Amanda and Cijay met while working as a cocktail waitress and busser in a Las Vegas nightclub. “We hit it off right away, but we were both too nervous at first to ask each other out,” recalls Amanda. “After a few months of hanging out in groups, Cijay finally got the nerve to ask me out on a date.” Knowing that Amanda was a professional dancer, Cijay took her to see the show Le Reve. “It was so thoughtful that he took the time to find out what I was interested in to make our first date really special.”
On the island of Kauai for Cijay’s brother’s wedding, the couple checked in to the Grand Hyatt for some private time once the festivities quieted down. After breakfast, they drove out to Mahaulepu Beach where they were the only people in sight. “I noticed Cijay pacing back and forth a lot down by the water, which actually didn’t seem weird to me at the time,” she says. “I was lying down tanning and Cijay was still down by the water when he shouted up to me, ‘Can you check my shorts to see if I brought my wallet?’” She looked in the pockets of his shorts, and there was the ring. “I was caught so off guard that my reaction was nothing what I had expected it to be,” she shares. “Most girls imagine what the day will be like when they get engaged and what their reaction will be like. I was definitely one of those girls, but my reaction didn’t seem to go as I had imagined. I must have repeated ‘Is this for real?’ about 10 times while sobbing.”
For their wedding, Amanda knew she wanted a black-tie event with a 1920s, Great Gatsby theme. “I was so fortunate that this theme was similar to what Cijay had imagined as well,” she says. “Being engaged and planning a wedding is such an exciting time—filled with love and talks of a lifelong future together—but there are definitely ups and downs to the planning process. You really have to learn to work together as a couple.”
Sadly, during their planning, Amanda’s nana passed away. “It was a tragic time for me and my family, because we were all so close,” she says. “After her passing, I knew I wanted to honor her and find a way to make her a part of our wedding day, so we chose to have our officiant speak briefly of her during the ceremony and to have a moment of silence for her.”
After the sun set on the ceremony, guests moved on to the reception in an old wine barrel room. “The most important things we wanted were good food, plenty of alcohol, and a fun environment that people would want to dance the night away in.” The bride and groom remember one of their favorite moments being the speeches from the maid of honor and best man. “Both of them are naturally funny and entertaining people, so we weren’t expecting the heartwarming and emotional speeches that they gave,” Amanda says. “While there were still a few laughs, the room was filled with mostly tears of love.”
—Darren Elms
