Having spent countless hours surfing and talking about future plans together, Joelle and Andrew assumed they would be married barefoot in the sand. Then a friend suggested a wedding at the old Haiku Mill in Maui, and Joelle recalls, “As soon as we saw this beautiful hideaway, I knew nothing else would be as perfect.” Located on Maui's North Shore, the refurbished mill is a Hawaiian historical landmark and one of the first sugar mills built in 1853. “The mill has a secret garden feel that is so rare,” says Joelle. She could picture her wedding under a full moon with beautiful lighting and dozens of candles tucked among the stone nooks.

Joelle Walsh, a fashion design student at the University of Hawaii, woke one morning to find a note from her boyfriend, Andrew Perry. His instructions to get dressed and meet him outside were written neatly on a heart-shaped cutout and pinned to her bathing suit and cover-up. It wasn’t unlike Andrew to plan a romantic outing, so Joelle happily complied and found him waiting with a jacket, hot cocoa and his car packed for a day at the beach. As the two walked together along the water’s edge searching for shells, Joelle was completely caught off guard when Andrew knelt there in the sand and extended a ring nestled in a small clam shell—it was her great-great-grandmother’s diamond. Hardly able to speak, Joelle whispered “yes” through her tears. The surprises continued that evening when family and friends gathered at Andrew’s request to celebrate the joyous occasion.

The young couple met three years earlier at Hope Chapel Kihei and, quite literally, grew up together in the church youth group. The stunning blonde was born and raised in Maui, and Andrew’s family relocated from the Mariana Islands when he was just ten years old. They struck up a friendship on a mission trip to Mexico and eventually began dating. Joelle says, “He was my first date, my first love. One night as we were walking on the beach, I realized I was in love with him, and I committed my heart to him then.” She was seventeen. Their love blossomed as Andrew revealed his tender ways with small tokens of affection. “He would pick flowers for me and write me the most beautiful letters,” says Joelle, “He has always made me feel like a princess!”

Their personalities are quite different—Joelle is a vivacious model, and Andrew is an introspective sports medicine major—but a mutual love of God is perhaps their strongest bond. Andrew saw beyond Joelle’s captivating beauty and says, “Her maturity with God made me certain that she was the right person for me. She loves God and always puts Him first.”

With the location confirmed, the bride enlisted the help of a talented group of family and friends and asked her mother to take the lead as wedding planner. Joelle is no stranger to the fabulous world of wedding design. Her former internship at Pacific Weddings aided in a vision for her own nuptials—an entire evening ensconced in white. Joelle requested that everyone in attendance dress in shades beyond the pale, from the bridesmaids to the guests. She then designed and created her own bridal gown, a simply elegant profile in the faintest shade of pink, and the only hint of color for the event besides her bouquet of peonies in the same hue. Her bridesmaids wore pretty dresses in a style Joelle refers to as “natural bohemian”.

Together with her mother and her closest girlfriends, the bride pulled together an eclectic, shabby-chic ambience that was perfectly suited to the antique Parisian architectural elements of the mill. Ivory hydrangea flowers were tucked in old-fashioned vases upon candlelit tables, and slip-covered ottomans invited guests to lounge in casual conversation. In lieu of a wedding cake, a decadent white chocolate dessert buffet became a focal point at the reception.

Encircled by the stones of the ruins, Joelle and Andrew pledged their love as family and friends lit up the mill in a sea of white outfits and smiling faces. Their youth pastor from Hope Chapel, Michael Woodard, fulfilled his hope that this would be the first marriage that he officiated. It was a celebration as original as the couple themselves. The groom and his attendants danced a haka—a traditional Maori war dance—as an expression of their fierce protection of the union. In a touching display of devotion, the couple knelt to wash each other’s feet. Joelle explains the ceremony as a remembrance of Jesus and His disciples in the New Testament, “We wanted to show that we were serving each other, the world and God.” In this moment their relationship had come full circle, from their beginning as fellow missionaries to this inspirational dedication of a life spent in love.