It has been to long, to long since I sat with the laptop and completed a blog post, and it’s time to get started again, no excuses, no time poor, time to concentrate on those things I love, blogging included.
A lot has happened since our last update, a proposal, an elopement and rather full on holiday adventure through the United States and Toronto! Just to name a few… Puppies in for surgery, adding to the garden, a shindig celebration and worms.
Yes that’s right we got engaged, but before we even got engaged we had spent all last year planning to elope 😮 yep we had spent the year planning to elope in Hawaii, in my spare time I was on the computer communicating with people thousands of miles away to organise a celebrant and photographer…. not knowing what they were like only going from reviews and a sense of they were the right people and that sense paid off.
The other thing that was hard was the not telling anyone part, hard in numerous ways, apart from not telling and wanting to tell for advice, it was hard not to let it slip in numerous conversations for example:
Friend: hey what did you do on Friday night?
Me: oh not much (me in my head, oh I only drove two hours after work to Cronulla to look at and try on a second-hand wedding dress all by myself and had to decide on whether it was the one, this is after searching online for weeks on end trying on duds and trying to keep within a certain budget) (Thank god it was the perfect dress!!)
Another example:
Friend: What are you guys up to Saturday? you should come by.
Me: oh we have to go to Sydney
Friend: Oh why?
Me: oh we have something on with Tim’s family (me in my head we do have to head to Tim’s nieces birthday but not before getting up ridiculously early to drive to Sydney to get there when the shops open to buy wedding bands for our elopement in a few weeks).
I sometimes wonder how Tim’s part in this never seemed as complicated!
Tim’s venture to find his wedding outfit – We drive ten minutes from home to the local surf store, he finds a white cotton long sleeve button up shirt and some nicely coloured dress sort of boards, try them on we buy them and are out within ten minutes!!
Me – looks for hours at photographers, reviews, contacts a few for prices via email.
Tim – Sits playing Mario kart
Me – Spends time paying deposits, talking with our celebrant about vows, time of ceremony, where it will be.
Tim – Sits back on a Saturday afternoon with a corona in his hand, some bbq shapes and watches sport or a cooking show.
Me – gets up at 4:30am Monday mornings to get to the gym before work for training session with my PT
Tim – continues to let the belly grow and even sits rubbing said belly at night.
Two days before we leave to go away:
Me – goes to get hair done, then leaves for next appointment for eyelash extensions, grabs coffee as nothing to eat that day, goes to get manicure and pedicure and then comes home to vacuum all while unwell and praying to god I will feel better by the time we get to our day.
Tim – I do actually think he was working that day.
The day we are leaving:
Me – finishes off final packing the only thing in my carry on is a wedding dress and flower crown….. because I’m not losing it, rushes to shops to get last-minute things, comes back organises stuff for dogs
Tim – packs and writes his wedding vows on coasters from the local pub within ten minutes!
I didn’t intend on this being a post just about the elopement, but it’s probably a good time to get down some of the things from our wedding and trip I had recorded to blog about.
I must note not only was I planning the whole elopement thing but our four-week adventure as well, accommodations, where we wanted to go, things we could do. I booked air bnb in some places had some cancel on me before we left and had to find others. But it was all so worth it, what an absolutely amazing time and tiring adventure we had!
Day we depart: We arrive at the airport, after checking our bags we stop near the departure sign, a group of 3 people are trying to stop and take a selfie! I offer to take a photograph for them, they smile and thank me, before they go ask them to take our photo, “I just have some signs here” I say to them “if you could just take a photo as we change each sign”
“Ok” the lady replies.
As she takes the photos you can see them reading the signs, others stop to read these to….
Our signs read
‘We are off on our Toronto/ US adventure’
‘What our family and friends don’t know is……’
‘We are getting married!!! #takgm’
We here the “ohhhh wow” from the lady taking our photo as she smiles at us excitedly, another old lady nearby who had been reading comments “Your families won’t be happy about that” :O
We couldn’t care, we are both so very happy.
I will start the rest of our holiday post by going through our days and destinations.
Day 1 of arrival: So our first stop was Oahu – the main island of Hawaii, we arrived at Honolulu airport at around I think 10:30am, went through the usual, collecting baggage, customs and got to our organised transport, waited for a while then off to our hotel in Waikiki, we checked in then it was phone calls to check in with the photographer, off to catch a taxi and find the department of health to get our marriage license and then send an email off to our celebrant, before we could come back and finally relax, we headed straight for the water and swam! Oh my goodness how amazing the sunshine and salt water felt and how much it refreshes you! It was then off to the ABC store to get some water then back to our accommodation for a quick nap, before heading out to find dinner. We had dinner at an amazing Thai restaurant. Tim had a smoking bourbon, I opted for a frozen margarita and the food was amazing!! By this point we finally began to relax a little.
Day 2 – We packed up, checked out and headed for the car hire place…. were we must have stood in line for what felt like hours! then we waited some more before finally being called for our car, during that waiting time another call from the photographer to check details. Off we went finally driving to the North Shore, staying in a little surfers cottage with no TV in Pupekea. We stopped in on the way at our favourite north shore place to eat, the Beet Box cafe in Haleiwa, had the most amazing vegetarian meal and a delicious smoothie. Off to check in to our cute little surf shack, then the afternoon at pipeline, while Tim attempted to run into the massive waves crashing down, I watched from the safety of the sand. Then off to get Dinner and back to our little home to settle in listening to some tunes and enjoy each others company. I sat relaxed reading over my wedding vows to make sure I was happy with them. The thing we didn’t count on in there was a rather large hole in the wall, which we assume was meant to be a window…. but no window only a screen 
so this meant with some wild winds that night, not much sleep!!!
Day 3 – WEDDING DAY! So I was awake early having not got much sleep anyway, woke to Tim sleeping soundly on the lounge…. waited waited waited not wanting to wake him, before I eventually went downstairs to make a coffee, we eventually got ourselves going and drove to the Beet box cafe for breakfast, and while there buying gluten-free donuts for our wedding cake that night 😀 lucky the wedding was at sunset. Gave us time to make the day a little more relaxed.
Back to the surfers cottage, where eventually early afternoon I thought I should begin to get ready.
Me – showers, dries off, dries hair with only a half working hair dryer, gets all my make up out, styles hair as best I could, applies make up, fixes flower crown.
Tim – Sits drinking a Corona outside, then showers.
Me – touches up make up
Tim – dressed in two minutes
Me – gets dress out, puts this on, adjusts flower crown and walks down the stairs “Well what do you think?” I say very casually to Tim who is standing there holding my arms up in a ‘i don’t know’ gesture.
Tim – Looks at me, hugs me and cries! Tells me I’m absolutely beautiful. I couldn’t have asked or planned for a better reaction and this reminds me part of why I love this guy so very much and what all this work and planning have been for!
We walk outside jump in the car with the go pro, we have been videoing the adventure to show our family and friends and make the drive to pipeline for sunset.
We park the car get out, some people driving by stare…. a bride is pretty noticeable, our photographer Sean pulls up. We meet him in person for the first time, he is easy relaxed and I breathe a sigh of relief, having paid a deposit you hope they will be there!
He takes a few pictures, then I think I had better go back near the road to make sure our celebrant can find us, we had given the best directions we could for a country we don’t live in. As I head back to the road I hear Tim and Sean talk about how we first met and his proposal.
As I stand near the road I get lots of attention, waves and smiles from locals and tourists walking or driving by, finally our celebrant June pulls up across the street she gets out of the car and walks across, I instantly like her, she smiles the biggest smile and hugs me “Look at you, you look so beautiful” She exclaims “I’m so glad you were standing there you were like a beacon I wasn’t sure exactly where to stop”
We walk back to Tim and Sean, I feel so relaxed, so happy and it all feels right.
We stand on the sand barefoot facing one another, the ceremony begins…. June is amazing as she guides us through the beginning of the ceremony, asking us to close our eyes, feel the sand between our toes, wind in our hair, listen to the sound of the waves…. and to take it all in with our senses to remember this exact moment, the feelings, the love and to take this feeling and remember it during tough times or when we might not be happy with one another, to bring ourselves back to that moment and how we felt about one another. Since then in little tough moments if we couldn’t get to the beach Tim has said he’s going to make a sandbox at home for us to stand in 😛
We open our eyes and both smile, June leads us to the point where we say our own vows, Tim first gets out his pub coasters, this is the first time I see the coasters I laugh, So typically Tim and what I love….. He says his vows, keeping me laughing, smiling and feeling nothing but so happy, relaxed and proud to be standing there with this man on that day.
Tim’s vows go as follows:
I donut loving Tim, take you Kristy mother of Missy and Snikkers to be my wife, I promise to always be your biggest fan and your partner in crime.
I promise to create and support a family with you and a household filled with laughter, patience (even if you haven’t had your coffee), understanding and love beyond the street lights. I vow not just to grow old together, but to grow together.
I will love you faithfully through the difficult and the easy, what may come be it an accidental fart or a parcel arriving during my sleep on a night shift, I will always be there, each one believing love never dies.
As I have given you my hand to hold and my belly to pat, so I give you my life to keep with my few selection of blue shirts and snores. I promise to love your more than my beer and the Heads pub as long as you take my bad jokes and the laugh I do with it forever.
Together forever.
I go next getting out my paper I had written my vows on, during parts of my vows Tim sheds a few tears and we both laugh and smile with one another, blissfully unaware of Sean taking pictures in the background and the few onlookers on the beach.
My vows were:
You came in to my life unexpectedly when I wasn’t looking for love, little by little with and with a lot of patience you became my first thought every morning and my last thought at night, I fell for you before I even realised I had.
I love how much we laugh together, the one time that sticks in my mind was when I stayed at your place for only the third time, we were cleaning up a spill from my broken glass.. you poured so much dishwashing liquid on it, it took forever to clean up the suds, just as we finished you looked at me and said “I’m just going to pour some more water on it” My panicked reply of “no no no no no” followed by your cheeky smile and then just laughter, I realised you were stirring me we both laughed so much but it was in this moment I knew even after such a short time ‘you got me’ you knew my flaws and weaknesses yet always made me feel special. I just want to make you laugh for the rest of our lives.
I appreciate your kind personality, I love your helpful nature and I am in awe of your relaxed approach to life.
They say someday someone will walk in to your life and make you realise why it never worked with anyone else, that person is in front of me today it was meant to be you all along.
You are my calm when life throws turtle shells our way, you are always there to pick me up after banana skins and you always push me further when I think I have reached my limit, even during a game of mario kart.
It may have taken me to fly half way across the world on my own to say my first ‘I love you’ to you – there’s been many more since and will continue to be for the rest of our lives, Now we’ve flown halfway across the world together this time to get married.
You are the best chapter in my book and will remain my main character always.
I swear I couldn’t love you more than I do now and yet I know I will tomorrow.
During my vows there are lots of smiles, laughter and Tim even sheds a couple of tears. We finish up the ceremony with the official kiss announcement of Husband and Wife, we thank June and hug her and then its some more photos to capture the amazing wave and sunset behind us.
After we film some more with the go pro for our surprise video, we had decided to go out for dinner, initially we had said we would go get changed, but feeling particularly happy, optimistic and wanting to celebrate I suggest we just go. We get in the car dive to Haliewa Beach House for dinner, it isn’t until we pull up happiness or not I become a little conscious of the fact I am dressed as a bride and we are going to walk in to a public restaurant sit and have dinner :O as we walk in I walk as close behind Tim as possible to try to hide, it doesn’t work to well, all eyes are on us as we walk in request a table and sit down, our waitress smiles at us curiously so we tell her “oh you’ve given me goosebumps” she says “wow that’s so amazing” we order some celebratory drinks and look at the menu, still feeling eyes watching.
As a waiter comes to take our order he wants to know our story to, we tell him get the biggest of smiles and congratulations, even after we finish our amazing entrée and then mains and pay and try to sneak out another waiter stops us on our way out, he ends up taking our picture “your on my snapchat” he comments we laugh and talk with him and a family stop to talk to us as well.
As soon as we can we leave and head back to the comfort of our surfers cottage, where before we have our celebratory gluten-free donuts as wedding cake, The part tim is dreading arrives….. we had been arguing about this moment before we left for months.
“You need to call your parents” I say
“No” says Tim “They can find out on Facebook”
“They are not finding out on Facebook” I say and dial the number……. no answer, I try again…. no answer, so I message Carol, Tim’s mum over messenger to let her know we are trying to call… We get a reply saying that they thought it was a scam number (due to our travel sim) and to call in half an hour when Keith is there.
We wait as Tim works on our little video project then we call.
Keith (Tim’s dad): Hello
Tim: Hey
Keith: Whats happening mate
Tim: Not much
Me: (glaring at Tim, and nudging him to tell them)
Keith: So what are you doing?
Tim: Oh not much we went down the beach today and we got married (He says it so casually and in the one sentence like its nothing.
Keith: Kristy whats going on mate
Me: (hesitantly) Ummmmm we got married
Keith: Oh congratulations guys that’s great news, you both batting above your average (same as Tim always a joke in there) Let me put mum on (and again like Tim man of few words)
Carol: Hi guys
Tim and I: Hi
I can’t recall if Tim or I break the news but Carol tells us how very happy she is for us and how amazing the news is and how happy she is we did it and somewhere we both love. The chatter goes on a bit longer and we hang up…. I sigh the biggest sigh of relief, I had been so worried they may have been upset. I had been telling Tim for months before hand we would need to ring them, to which he had been refusing.
After this Tim puts the final touches on our surprise video and posts it as his status on Facebook saying “Went down the beach on the north shore of Hawaii with Kristy today and this happened” (here’s the link to the video as I couldn’t post it on the blog so have added it to you tube) and some photos below. Maggsy and Kristy Elope (video link)
After posting our video, we toast with champagne bought from the local food mart and top our gluten-free donuts with chocolate gelato and raspberries and eat them… We then out on Ed Sheeran and dance really badly for our first dance and spend the night laughing, and enjoying one another’s company. Before heading to bed we reply to a few of the many comments popping up on our post.
Day 4 – We spend resting, snoozing, sitting at the beach in the sun, eating and not much more.
Day 5 – We pack up our things and have to drive back to Waikiki to drop the rental car off then wait nearby at our first hotel for the airport shuttle. We leave with plenty of time to spare, but somehow there ends up a lot of traffic…. As time gets on I get more anxious about the extra charges on the rental car and not having time to wash it as we did this last time we rented a car.. We ended up being an hour late with massive charges, but the man lady as Tim called her with the deep voice and who never smiles said if we tipped her $10 she would make the fees go away ……. Never been happy to spend $10 in my whole life, we get going only make it by 15 minutes for our airport shuttle…. Where we are off to New York.
New York was interesting and I may have had a little too much to drink… but that’s a story for next blog.
Stay tuned for New York, Toronto and scary LA. That will all be next time as I think I have rambled enough.
Some people I really quickly want to mention and thank again are our officient on the day June Dillinger http://www.idohawaiianweddings.com/home and our Photographer Sean Michael Hower http://www.howerphoto.com , both did such an amazing job. June just has such a gentle way and beautiful soul, and Sean was so down to earth made us feel at ease and knows his photography!!
We also recently got a small article mention in the Maui Times click on the link to view, Tim’s happy we are apparently famous 😛
MaggSea Coast Kitchen 