Less than a month after shooting my brother’s wedding, I was excited to be flying off to the Dominican Republic to photograph another family wedding (my husband, Ian’s sister, Lindsay). Twenty three of us boarded a plane for a week’s vacation at the Gran Bahia Principe resort in Samana, DR.

It was a long, stressful journey to our destination. We arrived at the resort late at night – tired, cranky and hungry. In this state, it’s difficult to be impressed by anything, especially when it’s dark. Hustling ourselves to the buffet before it closed, everyone wolfed down some food and immediately dispersed to our rooms, where I am quite certain we all had our own versions of a meltdown that went something like this: “I hate it here! I want to go home!”.

Luckily, these feelings dissipated by morning. It’s amazing how one’s mood can change with a good night sleep…and of course, the sunshine and palm trees definitely helped nurture good moods in all of us.

For me, the days went something like this: breakfast buffet, beach, lunch, beach, nap, shower, cocktails, dinner, dancing. I must say I got accustom to this schedule and admittedly since returning home I’ve been missing my afternoon Mojito. The routine of doing nothing for a week was immensely satisfying. I highly recommend it.

But getting back to the reason we were there – Lindsay and Brian’s wedding. Ah, the wedding. It was beautiful. Family and friends gathered. Blue sky. Bright sunshine. Beach ceremony. Handsome groom. Adorable ring-bearer. Stunning bride. Need I say more – or just show you some pics.