mexico

We are back from Mexico where we had the unique and amazing opportunity to photograph a fabulous wedding! Now we're ready to catch up on the blog! :) If you followed my Facebook updates, you may already know how crazy our trip was! I'll try to do my best to capture it in photos here instead of writing a novel!

Our flight left at 6am so we called our friend, Jennifer, at Staybridge Suites near the airport to get a room the night before we left. We LOVE this hotel anyway (Dan's done photography for the hotels over the last couple of years), and we were blown away when we arrived!!! Jennifer had our room STOCKED with snacks, drinks, & magazines for the plane, and so many cute quotes about photography and photos of beaches all over the room!!! She also left us two movie passes and fresh baked cookies! She's AMAZING!!!! Thanks, Jennifer!!!

The trip seemed to get off to a fantastic start. We got up at 2:45, hopped on the shuttle to the airport only to find that our airline didn't even open until 45 minutes before our flight to Chicago left. That wouldn't have been an issue if, when I scanned my passport, I hadn't been shocked to see that my passport was still in my maiden name!!!!!! All the times we got them out to make sure they were valid months before we left we never even noticed my name. The guy frantically said "If you have your drivers license in your married name and it matches your boarding pass, I think you'll be fine."

When we landed in Chicago, where we would take the international flight, I was nervous so we asked a TSA Agent. She said "Nope. You won't be allowed in the country. Do you have a marriage license?" Well, yes, thank goodness I have one - but it's in Indianapolis and we are in Chicago!

Long story shorter: Woke my dad up at 6am, he drove to our house to dig the license out, drove to the studio fax machine, while we left the airport and walked a mile to the closest hotel to receive it by fax. Went back through security, got to the gate just in time to get on the plane, and was sternly told by person taking the tickets "Your boarding pass doesn't match your passport. You can't fly. Step out of line and move to the side. Next!" Just like that. After much arguing and calling over other agents, another agent frantically told me "I don't know but I think you'll be ok. Just get on the plane. Go, go!"

Sooo..... will I get into Mexico when we land??? Pop me another Xanax please because I am about to have a nervous breakdown!!!

We landed. We went through immigration. They only asked for the passport, stamped it, and quickly moved us through. We went through customs. They didn't even care about seeing an ID...scan your bags and move on through! OK. So we made it. (But would I get back into the US? Would they let me board the plane going back? And how will I explain my name when I don't speak Spanish?!?!)

But we made it. And that's all that mattered for the next 7 days!

This is the all-inclusive gorgeous resort and destination for the wedding we were photographing:

We checked into our room...

Checked out the hammock on our private patio...

Walked around the pools...

...And called it an early night, as neither of us were feeling well due to all of the stress of flying....

...Or, as I realized the next morning when I woke up to all of the horrible symptoms of strep throat... I had been tired because I was actually sick - very sick. High temp, achy, and all the strep symptoms in full force. (Are you kidding? In Mexico? What on earth do I do? Where do I go? How do I explain my symptoms to someone who speaks a different language? How much will this cost? How will I shoot a wedding, TOMORROW?!?!) Soooo... We went to the concierge who personally walked us to the doctor at the resort.

This is a photo of him explaining to me that instead of taking a pill that won't kick in for a few days, he will do four shots of antibiotics and anti-inflamatory over three days so that I can get better very quickly. What he is exactly saying in this photo is that the shots will have to go in my rear end because my arm will be too sore to shoot the wedding otherwise! Needless to say, he was awesome and spoke perfect English. And it only cost us $3,995. I about had a heart attack when he wrote the number - until I realized it was in pesos. :) That's about $315 American dollars. :)

Throughout the day we just relaxed and tried to gain energy for the wedding the next day.

We dropped in the rehearsal for a bit...

...And then the rain started. And it pretty much didn't stop. 5 days out of 7 it torrential down-poured.

...so we ordered in, a lot. This was the night before the wedding, right before Dan's symptoms of food poisoning or a stomach bug started.... Seriously?

But, a MIRACLE! Lots of prayers from friends and family and:

1. Dan and I both felt well enough to photograph the wedding!

2. The rain held off for the outdoor ceremony and reception! The only night it didn't rain! It was PERFECT!!!! It was so much fun and Jillian and Brian are just plain awesome.

You can see the photos on our professional blog here:

Jillian & Brian's Mexico Wedding!

Here's a sneak peek (click on the link above for more):

After the wedding it poured down rain for several days, and we still had some recovering to do from being sick, so we stayed in our room a lot. We tried to get out a little when we could.

Juan cooked me omelets every morning while teaching me a few Spanish words...

Dan tested his underwater camera for our upcoming "Trash The Dress" Session with Jillian. What better way than in the rain! :)

If you are wondering what "Trash The Dress" is, it's where the bride goes back out in her wedding dress after the wedding, willing to get dirty and wet for the sake of some cool shots. We had to reschedule three days in a row because of the storms, but we finally got a good morning!!!!

Click here to see the Trash The Dress session:

Jillian and Brian's Trash The Dress

Here's a sneak peek (Click on the link above to see more):

The day we finally got the Trash The Dress session in, we had a day and a half of vacation left - and it didn't rain - and we both felt better! At that point I was so glad we didn't go home early. Our last couple of days were super fun.

We went to the Mayan Ruins in Tulum, just 5 minutes down the road. That was really cool, amazing to see the ancient buildings, and there were iguanas everywhere! Crazy!

We ate at the cookout by the pool...

Drank espresso and iced chocolate decaf cappuccinos...

Dan won the resort Ping Pong Tournament! (Seriously. He got a t-shirt!)

We ate fruit on the beach...

Our view from our lounge chairs on the beach...

We watched the belly flop competition...

Enjoyed the sun...

Ate two fantastic dinners on the last two nights...

Walked around the resort on the last night, found the resort Caribbean party and bought two flutes for our girls, and..... It started POURING on our way back to our room!!! A perfect hilarious memory while ending this trip. :)

And I guess you can imagine it wasn't a problem to get back into the USA. :)

We had an absolute BLAST spending time with Jillian & Brian's friends and family, and photographing the wedding and trash the dress session, even with the chaos that surrounded those events! :)

p.s. Dan was upset that I didn't pick more photos of me for this post (because there were more) but for the record, I chose not to put many in just because I looked so pale & sickly! He was concerned people might think he is a jerk who doesn't take photos of me.....so I'm clarifying here! Love you, Danny!!!