Imagine facing down what seems like the edge of the earth at sunset. In front of you are thousands of miles of ocean and essentially ‘nothing’ else. It’s just you and your lover, your partner, your ride or die. You take H11 south of Kona, Hawaii and park your car just 100 feet from a 60 feet drop directly into the most azure ocean, where you can see clear to the bottom. You share your wedding vows and have your Big Island elopement portraits taken as the sun sets over the southern most point of the United States.
If you’ve followed along with my journey as a destination elopement photographer, you’ll know that I love the Big Island of Hawaii. In fact, I love it so much that I worked for almost a year to figure out how to move there.
Unfortunately, my dreams of being an exclusive Big Island elopement photographer weren’t the plans meant for us. But, it does make this island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean that much more special to me.
I had the pleasure of meeting Stanzie and her fiance Paul in November 2021 thought Instagram at first and later in person at one of my favorite coffee stops in Captain Cook, Kaya’s Coffee. This is a total recommended stop as they serve up organic coffee, local fruit smoothies, and even kombucha. AND they have restrooms there (which can be a rarity in Hawaii).
You see, Stanzie and Paul were planning on getting married, but these portraits weren’t meant to be their wedding photos. No, Paul and Stanzie were modeling for my New Adventure Workshop on the Big Island. But just because this isn’t their wedding day doesn’t mean that their love is any less real. In fact, these two tied the knot shortly after this shoot and I couldn’t be happier for them.
Stanzie and Paul are ecletic, eccentric in all the right ways, and have the biggest hearts of so many people I’ve met. Stanzie does energy and healing work, hosting workshops for energy alignments and kundalini awakenings. If this is something you’re interested in, I highly recommend heading out to the Big Island to meet with Dr. Stanzie for this. You can find more details about that here!
Big Island Elopement Portraits
Paul and Stanzie were rockstars, modeling for my workshop. The photos I was able to capture of them are some of my favorites I’ve ever taken. Especially because of the perfect light, the perfect couple, and the total sense of joy and euphoria I was feeling on our last full day at the workshop.
The Big Island may seem like it’s a million miles away, but I promise you that it’s not. And if you ever had the itch to visit Hawaii for an elopement or just a vacation, you should totally reach out with the link below so we can schedule an epic full day photo adventure.
And yes, we can totally return to the South Point. AND if you’re feeling particularly adventuresome, you can even jump on the edge of the southern tip of the US. (Don’t worry, there’s a rope ladder you can climb back up).
New Adventure Productions is owned by Nate Dale, a Lafayette, Indiana wedding and elopement photographer. We travel nation and worldwide to capture beautiful and intimate weddings and elopements while providing a guidance, love, help along the way.
He is married to the love of his life, Felicia with their two doggies, Pika and Princess.