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03/17/2005: "Hawaii Day 2 (with Pictures!)"
I'm not the only one awake. My father is already up and tapping away at his laptop. I left my laptop at home at the request of Wood Nymph. I'm fine with this, but at least twice on the trip I will stop into an internet cafe and mainline an hour or two of net access.
After reading for a while (Sphere of Influence by Kyle Mills), I take a shower and head out around 7:45 to go get Wood Nymph. It's a work day for the normal residents of Honolulu, so there's some traffic. Fortunately, the traffic isn't as bad as it could be (see Day 3), and we aren't stuck in it for too long. We want to be at the Board of Health Office when it opens at 9:30 AM to get our marriage license. This turns out to be more difficult than you might think.
There are four main goals for the day. We must:
- Get our marriage license
- Go check out the wedding site and meet our planner
- Have the Rehearsal Dinner
- Bachelor/Bachelorette Parties
The Sheraton Waikiki in HonoluluI stop at our hotel (seen above), pick WN up, and we head to the government area of downtown Honolulu. All we have is an address for the Board of Health Office, which is at the intersection of Punchbowl and Beretania. When we arrive there, we discover that there are 4 state government buildings, one on each corner of the intersection. None of them have a sign.
We wander to the first building, which turns out to be the capital building. As it happens, finding the Governor of Hawaii's office is easier than finding the Marriage License office. We head across Punchbowl to the next building. To this day, we have no idea what building this was. But as we enter, we spy another young couple staring at the office listings that are posted on the wall. We watch as they shake their heads in frustration. I resist the urge to start screaming "Why can't you people put one of those damn Sebrings on Ebay and buy a couple of signs?" Then they grab a passerby and ask them the very question we wish to know the answer to.
The answer is the building that is now diagonally across from where we are. The one that looks like an Elementary school constructed in the late 60's. We stop to ask the man at reception where to go. It is really quite heartwarming the way he sighs and points across the foyer without saying a word. The action is taken with such zeal and zest for life that I'm almost surprised when he doesn't stab himself in the chest with a letter opener.
The door to the Marriage License office is open, but the woman inside instructs us to take a number. We've already filled out our paperwork (downloaded from
hawaii.gov), but we have to wait while the couple in front of us (a different couple) fills out their form. At one point, the woman says it's her third marriage and his first. Uh, dude?
Run. Meanwhile, the woman in the office is doing very little to help along the progress of the growing line. We finally get into see the Wiza- the license lady, who asks us several questions, misunderstands us more than once, types v e r y, v e r y s l o w ly, and finally hands over, in a manner that only a bureaucat can, our marriage license. As we leave, I think I see her give a quick glance towards her letter opener.
We can now officially be married!
After we finally achieve oneness with the document, we head out to kill a little time before we have to go meet the wedding planner. We stop at one of the big malls in town, and WN tries to find a place to steam her wedding dress, which needs a little wrinkle removal after the flight. We grab lunch, and then it's off to the Hoddick Estate, where someone finally shows up with a still camera, effectively getting you people off my back about the damn pictures.
Ocean View of The Hoddick Estate
The DJ, Me, Bryan, Wood Nymph, and The Wedding Planner
The Sweetness, The Greatness, Bryan, Wood Nymph, Me, and The DJ
At the Estate, we met up with
Bryan, my former roommate/professional wedding photographer, The Greatness and his new fiance, The Sweetness, and my Dad, who is officiating the ceremony. We also meet our Wedding Planner and our DJ, a very cool guy who appreciates the fact that we are having an R&B-free affair.
This place is gorgeous! There is always an element of "What's gonna happen?" when you pick a place by looking at a couple pictures on the web, but our wedding planner did a great job finding this place. WN and I are very happy with the location. So far, everything is going according to plan. This concerns me.
The guys from the rental place are delivering all of the tables and chairs and such. They won't put the arch together, so I volunteer to do this while we are waiting for everyone to arrive. Cause I'm cool like that.
The Arch
After the examination, I take Wood Nymph back to the hotel so she can prepare for the Rehearsal Dinner. I head back to my parent's place to get dressed, but not before stopping at a 7-11 to get a Spam musubi, which is kinda like a warm piece of Spam sushi. Oh, and a hot dog musubi, which is pretty much just a warm piece of hot dog sushi. Not exactly, but close enough.
The glory of the commercial Musubi market
The Rehearsal Dinner was thrown by my parents at a very nice restaurant called the Parc Cafe in the
Waikiki Parc Hotel. The hotel is located around the corner and down the block from the Sheraton, so WN and I walk over to the place. A few people are already there, and before long, everyone else has arrived.
The Parc Cafe Private Party Room, before dinner
The private room was simple, and very nice. Two long tables seated 24 people, just the number we had. There was a slight mix-up with Wood Nymph's sister (who we'll call Dating-An-Old-Man Nymph, because it's funny), as my parents accidentally left her placard back home in South Carolina. They made a new one, though, and everyone was correctly seated and served.
Dinner was a choice of Charbroiled Steak, Miso Marinated Salmon, Roasted Chicken, or Vegetables Napoleon. Plus lots of other strange vegetable-type things on the side. Oh, and let's not forget the cake.
The Rehearsal Dinner Cake
There were speeches. Some very nice things were said, and I learned that my father had been writing a very nice poem of advice and love and thoughts and bad puns at 6:15 in the morning. Mostly we smiled and laughed and were grateful that our families and friends had come 5000 miles from home to share this event with us.
The following pictures were taken by my father without a flash - he was using a long exposure time and a fast lens, but there are still some blurry parts, so that's why some of the pictures look funny.
The evening ended with the guys and the girls splitting up and heading off to our respective bachelor/bachelorette parties. The Greatness (being Best Man) had looked up some nearby bars/clubs to visit and had picked one out. We got there and discovered that we were just a little too white (and by
a little too I mean
way too freakin') to hang at Club 13. So we wandered to two or three other places and finally settled on a nice bar on the corner. Where the waitress told us that she couldn't actually bring us alcohol, we had to get up and go to the bar. Some sort of law, she claimed. Mental retardation, I claim. But we had a nice, laid back couple of drinks, then headed back to the Hotel, where Wood Nymph had already left her bachelorette party to go to bed. I drove back to my parent's place and, despite being very tired and feeling like it was six hours later than the midnight that it actually was, I did not fall asleep immediately.
Stupid jet lag.
Replies: 7 Comments
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on Monday, March 21st, Vampire Elf said
As usual, Sarachkah is right and I will forge on and finish the series. Maybe another one later next week, if I can get on it (the next one being the big day, of course, so also probably the longest one). I spent a couple of hours yesterday working on wedding pictures, and once I get those done later this week, I'll have a lot of them ready to put up on our wedding website.
Juls, we had to pay cash as well, but we were fotunate enough to know ahead of time because every website about getting married in Hawaii mentioned it six times. Which, to be honest, was really helpful, because I don't even know where we would have found an ATM in that part of town. I'm sure they were there, but most of the surrounding buildings were gov't related.
on Thursday, March 17th, Sarah said
Believe me, you are going to be so glad you got this down. Raul and I both did detailed recaps of our wedding and it is so much fun to read when you've forgotten the details.
on Thursday, March 17th, juls said
Yay! More wedding stories!! Don't worry about the marriage license trouble; we had as many problems getting one here in Richmond. Go to City Hall, go to the Courts Building, can't take cell phones in the Courts Building so walk 4 blocks back to the car, then back to the Courts Building. Marriage license office only takes cash. Go back to City Hall to use ATM. Go back to Courts Building and stand in line. I was in tears by the end of the process. And the lady who entered our info was slow and got things wrong. Must be a qualification to work in an office like that.
Jet lag in Hawaii is a pain, but at least you get to see a beautiful sunrise on your first day there. Can't wait for day 3!
