We moved the ceremony to the tent, and were rewarded afterwards with breaking clouds and a stunning double rainbow over the house that I of course took full advantage of. After that, the winds seemed to calm down, the rain dissipated, and the dancing and partying resumed in full force. My associate Sam and I had so much fun at this wedding, and after a fair amount of prodding from Stephanie we put the cameras down at 10pm and spent the last hour dancing and partying with everyone. Man I love this job.
Here’s some photoboards of my favorite photos from Chris and Stephanie’s wedding. Feel free to leave a comment below, and if you’d like to see all the photos and order a print or two, please visit www.GoodEyePhotography.com.
Planning your wedding in Maui?
Bay Area Destination Wedding Photographer Chris Schmauch wants to shoot your wedding! (831) 216-6210
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