One of the best Kauai Wedding Photo tips: stand in front of a jaw-dropping background – not always easy, but Kauai has many options! (The photo above was a double rainbow)
Want some Kauai wedding photo tips?
We’ve have been doing Kauai wedding photography for a long time, on this most beautiful gem of the Hawaiian islands. Based on our extensive experience, we have come up with a quick and handy list of the most important things to bear in mind when getting ready for (and during) your Kauai wedding shots. Here are our top 6 Kauai wedding photo tips, but you can get more photo tips here!
Kauai Wedding Photo Tips #1
Kauai can be really hot, especially during the months leading up to summer and during summer, and especially if you come from a cold US state or foreign country. It is normal for temperatures to reach between 80-95°F (26-35°C). Stay out of the sun as much as possible to reduce sweating and squinting. Also, try to do the wedding photos at start of your trip, so you have the rest of your time to relax and play without having to schedule things around them.
Kauai Wedding Photo Tips #2
A good Kauai wedding photographer can help you find slimming or flattering poses to help you hide certain parts of your body if need be. Don’t hesitate to ask your photographer about it. Professional photographers are well-practiced with image composition, i.e. setting up an image in the right way, including setting up people to look their best.
Kauai Wedding Photo Tips #3
If you’re coming to Kauai for a destination wedding, you’ll be wearing unusual clothes (i.e. a wedding dress) that you’re not used to wearing. Ask your photographer for help in adjusting it to make it look right.
Kauai Wedding Photo Tips #4
If you have a Kauai destination wedding with guests, chances are that they have flown a long way from the US mainland to be here. They may be older, but regardless of their age, they may get tired. It’s important to give tired people a break in between shots.
Kauai Wedding Photo Tips #5
A wedding is meant to fun, light and joyous, right? Help your guests relax by talking or joking around. Happy people make better wedding shots!
Kauai Wedding Photo Tips #6
Finally, here is the last Kauai wedding tip: avoid windblown hair by wearing your hair up. You would be surprised by how many people ignore this one – only to have wisps, curls and strands of hair flying in their husbands’ faces! You’ll be able to relax and be more at ease knowing that your hair is held in position when standing on Kauai’s windy beaches.
Call us at Timory McDonald Photography at 888-939-3885 for a free consultation!
Lydgate Beach is a great, private Kauai wedding location – perfect for wedding photography.
Our Kauai wedding location series
of blog articles will take a look at some of the best places on Kauai for weddings and best beaches for wedding photography. Since Kauai has a multitude of top-notch beaches and other outdoor wedding locations, we will be going through the best of them one-by-one to show you a little about each. We love performing the service of Kauai wedding photography at all of them; there’s nothing like being outside in the beauty of Nature. Today’s featured Kauai wedding location is Lydgate Beach on the East Side of Kauai.
Lydgate Beach, Superb Kauai Wedding Location
Lydgate is located in Kapaa near the Wailua river, which used to be sacred to the Hawaiian royalty. Lydgate is mostly known as a park, not a beach. It hosts the largest and best park for kids on Kauai, along with several pavilions, barbecues and a camping area. Strangely, not so many people know about Lydgate Beach, which is a great beach to swim at, and which extends along the coastline for miles. Because it is so long, expansive and relatively unvisited, along with having great mountain backdrops, Lydgate Beach is a hidden gem. It is our personal favorite when it comes to Kauai wedding locations!
Lydgate Beach: Privacy Supreme
It is uncommon to see weddings taking place at Lydgate (unlike the crowd of weddings at Shipwrecks Beach on the South Shore). Also, there are many sections where rocks jut out into the ocean, which creates little private areas along the beach. Every single beach on Kauai is public, so you can never get a complete guarantee of having a beach to yourself, but at Lydgate you are very likely to have a private ceremony. If someone else is there, they will likely be off in the distance, fishing or taking a walk.
Lydgate Beach Has Rainy Day Options
The East Side of Kauai can be both sunny and rainy – sometimes on the same day or in the same hour! Overall the East Side is not that wet, especially compared to Kauai’s North Shore. However, the great thing about Lydgate Beach as a Kauai wedding location is that it comes with rainy day options, in the form of various pavilions that provide a covered area to perform a wedding. They are free of charge too.
Having done Kauai wedding photography and planning for many years now, we know the best hidden and secluded Kauai wedding locations to make a perfect backdrop for your wedding photos. Call us at 888-939-3885 today for a free consultation!
Many Kauai beach wedding locations offer stunning backdrops such as this cloud reflection.
Kauai beach wedding locations
are numerous throughout the Garden Island. Kauai has been blessed with extraordinary natural beauty, from lush green jungles to towering cliffs to botanical gardens to majestic mountains. Of course, the beaches are wonderful too, and quite varied. Some are crowded, some are deserted; some are rocky, some are sandy; some are super dry and sunny, while others are prone to having overcast weather. Here’s an overview of the main Kauai beach wedding locations, sorted by which side of the island they are on.
North Shore Kauai Beach Wedding Locations
The North Shore of Kauai is truly spectacular. It is the wettest and most lush part of the island, home to scenic views, thick vegetation and the charming crescent-shaped Hanalei Bay. There are several outstanding beach wedding locations on this part of Kauai, including Ke’e Beach (at the very end of the road near the start of the Kalalau trail), Tunnels Beach (a little further along from Ke’e, with a gorgeous backdrop of the Bali Hai mountains) and Hanalei Beach itself.
Pros: Great backdrops for photos, expansive scenery
Cons: Generally wet, high chance of rain in the “winter” months (September to March)
East Side Kauai Beach Wedding Locations
The East Side of Kauai is the most populated, yet strangely, the beaches themselves are less crowded and more private than elsewhere. This is because Kauai’s more famous beaches are either on the North or South Shore. The East Side offers some mostly unknown yet lovely beaches such as Lydgate Beach and Nukolii Beach.
Pros: Private beaches, central location near hotels, restaurants and entertainment
Cons: Beaches sometimes have a lot of driftwood
South Shore Kauai Beach Wedding Locations
One great thing about the South Shore of Kauai is that it is consistently dry and sunny, making it a good Kauai beach wedding location if you are worried about rain on your special day. The South Shore includes Poipu Beach and Shipwrecks Beach – the latter being the most famous and popular beach on the island. While Shipwrecks is certainly picturesque, it is often crowded and home to many beach weddings occurring simultaneously.
Pros: Almost always sunny, located near many hotels
Cons: Beaches are popular and crowded, some such as Shipwrecks often has multiple weddings occurring at same time
West Side Kauai Beach Wedding Locations
The West Side of Kauai is very dry, dusty and desert-like. It is sparsely populated with very few hotels or restaurants. Not many people choose to get married on a West Side Beach, but there are some options, the main one being Polihale, a remote and rugged expanse of beach far away from the main highway.
Pros: Almost always dry and sunny
Cons: Very remote, not close to hotels and restaurants, beaches such as Polihale difficult to access
Having done Kauai wedding photography and planning for many years now, we know the best hidden and secluded Kauai beach wedding locations to make a perfect backdrop for your wedding photos. Call us at 888-939-3885 today for a free consultation!
Why Timory McDonald Photography? We are flexible, attentive, passionate about photography, and truly value getting an exquisite shot of you to last a lifetime.
Welcome to Timory McDonald Photography.
I would love to do your wedding photos. In all honesty, to be considered as being a part of your wedding team, to be one of the people that helps make your wedding dreams a series of visual images a reality, would truly be an honor.
My Wedding Photography is a Snapshot of Unrealized Potential
Timory McDonald photography is not just pictures of a day, a moment or a glance; it’s a snapshot of unrealized potential. It’s the creation of a story out of a collection of images that not only show the first moments of your marriage, but also the very first moments of the rest of your lives together.
I’m here to document your wedding day the way you want it. I can be up close, doing whatever it takes to reveal the wonder of Who You Are as a couple, I can be unobtrusive and stand back from afar, or I can be both – whichever way you prefer.
My photography is not only taking and editing photos, but also capturing your essence as individuals and together as a couple.
Why Timory McDonald Photography?
I am very patient and truly value getting an exquisite shot of you and your loved ones that you can treasure for decades. I go way above and beyond to do what it takes to make sure that happens. I am very generous with my time, and especially the number of images I give out. You can expect to have images full of color, love and an unfolding story to cherish for years if you should happen to choose me as your photographer!
We are also a very flexible company. We’ll do everything we can to make sure your photos are what you want, even if it means moving or rescheduling a photo shoot due to inclement weather. (Luckily we have enough tricks up our sleeve that this has rarely happened.)
If you happen to have kids in your group, you’re really in luck, because it would be hard to find someone who will be more patient and skilled at working with your kids to get an amazing shot, even out of a tired and cranky child who is jet lagged and missed their nap!
Basic Information
We have put together the basic information we find people want to know in order to take advantage of the gorgeous environment we have here on Kauai. These are the sorts of questions people ask us:
What can I do to get the best wedding photos on Kauai?
When is the best time of day to do them?
Where are the best places to do an outdoor photo shoot?
How long do I need?
What if we have kids?
How do you do site/location changes?
What should I expect for ready and wreck the dress photos?
What should I have my guest’s do/not do?
What is the best way to wear my hair/makeup(for women)?
If you want to know the answer to any of these typical questions or more, then make sure to contact us to opt in to our 6-email series, so that you can receive our free information to answer basic questions that many people have. We only send you free information to help make your wedding better and to make an informed choice about your options here on Kauai. We respect your privacy and would never share your email address.
Timory would love to help you capture your magic as a family in paradise. Please let us know how we can help! For any questions please call 888-939-3885.
First class wedding photography is a very important aspect
to pay attention to when planning your wedding. It will make a huge difference when you look back on your special day. First class wedding photography will help preserve your memories and bring back a smile. As you age, that is priceless. At your wedding, any of your guests could take hundreds of candid shots of the ceremony and the bride and groom, but how many of those types of pictures would you blow up to an 8 x 10 and put on your wall, table or mantel? How many of those would you keep for decades to share with your grandkids as the picture that encapsulated your wedding day?
When you choose Timory McDonald Wedding Photography, you’re choosing someone who is going to take that “shot of the year” that you send out to all your friends and family as the picture that captured your love – the love that is so deep that it prompted you to take the long journey out to the Hawaiian islands and have a Kauai beach wedding. That is a deep love and a long expensive journey, and it’s not something so easily captured by an amateur photographer.
Amateur Photography vs. Professional Photography
Let’s just say that you do have a friend or relative who has a semi professional camera (and who can take some good shots). What about post production? What about digital image editing? To really have that sensational photo on your mantel, you’ll need a professional who can touch the photo up in a variety of ways, e.g. enhancing the colors, removing or adding something, etc. It makes the difference between a “nice” photo included in an album of many nice photos, and that “must get enlarged and keep for posterity” photo that become the photo of your wedding.
What Makes a Photo Great?
You may be wondering: what makes a photo great? Is it just the editing? Editing helps, but no, there’s much more to it than that. Photography is both a science and an art. Every person will have a subjective idea of what makes a photo great, but there are some generalities. Sometimes it’s the classic big smile. Other times it’s the ability capture a typical look on someone’s face. We think that first class wedding photography captures a deep sentiment between people. Sometimes you can set that picture up, but often you can’t. It takes a keen eye, a lot of experience and a lot of intuition to catch that special moment when two people in love give each other the glance that lets you see into their souls.
First class wedding photography is so important. Anyone can take some shots, but only a professional knows how to capture a couple’s intimate love.
When you can look at someone’s eyes and see into how they feel, that’s great photography.
When you have a child or shy person let go of that fear and open up for just a moment, that’s great photography.
Remember, your wedding photos are not just some wedding detail. They are the keepsakes, the images which you will look at for many years to come to remember your Hawaiian wedding experience. They’re the photographs that someday your kids will view and comment upon.
Taking your wedding memories from good to great is why it’s essential to get first class wedding photography. We believe that photography is not only important now, but its value goes up as time goes by. It deserves to rate very highly on your list of wedding priorities.
One last benefit to using a professional photographer at your wedding is the service you receive (in addition to the photos). If you want something cropped differently, removed or in any way altered, there is a professional who will do this for you, usually at no extra cost. If something happens to your copy of the digital images, you can have an extra back up too.
