‘The cake luckily made it’

A newlywed couple from Hawaii had a “blast” at their wedding despite being hit by a “big wall” of waves that toppled over their party.

Dillon and Riley Murphy were a little concerned that Tropical Storm Darby would shower some rain on their special day, but they didn’t even consider the high swells to be a potential threat.

The couple, who live on the Big Island, welcomed guests at Hulihe’e Palace in Kailua-Kona on Saturday where they had planned their outdoor ceremony.

The storm began to fizzle out, but the ocean was still rocking from the turbulent weather when the couple decided to begin moving some things away from the sea wall.

“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 explained to KHON. “And luckily there was no food in any of the containers. The cake luckily made it.”

Video from the moment the massive wave crashed down and jumped over the sea wall was posted to Instagram. In the clip, wedding guests are standing in the grass and mingling around some tables as a huge wall of wave is seen quickly approaching the rocky sea wall.

Some vigilant guests begin moving away from the wall as the crowd grows more concerned. A huge commotion is heard coming from the crowd as the wave crashes up and over the wall, splashing a few guests and knocking over several tables and some decor.

Everyone seemed to remain in good spirits as they helped one another and moved further inland as more waves crashed onto the grass and flooded what would have been the dance floor.

“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.

The couple was even able to capture some amazing photos with the dramatic waves in the background.

“We did end up getting some good pictures with, like, waves splashing up, and the ceremony was beautiful,” Dillon said.

After cleaning up and carrying on with their day, the couple agreed that the day actually went even better than planned, despite the dance floor and some decor being washed away.

Riley said her wedding day was “maybe even more memorable than if it hadn’t happened,” and Dillion said he still had a “blast.”

The new bride noted the metaphorical aspect of having a storm hit on her wedding day.

“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.