Pronovias Ariel wedding dress in the wild

Maybe this title isn't the most accurate, but it's the best I could do, so let's just go with it! What this post is meant to be is just sharing some photos that my Maid of Honor (MOH) shot for me as some additional photos in my wedding dress.

Now, give me a second before you judge me about dragging my bestie along to just take photos of me in a big fancy gown, and let me share some backstory. When I got my dress, the staff mentioned that owner of the boutique that I purchased my dress only trusts one place to clean Pronovias gowns.

Sneak peek at photos from the wedding day 
(c) Derek Wong Photography

After my wedding, we inquired to this company that the boutique recommended and was quoted an assload of money for cleaning and preservation. In the end, I decided to go with it, BUT my dress was barely used and I didn't feel like the costs were quite meeting what I considered "worth it" based on the dress's condition. (Depending on how things go, I plan to do a review blog post later about this gown cleaning company, so I'll give more details then if you're interested! It was estimated to take 3+ months though wtf.)
So, I thought to myself, what can I do to make the cleaning costs more worthwhile / something I wouldn't do otherwise? First answer was obviously hop in the ocean...but maybe salt water wasn't a good idea...and also as part of the cleaning process, I was required to ship the dress to the company in NY on my own dime, so maybe a sopping wet ballgown wasn't the best idea either. My second answer was going on a scenic hike and just taking some photos with a nice view/background! If the dress got a little muddy or a lot more sweaty, that shouldn't be as problematic as jumping in the ocean completely, and I already enjoy hiking, so I looped in my bestie and we made some plans. 

We decided on the beginning of the Ka'au crater hike as the location. It wasn't too strenuous and there should be a decent number of good settings to choose from (you don't have to complete the entire hike to have a good view) without being crazy crowded. 

We met up at 3:30pm on a Wednesday and headed out. I had the dress packed in a large duffle that I wore as a backpack and wore a cami and short athletic shorts so it wouldn't be difficult to put the dress on when we got to our intended spot. My MOH wore the haku on the way in!

Got to a calm spot separate from other hikers with some space off the direct trail to change and got to work! After talking with my MOH, we thought it would be a good idea to leave my hair down for these photos since I had an updo for the wedding (and half up half down for the engagement photos). 

From here, please just accept a photo dump of some of the pictures that I liked! I don't have much to say about each and tbh I realize some are a bit similar, but since it was all about the photos, I think they can speak for themselves ♥

Here are scans of some of the polaroids my MOH took with her own cameras!

The backgrounds came out quite dark, even when she tried to adjust the settings, but I hope you'll believe me when I say that some of these are quite cute IRL!

I don't know how influencers do this kind of thing regularly. My only guess is that maybe their hikes are not as humid (compared to Hawaii?), otherwise how do they keep their hair and makeup Insta-worthy for multiple shots! Bringing the wardrobe was much easier than I anticipated, but I wish I could have my hair down & curled without it dying within 15 minutes (it usually lasts at least half a day otherwise!). 

My husband is away for work during this time, so unfortunately he couldn't be part of the "fun", but it still felt like a nice experience with me and my MOH to just take some low stakes pictures and enjoy the outdoors. 

It was definitely a fun experience for me but let me know if you think the photos were worth it!