So, the day is approaching and we can bet you are getting excited about it, and so are we! This day will move fast, you won’t believe how fast and exciting this will be, with lots of memories, laughs, tears, kissing, and dancing. you name it, this day will be packed with emotions and we’ll be there capturing everything that we see.

We also know that planning this wedding was a big adventure, thinking about this we craft a way to work that is effortless and stress-free or as we say… “Pura Vida”, will be a day for you to enjoy and have a great time with all your people.

This is a little “step-by-step” guide of what to expect from us and how we work during your day (based on a full-day coverage), each wedding is unique and things normally change from what is expected (that’s the nature of weddings) but normally this is how it works:

1- The getting ready (optional)

This is the only time when we split.. so one of us goes to the girl’s room and the other one to the guys. At the getting ready we’ll start capturing your details, these could be the invitations or any other stationery you have, dress & suit, shoes, jewelry, and any accessories you might have, also some ambient shots of where you are getting ready and candid photos of the people that are around you.

The hours before your ceremony will go by the fastest: To make the most of our time, we recommend gathering all your details and the accessories the night before and putting them in one corner of the room or on a night table. It is always great to have those details ready in a spot so that once we get to your rooms we can start right away.

Examples of bride accessories: a bouquet, dress, shoes, earrings and/or other jewelry, perfume, and a vow book.
Examples of groom accessories: a suit jacket, tie or bow tie, cuff links, shoes, watch or other jewelry, vow book, and sunglasses.

Bonus 1: At the getting ready it’s a good idea to have both wedding rings in a single place/room so we can take a photo of them together.
Bonus 2: If possible, ask your florist (or maybe the planner) to leave a few loose florals so we can use them as props.
Bonus 3: Consider swapping the plastic dress hangers for nicer wooden hangers. It can make a huge difference in that beautiful attire shot.
Bonus 4: Hide all plastic bags, food leftovers, beer cans, or any other stuff that could make the room look messy.

Tips for brides:

• Hair and Makeup: Please don’t be the last to have makeup/hair done, sometimes you need to change things and if you are the last one to have this done there is a big chance you will be late for the ceremony, or won’t have time for some lovely pics once you are ready because you have to run to the ceremony spot.
  
• In most cases, during the ceremony, if the bride is on the left side of the altar and the partner on the right one, so having this in mind, try to keep the right side of your face without hair covering it or vise-versa so we and your guests will be able to see your face and no hair will be covering it, please tell this to your hair artist in advance so this person will have this in consideration when is doing your hair, if you really really reaaaallyyy want to have your right side covered, you can ask the planner to switch your places, so you’ll be on the right side of the altar and we’ll be able to see your left side uncovered. ( don’t hesitate to let us know if you need some advice with this).
  
• What to wear: During the getting ready and before you put on your dress we suggest you wear a light robe or a nice kimono, you will feel very comfortable and will look beautiful in the photos.
• Spray tan: We will get down on our hands and knees and beg you not to get one. We know tanning is a personal preference, but we encourage you to embrace your natural glow! Remember the Umpa Lumpas from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory? These spray tans have a tendency to do just that in photographs and believe us, you won’t that.
• Watch out with the sun: Costa Rica is full of sunny beaches and getting some tanning before your wedding can be tempting, but as good as it sounds it can be a very bad idea if you get sunburned and your face or body turns tomato red.

Tips for grooms:

Don’t even think this is all about brides, this is about the grooms as well, It’s a celebration for each other, think about this day as your James Bond day, you play a big role in all this craziness.

There is a big chance your fiancé is constantly thinking about her dress and all the beautiful accessories she’s going to wear at the wedding, but, what about you? Are you ready for this?

Here are some quick tips that could help with this:

• Enjoy the day as it is: remember a wedding is a celebration and is about both of you when you wake up, just think “this is my day” and OWN IT! Be cool, have fun with your friends, bring out the rockstar spirit, and make it memorable, You can’t imagine how fast this day goes by and by the end of the night, there is no better feeling than thinking what a great time you had.
• Embrace the photos: According to our experience, brides normally (but not always) choose and care more about the photos, perhaps because men are not used to being the center of attention, or perhaps they have in mind all those cheese poses some people spread around, but trust us, we don’t do that, we will capture you in a natural way doing normal things that couples do, but to make this possible we need your help and the best attitude… we promise you that having the best attitude will make this so much fun to do and at the end of the day you will have a great time without even thinking there were some photographers at your wedding.

We will try to look for the best place with the best natural light available so you can put your things on, also your mom/dad or maid of honor/best man to help you with some of this, we might give you gentle guidance here just to make sure we have the best light and background but the idea is to keep everything rolling as natural as it can be. 

If there is time before you’re ready to go, we will probably grab you for a couple of minutes to take some photos of you solo and with your family and friends, could be by the window or with a nice background. It’s a few minutes of anticipation before you see your partner, and we love the shots we get at that time.

2- The First Look (optional)

If you are planning to have a first look, this could normally take around 15min or so, if you already have a place in your location where you would like to have the first look please tell us  (basically the best spots are the ones in shade, with enough space to move and as private as possible), if not, we’ll look for a place that can work for it, always taking into consideration the light (this will be the key through the whole day). After you see each other and have some minutes to bring out the emotions, we can take a few portraits of you, very basic, but very nice.

3- The Ceremony

Here comes the real thing!!! You can ignore us while this is going on (in a good way), most of the ceremony it’s about documenting what’s happening, but still, we have a few tips for you here:

• Heads up, deep breaths, and walk slowly, enjoy it, smile, look at your tribe, and be happy for all of them.
• Once you get to the altar, try not to separate too much from each other, a good distance is the one where you can hold each other’s hands without reaching too far from your arms.
• Try to place yourselves in the center of the altar, It can be tricky, it’s easy to lose the sense of space once you get to the altar, so trying to be aware of that it’s great. We help you with this and let you know to move left or right so you are well-centered (symmetry is very important in photography).

• Look at each other, this can be obvious but you won’t believe how easy is to just look at the officiant talking and not look at each other. If you just look at the officiant and won’t to each other you will just give the back of your heads to the camera and the guests, and as you can imagine it’s not the best idea, smile to each other, smile to the first row and to your friends, it will feel great to make that connection in such a beautiful moment.
• Kiss slowly, don’t rush it, don’t make it a Speedy Gonzalez “light speed” kiss, enjoy it, give at least 2 seconds, and if you can, KISS AGAIN!! (kisses are nice). Also, very important to try not to cover your fiancé’s face with your arms or hands, We know all of this could be hard to remember with all the emotions but everybody wants to see the kiss so remember, don’t cover each other’s face. Believe it or not, some couples actually practice the first kiss so feel free to do it… it works!

4- The recessional/exit

This is the last part of the ceremony when you exit the altar and walk back the aisle. Have you thought about what to do then? Many couples don’t, and if you haven’t and you have seen some Pinterest photos, recessionals are one of the funniest and most exciting moments of a wedding day, It’s also a great opportunity to capture some incredibly nice photos, but, there are some things to take into consideration to make it great:

• Don’t forget the bouquet, This can be obvious, but sometimes it happens that with all the excitement the bouquet gets left behind, so, don’t lose it, it’s a great prop.
• Once you have the bouquet, BRING IT UP!! Show us your inner Rockstar Spirit, it’s time to laugh, cheer and jump, You MADE IT!!!
• Kiss in the middle of the aisle, it’s always a nice touch.

5- Family portraits

Some people love them, some people not too much, but believe us, having at least a few of these will be beautiful, these are the photos that your family will be looking for the most. We try to take these photos as close to the recessional finishes (or after the first look) basically because people tend to vanish and go everywhere around the venue after the ceremony and it will be hard to get them together again.

Now, here is the tricky part, depending on how big the groups are and how many groups you want this will take time, and sometimes a lot, to gather each group could take between 2 and 3min, so we normally recommend that you try to stick with no more than 10 groups so it will take us between 20 to 30min, if you want all your guests on a photo, we can take one big group shot (just let us know in advance so we can be prepared for this). It’s also good that you tell these people to don’t go too far from us, so we don’t have to chase them around and we can take the photos quickly. Also, very important, if you haven’t sent us this list, please do it, this list will be our guide during this time and if we don’t have a list to follow it could become very tricky to take all the photos you want to.

6- Wedding party (optional)

Let’s not forget about your friends, these photos can happen before (if you are having a first look) or after the ceremony, depending on the wedding timeline, but either way, we’ll have fun, we try to make it easy and quick. We’ll have different group combinations, and individuals if we still have time.

7- Newlyweds portraits

Now here comes the part when we’ll kidnap you and walk a bit around the surroundings, the main idea is that you interact with each other as much as possible (aka make out a lot), you can laugh, remember something funny, throw some bad jokes, take a tequila shot, grab a couple of snacks, things like that… let’s make it fun, and don’t worry, we’ll guide you and give you some basic actions that you can do, and eventually, we’ll make some minor adjustments looking for that precious light, we like to mix a bit of everything so we do some photos of you laughing, some others more romantic and intimate, and some others a bit more editorial that to be honest looks like a magazine covers. But the main idea here it’s to have fun and you interact with each other. This time could take about 20 to 30 minutes, it all depends on how much time you want, and how much time we have available before the next activity.

8- The Reception (optional)

You can ignore us here too (but remember… in a good way), this part it’s all about documenting the different events that happen, for example, a grand entrance, first dance, speeches, and cake cutting, we’ll be there capturing each part trying to be the less intrusive as possible. Also, during dinner time it’s when we also take something to eat, so if you don’t see us around, it’s because we are recharging our batteries (aka eating), Normally, this happens at the same time the guests are having their meals. There are a few tips we can give you for the reception, but the most important it is to enjoy it .. you will have food, drinks, music, and your favorite people.. isn’t that perfect? perhaps the one piece of advice we can give you it’s to laugh a lot, be happy, own this time, and show how happy you are for this new beginning.

9- The party (optional)

Ready to dance? Well, this is it, it’s time to shake your booty. Party time it’s when we all have fun dancing to the music. We won’t tell you what to do or how to shake your booty, this will be all about capturing epic dances, happy faces, and tequila shots all night long. Remember the movie The Hangover when at the end of the movie they all look at the photos.. well.. sometimes it’s like that, you never know how the night will end.

Lastly, throughout your day we want you to be fully present and at the moment, it will help a lot with the photographs. Take the time to stop together and soak it all in, it truly is surreal to see your friends and family all in Costa Rica at one time celebrating the love you have for one another. Isn’t it so amazing??  We promise to get our job done (and make it fun and smooth!) so that you can simply be there for every moment of your day.

And remember, we will be there for you the whole time, if you want any specific photos please let us know and one of our team members will help you out for sure. Also if there are any specific details of guests that you would like us to pay more attention to, this can be a family member, a close friend, an accessory, or anything that you might think is special during the day just let us know.

Our philosophy is to make things less intrusive and as smooth as possible with a friendly and hands-down approach, Weddings are to enjoy and we want to capture the real journey of your day, We don’t look for perfection, we look for the real and raw moments that naturally unfold, so when you look back at your wedding gallery, you will see your unique wedding as it happened.

From our experience, after hundreds of weddings, we can tell you a few things… It’s the day going to be 100% perfect? we wish to say everything will be 100% as expected, but no, things can go a little bit out of course, but you know what? that’s what makes weddings wonderful, each wedding is unique, you are unique, and in our point of view, this uniqueness and unexpected twists are what make a perfect wedding, If those unexpected things happen, embrace them, laugh at them, enjoy them, make it your own and we’ll love to capture all that for you.

So…we hope this helps you a bit with all the nerves and excitement, we are very excited to be with you and capture this beautiful chapter of your love story.

If you have any questions or need some advice, send us an email or text us, WE’LL BE HERE FOR YOU!

See you in a few weeks!