Hi friends and family!

We want to thank everyone from the bottom of our hearts for attending and supporting our special day/weekend. We could not have had a more magical time on that weekend, and we are sure you all feel the same. The atmosphere was electrified with loving vibes and amazing energy and we felt all of your love the entire night. Thank you so much Aunt Brenda, Stevo, Alan, & Christy for making all of this possible and for showing such unconditional love and support prior, during, and after our wedding day. Brian & I feel extremely blessed to have such an amazing family by our sides and we will be forever grateful. We have attached some highlights of the wedding, and will display the videos as soon as they have been finalized and sent our way. :). If you would like to receive individual pictures of you and your parties during the Aloha party and/or wedding ceremony and reception, please email me at mandilovesbriansmith@gmail.com and I will get them to you as soon as possible.

As you all know, we escaped on our honeymoon to Hawaii for a 11 day adventure, and oh boy was it an adventure! We started off flying into Maui International Airport on Saturday June 1st, where we checked into our quaint and festive hotel called Kaanapali Beach Resort in Kaanapali Hawaii. This is on the island of Maui where we had the privilege of partaking in a live Hula show. We will also post those pictures on this site so you can see a little bit of what we experienced. The sunsets were beautiful in Maui and we enjoyed 4 sunsets for each evening we were on the wonderful island. We embarked upon rain-forest and hiking adventures in Maui as well, where we traveled in our rented jeep to walk through the forests, waterfalls, and mountains. Rainbow falls was the most memorable waterfall experience that we enjoyed and it was truly amazing. Mini waterfalls surrounded the rocks that led up to a giant and tall main waterfall that poured into the main river about 200 feet below. There were these enormous magical trees with branches that wrapped around each other in all directions, along with tropical greenery and and plant life going in every direction, rocks we had to climb over and through, and the sound of exotic animals in the near distance.

Another highlight of our Maui trip was definitely flying in a helicopter around the island. This was such an electrifying experience and cannot be properly described in words. (you really have to see it for yourself to experience the true beauty and raw nature that stands hundreds of feet below the helicopter. Our pilot, Jake was very nice and well qualified. He described each area we flew over in detail, while Brian and I took extensive videos. Brian was excited to talk to him about flying since they are both pilots and it was so wonderful to share this experience with my new husband.

We also rented two kayaks, where we took them out on the ocean for a few hours. We paddled to this secluded bay area where the waves were not as rough and tried to dock on this tiny island. There were crabs all over that scurried away and we didn't have much luck since the waves were tall from the wind. The views were phenomenal though and we were able to relax for a while before rowing back to our shore.

Another extremely fun activity we were able to experience was a free trip that came with renting a weeks worth of snorkel gear. We got to go snorkeling and SNUBA-diving on a small coast in Maui. Even though the water was a little chilly, our wet-suits saved us. SNUBA is similar to scuba diving, but instead of being hooked up to a tank, we were hooked up to an oxygen line that attached to our boats. Brian went right under with no problems, but surprisingly, I had a difficult time letting go of the fear at first from the thought of being deep under the water. Eventually, I joined him about 30 feet underwater and we had the time of our lives. Our diving instructor, Josh, was amazing, and was so patient with me and extremely helpful. We could both see his passion for diving shine through while he gave us instructions on which hand signals to use and what rules to apply while under water. We were begging for more once we finished our first round. After SNUBA, we joined the rest of the giant boat members to go snorkeling, eat lunch, and relax on the top level of the ship. After we docked on shore, Brian and I saw several huge sea turtles catching fish against the pier. It had begun to rain and the turtles were waiting for the waves to crash against the pier so they could have their lunch. :)

Another day, we took the jeep along the Road to Hana, where we stopped at random spots and took pictures, enjoyed the views, stopped at little RV stands along the coast, and had a blast in each others company. We arrived at this quaint bed and breakfast type facility that showcased a gallery made up of 120 artists and their incredible work. There, we ate lunch at a converted red RV/trailer spot that stood on a tall mountain that overlooked a small town below it. We did not get very far along our trip to Hana, since we stopped frequently to take in the scenery around us. Next time we return, we will make sure to complete our trip to Hana so we can check that off our bucket list.

From Maui, we headed to The Big Island (which was a personal favorite for Brian and I). Now The Big Island is extremely different than Maui, and I think I can actually make a bold claim that it is on the opposite side of the spectrum because Maui is more luxury, hotel chain based, white sand beaches, shopping, restaurant galore, tourist, etc...while Volcano town (where we stayed in a tree-house with 3,000 feet elevation) is completely remote, all nature, on a volcano and mountain, all rain-forest and wildlife, very pristine and exotic, secluded, rocky beaches, fun adventures, cheaper to stay and live, etc...This is exactly what Brian and I have been looking for so we really enjoyed The Big Island. Our tree-house was phenomenal to say the least...We arrived late at night and Robert (the owner from AirBnB) greeted us with a warm smile and open arms. It was raining so we put on our raincoats Brenda had bought us and parked the jeep in the front area. We had to take our bags to the storage room that was right beside the jeep and walk the rest of the way up on a narrow path to reach the tree-house. It was completely secluded with trees surrounding all directions. We climbed a steep ladder where we arrived on the tree-house deck that wrapped around the entire front of the tree-house. There were wide glass doors that overlooked the deck, where the exotic rain-forest trees skyrocketed up past the entire house. There was a second story deck also that came out of our master suite, where we had to climb another tall ladder to get into the bedroom. The shower was outside, with bamboo surrounding the back wall, and a view of heaven shined on each side of the shower. The entire system was ran off the grid so the water was captured rain water that had been filtered through a gigantic system. The toilet was on a compost so two scoops of compost was all that was needed after using the restroom. Gale and Robert provided us with a welcome packet, snacks, coffee, waters, pots, pans, utensils, and even our own private and comfy robes to wear all three days. We were in heaven the entire time and had so much fun. There was a Japanese style enormous hot tub sitting on the deck where we enjoyed several dips each morning and evening.

The stars were out of this world and were so bright and magical. We located a secluded spot up on the volcano one evening after our dinner that was located on the tip of the volcano park and watched the gazillion stars in the bright night sky. There were stars we had never even seen that we spotted that night and we will never forget the entire experience.

One day, we hiked up more mountains and found our way to this deserted spot where we were forced to park the jeep and decided to hike down the entire mountain after finding a narrow pathway. Once we finally reached the bottom, we were amazed when we noticed this cliff of rocks surrounding the ocean where the waves splashed up against. We were able to figure out that this place used to be a hot spot where locals would meet but due to the volcano eruption last year, the lava had destroyed the main bridge and concrete walls. It was a sobering but beautiful experience. We hiked back up the trails and located a fascinating cove where sea turtles were known to be spotted. We put on our snorkel gear and as soon as we stepped into the chilly water, a giant sea turtle swam up to Brian and nuzzled it's head up to Brian's legs. It basically begged him to pet his back, so Brian did and the sea turtle closed its eyes in delight. We were so surprised because we did not know that sea turtles acted so domesticated, but after talking with locals we soon discovered that this sea turtle (I named it Kona) grew up in this cove and loved human interactions. I was able to capture a picture with our underwater disposable camera that I will post on here. :).

From The Big Island, we took a short airplane ride to Honolulu (our final destination). We stayed here for 4 days and checked into a luxury Marriott Hotel located right in Waikiki. Honolulu was surprisingly crowded, and full of tourists. There were sky rises in every direction and our view from both of our balconies (yes we had two balconies) was postcard material. We had so much fun ordering room service, taking walks on the beach, swimming, snorkeling, boogie boarding, etc...We got pampered to honeymoon massages at our hotel spa and both masseuses did such a great job. This was Brian's first time getting a professional massage and he didn't know what to think of it at first, other than the feeling of pure bliss.There were 5 restaurants located in our hotel alone, along with several pools, so we enjoyed dining and lounging at several of those each night.

Brenda had surprised us with a gift card to Ruth Chris steakhouse, so one night we were able to be treated like kings and queens while dining. The food at Ruth Chris melted in your mouth and our table greeted us with red rose petals. It was the very corner and secluded booth that was dimly lit. Our waiter, IwaKawana, was extremely friendly, knowledgeable, and fun. He talked to us about his friends that made a living diving for oysters and farming pearls...which turns out to be pretty dangerous.

We did enjoy an adventurous catamaran outrigger sailing excursion with our two tour guides Luke and Griff. They were so nice and led us to this wonderful secluded island where we beached our dry bags before we headed out to ride the waves. After surfing in the catamaran with two other women from Big Sur California, Luke, & Griff, we anchored the boat and jumped in for some snorkeling. The water was extremely clear and comfortable and we spotted a mama sea turtle sleeping in some rocks about 10 feet below the surface. She woke up and we stayed along side her while she mozied through the water. We eventually got distracted after spotting her baby sea turtle and followed him for awhile. This was such an incredible experience that melts both of our hearts and we are so thankful for the people who donated money to show support and assist us in experiencing these fun adventures. After a couple of hours, we were starving so we all rode a few more waves before heading back in to dock on the beach. The drive to Kalilua from Waikiki was about an hour filled with spectacular mountains, rain-forests, and scenery. We ate at this highly recommended restaurant right across the street from the outrigger station, called Zigs. Zigs had really good food and we enjoyed one of our last meals with the couple from Big Sur that we had met on our adventure. Brian and I jammed out to 90's rock on the way there and back and soaked in the incredible bonding experience as a married couple.

We traveled around the island in our rented jeep, did some last minute shopping at the hundreds of street side boutiques, ate at a Cheesecake factory our last day, and much more. We wanted to take surfing lessons and visit Pearl Harbor, but there was just not enough time to squeeze those things in.

Lastly, Brian and I had been planning on getting tattoos that complimented each other after our wedding so we figured Hawaii would be the perfect location to achieve this goal. We waited until the last evening so we could enjoy swimming in the ocean and researched all over for the best suited tattoo artist in Honolulu. We were able to locate a guy named Daniel that specialized in esoteric geometric designed tattoos and made an appointment with him. I was a little nervous but it went a lot smoother than I thought and we were out of there in no time. If anyone goes to Honolulu, I would definitely recommend Daniel or his crew at Sacred Arts Tattoos, as they are extremely qualified for any type of design.

We were pretty bummed to have to leave this tropical paradise, but knew we had obligations back at home to handle...and we missed our friends, families, and dogs more than we had realized. We packed up for our trip home and that is when the exhaustion started to set in for the both of us. Brian's birthday landed on the same day as our flight home and Brenda surprised us with a birthday sign welcome upon our arrival, along with hiring Scott the family limo driver to take us there and pick us up. :).

Boy oh boy, was our honeymoon an experience of many lifetimes. When people ask us what our favorite part was...it is extremely difficult to only provide one thing. We are extremely glad that we island hopped so we could locate our favorite location for the next trip, and we are also relieved that we rented a jeep at each island so we could get around more easily. Hawaii has many gluten free friendly restaurants, so that was also a plus. We got to eat at a pancake house in Maui that had gluten free pancakes and I was in heaven! The weather was perfect and did not rain other than 2 times throughout the day while we were on the Big Island. Everyone was so friendly and said Aloha or Ma-halo and we enjoyed feeling welcome by the locals. The food was fabulous (but a little pricey), and we loved eating fresh fish, produce, and organic meets and veggies. Shopping was a neat experience as they had a little bit of everything at each island.

• Holiday Inn Express

• The Texas Star Ranch & Retreat

• The Rose Garden Bed & Breakfast

• Angels Nest Bed and Breakfast