We at Exclusive Island Weddings have always been supportive of the LGBT community. Earlier this year we were fortunate enough to attend a workshop that gave us an up close and personal experience of a gay couple trying to plan their wedding. It really inspired us to want to feature more of the LGBT community in the media as well as in the wedding industry.
At the workshop the key note speaker led us through an icebreaker exercise that basically made everyone in the room tear up as we had never really thought of the struggles of the community in that manner. After gaining the knowledge that he shared with us, we left really wanting to do a shoot that celebrated the love of a real LGBT Couple.
We then reached out to our amazing team, most of which are part of the LGBT community and the wheels started turning from there. The one issue that we ran into that really shocked us even more was that we had a hard time finding venues that would allow us to do our shoot. It even further opened our eyes to the needs and struggles that LGBT couples faced when wanting to have their wedding on Maui and our goal was to find a venue that really supported the community the way that we did.
When we found the Steeple House in Kapalua, we were elated. Not only was the venue gorgeous but we were able to get 6 different wedding day aspects shot inside of the house itself. We ended the day with some beautiful shots and feel that we achieved our goal in really capturing the special love between our models Keali’i and Simon
Keali’i and Simon met when they worked on a cruise line together. They hit it off carried on a long -distance relationship for quite some time. Simon eventually moved here to Maui and their celebrated their nuptials on May 14, 2015 at the King Kamehameha Golf Club. Something that we didn’t know until we met with them to plan this styled shoot, was that a storm hit on their special day. So not only were they helping us with our shoot, but we were also able to give them some amazing photos that they weren’t able to get back in 2015. This is really what our job as planner is about and made the shoot that much more meaningful for all that participated.
We couldn’t have done it without the amazing team that we worked with. We all volunteered our time, services and resources just because we all are passionate in our support of all love. Kojo Couture headed up the attire for the shoot and Ry-n Shimabuku did hair/makeup. Marie Jalayahay of Marylane Studios was our photographer with Marlo Antes handling videography. Noah Harder created our beautiful floral pieces and Mikala Designs made all of our calligraphy pieces for us. Hawaiian Style Event Rentals provided the gorgeous furniture pieces. Exclusive Island Weddings did all the styling and design of the shoot. We had so much fun doing this shoot and everything turned out amazing!! We will continue to support this community and look forward to doing more styled shoots to feature all of the amazing people in the LGBT community. We are so excited to be featured in your publication. Thank you so much!!
