Happy New Year’s! A little holiday break from shooting has meant time spent editing 2011′s final weddings. I loved noticing how the last events of the year represented so perfectly a cross section of the variety of weddings photographed all throughout the year. Very different in setting, style, number of guests, degree of formality and type of ceremony, held in different geographical locations and including people from different parts of the globe, somehow all of the events seemed to be defined by the same set of key common elements; amazingly happy and laid-back brides and grooms, relaxed good times (hey, its Mexico, comes with the territory!) and of course (and hopefully our blog readers will forgive us if we do say so ourselves) some pretty sweet once-in-a-lifetime photographs to remember them by! Coming soon to the blog as we wrap up 2011 editing: beautiful events in Merida, Yucatan, Playa del Carmen, and San Miguel de Allende. To get the ball rolling, Xochitl and Israel’s lovely, long awaited Playa del Carmen wedding at the Xcaret Eco Park. Xochitl and Israel were married in what has to be one of Mexico’s most spectacular venues and incorporated colorful Mexican elements. We were able to photograph the couple on the grounds of the park, the Catholic mass and then the  beautiful ocean side reception at the Las Posas area of the park.

Xochitl and Israel, it was a joy to finally be able to meet you and your beautiful family! On behalf of team Medina congratulations, we wish you all the best! We truly hope the wedding photographs will be a special part of your family history!

All photographs (c) 2012 Elizabeth and Lauren Medina.

The Xcaret park has a small Mayan ruin, we were photographing the bride and groom when I saw something move behind them! We had a visitor!

One of my very favorite wedding venues, a couple who could not have been more relaxed and happy, a fun, emotional group of family and friends…this wedding weekend seemed to flow. It was a real treat to get to know Amy and Matt. We started off with a very informal mini photo session before their rooftop welcome dinner at La Posadita restaurant in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato. The next day the action took place at the amazing Hacienda Las Trancas. I have photographed some fantastic weddings over the past years at Las Trancas and have to say that it never gets old! Well actually the hacienda is already really, really old, but somehow I am always surprised to discover something new each and every time I visit.  I can’t say enough about this very special piece of Mexico and the hacienda’s staff of local people who care so personally for each of its guests.

Feliz aniversario Amy y Matt! We hope the photographs bring back lots of happy memories!

The next one is Lindsey’s, it is one of my favorites because it really seems to me to capture Matt and Amy together.

Amy seems to pretty much be laughing and smiling all the time, but I was happy to be able to capture more serious portraits as well.

A few photographs from the welcome dinner festivities…

The sunset was amazing.

The wedding day… at the one and only Hacienda las Trancas, Hidalgo, Mexico.

The following image is one of my favorite photographs ever.

The next two images from the first look are from my camera and Lindsey’s respectively. If you take a good look at the left side of the first image you will see that we also had some very discreet back up by both of the moms!

Amy presented each of the mothers with the flowers they would carry down the aisle prior to the beginning of the ceremony, thank goodness for waterproof mascara!

Mexico Hacienda Wedding, San Miguel de Allende wedding photography by Mexico’s premier wedding photographer Elizabeth Medina.