Dillon and Riley Murphy, Hawaii, were worried but it was their big day, so they crossed their fingers.
The couple was concerned because Tropical Storm Darby was off the coast, and they were worried about rain showers. On their wedding day, the happy couple welcomed their guests at Hulihe’e Palace in Kailua-Kona for their outdoor ceremony despite the weather.
“And like Dillon was saying,” Riley said, “we were so worried about the remnants of Darby and like, ‘Are we going to get rainfall?’ But never really took into account that the high surf might impact our wedding as well.”
The storm was well off the coast, fizzling out, but it created massive swells instead of causing rain showers as forecasters predicted. Not too concerned, the couple decided to move the ceremony well away from the sea wall just in case.
Unfortunately, mother nature had other plans.
“We were kind of right at the moment where we were going to start moving a couple things and, yeah, this big wall basically just showed up,” Dillon explained to KHON. “And luckily there was no food in any of the containers. The cake luckily made it.”
A wild video captures the moment a huge swell crashes into the sea wall creating a massive wall of water drenching guests and destroying tables. As the wall of water approached guests, they quickly moved away from the sea wall. There was a loud commotion as the wave hit the wall drenching guests and flooding the area.
But the wall did not soak people’s spirits.
“We didn’t have our dance floor, but nobody seemed to mind, at the end of the night we were all like dancing in the mud, and it was amazing,” Riley said.
The couple said they captured terrific photos as the wave smacked into the sea wall.
“We did end up getting some good pictures with, like, waves splashing up, and the ceremony was beautiful,” Dillon said.
Riley noted that the wave is a metaphor for life.
“Life and storms hit and it’s just, it’s so important to come together and to have all of our family and our loved ones there, and it just made it very special,” Riley said.
Watch: A giant wave crashes a Hawaii wedding pic.twitter.com/ZAvoUJEieN
— TIME (@TIME) July 18, 2022
