Hurricane Norbert did his best to thwart everyone’s good time, but the best he could muster was a quick squall on Saturday morning. The weather for the wedding was beautiful and typical Mazatlan–hot and sticky with a warm seabreeze off the ocean.

Terésa and João’s ceremony and reception were held at the Kais Restaurant, which once housed a factory along the river in Lisbon. It was a civil ceremony and, interestingly, it is common practice in such ceremonies for the bride and groom to be seated. Once the ceremony was over, the guests were treated to wonderful meal and great wine.

Let me also add that the guests at the wedding know how to party. Dinner wasn’t finished until around 11 PM and dancing started shortly thereafter. I ended up leaving at 3:30 AM, but Terésa and João and their close friends didn’t leave until close to 7 AM! So, the fact that Terésa and João were actually conscious made their performance at our day-after shoot even more remarkable.

Kristen and Tom are two of the most wonderful, down-to-earth people one could ever hope to meet, much less work for. It’s always nice when the words “client” and “friend” become synonymous.

Jen was able to sneak away from work for a few days and accompany me on the trip, which was great. It was our first real vacation in a while, although Jen did manage to do quite a bit of work from the lanai at the B&B where we stayed. Not a bad way to make business happen–one hand on the laptop, the other on a glass of Pinot Grigio

Special thanks to Marlene Mira of Mira*mira Events in Hawaii for her fabulous wedding coordination!

The wedding was held on the patio of a restaurant called La Perla, which overlooks San Sebastian’s signature beach, “La Concha”. After the wedding we headed over to Parte Vieja, the old part of San Sebastian, for some fantastic portraits and a nice walk through the section of the city. The reception was held at a beautiful old facility overlooking the city.

Since we had a lot of people in the group, we took three cars. I was in a car with Christina’s maid of honor and her boyfriend. Before setting out to Caracol, we were tasked with picking up lunch for everyone, after which we would meet everyone and our armed escorts at the entrance to the national park. We stopped at a little restaurant in San Ignacio and ordered 13 burritos, which we figured would be the fastest thing they could make. Wrong. This restaurant provides everything made-to-order, so they literally had to make the tortillas by hand. After an hour (!), we finally had our burritos, but we were running way late and were most likely going to miss our armed escort.

We arrived at the gate to the national park, which is about one-fifth of the way to Caracol. The escorts had already left, and the next escort group wouldn’t be leaving for another 90 minutes. Decision time. Do we play it safe and wait for the Army, but risk being *really* late to the rest of the group? Or do we go for it, risk being kidnapped by armed bandits, and catch up to everyone else at the ruins? At this point, discretion was not the better part of valor, so we decided to go for it. As we would find out on the road to the ruins, the jungle unit of the British Army was training with the Belizean Army, so there was a higher-than-usual presence of soldiers in the area, which made it much safer than normal.

Once at Caracol we met up with the rest of the group, got the bridal party into their wedding attire, and shot away!

Christina and Jeff were so down-to-earth and easy going, which is the attitude one needs to plan a destination wedding. There are so many details to iron out and everything is magnified because the wedding is thousands of miles away. Christina and Jeff’s wedding was gorgeous and I’m honored to have been a part of it.

Getting to Belize is surprisingly easy. From San Diego you fly to Dallas (~3 hours), then onto Belize City (~3 hours). From the airport it’s about a 90-minute drive to Chaa Creek. And Chaa Creek is about as 5-star as you can get in Belize. Beautiful grounds, immaculate rooms, super-friendly staff, wireless internet (!), and best of all (drumroll please)–Belikin Beer!

After dinner on Thursday with the entire gang at a Chinese restaurant in San Ignacio (about 10 minutes from Chaa Creek), I slept like a rock that night and woke up the next morning to the sounds of the rainforest: crazy birdcalls, gentle breeze, muggy air. I grabbed some (free!) breakfast with some wedding guests at the hotel restaurant and then we were off on a two-mile canoe trip up the Macal River.

Here’s a shot of Jeff and Christina, the bride and groom, making their way upriver.

I must say that I’ve never canoed before, but I paddleboard and surf all the time so I was confident that my two canoe-mates–Christina’s brother, Joe, and her mom, Nancy–and I could make our way up a gently flowing river with little trouble. Wrong.

When the guy at the canoe dock said, “Watch for the rapids,” I gave it little thought. He said they weren’t that big, so I wasn’t worried at all. Let’s just say that there’s a reason you canoe downriver and not upriver. The rapids, while not big, were moving relatively quick and if you took the canoe into the rapids slightly turned, your canoe swung around and before you knew it. We spent lots of time in the trees and vines that line the river, which is not where you’re supposed to be. At one point, Christina and Jeff got out of their boat and started walking in the shallows through the rapids, which proved not to be prudent. As they tried to get back in the canoe it capsized, resulting in a lost shoe for Christina and a lost oar for Jeff. Mentally defeated and being down an oar, they sort of gave up, electing to drift back downriver. Lo and behold they drift right by the lost oar. Back to the rapids.

Everyone eventually made it to DuPlooy’s Lodge, which is about two miles upriver and the hotel where some of the guests were staying. After some lunch and Belikin, we toured their botanical gardens, then headed back to the canoes for the downriver trip back to Chaa Creek. Moral of the story: Upriver bad; downriver good.

Today we’re headed to the market at San Ignacio, which is an open-air market and supposed to be beautiful. After that it’s back here to Chaa Creek for the wedding! Stay tuned for some wedding images tomorrow!