Kelley and Bryan | Destination Wedding in Curacao (Mini Series Part 2)

If you haven’t read part one of Bryan and Kelley’s Wedding Mini Series blog then you missed out on the four days, 7 flight cancellations, one over night in the JFK airport, and the rest of the adventure to even get to the island of Curacao for their wedding. Not to mention the fact that Doug, the other half of “The Key’s” wasn’t even able to get a seat on any flight going down there which meant that Kate had to shoot the wedding solo. In situations like this, when it looks like NEITHER of us might make it and most of the family, split second decisions have to be made in order to do right by the couple. The split second decision that we made was that I would just go and shoot the photos that I could solo, possibly ask some of the family for assistance since we know them really well, and just skip shooting video as one person can’t do it all, right? Wrong- honeybadger to the rescue!

It was probably kind of stupid and not really ideal circumstances for anyone but I wanted Kelley and Bryan to have everything they wanted for their wedding, after the hell they had been through the past few weeks with family issues and wedding stress, I wanted these wedding photographers to have the wedding coverage they deserved. I enlisted the help of just about everyone at the wedding who graciously and eagerly helped me get through straightening dresses, holding lights, and even some of the family assisting in filming pieces of the ceremony and reception during times I couldn’t do both. Thanks to Andrew and John (brother in law to the groom and husband of a bridesmaid) for both helping film pieces of the big day that I couldn’t because of photo taking. You guys are amazing, thanks for stepping up and helping out. Also huge thanks to the family who helped straighten Kelley’s dress and even hold some lights for me. When you are a team of one doing both photo and video and your lightstands and tripods didn’t make the trip, sometimes you have to get creative. We started doing things a day early just to help ease the stress of the big day, thankfully Kelley and Bryan are both wedding photographers so they both completely understood the challenge ahead and also knew that things would just have to be flexible. With the help of Kelley we managed to photograph her amazing dress with the 9 foot train the day before the wedding and also photographed and filmed all the wedding details including rings, shoes, etc. This helped immensely on the wedding day save time so that I could focus on filming and photographing the morning events. The morning went pretty smoothly, the girls secluded themselves in air conditioned bedrooms while Kelley created her own gorgeous hair and bridal makeup. I went in and out to photograph and film the shenanigans of the groom and his adorable nephews. I had been monitoring the weather all day, large fluffy cloud cover in Curacao is kinda hard to come by and thankfully we had pockets of large cloud cover making our all white bridal mansion a perfect softbox of light. The best thing about shooting weddings for wedding photographers is that you don’t have to rationalize your crazy because neither batted an eye when I was timing the location and time of the first look based on the cloud cover. It was a very warm day and the last thing I wanted to do was pull out a first look in the blinding sun in an all white house, nah, no thanks. We hit perfect timing for the first look as the sun hid behind the clouds and made our amazing soft light.

This was Bryan’s first time seeing Kelley’s wow factor dress, he was equally amazed by it and they had a beautiful first look. After gifting each other with wedding day memories we launched right into portraits at the house. I knew I wouldn’t get much time to do portraits at the house before we had to ride to the reception so we shot a few on the balcony and got ready to leave for the ceremony site. Poor Kelley and Bryan had already been through multiple ups and downs with this wedding so much so that all of our flight cancellations from Part 1 of this mini series were just the tip of the iceberg. Even after the family and I arrived there were still some wedding day hiccups. The transportation that the couple had arranged to bring everyone to the ceremony site was a no show. After multiple attempts to reach them we climbed into our vehicles and drove ourselves which meant a hilarious ride in the trunk of a jeep SUV for me. Sometimes things at weddings just don’t go as planned and you just have to roll with it. We arrived at the ceremony site, took a little bit of a breather and then launched into family photos. Since it was a small wedding, family photos were a breeze and I appreciate the assistance of all of the family for straightening dresses and holding lights. It was a huge help! We took occasional breaks in the AC in between photos because of the humidity but we finished family photos and got ready for the ceremony. This is the one scenario in which I can’t film and photograph at the same time. Because my stands and tripods didn’t make the trip due to the airport chaos, I improvised with some makeshift tripods on cocktail tables and John assisted with filming free hand. The ceremony was held in front of the beautiful ocean backdrop and Kelley and Bryan exchanged vows, finally, in front of their family. It was a beautiful sigh of relief that we finally got to this point when we thought it wasn’t going to happen. The weather cooled down in time for us to take after ceremony portraits and sunset shots. Although the sunset wasn’t what it was the few days prior we were able to get some amazing shots and we got that perfect sunset the following day for day after portraits.

Everything at the reception was beautiful, we ate dinner as an intimate group under the beautiful lights of the ceremony site listening to the waves crash behind us. We even Facetimed with Doug so that he could visit with everyone since he wasn’t able to be there in person. It was great being immersed with the family and enjoy good food and conversation by the water. Kelley changed into a lighter, cooler wedding dress that was just as beautiful as her wedding gown and we enjoyed the reception into the later evening hours. After everything these two have been through, I was happy to see they finally got their big day and that both sets of parents could be there and they had a lot of loving support and a beautiful day. I was also thankful that this island had been spared by the hurricane and that we had perfect weather for both days of shooting and the rehearsal dinner. Despite everything that went wrong, there is still a lot to be thankful for. At the end of the evening I looked back and I had managed to shoot the photos AND video I had wanted for them and I started gearing up for our second day of shooting bridal portraits at the original bridal party mansion and the trash the dress session.

Before I end, let me tell you something about a 9 foot train on a wedding dress…… in windy destinations, its not your friend however it was so beautiful I wanted to photograph it as much as possible. We had to get creative with ways to hold it down (think painters tape) and I may have been giving Kelley a hard time every time I would place it down, run back to take the photo and the wind has taken it to another destination. Thankfully it was detachable so we were able to do a lot of photos with and without the train. One of the most amazing dresses I’ve ever seen, I’m glad we were finally able to document it properly. It would have killed me if the only photographs from Kelley and Bryan’s wedding would have been from iPhones and resort photographers. Don’t be sad, the fun isn’t over yet! This isn’t the end of the mini series! We still have next day portraits to share and their Illinois reception- stay tuned!

Congrats my dear friends, I love you both dearly!

-Kate