Bartek & Magda

As promised, we are back with more fabulous photos from Stephanie and Stephen’s dream getaway wedding. This time it’s from the day after photo session we did with them. Some people like to call it a “trash the dress” photo shoot, but we don’t believe the dress does any trashing at all!

After being on the island for a few days already venturing out of the resort to do things like the wedding and surfing on Macao Beach, we started to befriend the awesome people at Macao Surf Camp. So when it came to choosing a spot for Stephy and Stephen’s day after session, we spotted a small cove at the very end of the bend of the beautiful Macao Beach. I asked Rafael (one of the surfing instructors we hung out with) if he knew what was out there. He said, “Aaaaah! That, my friend…is lover’s beach!” Intrigued by this seemingly perfect sounding place for our session, we just had to get there!

Unfortunately for us, that place was on private property. So…we had the choice of walking waist deep in sea water along the cliffside, waves crashing into us with all our gear above our heads. Or, climbing through some rusty fences and attempting to bribe the 24/7 guard that mans the property! We took our chances and chose the latter.

The next day, we were off. Rafael arranged picked us up at the resort and arranged it so that his friend (a local photographer actually!) would come up with us as he had spoken with the guard before for his personal photography needs. Long story short, after a little worry that he wouldn’t let us through…we were lucky that $20 goes a long way in these parts, and we were in.

What we found was something straight out of a movie…a James Bond movie I’d even say. Water as pure and aqua as we had ever seen, golden rock formations, white flour sand, beautiful waves and best of all….privacy, peace and quiet. Stephanie and Steve let loose and we all took in every moment. It was serene! We took our time and explored various corners and types of lighting and came back with the following images.

As a side note to other photographers…when there are big waves out there, that means that there is a lot of wind….salty wind! And cameras and lenses aren’t very fond of that sort of stuff so be weary! Needless to say, we are thrilled to have muscled our way out there…it was totally worth it regardless if our gear suffered a little. Anything to get the shot, right? :)

I can safely say that Stephy and Steve are two of the most enjoyable people to work with! Not only did they take direction beautifully, but they were engaging, giving their own ideas…and best of all, they look stunning. It was one of our highlights of our career so far and we are so happy to finally share it with the newlyweds and now the whole world. We are really blessed to have opportunities like this and we are extremely thankful!

We hope you like them as much as we enjoyed shooting them…enjoy…

 

 

 

 

 

 

Happy new year everyone! We are officially back, and this time we have a destination wedding to share with you as our first wedding of 2012.

This will be a long blog post as we have a lot of images and information to share so please bear with us. With us being away for an entire week in the Dominican, we shot a whole lot of different events for Stephanie and Stephen ranging from surfing lessons, a white themed cocktail, the wedding of course and a super romantic day after session!

Let me start off by inviting you to see Stephanie and Stephen’s pre-wedding photo session we did for them a while back if you haven’t already seen it…by clicking here!

We met these two wonderful people (whom we can now call friends) last summer when they were just in the midst of planning their wedding getaway in Punta Cana. There is an incredible amount of logistics and planning to take care of, but that was no hard task for Stephanie and Stephen with them being very detail oriented! After a crazy number of months of planning…we were on a plane with half of the seventy some guests on our way to the Majestic Colonial resort in the very popular Punta Cana, Dominican Republic. I should also mention that this was immediately right after Christmas and we would all be spending new year’s eve down there too! I have to hand it to the resort staff…they really did a great job making new year’s night a special one!

I’m not sure what it was that made everyone immediately click with each other. Was it the fact that we were away from home – relaxed? Was it the warm sun? Perhaps it’s just that everyone who came down for the wedding was incredibly nice, generous and made the whole group feel like family! Regardless, if you asked anyone who came down, it was incredible.

After a night of getting together during the welcome cocktail, we all spent some time learning how to surf at the Macao Surf Camp. That’s a story that I will save for another post complete with photos of both the bride and groom hanging ten on some killer waves! ;)

The wedding day was to die for. A calm breeze swept through the resort with a beautiful, but not too strong sun shining down on us. After a relaxing morning at the spa Stephanie and her girls went back to their rooms to get ready, while the boys did the same in the other suite. Since the ceremony was a little later in the afternoon, Stephanie and Steve were game to see each other before the big moment, which was a real treat for them because they had a little breather. A moment to relax, fall more in love with each other and have a very comfortable and intimate portrait session too.

We fell in love with Macao Beach while at the surfing lessons. So, instead of doing the ceremony at the beach resort, we all decided it would be an awesome (but crazy!) idea to shuttle everyone down there to have Stephanie and Stephen get married on a raw and local beach! And that’s exactly what happened. A private beach, insane waves, a killer backdrop in every direction, Stephy and Steve exchanged their vows at an even more stunning location than they had imagined. Could you ask for more?

What happened next is something for the books…

Everyone came back to start the night of the reception at the resort. Lot’s of laughs, tears, endless drinks (google “Mama Juana”, and ask for it next time you go to the Dominican…trust us.), a photobooth (yes, we brought a photobooth with us on the plane!), ended with some incredible dancing into the night. There was this round wading kids pool next to the dance floor (coincidence? I think not.) that eventually lured everyone in…and that’s when everything went nuts! Aunts, uncles, cousins, literally everyone jumped in fully clothed and partied like they’ve never partied before. And to top it off, it finally rained during the last dance song of the night…are we joined it sans cameras! Some of the best fun we’ve had in forever. You can imagine both Magda and I loved every minute of it as this made for some awesome photos, so without further ado…please scroll down and enjoy our favourite moments of the day.

Oh, and be sure to check back shortly because we will be posting Stephanie and Stephen’s day after photo session at a completely secluded beach…

Stephanie and Stephen. Thank you, from the bottom of our hearts, for choosing us to fly down with you to capture your day. It was an honor and we are super happy to have made more friends and memories that will last forever! We wish you two the most incredible, long and happy married life together! :)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Click play below for probably our longest slideshow yet! :)