Our Anniversary

Andy and I have been married for 12 years!

The images link to more photos.

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Tuesday, August 31st 2004 we set up. Andy, Klaus, Ruwan and Thelan helped John to set up the reception tents at the Taro patch. Inge, Trude, Kiron and Sonja cleaned up at Kalihiwai beach.
To see more click on the image…

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We started the celebration on Wednesday, September 1st 2004. In the morning we hiked NouNou, the “Sleeping Giant” hill nearby, and picked Ti leaves that we later made into leis for the wedding guests. In the afternoon Andy and the guys went kayaking, while Sonja and the gals had a lei making class.
In the evening we had a pizza party at our house and also the most beautiful sunset rainbow.
To see more click on the image above…

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The morning of the wedding day a big rain cleared the atmosphere, cleansed
the island, and the rest of the day was beautiful, warm, sunshine, light
breeze, just perfect weather. Before the ceremony we had music and hula at
the beach.

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In the beginning Antion blew the conch shell, then Serge Kahili King held a deeply meaningful and moving ceremony. We had a Hawaiian water ritual and a lei exchange in addition to the exchange of rings.

After the ceremony many pictures were taken and many hugs and good wishes received. We also took a short break at the ocean.

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More Photos of our guests. Click on the image…

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The reception was held at the Taro Patch in Anahola. Many more posed pictures, and beautiful Hula and Hawaiian music started this part of the
celebration.

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The reception continued with a great lunch from the Blossoming Lotus, the local vegan restaurant, cutting of the cake and Ruwan’s speech.

Finally, we planted a tree, a breadfruit tree, Ulu. The Ulu was brought to Hawaii by the Polynesians. To us it represents, among many other
things, abundance, Hawaiian culture, giving back to the earth, and also connections, within and between.

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Friday we had a picnic in Kokee, but we got fogged and rained out and luckily escaped to Polihale, where we relaxed and camped the next 2 days.
We ended the week of celebration by tossing our lei flowers into the Waimea River, a good wish attached to each of them (Thank you Lisa for the good idea).

As Leilani said “we were firing a fest” (this quote will be a lot more funny if you are fluent in German and English…, feiern in German means celebrate, and sounds a lot like English fire-n, a fest is a party or celebration)

Author: Sonja

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