EPM Photo of the Day

Photo of the Day: The X-Lounge

EPM has an on-beach nighttime lounge where you can bask in the beauty of the beach as the sun sets and falls into the ocean.  It is uber-modern with white couches and tables, bar service for as long as people are around, and ambient lighting once the sun has departed. 

A Photo a Day

I am becoming increasingly excited for our Mexico 2010 trip (94 days to go!), so I decided to pull down a few photos of Excellence Playa Mujeres (EPM) resort and make a collage for my computer's desktop background (dork, I know).  Then I thought - I should share these fun photos with the world!  Maybe this will even convince a few more of you to come along to EPM. 

This pic was taken inside the resort; they have 'pools' that form a kind of river around and through the property, with bridges that go over the river.  Apparently you can grab a pool floatie and glide around the resort at a leisurely pace. 

SMB Photos

I found a few more great resources for photos of the Secrets Maroma Beach Resort - check them out when you are feeling procrastinatory! :o) Many of the albums were created back in the Fall, so some things may have changed (more grass, etc.).

Album 1

Album 2

Album 3

Album 4

Album 5

Album 6
The SMB Lobby Bar-->

TTD (Trash The Dress)

Any recent bride or bride-to-be has likely heard of the latest cultural rage in the wedding world - the Trash the Dress (TTD)photography session. This photo shoot is typically held the morning after the wedding night, and although the name implies that harm will come to that expensive dress you spent months looking for and pining over, the purpose of this new-tradition is not to trash the dress. Instead, it is an opportunity for the bride and groom (and their photographer) to take photos in interesting poses and locations that would not be as easily done on wedding day (when the bride is trying to keep herself clean). The focus of this shoot is typically the glamour and artfulness of the photos, and usually the work is relatively candid in nature, so it gives the bride and groom a chance to naturally move together and see what happens. At first, I was not a huge fan of this idea, but the more I read about it - and quite honestly, the more photos I see from these types of shoots on or near the beach - the more exciting it seems. Is it creating 'just another opportunity' for a bride and groom to have pictures taken of themselves? Probably. But the possibilities the day after the wedding, when the stress has diminished and the properness of the day are gone...that is appealing to me.

So... we will do a TTD session the day after our wedding in Mexico - very exciting! A&A Photography has agreed to partake in this crazy activity with us. I plan on donating my dress to an awesome organization called Brides Against Breast Cancer, so I will very likely buy a less-formal, and less-expensive gown to wear for our TTD session, and I thought it could be cool for Christopher to wear an all-white cotton or linen shirt and pant set - but we shall see about that. There are so many websites that show amazing examples of TTD photos, so here are just a few to whet your appetite (credit is given directly on the photos).

Trash The Dress

Wedding PhotoJournalists Association

SolTaMargo Photographer (Mexico)

A&A Photography (Colorado)

"Our" Photographers won the Best of Denver!

I am so excited to announce that the photographers we have commissioned for our wedding, A&A Photography (Angie and Andy), have won the Best of Denver wedding photographers

this year! I have pasted a screen shot of the winning news here, but you can also visit their blog at http://www.a-a-photography.com/blog/ if you want to see their latest and greatest work! Congratulations to Andy and Angie - we are so pleased to have you involved as such an integral part of our wedding team. (Apparently we have good taste - even Denver says so!)

Photographer: CHECK!

Today I am very happy to announce that we have finally chosen a photographer. Andy and Angie Wood of A&A Photography will be flying to Mexico to cover our wedding, and will be doing our engagement shoot in Denver this winter, along with our Trash the Dress shoot the day after the wedding in Mexico. We are so pleased that they have agreed to become part of our wedding team; their work is positively fabulous and we have eyed it for months now. If you have a moment, check them out on their website (or for their most recent work, their blog). The decision was so difficult, but we ultimately brought it all back to fit - we wanted to fit well with whomever we chose, mainly because the intimacy of a destination wedding requires a bit more 'getting along' with everyone than perhaps a hometown wedding does. We think they click well with us, and will also do so with our guests - a perfect blend of fun and hard-core awesome photography.

A&A Photography - Andy and Angie Wood
Main Website: http://www.studioaanda.com/
Blog (most recent stuff): http://www.a-a-photography.com/blog/

SMB (Secrets Maroma Beach) Latest Photos

It seems that a lot has taken place over the past week - SMB's first week open. For a few days, things were fine, but it seems that the air conditioning systems began failing, so the resort is now officially not accepting any new visitors until August 24. There has been a flurry of frantic posts on TripAdvisor, mainly by people who are supposed to be leaving for SMB this week, but are now being displaced to other resorts while SMB works on its kinks. The drama isn't fazing me...unless of course next July this is still going on. The latest photos from a few visitors who stayed there the past week are encouraging - take a look at them when you get a chance, and compare to some of the earlier posts. They are making serious progress! And if you are interested in a swimup suite, there are some tantalizing photos for you in this link...

CLICK for the Latest Pics from John and Cally (Nashville, TN)

More photos from Secrets Maroma Beach

Here are some more great photos from last week - before the opening - but there are some views that you won't find in the ones I just posted. I could almost squeak with excitement.

Just click the link below!

Secrets Maroma Beach Resort Pre-Opening Photos