"Maui set the perfect backdrop for our wedding, as Hawaii has the most natural, lush, and young land that this earth has to offer. In the end we were able to create an intimate experience in the presence of our closest family," the bride says. Mark and Andie were engaged for just over a year when they decided to host an intimate destination wedding in Maui.
The bride says, "Initially we thought that we wanted an extended engagement of two or three years, to give us time to finish our graduate programs. As time passed, both of us grew impatient with the delay, as well as disenchanted with the process of planning a wedding. And all of the venues we looked at in Southern California seemed too artificial and traditional for us. It was important that we have an intimate ceremony in nature, which aligned with our mutual values, and that the focus was on our commitment together and not lost in the pageantry and production of a large wedding." This wish for an intimate gathering created a challenge as both Mark and Andie come from large families."
Photography by Ashley Camper
"A month before Mark and I planned to leave for a trip to Hawaii to visit Mark’s paternal family and for me to attend a scientific conference, my mother, knowing our eagerness about being wed, suggested that all of our siblings and parents meet us in Maui to witness us commit ourselves to each other. This was a pleasant and welcomed surprise, as we had wished but never verbalized that that would be the ideal wedding for us."
"The evening before the wedding my sisters-in-laws and I made the flower crowns for our five flower girls and myself."
The bride's ivory and green earthy bouquet and the boutonnières were by Sunya’s Flowers & Plants. The flower leis were delivered from DJ Kawasaki at Island Gifts and Flowers in Honolulu.
Andie found the perfect Elizabeth Fillmore dress just three weeks before the wedding. Her heels are from Aldo.
Our wedding truly was a family affair, as everyone uniquely contributed. Mark and I wrote the ceremony in its entirety. Our siblings in Oahu brought in a cooler, as a carryon, our leis that had been made by their friends. Mark arrived at the ceremony site early to create an alter overlooking the Pacific out of volcanic rock and bougainvilleas. My eldest brother officiated the ceremony, during which another brother played the ukulele, and two other brothers and Mark’s mother recited readings. In the end we were overwhelmed by the experience and if we had more than one month to plan, we would not have changed a thing.
Mark wore a dark handsome suit from Theory.
Our incredible photographer Ashley Camper, as a local, helped us locate an untouched and intimate setting on the north shore of Maui in Ho’okipa, as well as take the most beautiful images we have ever seen.
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