KAILUA-KONA, Hawaii (KHON2) — It was a wedding that Dillon and Riley Murphy will remember forever.
The Hawaii Island couple said they were initially concerned that Tropical Storm Darby would rain on their big day at Hulihe’e Palace in Kailua-Kona on Saturday, July 16.
Darby fizzled out, and then the waves came crashing.
“And 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 said. “And luckily there was no food in any of the containers, the cake luckily made it.”
Not just the cake; The Murphy’s told KHON2 that everyone at the reception is safe as well. Riley said seeing unity in the face of hardship taught her a life lesson after the water rushed in.
“And just the analogy of, you know, 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.
After a little cleanup and drying off, it was not the wedding the Murphy’s had dreamed of — they said it was even better.
“But we did end up getting some good pictures with like waves splashing up and the ceremony was beautiful,” Dillon said.
“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.
“Yeah, it was a blast,” Dillon added.
“Maybe even more memorable than if it hadn’t happened,” Riley said.
KHON2 asked if the happy couple was surprised that the happiest day of their lives was also their wettest.
“Yeah, it was crazy,” Dillon said.
“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 show still went on and it was, it was a really, really fun night,” Riley said.
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“Yeah, very lucky, fortunate,” Dillon said.
