They’re here, they’re here, they’re here! The wedding photos. For a while it seemed waiting for the wedding photos was going to be harder than waiting for the wedding itself! But this is something I knew – I did not want to compromise on our wedding photos and knew photos from ‘in demand photographers’ would take some time. So were they worth the wait? Absolutely!

I started out by researching local Aruban photographers, figuring it made the most sense to hire locally – they know the island inside and out and would likely be more affordable as they do not have the same travel expenses. The only problem is I knew the style I wanted – photos that were fun and funky and captured our personalities. We didn’t want canned ‘wedding photos’; we wanted a little sass, a little attitude, a little goofy, a little serene. We wanted our day captured in a way that reflected how we feel about each other and our group. While I was able to find some nice traditional work from local photographers, I never found the creativity I was looking for. Most important being creativity in composition, not effects in Photoshop.

I had contacted at least a dozen destination wedding photographers but didn’t quite connect with any that I exchanged emails with. I had given up on finding a local photographer and had more than once given up on a destination wedding photographer. (I’m lucky enough to have a friend who is a brilliant photographer.) Though I had given up, one day just a couple of months before the wedding I did one more google search and stumbled upon StoryByPhoto.com. I sent a quick email and Gino replied back pretty quickly.

Gino first wanted to get to know us a little bit, as they are careful to take jobs they’re actually going to enjoy. He says part of loving what they do is getting to meet a lot of really cool people. As we continued to exchange emails it turned out that they happened to have a cancellation for our wedding date and love to scuba dive! (The original job they had planned for our date was in Puerto Vallarta – that couple cancelled PV and decided to stay home, we cancelled PV and decided to go to Aruba!) So, it seemed this was just meant to be! On more than one occasion, as I was ready to give up on something, it just fell into place.  In life I’m finding things fall into place when I stop trying so hard!

The Review:

Gino and Heather did an amazing job! We had so much fun with them. They joined us for our sailing excursion the day before the wedding which was a great opportunity to get to know each other. They’re young and fun and by the end of the day we knew the one thing we weren’t going to have to worry about was our wedding photos.

Thanks to Heather’s recommendation, we decided to do many of our photos before the ceremony. At first I was wanting to follow tradition, not wanting him to see me until I walked down the aisle. However, Heather said the day often goes a little easier when you take at least some of the bridal photos before. She assured me they would still capture that ‘first look’ where he first sees me in my wedding dress. They would still capture that special moment and then move on to photos with our wedding party so that these are photos we wouldn’t need to take after the ceremony! Less photos after the ceremony means the quicker we all get to the party! And I now think that moment of just the two of us before the wedding was even more special. It was a moment that belong to just us, uninhibited by the nerves of walking down the aisle.

We took about 45 minutes of photos before the ceremony. Then we had the ceremony, some family photos after the ceremony, a few sunset photos and then went to the lobby for a drink before going upstairs to change into our reception outfits. Then of course we did the first dance, cake cutting and dinner before finally moving on to the party! Gino and Heather’s photo time ended and they stayed on to party with us which was so much fun.

For me, looking back on that day, the most important thing I have is the photos. The day was special of course, but having our amazing photos really takes us back, making those memories even more vivid. I would tell any couple – please please do not hire a photographer you aren’t really excited about. If the photographer you want is out of your budget, try hard to make a cut somewhere else before accepting second best for your wedding photos. And make sure you hire someone you feel is going to be honest with you. I was so relieved when Gino was honest with me and told me I could go ahead and remove like half the make-up the Mandara had put on me!

We also did a trash the dress shoot the following day which was a total blast! While I dropped the ball and didn’t do a good enough job researching the locations I wanted, it all worked out. I’m sure I’ll do a write-up on that shoot later. If you can do this I definitely recommend it, whether you actually ‘trash’ the dress or not. These ‘post-wedding’ shoots are so much fun because the pressure of the wedding planning and activities is done! You and your new hubby get a chance to play.

Anyway, whatever your destination, we totally recommend StoryByPhoto.com. Check out the StoryByPhoto blog! I was hoping our photos would be cool enough to ‘make the blog’, they haven’t. Still, there are some awesome pictures on there!

Photo credit: StoryByPhoto.com.