Grand Sunset Princess Riviera Maya Mexico Destination Wedding Photography

This wedding wednesday post is very special to me as it is two of our best friends! My husband Cameron is one of the groomsmen and Matt (the groom) was one of our best men and Sarah (the bride) was our MC at our wedding. Last May we met up with all of the friends and family from all across Canada at the beautiful Grand Sunset Princess Riviera Maya which is a very popular spot for destination weddings and you’ll see why with how beautiful it is! Matt and Sarah are high school sweethearts and have always dreamt of a destination wedding. My husband has been friends with them since high school and I met them 8 years ago and we travelled to Cuba together and Sarah really belongs in hot climates so it was the perfect choice for their big day.

I started the day with Sarah and her side of the wedding party at the spa where they got their hair done and Sarah had her makeup done. Half way through I headed down to the room where the guys were getting ready and then back to the girls at the salon- this doesn’t sound like much but the beautiful resort is HUGE so even just this part of the day was actually a LOT of walking! Headed back to the guys room for some final shots of them, following that met up with the girls back at their room. I loved Sarah’s absolutely perfect dress and the sweet details of the Nova Scotia tartan garter and foot jewels instead of shoes. The mint coloured dresses and bow ties looked perfect against the white sand and blue sky. After a first look with her Dad, Sarah walked up the aisle to the man of her dreams and one of the sweetest, funniest guys I know. The vows they wrote to each other were some of the sweetest and real that I’ve ever heard. Straight after the ceremony they had a champagne toast and hugs all round from all of their guests. It was certainly the most beautiful spot I’ve ever photographed speeches by their parents, best man and man of honour and messages from friends who weren’t able to make it.

The photographs of the wedding party and couple on the beach were challenging because of how bright it was with the squinting but the couple and bought all of the wedding party some fun wedding party glasses so had those on for a bunch of shots. Unfortunately when I was getting the epic silhouette shot of them with the palm tree- which was taken from in the water- my main camera got splashed which caused a bunch of issues later in the night and had to be repaired when we got back. After everyone having a drink at the bar and Sarah being the free spirit that she is and joining in on a volleyball game, we headed for the shade and got some nice (non squinty) looks there. I also loved all of the animals that we had visit us for the photos! One of my favourite moments happened when we headed back through the resort to their room for some air conditioning (it was of course a hot and humid day) everyone who was drinking at the pool yelled and clapped and congratulated them and it was such a fun atmosphere.

We chilled in the room for a few minutes which I was very thankful for to put up my swollen legs and very hurt little toe. After cooling down we headed back up through the resort to the restaurant where we had dinner. As soon as dinner ended we ran to the beach for their outdoor private dance party which had plenty of awesome moments to capture and I had a really hard time of sitting the camera down to ‘become a guest’ because I wanted to capture all of the fun moments. When the beach party ended and everyone headed for the ‘Discotech’ after party, I was excited to get some great night shots- usually my fave photographs to capture at weddings but as I had mentioned earlier the part of my main camera that makes the flashes work had been splashed was intermittently working and I actually ended up crying out of frustration. Matt and Sarah were very understanding and we even went out the next night to take some more shots but unfortunately I didn’t end up really getting any night shots that I’m proud of because of the camera issue. Photographing destination weddings certainly isn’t as easy as I thought and I strongly suggest if you are having a destination wedding to hire a photographer who has experience photographing at the location you will be getting married.