We arrived in San Miguel de Allende yesterday afternoon after a gorgeous drive from Leon through the countryside of Mexico. It's so lush and beautiful here, and the town is made up of thousands of tiny cobblestone streets leading from one treasure to the next. My friend Maari Christante is here with me to shoot Annah & Morgan's wedding on Saturday and we're like little kids in a candy store with our cameras.

Anyway, we woke to a rainy morning today so before we venture out to find breakfast I thought I'd post a few shots of our home for the week. We're staying in the sweetest little house in Colonia San Antonio and the first thing we did when we got there was flop on the beds....

the front patio:

the lower upstairs balcony:

and steps to the upper upstairs balcony.

view from one side of our balcony:

and from the other side!

while i was shooting on the balcony, maari accidentally locked me out of the house. And then had trouble letting me back in.....I think it was planned.

And our little backyard.

We grabbed some shots around town yesterday afternoon, so I'll post those when I have more time. Adios!

I'm heading out to San Allende de Miguel early tomorrow morning for Annah & Morgan's wedding, so I'll be returning messages when I get back into town in about a week.

In the meantime, here are a few quick shots from Amber's day after (or month-and-a-half after!) shoot yesterday. I am LOVING the shots we got and I can't wait to show you all more! Amber completely rocked this shoot.....

Hopefully we'll have web access down in Mexico -- if we do, I'll do my best to blog while we're down there!

How Carmi managed to finish med school in Boston, trek out to New Jersey less than one week later to arrive at her wedding completely gorgeous, relaxed, and the perfect picture of a gracious bride -- I'll never know. But, she did it.....and it couldn't have been a better day. Of course, her excellent planner Stacey Kallenberg of As You Wish was there to take care of all of the details, which I think may have helped a tiny bit.

Carmi & Mike (you may remember them from their sneak preview) were so sweet and so much fun to shoot. They were married at the gorgeous St. Stephen's Parish in Kearny, New Jersey, and their reception took place at The Palace at Somerset Park. Their excellent band Vali brought some crazy sound and I risked getting jabbed in the face by a rogue elbow to get a few of the crazy dance shots, but the party was so wild, it was 100% worth it.

I thought I'd change it up and do a slideshow this time. To start the show, just click the play button below and give it a few seconds to load. (Be sure to turn your volume down if you don't want to hear the music!)

(Also, big thanks to my buddy Jan Thiessen who came out to second shoot with me for the day!)

Wendy and Chris spent months creating the details that went into their wedding day, and it all came together perfectly. The ceremony was filled with the most delicious golden light just as the sun set over the beach, and afterward guests walked up through the grass to grab some cocktails and party down. The wedding and reception both took place at the Aruba Marriott Resort on Palm Beach, and it was truly one of the most gorgeous settings a couple (and a photographer) could ask for.

We stopped in at the hotel spa to catch up with Wendy while she got ready....

When I saw this circle pattern on the furniture, I just couldn't resist....

This was the view from Wendy & Chris's suite. Scrumptious.

We treated Savannah & Haven to their own private little portrait shoot....

And then I grabbed the "real" jewelry shot:

Meanwhile, the guys were chilling out with a Corona or two across the way....

Because the ceremony was at sunset, Wendy and Chris decided to meet beforehand to do a few shots together. I love when couples get together early because it allows them some time to relax a bit with each other and it give us a bit more time to get some extra amazing shots:

I love love LOVE this shot. I stole the idea from the man in the black socks who I spotted on the beach a few days earlier...I think the execution was the best part. It went a little something like this:

Me: Ooh! Why don't you guys go stand under that tiki hut over there?
Wendy & Chris: Okay....
Me: That's great! I'm just going to back up a little here...
Chris: Um...Can you even see me?
Me: Uh....no.
Chris: Oh. Should I move?
Me: Uh....no. I kind of like it with your head cut off. I actually did that on purpose.

At the start of the path to the ceremony, we found crazy coconut man. Ooooh was he excited when he saw my camera! He had the largest knife/spear I've ever seen and was tossing coconuts up in the air and slicing them as they came down, and yelling in about 3 different languages the whole time. Then he'd pop a straw down into the coconut and hand you your drink. It was a little scary and fabulous all at the same time. I highly recommend the coconut man.

On to the ceremony.....

Huge thanks to my sister Elisa who came out to second shoot and rocked out photo shoots all over Aruba with me! I'll post some shots from our adventures around the island next....

More to come soon....