Spiritual podcaster Sahara Rose's breathtaking Hawaiian beach wedding

Breathtaking Cultural Polynesian Wedding on the Beaches of Hawaii – Joseph Esser 11

Photo by Joseph Esser via Bridal Musings

We’re feeling pretty zen this lovely Friday morning thanks to our spiritual bride guide Sahara Rose spoiling us to her breathtaking Hawaiian beach wedding.

On a beach below the lush, jungly cliffs of Oahu, Sahara & Steven threw a stunning, multicultural wedding of epic proportions. Celebrating their own Christian & Persian backgrounds while embracing the beautiful Hawaiian traditions, the festivities were vibrant, varied, colorful & oh-so-unique.

Guests were spoiled to a scenic boat ride to Secret Island Beach (you may recall some scenes from Jurassic Park!) where they were greeted by hula dancers, incredible views, kombucha mocktails (yes, please!) and three separate ceremonies just as special as the next.

After you’ve oohed and ahhed over the pretty scenes, boho gowns & colorful florals, you can hear more about their beautiful day on Sahara’s own podcast!

Our Love Story

I actually manifested him! I drew a picture of my ideal God-Man, wrote out everything about him from what we do on the weekends, to what he loves about me and I love about him. I then received the message from my meditation not to go look for him but that he will find me. I decided to just focus on living my best life that year and decided I wanted to go to a music festival called EDC (which is a total rave – NOT my normal scene).

Long story short, a friend of mine got me on Bumble and the first person I meet is Steven.. who happened to be at EDC that weekend! The rest is history! I truly believe the universe put “Go to EDC” in my mind because it wanted me to reunite with Steven in this lifetime!

Breathtaking Cultural Polynesian Wedding on the Beaches of Hawaii – Joseph Esser 2

Wedding Day Style

What happens when a spiritual guru marries a music mogul, crossing between Persian, Arabic and Hawaiian cultures, all in Jurassic Park? This colorful, cultural and extremely authentic wedding. Best-selling author and podcast host Sahara Rose and music manager Steven Haddad created a wedding experience that infused ancient culture with drumming, dance, music, poetry, bachata dancing and so much more.

Breathtaking Cultural Polynesian Wedding on the Beaches of Hawaii – Joseph Esser 3

Favorite Moments

Every ounce of the wedding was completely us, from the fact that we STARTED the reception with hard-core Arabic dancing and money showers, to raw vegan desserts to the Shamanic ritual to kombucha cocktails to the twerking to bachata dancing.

Breathtaking Cultural Polynesian Wedding on the Beaches of Hawaii – Joseph Esser 4

The Events

Guests were shuttled to Jurassic Park (literally where the movie was filmed) to be handed a welcome cocktail (non-alcoholic kombucha with edible flowers for Sahara’s conscious crew) and taken via boat to Secret Island Beach, where hula dancers awaited. There they experienced three different ceremonies: a Christian, Hawaiian and Persian.

Guests boated back to the beautiful Moli’i Gardens where they ensued in a night of Arabic dancing, money showers, the bride and groom thrown on chairs, a surprise bachata dance by the bride and groom, and the most laughter, twerking and hugs you’ve ever seen in a wedding.

Breathtaking Cultural Polynesian Wedding on the Beaches of Hawaii – Joseph Esser 6

Breathtaking Cultural Polynesian Wedding on the Beaches of Hawaii – Joseph Esser 9

The Photography

I loved Joseph Esser’s light and airy aesthetics, and the fact that he is a ‘MerMan’ and did an underwater wedding shoot with us!

Breathtaking Cultural Polynesian Wedding on the Beaches of Hawaii – Joseph Esser 10

Advice to Other Couples

My best advice is to make the wedding YOU. Put in the extra time for the details. Curate your own playlist. Choose your own flow of the evenings. Be YOURSELVES. It’s you + your partner’s unique personalities and love story that makes the night special.

My other piece of advice comes from the words of Outkast: You can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather. I almost didn’t MAKE it to my wedding because transportation FORGOT to pick me up and basically got into a massive fight with the driver who refused to take me. And the show must go on! Even with all the details I planned, I couldn’t have predicted this and things WILL go wrong on your wedding – but you can choose how long you’re going to dwell on it.

The Honeymoon

We spent two weeks on a nearly deserted island in Fiji right after, which I highly recommend to debrief, reconnect and really think about all that just happened and set the tone for the rest of your marriage!

Breathtaking Cultural Polynesian Wedding on the Beaches of Hawaii – Joseph Esser 13

This wedding completely reflects the free-spirited, fun and authentic nature of the bride and groom and there truly is no wedding like it. Tune in to hear how the bride almost didn’t make it to the wedding over on Highest Self Podcast Episode 202.