What a fantastic day!  With its beautiful architecture and grounds the Fairmont Mayakoba is hands down one of our favorite Playa del Carmen wedding photography locations. Corey and Jillayne were marriedon the golf course this Playa del Carmen wedding venue on a bright day in May. I love seeing the beautiful day and the sunny disposition of this very happy bride and groom captured in the wedding photographs.  The clock seems to flow in very unusual and mysterious ways when a wedding is in process and we sometimes feel that the biggest luxury we encounter at a wedding is time during the day to create relaxed and memorable photographs. Little by little I have come to appreciate as one of the most important skills an experienced wedding photographer can possess the ability to wrestle that ticking clock into submission and make every minute count!  Jillayne and Corey’s wedding stands out as one in which a relaxed schedule (and couple) allowed for a great variety of images and lighting conditions, not to mention that  starting the day somewhat early allowed for photographs not only of bride and groom candidly with their respective teams but also alone together before the ceremony (first look photographs = priceless!). Now if we could just figure out how to manage time to have enough days on the calendar to both shoot and edit our summer weddings!

Hola blog readers! Things are going to be moving pretty quickly around here if all goes as planned, I am excited to have such a variety of uniquely beautiful weddings to share. Isla Mujeres has always been one of my favorite locations in Mexico and Jack and Linda’s destination wedding was a great example of what an absolutely perfect destination it is for a wedding! This wonderful pair of New Yorkers was married in private villa on Isla Mujeres called Vista de La Luz Not the rustic cabin that comes to my mind when thinking of Isla Mujeres, but one amazing home and perfect for the wedding ceremony with an intimate group of friends and family. The dinner reception was held at a very beautiful “toes in the sand” venue on the Island’s North Beach, Buho’s restaurant located at the Hotel Maria del Carmen.  This beautiful but very relaxed event was coordinated by  Weddings Isla Mujeres we look forward to working with this very professional and fun to be around sister team again in the future and would recommend their services to anyone considering a wedding on the Isla. Some of the days photos, beginning with getting ready photos at the villa…

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Between the ceremony at the villa and the sunset reception there was not time planned for photos around the island… passing this building Linda and Jack and I stopped the car, and ran to this cool home for a very quick photo…

And made it to the beach reception lication just in time for an amazing sunset.

A really tough thing about being a destination wedding photographer can be meeting a really fun bride and groom like Nikki and Larry and having a great time with them and their families and friends, not to mention seeing firsthand the kind of party they can throw, but knowing that distance totally rules out dropping by their place just to say hello or a casual hint for an invite to their future celebrations. Sad for us but probably a really good thing for Larry and Nikki since being stalked by the wedding photographers sounds a little awkward! At least we have our memories… not to mention a whole lot of photographs from the wedding and the amazing TTD session at sunrise the next morning! Larry and Nikki, it was so great to spend time with the two of you, thank you so much for your trust and for going the extra mile for your photographs!

Larry and Nikki chose to see each other prior to the ceremony for a first look and bride and groom photos. This worked out perfectly, the first look was awesome, we got to shoot in different areas than time would have permitted after the ceremony and also Nikki and Larry were able to spend quite a bit of cocktail hour time with their guests! I have often heard that some people do not wish to see each other beforehand because they think it will take away from the impact of seeing each other as bride and groom for the first time in the ceremony… this has really not been what I have witnessed, the ceremony meeting seems to be a whole new experience possibly even more emotional for couples who have already started to share the day together a bit earlier, scroll down and I think you will agree this was the case for Larry and Nikki!  Lauren rocked the next image from the first look.

I have come to realize that our editing process is basically the opposite of the norm (like quite a few things around here, now that I think of it!)…. rather than sensibly choosing “teasers” for the blog and slide show and editing this smaller group of images our custom has always been to first edit the entire set of images to taste and then when at last all of the photographs are ready finally go back and pick out some favorites to share on the blog. This “backwards” process is probably not the most expedient but we feel it results in a full set of images that we can be consistently proud of.  Unfortunately It also makes choosing images for the blog very, very difficult because once they are ready I can’t help but want to share them all! As much as I promise to keep the blog selections at a minimum I know I am fighting a losing battle. In the case of Sarah and Ed’s Catholic destination wedding Mayan Riviera’s Maroma Paradise Marina despite the best of intentions the first pass yielded 140 blog images! Even this photographer knows that is way to many for a blog post!

Sarah and Ed are a delightful couple, and their group of friends and family were very obviously loving the destination wedding experience. The wedding was every bit as joyful as it was beautiful! I hope this narrowed down (but still too numerous, sorry!) collection of images will give a little glimpse of the photography from this memorable and beautiful destination wedding.

Pre wedding photographs from Dreams Riviera Cancun…

A big shout out to Adrian Guerra who helped the beautiful Sarah with her amazing wedding look….

I am pretty sure I have mentioned here on the blog (possibly more than a few times!) how happy it makes me to hear couples say that they found their Mexico wedding venue through this blog. Makes me smile because I know for a fact that there can be no better place to be married than Mexico! One thing I don’t think I have ever talked about though is how cool it is to know that so many couples of the future check the blog for wedding inspiration!  (I am not a big one for the self promotion hype thing but I hope you will bear with me just this once as I say that it blows my mind to know the number of visits that this little wedding photography blog receives on any given day!)  Showing up at a wedding and hearing from the bride that she has been inspired by one of my past bride’s photographs almost makes me envision a world where my past and present brides would get together over coffee to flip through wedding albums, I guess I just wish such amazing people could all know each other! Fortunately for us, some of our past wedding photos actually helped Tiffany discover us (along with her “inspiration wedding”) when a relative sent her the sideshow another of our beautiful brides from the same northern state (Puerto Vallarta Kate, that would be you!)

Fast forward to almost two years later, Lauren and I were delighted to travel to Cabo to photograph Tiffany and Scott’s lovely wedding. This very special destination wedding was coordinated by the delightful Leslie Bost and Adriana Dupinet, principal wedding planners of One Happenings in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico. The ceremony was held at Sunset da Mona Lisa and reception at Casa Dorada…. I know I am posting way too many images for one blog post but I can’t help but guess that this beautiful wedding may also prove inspirational!

Tiffany and Scott, we loved the time we spent with you and your group, thank you all for making us feel right at home!  How about starting with a little deserted beach trash the dress magic…. All photographs Lauren and Elizabeth Medina.

The wedding day…