Weekly Wrap Up – Kalua Pork!

It has been a busy week around here. After a long hiatus, we relaunched our all-new monthly Aloha e-newsletter. Check it out and if you like it, please sign up! It’ll make our editor very happy!

We’re also preparing for another simple photo shoot this weekend and will unveil a new Hawaiian dress style next week. This dress style also comes in a wedding white print with a matching shirt for the groom for those of you planning a beach wedding this summer.

And since it is Aloha Friday (every Friday is Aloha Friday) we thought we’d share a funny Taco Bell commercial that just started airing in Hawaii.

Have a Happy Aloha Friday and we great weekend! Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to see what we’re up to over the weekend.

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Indoor Photoshoot

This past weekend we held our first major photoshoot of 2013. This time, rather than having it at a beach like we normally do, we had it indoors. The weather has been unusually windy and rainy since mid-December making planning an outdoor photoshoot difficult and risky. We’ve pushed our normal early-year beach shoot to April or May.

We experimented with a green screen backdrop so we have some flexibility on how we use the pictures. And it also served as a test bed for us to get used to this type of thing for future projects under development. Although it was a learning experience, we had fun as you can see in the video below.

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Instagram & Pinterest pages

purple Hawaiian shirts

Angel and Scott discussing Instagram and Pinterest in grape bubble gum Aloha shirts

This may not qualify as totally new or interesting news, but we’ll mention it anyway. You can now follow us on Instagram and Pinterest. We’d love to get your feedback on our pictures there, especially if you have suggestions on what kind of pictures you would like us to add in the future.

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New Free Shipping and Return Policies

Free Shipping

Who wants free shipping?

Happy New Year! We’re looking forward to a bunch of new things this year to improve on the overall experience of engaging with us here at AlohaFunWear.com. We wanted to start off by making a few simple changes. First, nobody likes paying for shipping so we are now offering free shipping on all US orders shipped via US Postal Service. In the past, free shipping kicked in if your order exceeded some amount like $50 or $100. Our new free shipping policy applies to any order of $0 or more.

Second, we’ve eliminated our 10% restocking fee on returned items. So anything that you return, assuming it is not damaged or worn, you’ll get a full 100% refund on those items, excluding shipping (via FedEx or whatever). You would be surprised what kind of condition some clothes come back in. One dress came back wrinkled, damp and covered with dog hair. We suspect it was a big friendly golden retriever. But returns like that are more the exception than the rule so we’re not worried about that.

Throughout the year we will be introducing new features that we hope will make your experience with us even more enjoyable. So for now, we’re starting off with free shipping and the elimination of the restocking fee. Stay tuned for more!

Aloha!

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2012 Beach House Photo Shoot

It’s been a very long time since our last real photo shoot and we were way overdue for a new one. Since we usually shoot at the beach, we thought we’d try something a little different this time around. When a friend told us he might be able to get a large beach house, we thought that would be perfect!

Except on thing. We had to use it in the near future and the weather was very windy and rainy.

messy beach after stormy weather

The beach was filled with debris from the recent and ongoing stormy weather a few days before the shoot.Since we had little choice in the scheduling of the beach house, we just had our contact book it and we also booked the photographer. Next up was to scout the beach house to get some ideas on how and where we'd shoot.

 

Laie beach house porch

Though the beach was messy, the beach house porch showed much potential as a shoot setting.

Since we needed a photo shoot and didn’t know when another opportunity to shoot a beach house would arise, we rolled the dice and booked the house through a friend and also booked the photographer. We figured that if the weather was bad, we could at least still shoot indoors and on the porch so the day wouldn’t be a total loss.

On the day of the shoot, the weather was perfect! Sunny with a slight breeze. Geralyn, our longtime photographer, set up her stuff and was ready to go. After unloading a carload of food and stuff from Costco, we were ready to shoot.

The porch proved to be a versatile setting for some of the scenes as it also blocked some of the wind from being a factor. But we also took advantage of other settings around the house like the beach, the front yard and patio, and even the living room.

Hawaiian beach wedding dress and shirt

What a different a few days make! This shot of Mika and Steve in wedding attire turned out better than we expected just a few days before.

 

Hawaiian wedding dress bridesmaids

Jaime, Mika and Nikki joke around before the next scene.

 

Models sitting on porch awaiting directions from photographer

Mika, Jaime, Steve and Nikki line up for the next shot as Geralyn gives them directions on where to sit.

 

indoor luau photo

The models celebrate the shoot with a toast. The cups were empty and the umbrellas were taped to the cups because our pineapples fell apart.

 

models playing with coconut

The front of the house had a huge lawn where the models tossed around a coconut and played horseshoe toss.

While Geralyn and the models did their thing, Robert and Dean were cooking up a storm at the grill, making steak, burgers and other stuff for lunch for everyone after the shoot.

Overall the shoot went better than expected. Just a few days before, the weather was unusually rainy and windy and had been for a several weeks. Lucky for us, the weather cleared up the morning of the shoot and was good just long enough for us to finish the shoot. It rained the next day. But at least we got to hang out at the beach house and relax and enjoy the soothing sights and sounds of beach afterwards. It wasn’t a bad way to spend a weekend.

beach Aloha wear photo shoot cast and crew

Special thanks to Geralyn and her assistant for taking the pictures, the models for being professional and fun, Chadwin the talent coordinator, and to Robert and Dean who cooked an awesome steak, hamburger and hotdog lunch for everyone!

So that’s pretty much the gist of what went into our beach house photo shoot. We also just had an indoor studio shoot which we’ll share with you in an upcoming post.

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Hawaii Five-0 – “HQ”

So much to learn about this CBS number one series filmed in Hawaii.  The Star Advertiser did a feature on a look inside the headquarters (which they refer to HQ on the show) that you see on television.  Read about the set of the show:  House of ‘FIVE-O’ from the Star Advertiser, Sunday, February 6, 2011, Today Section. 

Hawaii 5-0 Film Crew T-shirt (back view)

 (Click here to see T-shirt)

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We’re #8 on Gizmodo!

Every once in a while, we find our pics in unexpected places. A saimin restaurant in Aiea (Oahu) has a bunch of our beach pictures framed an hanging on their wall. And today, we saw a picture from an old photo shoot of ours in Gizmodo’s story about Steve Jobs and Eric Schmidt. We’re ranked #8! Not bad!

Here’s the pic from our photo shoot.

And here’s a screen grab of Gizmodo’s article.

Anyway, it’s totally unimportant. In fact, we’d totally understand if you don’t care. But we got a good laugh out it. I wonder how our models feel?

Aloha!

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Vote for Future Products & Content (2 question poll)

For those of you who subscribe to our monthly newsletter we want your feedback. Please help us provide you with better newsletters and products by answering our 2 poll questions. If you choose “other” on either question, please tell us what you’d like to see in the comments section. Mahalo!



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One More Reason to Love Your Smartphone

For all you iPhone and Android 2.x smartphone owners, now there’s one more reason to love your phone – Our mobile site is live! YAY! Actually, it doesn’t work that well with Blackberries. And Windows Mobile phones are even worse. OK, so maybe our mobile site is not really that big a deal (but we’re still excited). So, if you have an iPhone or an Android 2.x (Nexus One, Droid, or even a flashed phone for you hardcore Android peeps), you can now consume our glorious content on the go!

Here’s the URL: http://m.wbx.me/alohafunwear

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Blog Up and Running

Our server and version upgrade went smoother than expected after a few tense moments. Our mobile blog is also working though it doesn’t appear to recognize all smartphones yet. We know that it works very well on Android phones so far. We’ll keep working on it behind the scenes.

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