What was supposed to be a weekend of celebration will be a time of mourning for the families of those killed or missing after Tuesday's flash flood.

Officials have recovered the bodies of a man and a woman but five others remained missing yesterday. The names of the two dead have not been released.

Two of the victims, Daniel Arroyo, 33, and Christina Macnees, 22, had planned to wed on Saturday, and this weekend also would have seen a birthday party for little Rowan Fehring-Dingwall, who was turning 2 and is missing along with his parents, Alan Dingwall and Aurora Fehring, 24.

All five were staying in homes on Wailapa Road property owned by Fehring's parents, Bruce and Cyndee Fehring. Also missing are Wayne Rotstein, 49, a caretaker and gardener on the property, and Timothy Noonan, who also lived there.

Arroyo worked at All Star Lending in Kapa'a as a mortgage consultant. Company owner Doug Bowers said that when he left the office at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Arroyo was still at work and Macnees, who was seven months pregnant, was waiting with him. "When I left I looked at Christina and said I was excited about Saturday and gave her a hug. And that was the last thing I said to her," Bowers said.

Arroyo had lived on Kaua'i about four years, Bowers said. The two men became friends a couple years ago when both were working for the same mortgage broker. Bowers started his company four months ago, and Arroyo came to work for him in February after returning from a six-month stay in California. Arroyo had made the extended trip to help his mother remodel her house, according to Bowers.

Arroyo met Macnees, who grew up in Washington state, about a year and a half ago, he said. She was a massage therapist but stopped working during her pregnancy.

Bowers said Arroyo was well-liked and friendly, and a solid employee. "He was really good at what he did at work. He was a real asset. He was very detailed, very thorough and had a good work ethic," Bowers said. "He was intelligent and a good problem-solver, which is important in this business."

Arroyo also was concerned about community affairs, he said, and had gotten involved in Apollo Kaua'i, a group that promotes energy conservation and renewable energy, and introduced his boss to the issue of genetically modified crops.

Arroyo and Macnees were planning a wedding ceremony at an outdoor site known as the Taro Patch for about 40 guests, with a reception for up to 200, said Bowers, who was planning to have dinner with the couple afterward.

"He was a very sincere, loving person and had a great future ahead of him. He was finally settling down a little, with getting married and having a baby," Bowers said.

The couple were staying temporarily at the Fehring property, he said, and spent much of the last week looking for a place of their own.

Lorren Van Fossen, who also works at All Star Lending, said he went out to the site of the devastation Tuesday on his off-road bike to help look for the missing. Within the debris he found a suitcase filled with new baby clothes.

'WE'RE STILL HOPING'

Macnees' brother, Paul Burns, 24, a sailor from Norfolk, Va., arrived Tuesday on Kaua'i for his sister's wedding. He said they came from a family of three boys and two girls, but that he didn't grow up with Macnees and hadn't talked with her much in recent years. He did speak to her last Friday before traveling to Hawai'i.

She was "ecstatic" about the wedding and having a baby, and told Burns to bring a raincoat because of the steady downpours that had drenched the island in recent weeks.

"We're still hoping they're out there," Burns said.

Kurtis Kunesh, 43, met Macnees in massage school, and spent a lot of time with both her and Arroyo.

Macnees, who friends on Kaua'i called "Sunny" for her bubbly spirit and constant laughter, used to take Arroyo to Kunesh's home for evenings of food and movies.

"She had one of the most playful laughs," he said yesterday. "It's hard for me to stay in the house. I look at the couch where we used to watch movies together and it's hard."

Recently, the trio had watched "Hotel Rawanda" and "My Life."

Kunesh last spoke with the couple Monday night at about 9 p.m.

Shoshana Belle, a 35-year-old reggae singer and massage therapist from Maui, flew to Kaua'i this week and was supposed to play at the reception.

She described Arroyo as a man into gardening, martial arts and healing.

"The thing about Christina, Daniel and Tim is they were extremely angelic people," she said. "They were really excited to get married; this (ceremony) would bring together the whole community. This (tragedy) struck close to our community."

Todd Calfin, a 35-year-old musician, was ready to play the flute Saturday during the ceremony.

"Their union is the greatest inspiration of love I've witnessed in my lifetime," he said.

NATURE LOVERS

Timothy Noonan was staying on the Fehring property with Macnees and Arroyo. He had previously lived next to the couple in Moloa'a, and was an avid naturalist who loved exploring the art of healing and riding his bicycle all around Kaua'i.

"Everybody knows Tim as the guy biking around the island," said Kim Ione Taubensee, a 44-year-old jeweler. "He is just a really, really sweet guy."

Noonan, who has a 14-year-old daughter, was really into making "health concoctions" Taubensee said.

Aurora Fehring and husband Dingwall were married two years ago on the same Wailapa Road property ravaged by floodwaters Tuesday, according to friends. The two met while Fehring was working in the Netherlands as an au pair, providing live-in child care for a family there. They fell in love and Dingwall followed Fehring back to Kaua'i.

Kelvin Ho, a minister at Church of Revelations in Lawa'i, presided over their wedding and the blessing a year later of their young son, Rowan. He said Dingwall originally was from England but had spent much of his life in the Netherlands.

"They had a real deep love for each other. They loved being out in nature and family was very, very important," Ho said. "Even in the wedding the central theme honored the family."

Friend Noel Brooks of Kilauea said he hadn't seen much of Aurora over the last year but recalled chatting with her several times at a coffee shop in Princeville where she worked soon after graduating from high school. Brooks, 66, said he found Aurora "refreshing."

"Here's a young lady who's really alive and very interested in the world and into a lot of things," he said. "She was a little light bulb and I never saw her when she wasn't smiling."

Fehring wanted to travel in Europe and learn another language, said Brooks, who has a radio show on KKCR featuring vintage Hawaiian music. He was in a crowd of several hundred who witnessed Fehring and Dingwall's wedding under a large garden arch.

"It was really a feast for the eyes. The whole family was there and the children were everywhere. It was just a spectacular afternoon on the property," he said. "Now it's just a big mud puddle."

'NO SIGN OF THE HOUSES'

The entire Fehring clan, Bruce and Cyndee and their five children, is a caring, considerate family, said neighbor Kim Brady, who lives on Kahili Makai Road with husband John. Brady worked at different real estate offices with Bruce Fehring over the past 15 years, and the normally dry stream bed that turned into a deadly torrent Tuesday separates their properties.

She said Bruce and Cyndee Fehring spent Monday night at one of their own properties in Kilauea town and came to the Brady house Tuesday to survey the destruction. "Their homes were completely gone. You could see it from our side of the stream. There was no framework, no sign of the houses," Brady said.

Aurora was their eldest child, and she worked with her father in real estate and vacation rentals. Brady said the family had planned a party for this weekend to celebrate Rowan's second birthday.

Rotstein had lived in Hawai'i for about five or six years, and two years ago moved to Kaua'i, where he found a good fit for his "free spirit" lifestyle and talents, family members said.

His father, Paul Rotstein of Las Vegas, said the younger man had a "green thumb" and was an excellent cook. "He enjoyed taking care of the property and doing the gardening," he said. "He was an unusual man, very self-sufficient. ... He was the type of person who helped other people."

Wayne Rotstein grew up in Pittsburgh with four brothers and a sister. He never married and "was never interested in conventional careers. He never went to college but was good with his hands and liked the outdoors," said his brother, Gary Rotstein of Pittsburgh.

Wayne Rotstein also was interested in Eastern spiritualism and previously lived on communes, his brother said. "He was not interested in typical monetary trappings and assets most of us are interested in," he said.

But he did like to gamble for fun and sport, family members said. Before moving to Hawai'i, Wayne Rotstein lived in Las Vegas for 15 years and worked as a waiter and fill-in cook at an upscale Italian restaurant, said Paul Rotstein, 76. He visited his father and two other brothers in Las Vegas over the Super Bowl weekend. The day before he returned to Kaua'i, he won $900 playing Texas Hold 'Em.

"He was friendly when he played cards, whether he won or lost," Paul Rotstein said. "Everyone who was around Wayne enjoyed his company."

The elder Rotstein said he believes the suddenness and force of Tuesday's flood probably dealt a swift end to his son.

"I'm sure he didn't feel any pain," he said. "He's a good swimmer but I'm sure he couldn't get out of that."

A county spokeswoman said all seven are believed to have been washed away from the Wailapa Road location.

Reach Christie Wilson at cwilson@honoluluadvertiser.com.