North Shore
folks pull together
to help newlyweds

Their car was broken into
after the Waimea Bay
wedding ceremony

By Lori Tighe
Star-Bulletin

William Lyman and Michelle Daney married at sunrise Friday at Waimea Bay Beach Park, vowing to stay together through the good times and the bad.

Then the couple immediately experienced the bad.

They returned to the parking lot after the picture-perfect ceremony to find their car smashed by thieves and the bride's purse stolen with personal checks and credit cards. Daney, a teacher, and Lyman, a Navy SEAL stationed at Pearl Harbor, spent their wedding day filling out a police report.

The North Shore community, after hearing the couple was robbed of their special day, decided to throw them an aloha wedding complete with the works.

When their minister, Ron Valenciana, heard the car had been burglarized, he thought, "Why don't we give them a brand-new day?" Nearly everyone he called agreed.

"We just want to make a special day gone haywire right again," said John Elford, general manager of the Turtle Bay Hilton Resort, who gave the couple a complimentary wedding night at the hotel.

"It's tragic," sympathized Linda Martin, owner of North Shore Limousines. "Unfortunately, robbers don't discriminate for newlyweds. But hopefully, we can give them a day to remember."

Originally, the couple, in their early 20s, could just afford the sunrise, the ocean, a minister, each other and God. They didn't even have money enough for wedding rings, Valenciana said.

A limousine from North Shore Limousines will pick the couple up on their rescheduled wedding day. They will marry beneath a waterfall courtesy of Waimea Beach Park. Haleiwa Flower Shop will donate flowers. Valenciana will perform the ceremony for free.

Stefanie Riedel-Godfrey will provide the photography, and Newsphoto Hawaii will videotape the event. The couple will sip champagne donated from Fujioka Supermarket and dine for free at Aloha Joe's restaurant. Then they will spend their wedding night courtesy of the Hilton Turtle Bay Resort. A wedding coordinator from Aloha Island Weddings will make all the arrangements.

"The North Shore people are a close community," explained Martin. "We like to take care of our own, even if you're from out of town."