Bree + Dustin | Barcelo Maya Palace Mexico Wedding | Destination Wedding Photographer
Bree & Dustin Grimm | Barcelo Maya Palace | Riviera Maya, MEXICO
December 19, 2022
Where do I start with this wedding. First of all, we love destination weddings! I feel like tropical colors and pops of blue and white fit my style so well and I think destination weddings are when I’m most creative. And Bree & Dustin were a dream couple to work with. These two are so sweet and so much fun to be around. But I will say, this was one of the most stressful weddings we’ve ever had to get to. We got hit hard with a massive blizzard the week before we were supposed to fly out. We thought we gave ourselves enough wiggle room with traveling 3 days before the wedding, but I started to panic as the interstate remaining closed, our town remained no travel allowed, and we received nearly 45 inches of total snow and then had 60-70mph winds! Thankfully we had a travel agent who helped us move our flights - $1000 to arrive a day later – and we even had to drive to Rapid City and stay in a hotel room as soon as the interstate opened so we could avoid the possibility of the interstate closing again. We ended up getting to Mexico at 10pm, had 1 day to relax, 1 amazing day to photograph the wedding, and then came right back home before another big blizzard and extreme cold hit. We found out that traveling in December can be a bit stressful but WE MADE IT! And it just might be the best wedding of our career so far.
The best thing about destination weddings is that they automatically feel more stress-free: we got to spend the entire morning with the bride and her girls getting ready without having to rush. Then we got to do their first look in the courtyards of the hotel with very few guests in the background. I spent most of the day before scouting for possible locations for photos, and we took Bree & Dustin to the pillars outside their reception hall for some amazing midday portraits. Their ceremony took place right on the beach with the rolling waves and sandpipers in the background, and we got to use the last little bit of sunlight and sunset colors to end with some amazing bride and groom portraits. After margaritas in the lobby, the bridal party joined their guests in the Coral Grill for their reception. Their Mexican DJ was amazing and they had a beautiful light-up dance floor for their first dances. The day was full of love, laughing, and lots of tequila, and we ended the night cooling off in the pool. It was so hard to narrow down just a few photos to blog but here are some of our favorites. Congrats to the new Mr. and Mrs. Brimm! Thank you SO much for bringing us to Mexico with you!
