It started with another quiet morning. As I have done every morning I walked to the shore and photographed the sunrise. The cloud formations have been a little different every morning, providing a unique view to the beginning of each day. We did a little shopping, saw a hula demonstration, just taking things easy in the early part of the day. We had a busy evening ahead; yet Jen was the only one who didn’t know what was in store.
Earlier in the week I told Jen that we were driving down to the south part of the island to meet up with a cousin of someone I work with. She knows I work with someone from Hawaii, but he has no cousin here - I just needed a cover. I had been communicating with someone here for something that I hoped would rock her world. We left for the southern part of the island at 5:00, and not knowing the traffic patterns in the area and it turns out we left too early, so we walked around a small mall before going to the address he provided me to meet up with him. The address he gave me was for his church; when we saw that I was afraid Jen have things figured out.
It was there we met Harold. After a few moments of small-talk I turned to Jen and took her hands and looked into her eyes as I asked her the question I’d been planning for weeks: “Jennifer, will you honor me by renewing our wedding vows?” The look of surprise on her face made all the planning worth it as she instantly responded “Oh my gosh, yes!”
I was really lucky to find Harold (aka Pastor Kilborn), as he took care of EVERYTHING. He worked with me to select the right location, obtained the beach permit we needed and performed the perfect ceremony for us. We followed Pastor Kilborn's truck as we drove to a remote little cove in Keoneloa Bay where her performed our ceremony with Daniel capturing the event on video and Shannon taking pictures. It was perfect, lighthearted at times and serious at others. I’ll be posting pictures online soon, and the video as well if we can find a place to host it.
From there we went to dinner at a restaurant that Pastor Kilborn recommended. It was a bit pricey (what isn’t in Hawaii?) but it was very good. Afterwards we returned to our resort, and after getting the kids settled we relaxed with a bottle of Jen’s favorite champagne.
In short, it couldn’t have gone better. Jen was beaming all night, you couldn’t have rubbed the smile off her face with sandpaper! Lol I REALLY surprised her; she said she didn’t remember talking to me about renewing our vows but was thrilled that I had taken the initiative to make it happen. That was the whole point of this vacation for me – to give her something she would remember for a lifetime.
As we left the cove I told pastor Kilborn that 25 years from now we were going to do this again, and to go ahead and mark it on his calendar. Actually, I hope it won’t take us that long to return here!
My Facebook post with a picture from the ceremony has generated over 120 likes – that’s by far a record for me! It was great to see some of the names of friends, old and new, who have virtually joined us in our celebration! We really wish our oldest daughter MaryBeth and her family could have joined us, as well as Don and Susan Dewey who married us nearly 25 years ago. Were we selfish to have run off and do this in a faraway land? Maybe. But I really think that this night will be just as memorable for Jen as our wedding was 25 years earlier… and that was what I was hoping for.
I have the best hubby in the world! xoxoxo
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