‘Wedding crasher’ in Waimanalo goes viral warning that beaches are closed

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    Oahu, HI (KITV) — A video going viral showing a vow renewal ceremony being interrupted with a warning that Oahu’s beaches are closed to COVID-19.

As part of Mayor Caldwell’s new rules, you can traverse beaches to get to the water, but cannot congregate or stand. Mokihana Iida from Waimanalo says she was warned by a police officer while she was going to boogie board.

So she says she wasn’t having it when she saw a wedding ceremony happening on the beach. Iida took out her phone and confronted the small ceremony, saying “Aloha the beaches are closed.”

The ceremony, including a spiritual leader, photographer, the couple, and a small group of family all appear startled as the confrontation continues.

Eventually, they step up onto their own property. They had been standing about 30 feet past the property, including the beach area which is off limits. Later, Iida says the wedding photographer flipped her off as he was leaving.

Iida says she knew she was interrupting a wedding, but says she feels the rules were not be applied fairly. “Why should they be able to have a whole wedding on the beach, when I can’t even go boogie boarding or be on the shoreline without getting a warning,” she says.

The homeowner told KITV4 the couple, who live on Oahu, are friends of hers, and that they were renewing their vows for their 20th wedding anniversary. They wanted to go to Kaua’i, but the interisland ban changed their plans. So she says she offered her backyard up to them use to for the afternoon to celebrate their big day.

The man officiating the ceremony is known as Captain Howie. He lives on the same street and says he’s officiated thousands of weddings. But he’s never seen a ceremony derailed as fast as this one was.

“It was completely trashed,” he says. “I feel so bad for the couple.” He also says Iida could have waited until after the ceremony to say something if she had an issue. “I have no animosity, but I just shows their ugliness and hatred,” he says.

But he does admit he was violating the order because the group was standing too far past the property line. “Would I have done it differently, yes,” he says. “WE could have had a little more distancing and masks,” he says.

As for Iida, she says her live video confronting the couple has now gone viral, and while she’s gotten a lot of support in the community for taking a stand to protect the beach closure rules during the pandemic, she says she’s also gotten hate from online commenters around the world.

But she says she doesn’t mind the haters. “They can call me whatever they want around the world,” she says. “They’re just sitting behind a computer. They don’t understand Hawaii or the issues we deal with every day.”

Police responded to the incident later, and took down a police report, but it doesn’t appear the homeowner or the wedding party were cited for violating the Mayor’s order.

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