Episode 1 in a series of videos related to the event industry in Kauai, stories about wedding officiants, hair and make-up artists, coordinators, caterers and other artists. If you are having/ planning a wedding in Kauai, this video might be a valuable tool in your research, as you’ll see in action the best non-religious officiants on Kauai, ideal for elopement weddings, vow renewals, and events that require official services by a licensed officiant.
2020 yikes!
2019 bye-bye. You went by in a blink. And so much happened? Now look, 2020 is almost here.Yikes! I dare not think what will happen.
Shipwrecked
She walked slowly, her thin shoes not completely shielding her feet from the hot sand. She was nervous… and excited in the same breath. Shore waves, about three feet tall, were crashing along the shoreline. Misty sea-spray was in the air. She took a deep breath, tasting the briny elixir that was on her lips. There wasn’t a shipwreck in sight. But she could see her man, faced away from, as he was meant to at this moment. He was waiting for her. Her heart began to beat even faster.
Not that I really knew what was going on in the bride’s mind at that moment; I just guessed it. I had been hired to capture these moments on video. It’s a typical scene that is experienced by thousands of wedding couples at this particular beach: Shipwrecks Beach. My mind drifted off for a moment, and I wondered, how many ‘shipwreck beaches’ are there? I know that in Greece there’s a Shipwreck Beach that some call Smuggler’s Cove. And I’ve heard that Oregon has a Shipwrecks beach, as does Washington State. In Hawaii there are at least two that I know of, the one at Lanai, aptly named Shipwrecks because it really does have mangled sea vessels littering its shore, and the one that I was on at that very moment: Shipwreck Beach, Poipu, Kauai. But here you wont actually find a shipwreck, not anywhere along the beach or along the spectacular coast. You will, however, see the iconic rock face—Makawehi Point—a sandstone landmark which the bride was presently heading to, and where her groom was waiting. You might have heard about this particular beach for another reason: This is where locals (and some brave tourists) leap thirty-five feet off the rock into the turbulent Pacific. Notably, Harrison Ford and Anne Heche jumped from it for the movie, “6 Days and 7 Nights.” It’s just a short walk along the sand from the Hyatt Regency and other Poipu resorts, which might also be why so many wedding couples choose this location. Waves smash again the cliff and when it’s really hot, wedding couples can move twenty feet from the water’s edge and find shade under the canopy of lush ironwood trees. It’s idyllic for dramatic photography and videography. The image below is pulled directly from the video, filmed by me at Shipwreck’s on November 11th 2019.
The groom turned…and gasped as he saw her for the first time that day. His heart was galloping at a hundred miles an hour. In his prepared vows, he told how she’d so profoundly changed his life, for the better; that God and destiny had made it so. When it was her turn, her eyes turned watery and her voice trembled lightly; this also made his eyes glisten.
Fifteen minutes later, the officiant proclaimed them husband and wife and they fell into each other’s embrace. There weren’t any violins but if there had been they wouldn’t have been out of place. Nice ceremony.
A footnote: there used to be an old weather-beaten boat lying at the water’s edge. It sat there for many years, and that’s where the pirate-like name came from, I guess.
If you know of another Shipwrecks Beach, I’d love to hear about it. Shoot me an email at davidm617@me.com and visit my website: Kauai Video Productions 
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Cutaway, Reversal, and Don’t Cross the Line.
I’m David Marsh, a wedding cinematographer in Kauai and this piece is basically about me, what I do and why I’m different. So what’s “Cutaway, Reversal, and Don’t Cross the Line?” If you are a professional filmmaker, it’s everyday spoken nomenclature. Perhaps many wedding pros know these terms, although I’ve met plenty that don’t. But…ostensibly, film production protocols aren’t necessarily needed to film a wedding, right? That’s not what I believe! I believe there’s a story to be told in every wedding. On the HOME PAGE of my website I write: “I imagine first then shoot—having a script is how I produce high-end wedding videos that are crafted for originality and paced to be entertaining.” I also say, “a story has to have a story, you can’t call it a story when you show up at a wedding with a video camera and shoot some nice looking footage!”
These film philosophies run through me veins, as taught to me many years ago when I was a supernumerary/ apprentice at Pinewood Film Studios in England. Seventeen at that time, I’d quit school early because I hated school. My training started with brain fodder: knowing the difference between emulsion and celluloid, the difference between key numbers and reel numbering, to know butterflies, HDMIs, scrims, tying in, and a million other things—a training that lasted ten years. I worked my way up the ladder, becoming a film and TV editor, then a director of independent art films, before I decided to DP and write. After three decades in the film and TV business, I decided I wanted to be a writer of fiction. To facilitate my dream, I segued into wedding cinematography and wedding photography so that I could still earn a living. What I learned is shooting is shooting, however big, however small, it has to be done right or not at all.
To this day, I get really excited to go out and shoot. For photography, I like to use two cameras, one strapped over each shoulder, so that I can easily switch focal lengths without changing lenses. For video, I mostly shoot with three cameras, but sometimes four of five. You might be surprised to know that complex video shoots require fewer cameras.
wedding photography by David Marsh.
More about me at Kauai Video Productions
Diamond Light Photography 