The wedding weekend began for me photographing the Welcome Party at the always incredible Four Seasons Ocean Club Beach Deck. Situated on the North Side of this fabulous property the deck provides stunning views of the beach, of the Bahamas turquoise ocean beyond and is the ideal place for the pre-wedding celebrations and for the ceremonies themselves. The vibrant, colourful flowers as well as all of the other amazing decor was handled by the outstanding team at Wildflowers Events, our leading decor company in the Bahamas. Working with other talented vendors like these makes the photography so much easier – I can capture the beauty/detail shots easily and without stress and then I can move on to the important elements which are the bride, groom and their family and friends.
The wedding began with me in the bridal prep suite and my fantastic 2nd photographer hanging out with the guys in their suite. A bride, 8 bridesmaids and moms getting ready certainly provides a lot of entertainment and great photo opps so we had a great time before the beautiful poignant moment when Dad got to see his daughter in her wedding dress for the first time. This is always one of my favourite moments in the day and never fails to bring a tear to my eye. Sonya’s Dad was one of the friendliest, warmest that I have met and the moment was as warm as could be expected.
Sonya and Neal wanted to capture some first look and pre-ceremony bridal party photos at their ceremony location, the iconic and historic Cloisters – the remains of a 12th-century French Augustinian monastery, originally purchased by William Randolph Hearst in the 1920s and long stored in a Florida warehouse before being purchased by Huntington Hartford II.
As you can see from the images below, the Ocean Club never fails to provide the perfect backdrop from a delicious wedding event, no matter how big or small, and partnered with the extreme talents of Wildflower Events I can truly say it’s one of my favourite places to photograph in the Bahamas. Every wedding looks and feels completely different which is of great value to me as a photographer who captures events in many of the same locations.
And a quick side note – one of the most exciting elements of the evening! – the special and ultra secret appearance of Javier Colon, 1st ever winner of The Voice in 2011!! A favourite of the bride, Javier was flown in to perform acoustically for the first dances. What a beautiful and thoughtful surprise by the groom and a secret so well kept that hardly any of the vendors (including myself) knew of the importance of this moment until after the dances were over!
Enjoy!
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