Starting the year off right… Mattie and Julian’s lovely destination wedding in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico was our first of 2011 and photographing this couple’s big day got the new year off to a great start! Mattie and Julian and their group of family and friends home base in Mexico was the Dreams Puerto Vallarta Resort. On the day of the wedding the group traveled by boat to Las Caletas, a beautiful secluded inlet where Mattie and Julian would be married on the beach and later dance the night away. I would love to include this wonderful couple’s entire destination wedding on the blog but since that is impossible here is a glimpse…

The scenery on the boat ride to Las Caletas was breathtaking.

Arriving at Las Caletas…

Mattie and her girls arrived early and had time not only to prepare for the wedding but also to relax and enjoy the beauty of the island and the bridal “casita”.

No bridezilla here!

Las tres hermanas….

Mattie and her girls….

Meanwhile Lauren captured this image before departing Puerto Vallarta with the groom’s party and wedding guests.

Mattie and Julian did not see each other before the ceremony, I was very happy to be able to capture these bridal images of Mattie in the  jungle as the groom and guests arrived at the island.

The birght ceremony details were very lovingly planned including hand painted maracas to shake at the kiss, Mexican papel picado banners, and bright and colorful pashminas, all in the weddings starfish theme.

Bride and groom’s first glimpse of each other at the altar and ceremony moments….

The reception atmosphere was so pretty with many, many candles.

Las Caletas has the very best fire dancers I have seen and Mattie and Julian were very brave!

Lauren and I met up with Mattie and Julian the next afternoon for some day after photos starting on location in Puerto Vallarta and finishing up on a nearby beach at sunset.

Elizabeth Medina is Mexico’s premier destination wedding photographer, photographing weddings throughout Mexico in locations including Puerto Vallarta, the Riviera Maya, Cancun, San Miguel de Allende and Los Cabos.

I think photographers and fishermen have something in common….obsessing about the ones that get away. I was so sad not to be available for Christiane and Gerardo´s date, since from the very first contact with Christiane I could tell she would be a wonderful bride to work with and the wedding would be an absolutely one of a kind event at one of my favorite locations, the Hacienda Uayamón in Christiane´s home state of Campeche, Mexico. I was lifted out of my depression by the request that we travel to Campeche for a portrait session of the bride and groom prior to their civil ceremony. (For anyone not familiar with Mexican custom it is common to have both a civil and religious wedding. The civil wedding can be either the same day as the religious wedding or on a separate date, in which case it can be the occasion of a celebration with a more intimate group than on the ¨big day¨, kind of like a rehearsal or welcome dinner). True to Mexican tradition things ran a little behind schedule (or is there some alternate schedule somewhere that no one has ever told me about?). Watching the sun sink lower in the sky, I was just about to despair completely when Christiane and Gerardo appeared looking totally fabulous! I decided that if pilots can make up for a late start in the air (how do they do that anyway?) then Lindsey and I could at least try to do the same with such a fantastic couple´s photographs!

Hacienda wedding photographer Elizabeth Medina, Merida, Mexico. Fotografia de bodas en Mexico.