the beauty and tropical bliss continues with amanda and anthony's reception.

the main challenge that these two faced while planning their wedding was finding a place for the reception. they knew they wanted a big lawn near the water with tents that they could decorate. they wanted to have friends play lovely live music. and most importantly they wanted a good family friend to be their caterer. but finding a place that would allow for all this was harder than they imagined. in the beginning stages of planning it seemed that being a local girl wasn't really helping amanda out. all the weddings venues she looked at on oahu were ridiculously expensive and most wouldn't let her bring in her own crew of wedding elves. knowing she didn't fit into the typical hawaii barefoot bride box.          
she had to start thinking outside of it.

she started searching for a large rental house for the reception site but most houses she found wouldn't allow weddings or charged double to have a wedding on site. amanda was at a loss. then it all started to fall into place. another wedding elf popped in on the scene. her dad's friend who owns a rental house on the island offered it to them for their reception site. it was perfect, it had the lawn, a water view,          and the beach of course!

once the reception was set, amanda and anthony could relax a bit and start thinking about other details like colors and decor. at one point, amanda found a photo on a bridal website of a tent arrangement that she just loved! the photo included lots of flowing fabric, orchids and sparkly crystals. she gave the photo to her dad to show him what she was dreaming of for their reception.

the day we arrived on the island we headed over to the house to check it out. amanda was planning on spending the day there, cleaning, setting up tents, hanging fabric and arranging palms. she knew she had lots of work ahead and wanted to get an early start on it. on our way she called to let us know that she would not be at the house. amanda's mom did not want her to come help with the setup. she really wanted her daughter to walk in on her wedding day and be completely surprised and blown away.
(i just think that is so sweet)!

inspired by that photo that she had given him, amanda's dad was a man on a mission when we arrived. he was all smiles as he loaded a truck with dead palm leaves from the yard clean up. he was very excited about all the tikki torches he had managed to round up and said he was going to light up every foot of the property with them! looking back now, it was clear that there was no way amanda and anthony weren't going to see that image when they walked into their reception. this was one determined family!

love this photo of amanda and anthony headed toward their grand entrance into the reception site.      you can almost feel their excitement!

and this is what they saw……!

here's the best dad in the world.

it was a picture perfect evening. and then there was the sudden yet luckily brief torrential downpour. 

with wet hair and puddles on the dance floor, the party continued on like nothing had happened.

 

the night ended with a big group out on the dance floor cutting a rug as the band played their last song. once the music stopped all the zealous dancers turned into busy bees cleaning up the tents. the happy newlyweds sneaked a sweet kiss on their love bench, then sat back and took it all in.