Trystan Photography: An Intimate Portrait.

Please click the photo or follow the link to view the sample gallery of A’Leisha and Justin’s destination wedding at the Iberostar Paraiso Lindo in the Riviera Maya, Mexico.

If I had it all to do over again, Charlotte and I would have packed up and started the photography studio in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. Ever since we went to photograph A’Leisha and Justin’s destination wedding, I have been longing to go back.

It was a magical wedding. It was, by far, the most relaxing, fun, and creatively inspiring locale I’ve ever shot at.

There’s something tremendously different about the atmosphere of a destination wedding. The couple is usually very chill even compared to our local couples (who are already notoriously chill, here in Colorado). I think that’s because the destination bride and groom are  already in vacation mode because of traveling and spending a couple days at the beach, or resort, and sightseeing, and such. But a huge part is also the fact that the guest list is generally smaller than the average stateside wedding because the cost of traveling is so much higher for the guests for the destination locales. Also, emphasis on the formal and the traditional is practically non-existent because couples don’t want to compete with the amazing relaxing and festive atmosphere that most of these places intrinsically promote.

Regarding A’leisha and Justin’s Playa del Carmen wedding in particular, they did everything in their power to make the trip a dream vacation during which they happened to get married.

They arranged all of our travel plans, and the morning we left was the coldest day of one of the coldest weeks I can remember in Colorado. Which made traveling to the Riviera Maya of Mexico all the more surreal, and becuase it was December, the weather at Playa del Carmen was phenomenal: 80 degrees, and suprisingly low humidity.

We arrived 2 days before the ceremony, used that 1st evening to walk the huge and intimidating network of hotel complexes that comprises the Iberostar Playa del Carmen. I swear, I’ve never seen so many buildings and pools and buffets and restaurants in one place. We must have walked 5 or 6 miles that night while scouting shooting locations. And that was all in the dark of night, and even then I was taken aback by the beauty of the architecture and the richly appointed marble walkways and abundant fountains. (There were no handrails at these gigantic pool/fountain walkways, by the way. Something that could never exist in the litigious US…)

But that night was but a preview of the splendor to come when we awoke to the Mexican Caribbean dawn and saw this amazing Utopia for the first time in the light of day.

It truly was a paradise. Within 2 hours of enjoying the breakfast and sunning at the beach, literally I felt like Pinocchio at Pleasure Island. I began to wonder: were we all were going to turn into jackasses, too? (You’ve gotta watch Pinocchio if you have no idea what I’m taking about…)

But to my sheer pleasure, the mini-vacation never did descend into such fairytale debauchery, but instead became one of my favorite memories as a professional wedding photographer.

The ceremony was simple and sweet, yet just as meaningful as any hour long Catholic mass wedding. But the really priceless experience of this wedding was being able to capture A’Leisha and Justin in their most relaxed fun loving states, in a truly spectacular setting.

Thank you A’Leisha and Justin for giving us the honor of joining you for your wedding in such an amazing place. It was truly a photographer’s playground.