Wow, we had an absolute BLAST exploring the beautiful Hawaiian islands with Martina & Paul a while back for their big day – can’t believe we’re just now sharing more about it! They are two of the coolest people we’ve ever gotten to work with, so it was awesome getting to tag along for their Kauai adventure elopement AND their Big Island adventure afterward (which we’ll blog more about soon). It didn’t matter that their wedding day was one of the windiest days ever – they were so flexible and totally embraced it. Guarantee that this gallery is going to make you want to fly to Hawaii ASAP for your own adventure through the islands 🤩 (Can we come?!)
Martina & Paul’s Kauai Adventure Elopement
Before we show you all the magic we created throughout this day, we’ve gotta tell you a little bit about this rad couple. Martina is a super talented producer who has worked on 3 different documentaries & multiple true crime shows, and Paul is a co-founder of a successful video game startup! We love that these two badasses with such creative spirits managed to find each other – who knows what cool stuff they’ll create in the future together?
We were lucky enough to meet up with the two of them the day before at Java Kai for brekkie, which was so much fun. Then they tied the knot in Kauai (as you’re about to see), but the adventure actually didn’t end there – they island-hopped to the Big Island after the wedding! We all met up and visited Hawaii Volcanoes National Park together which was another wild adventure that we’ll be sharing more about in another blog post 🙌
A delish lunch stop at The Musubi Truck
After Martina and Paul were all dressed we headed to The Musubi Truck for a freaking deliciousss lunch of spam & rainbow musubi. 10/10 recommend hitting up the best local restaurants/eateries throughout your big day if you’re having a destination elopement, it’s such a great way to lean into the local culture and enjoy everything it has to offer! Plus it’s probably going to be super yummy, too 😎
Elopement portraits at Kauai’s Red Dirt Falls
Before the ceremony, we explored Kauai’s iconic Red Dirt Falls for some portraits of Martina & Paul, and man – it did NOT disappoint. Somehow we lucked out with the sky still being blue at that point, so the bright blue of the sky & the rich reds of the dirt looked freaking phenomenal together. The picturesque Red Dirt Falls are a MUST visit if you’re in Kauai, you’ll literally feel like you’re taking elopement portraits on Mars!
A windy ceremony & first dance at Waimea Canyon Lookout
We’ve seen a LOT of unpredictable weather with the amount of adventure elopements we shoot, but man was this one of the windiest days we’ve ever been a part of! Especially since the ceremony was at Waimea Canyon Lookout, which is one of three lookouts with INSANE views of the beautiful Waimea Canyon. This wind made us have to be flexible with our plans but luckily Martina and Paul were super go-with-the-flow (literally – the flow of rain) and were down to make adjustments as needed!
Once they’d said their vows in the midst of the insane wind, the newlyweds shouted “Mr. & Mrs. Traficanti!” (his last name) and did the “Italian hands” gesture to celebrate his Italian heritage. Then they downed some tequila shots in honor of his dad who passed, which was a super sweet moment to include.
They had their first dance at the lookout after the ceremony, which ended up turning into several of their favorite songs – we were just blasting our speaker as they danced with a rainbow in the background. What a dream! Martina loved to randomly sing and dance, so this entire day was filled with the same joy we captured during those first dances. And speaking of music – Paul is actually a musician on the side! You can listen to his song on Spotify here!
We had SUCH an amazing time documenting Martina & Paul’s Kauai adventure elopement, and we can’t thank Martina enough for the sweet note she left us when sharing some of their photos –
“Special thanks & love note to T & Corey who were not only amazing photographers and tour guides, but wonderful humans and friends to explore with.”
Congrats, you two!
Kauai Elopement Photo + Video
Dreaming up your own Kauai adventure elopement after seeing Martina & Paul’s epic adventure? We’d love to come along and document it all! You can find info about our Kauai elopement photo + video packages here, and we’d also be stoked to chat with you to give you an estimate based on what you’re lookin’ for!
Hawaii Elopement Resources
Hawaii is one of our favorite places to go for elopements, so we’ve put together a few different resources to help you plan your own Hawaii elopement. Check ‘em out below 🤙
