Park Sang Min Meet & Greet

You can't live in Hawaii without knowing about Korean dramas.  And in Hawaii, K-Dramas are BIG.  Not just big with Koreans, big with LOTS of local ladies.  So it's not a big surprise that Singer/Actor Park Sang Min has a pretty big fan club here in Hawaii.  In fact, he comes to do concerts almost every year.  So this year his fan club & the Korean American Women's Club got together to organize a concert, and for the the VIPs, a chance to meet Park Sang Min up close.  He also brought along a group called Yurisangja (means Glass Box) for the concert & mixer.  It was a really fun event at a gorgeous Kahala house.  Stay tuned...concert pics tomorrow!   

Fans bringing aloha shirts for Park Sang Min and Yurisangja.

Awaiting the entrance of Park Sang Min

This is Grace, she's the president of the Park Sang Min fan club and one of the organizers of this whole event.  She was making sure everyone had a great time and of course, she played host to the singers.  

And here they are!

The official Park Sang Min tees.

Meet the official Park Sang Min!

Waiting for autographs and CDs.

All of the fans went away with a photo of themselves with the stars.

In case you didn't know, the pretty lady in yellow is Nancy's mom.  She's the Korean American Women's Club president this year and helped organize the concert and mixer.

Jennifer & Aaron

When Jennifer & Aaron approached us to shoot their wedding reception, they were already married. Wha?? Yep, like many modern couples, these two had a destination wedding. Their unique vision for the wedding ceremony was to find a spot where they could get married next to pandas. And who knew how difficult it would be to find that exact spot? It turns out that only the Atlanta Zoo allows wedding ceremonies next to any animal house you choose. So Atlanta it was. Now that they're back in Hawaii, they wanted to share the fun with their family & friends, so they had an amazing brunch buffet at the Hawaii Prince Hotel complete with a bananas foster flambé station. Jennifer has true sewing skills, so she sewed her and Aaron's wedding outfits AND managed to sew cute printed pillow cases for favors for EVERYONE. I think she also sewed her hula dress! A really fun an talented couple. Congratulations Jennifer & Aaron!

Kama & Randy

This is Kama and Randy. Remember Kama? She was one of our awesome assistants this year! Kama is leaving for college this week, so she wanted to do something special with her boyfriend, Randy. And what would be better than one last day at the beach with Shoots! Photography? Best wishes at school, Kama! We'll miss you!

Come Pley with Yelp!

Last night's FREE Yelp hosted party was a hot ticket! They ran out of RSVP spots almost a week ago and it was a really fun crowd. It was held at the Hawaii Children's Discover Center.

Hundreds of Yelpers waited patiently to get in for FREE entertainment, FREE food, FREE drinks and lots of fun.

Thanks to all the partners who served food last night! Hanapa'a Sushi had delicious spicy ahi hand rolls. We would have eaten these all night, but we had a job to do.

And here's a NEW restaurant in Kalihi called Paul's Poppers. We can't wait to go visit and have a full plate of fried poppers!

And of course, we've enjoyed P.F. Chang's lettuce wraps. Thank you to whoever had to prep the 600 leaves!

If only we weren't working...Aloha beer brought two of their brews.

They look so refreshing.

And we love the Whole Foods ladies who introduced us to raw kale salads with a tahini based dressing. Buy local!

And if you're like us and can't read Chinese yet, this table is for Jade Dynasty restaurant. They brought their leaf steamed mochi rice.

The fun part of this event is that they had a huge variety of activities to try out. One of the favorite booths was Flipbooks Hawaii - they record a short video clip of you & your friends and then turn it into a flipbook for you. Great idea for weddings or birthday parties. They brought some crazy props!

Special thanks to Keith for helping me when I wasn't sure if I could get the Yelp logo in time to upload all the pictures today!

Another popular stop was Lena's Fab Brows which was doing free treatments. She was so popular, that at one point the wait list was about an hour. Good thing there were so many other great activities right around the corner.

Like this artist from Colorwhims. She made some amazing body art. This is not your carnival face painting!

In addition to the painting, Colorwhims was also doing glitter tattoos...

...and balloon art!

Heaven on Earth Salon & Day Spa was there with their comfy massage chairs and friendly employees. They were doing all kinds of great spa treatments. A massage sounds so good right now!

And for dessert, the ladies of Fairy Cakes had some really pretty (and tasty) mini cakes to sample.

Thanks to the staff of Mac 24-7 who came out to serve mac & cheese.

Outside, Camille's on Wheels was serving tasty samples from their taco truck. They alternate between Kailua & Kakaako, so look them up and check them out. I'm going tomorrow!

Did you know Ocean's 808 Club is changing again? Well, now you do. They're going to become Tower 10 in the near future. Judging from the samples they had at the event, they might become more well known for their food than their clubbing. It looked GOOD.

Thanks to all the sound guys with Mystical Sounds, Star 101.9, and Troy Michael Wedding DJ. The music helped to create a party atmosphere & the DJs were great!

Another fun activity was the StarShotz Photobooth. Another batch of great props & everyone went away with a Yelp memento photo.

There were other great photo-ops all around the Center.

Pacific Digital Signs set up a camera to post a photo directly to Facebook with the Come Pley With Yelp event logo.

Another yummy snack from C.H.E.F.S. Hawaii. Grape & Pineapple with fruity gel bubbles.

Yelp also invited several artists to create art at the event; The Starfish Guy, Evolve1, EdyG & Phatees.

Sunshine's balloon flower, shortly before she popped it with the heat of her flashbulb. Oops.

I don't know WHAT'S going on here, but you can't say the Discovery Center isn't a fun place to throw a party.

Special thanks to Emi who organized this entire event with the help of her Yelp staff! You guys rock!!!

Yelp asked attendees to donate to the Hawaii Children's Discovery Center. We hope you raised a lot of $$$! The center staff were great hosts.

For more photos from the Come Pley with Yelp event, visit our Smugmug gallery HERE.