This is a little overdue, but I wanted to introduce you all to Marriott Photography’s newest team member, Tanya.  We are so excited to have her share a little bit of her creativity and talent with us and can’t wait for you all to get to know her better:

Greetings! This is Tanya, I just recently joined Marriott Photography team and I’m loving it! Marnee asked me to write something for the blog and I thought hmmm… -how about my own wedding?

I happen to be the lucky girl who got married on the beach, that’s why I thought I’d write some thoughts on why should you do the same – trade stilettos for being barefoot and your fancy reception venue for a cruise boat. Why would you do that? Why would you NOT do that?!

For me traditional wedding wasn’t event an option – most of our guests were coming from overseas – Russia, France, Italy, Israel, that’s why going through a hassle of getting an American visa seemed to be a nightmare, and a quite expensive one! My husband has always being dreaming of a wedding on the beach (not that he’s a wedding dreamer at all, but he knew it had to be on the beach). So we decided to go for it – Caribbean here we come!

Considering the availability and visa requirements, we picked Dominican Republic. All you need is a passport and you are good to travel there from any part of the world. As it turned out, destination weddings are way less stressful than traditional ones, and for sure are so enjoyable! Right after you land, the traditional Dominican band greets you with beach inspired beats right at the airport and you know you made the right choice, leaving all the stress behind!

Just think about it – planning a traditional wedding includes getting really detailed about decorations, flower arrangements, etc. – the venue needs to be decorated in order to look nice and pretty! Most couples that choose destination weddings have their ceremonies in an incredible area that has amazing natural beauty already. Just add an open bar, fresh caught lobster and a dance floor – and your guests couldn’t be any happier!

The other bright side of (and there’s a lot more) – most of the Caribbean hotels are all-inclusive and extremely “wedding friendly” – you don’t have to worry about entertaining your guests and guests don’t have to worry about anything and feel like they just went on vacation instead of being dragged to yet another wedding (you know, some of them think that), and the newlyweds get the service they deserve with unlimited champagne, fresh fruit and whatever else you like delivered directly to your room.

Honestly, my wedding could not have been any better – with all the friends and family flying there from different parts of the world, it all seemed like a big fun vacation on the beach with bottomless pina coladas in our hands… And the unbelievable ocean view from our newlyweds suite only made it that much better.

As for photography – I wouldn’t recommend going with the resort staff photographer, unless you are a fan of cookie cutter pictures. Your images will look great no matter what (duh, it’s the beach!), but to make them absolutely fantastic fly out a wedding photographer that you like (Marnee) – after all you only get married once!