The beautiful Big Island of Hawaii. There are so many reasons to visit this island over any of the others. It is less crowded, it has multiple climates depending on where you’re located on the island, and best of all, it has active volcanoes.
We chose this island to elope and stay for our honeymoon. It was the best decision we could’ve made.
We left May 13, 2016 and planned to stay until May 22, 2016. After our arrival May 13th, we went straight for the Mai Tais!
May 14th was the big day. You know how stressful this day was? It wasn’t. And you know how much preparation happened on this day? Maybe an hour. Now that is a perfect wedding day.
Leading up to the wedding, we snorkeled in the bay and laid on the beach soaking up the sun. I eventually left everyone snorkeling and went and had my hair pulled back into a low bun. After coming back to the room about an hour before the wedding, we put on our dress and slacks, and left to the beach.
We used a company called Destination Hawaii Wedding that made this such a breeze. We would absolutely recommend them. They are very well known for their sunset photos as you will see below.
My brother made an excellent photographer during our wedding ceremony. You can choose to have someone shoot the ceremony, but we decided to only take photos after.
The spot we chose to get married was a beautiful private beach in front of million dollar homes. There was no one around an hour before sunset. However, we did have about 7 unexpected guests which you will see soon enough.
My sweet father walked me to our ceremony spot.
The scenery was just breath taking. It was a little cloudy which is not uncommon for the Big Island, but it cleared just in time for sunset.
The ceremony was a traditional Hawaiian ceremony with leis, Hawaiian prayer, and personal vows.
The leis were made of real orchids and kukui nuts. It was absolutely perfect.
After our ceremony, we took a walk together to soak in the beautiful scenery and the exciting moment of now being husband and wife!
The lava rock, the ocean, and vegetation are just breath taking. Being able to have just gotten married and walk down this amazing path and enjoy this moment was something I will always cherish.
After finishing our walk, it was now sunset and Catherine Alisantosa did an amazing job with officiating our wedding as well as taking our photos.
And for our unexpected guests?? We had 7 resting sea turtles hanging out the entire time.
It was so much fun to be married in one of the most relaxing and peaceful places in the world.
Now that we had checked getting married off the list, we were now ready to explore this beautiful island!
Our first stop was Waipio Valley. This valley is extremely picturesque and very rainforest like.
Black sand beaches lay below this cliff, as well as wild horses, coffee plants, and mango trees. This side of the island gets a lot of rain so many things grow here.
From many angles around the island you can see the mountains make a “W” for Waipio.
You see it again down here as well.
There are plenty of wild horses to be seen… And it seems that they are becoming more used to people because they tend to get fed Cliff Bars! Very beautiful area.
The next tour we really enjoyed was Volcano National Park.
This is a shot of lava that destroyed this area in the 1970’s.
We also got to take a look an the active volcano during the day and at night!
Here is the day shot.
And here is a zoom shot at night! This volcano ended up having a full blown eruption about 1 month after we left!
This beautiful sea arch can also be seen in the Volcano National Park. The waves are huge here and they crash so hard up against the rocks. They suspect that this arch won’t last all that long with the strength of the waves in this area.
We had such an amazing time drinking fresh coconut water, exploring lava tubes, and snorkeling in the bay. I can’t express how much I love this island and how happy I am to have made it such a special place for us.
If you are considering a trip to Hawaii, I would highly recommend the Big Island!