RedDiamond

Welcome to BDW!

Nice work! Welcome to the forums. I'm sure you'll get to meet a number of ladies from here. I've seen requests for Texas boudoir photographers around a lot.

Welcome to BDW! There's a ton of great places to get married. Mexico, the Bahamas, Dominican Republic, France, & Italy are all very popular.

My FI would not be phased or thrilled with a B-pic album... as a matter of fact I don't think he'd even blink an eye. I'm sort of jealous over the brides to be whose FI's are going to swoon over those. I think they are a wonderful idea! I'm getting my FI a gift certificate for a really expensive on-location photo workshop (one of the best in the country) that I know he's going to love! I've become friends with one of the instructors, so he's giving me a good deal on it. FI is going to be super excited! I really think he deserves it, so it will sort of be a thrill for me to be able to have him go.

Wow girl, you have been working! It sounds like you deserve some rest. Did you bring back photos?

I just saw some reference to HI changing their laws but wasn't sure about what the deal was. Thanks for filling us it - that is sad!

I've been to Pure, but it really didn't impress me that much. I'm not familiar with the others. I'll be out in Vegas Jan. 8th - 12th for some conventions... so just missing NYE. I'm excited though - always tons of fun! Plus again in Feb for the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International conventions - which I'm also super excited about. Words has it that WPPI and Nikon are making some huge announcement. Anyhow, I hope you have lots of fun with whichever venue you choose. Personally I love Rum Jungle... but I have a fetish for old bottles - so that probably explains it.

I don't know anyone that has worked with either of them. Both seem good. I think I prefer Scott's work though, because the soft focus techniques aren't used as much. That's personal preference though and you need to decide what style of photography you like.

Welcome to the board Julie! There are a lot of wonderful friendly photographers on here. You might just want to take a look around at the work to see what you like, and call to talk to a few of the photographers. Tammy lets photographers run specials, and some will run give-aways or discounts, so keep a look out for those. Congrats again on your wedding!

LOL - that sounds typical. I am glad you got them moved without any problems!

Have you tried contacting a wedding coordinator for suggestions?

Island Princess, did you try calling them? Maybe the e-mail didn't go through? If they don't respond to a call I would write it off as island slackers. The photos are very inspiring though.

Congrats on the engagement and welcome to BDW!

I haven't been, but you should ask your instructor. If he/she doesn't know send me a message and I can put you in touch with mine - who I know has been there.

It looks good!

Congrats and welcome to BDW! We'll all be excited to hear what location you choose!

Welcome to BDW and happy planning!

Oh, if you get out there and have a chance there are a few things I wanted to check out and didn't have a chance. If you to to the dolphin encounters and have a chance to look around the island keep a lookout for pretty palm trees on the beach. I'm looking for some to do trash the dress photos with and that area seems more promising. FYI, I've got a bunch of photos online from our site visit: PhotoReflect - Captured Kiss I really recommend taking a look at Old Fort Bay! Any places you dine at let us know. We didn't really eat out much and I'd like a list of places to have guests eat. Let us know if you get to any of the botanical gardens. We went to Adastra, which was interesting. There were big spiders all over! I asked one of the workers if they were supposed to be part of the exhibit and she said no. They have huge webs all over the zoo though. I think I have a bit of arachnephobia... Oh, and if your planners have any recommendations for DJs and cake makers out there I'd love to hear them.

Quote: Originally Posted by nassaubride08 So I am back from my wedding at the Graycliff and it was phenomenal! The staff was great and everything was taken care of perfectly. When I get my pictures back, I will post them for you. Congrats! I'll be excited to see photos. What all did you do while you were out there?

My vote goes to Jose followed by Gilda. Jose's style is clean and crisp, and the colors seem to be correctly saturated. I see a lot of unsaturated photos these days and it's not a style I dig.

I HATE this about packaged vendors. So many are unresponsive. I'd let them know up front that you hadn't signed anything with them and that a lack of response in a timely manner seemed to you to be a lack of interest in photographing your wedding. You also need to contact the resort wedding coordinator and let them know what happened. If people don't tell the resorts this type of stuff the vendors can go right on getting away with it, and it sounds like your resort needs to find vendors who are more professional. I agree that you should see about getting credit and not using their photographer. If the resort refuses I'd suggest simply asking to not have a resort photographer present. You are simply giving them your money, but then the resort will get the point that you have no interest in working with people that can respond. If it were me I wouldn't want to work with the resort photographers after acting so unprofessional, and I wouldn't want to give them the opportunity to use my wedding to expand their portfolio and/or samples. If you really want to use the resort photographer, and not burn any bridges with them, just tell them that you have a friend who is also a photographer coming to shoot the wedding. They don't need to know the details that you are paying the destination photographer etc. That way you can still use the hour of the resort photographer's services. Either way, the resort photographer isn't going to be completely happy. Option one straight out tells them they were unprofessional and you don't want to work with them. Option two means they will be losing money in print sales if that's what they offer for expanded packages. Personally, I would almost never use a resort photographer. They tend to not be well trained, only offer high priced prints, and not a lot of photo coverage. There are a few exceptions to the rule, but generally speaking that is my thought on the subject.

Our jeweler told us once a year is good.

We checked into a catamaran originally. The venue we are using has a private yaht, so I think we are going to use that to take us there. We are seeing if there is a way that they can pull into the Atlantis Marina to have our guests board rather than the main boat docks. Does anyone know of any cake makers out there? I know our venue has an excellent chef, but I'd like quotes from a few places.

Okay, here's another suggestion. What about eloping and just doing a Justice of the Peace when you get back. Let everyone think you didn't have any sort of ceremony so they won't have anything to get upset about. Then, if you want to next Oct 2009 do a big thing in San Antonio for the family - if they are willing to help with expenses. I know a lot of families these days are very supportive of just going to the Justice of the Peace and saving money. It's just a thought.

It looks awesome! Personally, I'm a fan of long trains. There's so much that you can to with them for photos.