Me, getting my "workin' grin" on. 34 years old and kicking.ABOUT ME...AND HOW I GOT HERE....
Time really flies by when you get older. I didn't believe it when I was kid. I "sorta" believed it when I was in my early twenties. Now that I'm 34, I'm always asking myself, "Where did the time go!" One of the most common questions I get asked by my brides is how I ever got to be where I am today: a planner, a photographer, a video guy, a wedding guy know-it-all s.o.b. I really never get to tell the long story of my journey into this industry because a brides wedding day is really about her, not me. Well, I have some free time on my hands right now, so here's the long story.
FROM HIGH SCHOOL TO SCREENWRITINGIt all started when I was 17 years old and in high school. I attended a college prep private Christian school in Hawaii where the m.o. was that getting good grades was everything, because good grades lead to a good school, which lead to a good job. About 98% of my classmates were brainiacs. Even the troublemakers managed to squeak out a 3.8 GPA. All of my classmates had high ambitions of becoming doctors, lawyers, and businessmen. Me on the other hand? I honestly didn't now what I wanted to become. At one time I wanted to become a fighter pilot, but that was during my Top Gun phase of my life.
I truly didn't blend in with most of my classmates as I didn't get the good grades they did. I was always on some type of academic probation, always in parent-teacher conferences, and regularly pulled down C's in most subjects, F's in the ones I just couldn't get, and A's for the one I enjoyed. My cumulative GPA was a 2.2, a C average. If you're wondering, I got a D in photography and an F in creative writing. (Ironic isn't it!)
I remember quite colorfully in a parent-teacher conference, my teacher told my dad, "Your son isn't applying himself. He's not studying hard enough because he's only pulling in average grades."
My father fired back, "What's wrong with being average?"
She was dumbfounded, "I'm not saying...."
My father continued, "The way I look at it. People are good in certain subjects, average in most, and are bad in some. In a way, we're all average. Are you saying you are above average?"
"Well, I did graduate from a big university...," my teacher said...
"Yet look at yourself, you pull in a below average salary. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with that, but in your eyes, being below average is not acceptable", my father said sternly. "There's nothing wrong with being average, we're all average."
My father, who is still alive and kicking, and a great businessman, still believes that. But he also believed that in order to succeed in life I needed to be really good at something, not everything, just something. So he and my mother always pressed me to learn skills that I probably would never use. Such as learning how to play the piano, service computers, or to fix laser printers.
Near the middle of high school, I decided I wanted to work in the movie industry. I had bright-eye ambitions to become a movie director, although at that time, I had no idea what a movie director actually did. So after graduation, I flew to Arizona to attend a trade school to learn graphic design, photography, and video editing with the hopes that it would get me into the movie industry. The only problem was that when I got there, I didn't enjoy myself at all. The curriculum was boring, and I didn't feel like learning. So after a few months of trade school, I dropped out to do practically nothing at the age of 18.
But with my extra time, I began to write. And I found out I enjoyed it quite much. Plus, I was quite good at it. It was soon after that I decided that I wanted to set my goals on becoming a professional screenwriter.
A few years had passed, and I had eventually found my way to California. I was a semi-professional screenwriter, meaning I couldn't make a living as a screenwriter, but had a handful of active projects with celebrities. I had an literary agent shopping my scripts to producers, and I honestly felt as though I was on my way to accomplish my dreams. But as I talked to other professional writers, I began to realize that their lifestyle was one that I truly didn't want. Many writers were boring troubled souls. More so, highly liberal, progressive in politics and conspiracy theories, just weird people. And..they weren't rich! More so, struggling to stay alive, always waiting for the next project to pay their bills.
It was then when I talked to my agent and asked him how I could make millions. He asked me, "Do you know who the richest celebrities are in Hollywood right now?"
"Steven Speilberg? Mel Gibson?", I asked.
"No", he answered. "It's the Olsen Twins. They are billionaires. And they did it by creating fun instructional children's videos."
Well, that was all I needed to hear. I needed to create an instructional video! So at 21, I instantly gave up on my dreams of working in Hollywood and flew back to Hawaii.
I then took a look at all the industries in the world, and tried to figure out the industry where clients or customers needed to be educated the most. And that's when I decided...it was was the wedding industry.
The old Canoe Girl Website at http://www.caneogirl.comI still keep it up for memories.THE RISE AND FALL OF CANOE GIRL PRODUCTIONS
All weddings were to me were low budget movie productions. And this was something I was somewhat familiar with from my short experience from working in that industry. The only difference was that you had to get everything right in one-take versus a few hundred.
To get my instructional video done fast I needed a team, and a talented one too. I needed to surround myself with the best.
Being a greenhorn in business, and an overly ambitious young man, I embarked on creating a production company that specialized in photography, video production, and web and graphic design. I not only wanted to create this wedding video, but I wanted to become the production powerhouse in Hawaii. The company, Canoe Girl Productions, consisted of a few friends of mine who shared my same vision. One friend of mine, Wei-Jen, whom I had met at a party by chance, just happened to be one of the best wedding photographers in Taiwan. I told him my plans, and he joined forces with me.
Soon after he teamed up with me, he expressed to me the need to train other photographers. We tried training a few friends of mine, but they didn't have the time, or the patience. So instead of training others, Wei-Jen trained me. And that's how I learned photography!
Learning from Wei-Jen was like going to Kung Fu class. He didn't let me use any professional camera. I just had to learn about lighting and posing from him. All shots had to be done with a disposable snapshot camera, and not a professional SLR.
I took to photography quite well as it was very similar to the movie cameras I had seen on set. Metering light was the same, composition was the same, even direction. While learning photography, I shot and edited all the video for my company, and did a lot of the graphics. Most of which these skills I learned in California.
A concert we put on in Hawaii.I remember telling Wei-Jen that I was ready to shoot my instructional wedding video, but the only problem was that I didn't know one thing about putting a wedding together. Research had to be done. And the only way to educate ourselves about the wedding industry, was to immerse ourselves into it. So we did.
One of our most popular pictures that Canoe Girl took.
Photo by "the master" Wei-Jen Wang.
Canoe Girl's (
http://www.canoegirl.com/) entry into the wedding industry blew our competitors out of the water. We offered better quality photos and video for a cheaper price. On top of doing weddings Canoe Girl Productions also had two Japanese television shows it was producing, the contract to create most of the in-hotel commercials for Hawaii, concerts to promote, and non-profit organizations to run. We were also one of the few University of Hawaii licensees, other than Nike, so we had shirts to create. Canoe Girl Productions resume sounded impressive, but our balance sheet was far from stellar. We were losing mass amounts of money every year as advertising money had dried up after 9-11. And I as the CEO of Canoe Girl, was placing bad bets on projects. We lost tons of money on just my bad ideas. The only thing keeping us alive were weddings, as people kept getting married.
Six years had passed and Canoe Girl Productions was bankrupt. As quickly as we had risen, we had fallen like the rest of the production companies out there. I had burned through my savings and the patience of a lot of friends. At 26, I filed for personal bankruptcy and started over. At that time, I had only $200 in my pocket, and still my dream to create that instructional wedding video.
Can you tell my movie background comes through my work?THE RISE OF DREAM WEDDINGS HAWAII
Creating my instructional video was never a priority for Canoe Girl Productions as I thought it would be. My business partner was never too excited about doing anything related to the wedding business, so we never pushed it through. Plus, I still wanted to learn much more about the wedding industry so I had to put the production of the video on hold.
One thing which we did not do at Canoe Girl Productions was to plan actual weddings, large or small. We would plan events, plan concerts, plan television shows, but never weddings. So I thought the next logical step for me to take was to get into wedding planning.
At the age of 26, with $200 in my pocket, I opened up Dream Weddings Hawaii L.L.C in Oahu. And I couldn't do it alone. In the beginning, I had tremendous help from my mom. She no longer helps plan, but she was there in the beginning. Free help + loyal help = the best help you can get only from your mom. I also had the help of Bill Coreless and Larry Fair, two wonderful videographers who lent me their hand and their equipment when I didn't video on my own. (I have to plug my friend Doss White , who did video for me while I had Canoe Girl Productions, and stayed friends with me even after I lost Canoe Girl Productions.)
Dream Weddings Hawaii grew just as fast as Canoe Girl Productions. Within it's first year of business, I had planned over 100 weddings. But unlike Canoe Girl Productions, Dream Weddings Hawaii was and still is extremely profitable.
And like before, I knew that I had to surround myself with the best. So I did. Rev. Elias Parker, Stan Ponz, and Mark Kurnow, I believe are the best ministers on Oahu. Tino Roseto, the best minister in Maui. Van Ohumikini, probably the most talented singer in Hawaii without a record contract. Always Flowers, the best florist in town, and Lin's Lei Shop, the best lei makers on the island. All these people make Dream Weddings Hawaii possible.
In the past two years, Dream Weddings Hawaii has become a virtual company that is based in Wyoming. We don't plan local weddings anymore or advertise in local markets, unless local couples find us through the web. For the most part, we only focus on couples from out-of-state or out-of-country areas who want to get married in Hawaii. It didn't make sense for me to base my company out of Hawaii as I do most of my planning online and through my cell phone. (Sometimes, I'm out of State or country!)
But with that being said, I personally still handle every client of mine. I answer all emails and phone calls for my company, and I am there at every wedding. Yes, I fly back to Hawaii. I also shoot all the photos and video for my weddings as well, to make sure that "movie quality" style couples have come to love always comes through.
As for my instructional wedding video? Well Trust me, I'll get to it. I still have my notes, my dreams, and with every wedding I plan, I learn something more.
So I guess my story has a happy ending...so far! I'm quite the same kid I was at 18, but even better now, I have some maturity. I've learned a lot in my very short business career. I know that in business, you're never a one man army, no matter how good you are. Many people helped me, and continue to do so along the way. I'm also still an overly ambitious businessman as at one time I did own six companies! From a ukulele shop to a make-up service company, to a coffee company... But that's for another story! haha....
Until next time....
Steven Young
The Wedding Guy
