courtney dellafiora blog :: international wedding photographer » trash the dress

Courtney + Christopher :: Trash the Dress (Aruba)

courtney — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 20:00:44 +0000

The next morning after Courtney and Chris’ wedding, we shot their Trash the Dress photos. This is always something really fun to do especially if you’re doing a destination wedding. I absolutely LOVE the photos I got. Aruba provided a beautiful backdrop and I mean HELLO HOTNESS with this couple!! Enjoy!

See their wedding images here.

Love love love a million times over.

Lyndsey + Travis :: Trash the Dress (lover’s cove, cabo)

courtney — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 14:32:24 +0000

You ready for a story? Here goes…I’m going to do my best to give you a visual of the most adventurous shoot I have ever gone on. : ) The day after Lyndsey and Travis’ wedding in Cabo, we headed out BRIGHT AND EARLY… like 5:30am… to the very famous Lover’s Cove to shoot their Trash the Dress shoot. To get to this exotic location, you must take a boat. Well, the problem was… that early on a Sunday morning it was impossible to find a water taxi to get us there. Apparently these taxi drivers like to sleep in a little on Sunday? HOW DARE THEM!! Our predicament was we were crunched for timing as I like to shoot at a very particular time in order to get the best lighting. So we started to get a little worried we wouldn’t make it to the spot in time. After doing lots of persuading in Spanish (on my part) with a local at the boat marina, he managed to talk a local fisherman to take us out to Lover’s Cove on his fishing boat. Whew! So Lyndsey, Travis, Deirdre and I hopped in this tiny (and smelly) fishing boat… wedding dress on and equipment in hands. That was the easy part. The boat ride was about 5 minutes away from the marina. As we arrived, we realized how incredibly difficult it was going to be to get out of this tiny boat without getting completely washed away. The tide was pretty rough and as you may already know, the bottom of a fishing boat is shaped sort of like a canoe, not flat on the bottom (like a water taxi is!!), which makes it rock back and forth a LOT. The other tricky thing, is these the two Mexican fisherman that drove us out there were elderly and having a very hard time pulling the boat into shore. Travis hopped out the boat to help him try to pull it in, but even with two men, the tide was SO strong… needless to say it was pretty scary. As soon as a wave pushed the boat in, Lynds, D and I all jumped out as quick as we could… trying not to ruin the equipment. It was interesting to say the least, but we managed to make it. The fisherman yelled to me in Spanish that they would be back to pick us up in an hour. So we had to hurry.

The thing about Lover’s Cove is you have to be dropped off on one side of it because the other side where the arch is at, is even ROUGHER with the tide. And I mean, like killer waves. Boats cannot even go on that side. So as soon as we were dropped off, we had to trek it to the other side with all of our stuff. As we got closer to the arch we began to lose sand area to walk on next to the cliffs, so we would have to wait until a wave would recede into the Pacific and then TAKE OFF RUNNING LIKE YOU WERE RUNNING FROM AN AX MURDERER before the water would come back up. And you think I’m exaggerating… um no. We were DETERMINED to get to that arch!!!! Especially Lyndsey, you should have seen her… she had that dress in arms and was running like a madwoman across the sand to the other side. Haha LOVED IT. Such an adventurous bride. : ) SO…. we finally made it the arch… out of breath, and about to pass out… but we made it!!!! At this point I knew I only had a very short window to get some amazing shots, not only because of lighting… but I knew our boat would be back before we knew it and we did NOT want to get stranded. So we quickly starting shooting and I got some of my favorite shots ever. This location was just breathtaking. There was not a single soul there besides us (and a few sea lions!!) It was truly surreal. Have you ever seen the movie The Black Stallion? I was obsessed with that movie as a child. When I was at this location, it made me think of that movie and the part where the little boy is stranded on the beach with the black stallion. It was just one of those moments I will never forget for as long as I live. Mind blowing, majestic, like a dream, marvelous, stunning are just a few of the words that come to mind when thinking of this beautiful place that God created. I feel incredibly blessed that I had the opportunity to be one of the few people on earth who got to see it. We were told for 7 years the tide is high and there is actually no beach to even be on. And then for one year after every 7 years, there is beach. We were lucky enough to have been able to visit it on that ONE YEAR!! Crazy amazing. Most people don’t have that opportunity. Innnncrreeeedddible. Truly.

As we finished taking a few photos on that side, Deirdre pointed out that we should probably make a mad dash back to the other side just in case the tide got higher, and we would get stuck on that side, with no where to go. YIKES. We grabbed our stuff and did the RUN-FOR-YOUR-LIFE dance again. We made it back to the other side safe, and again, out of breath. We spent a little longer capturing some more amazing shots and then saw our fisherman coming back for us. Heeerrreee we go again!!!! Needless to say, this time the waves were more rough than when we were dropped off and I knew getting back on this little boat was going to be even more difficult. As we stood on the beach watching them struggle to get the boat close enough, we all started to get a littttllllle nervous. The boat was rocking back and forth vigorously and at one point almost completely flipped over. As we watched these 2 fisherman fighting the waves, we all had our lives flashing before our eyes. “Is THIS how my life is going to end!?!” I waited for a “calm” moment and we all made a dash for it and hopped in the boat as fast we could all while holding equipment above our heads and trying not to trip and drown. SCA-RY. As we all got in the boat, the waves continued to crash near the shore while the boat was going BACK AND FORTH… and at one point it almost flipped over. There is no doubt we were all screaming at the top of our lungs and I am pretty sure Deirdre and I were using words our mothers would not approve of. It was THAT SCARY. All I could think was, “this boat is about to flip over, hit us on the head, knock us out… and we are done for.” But it didn’t and we got back out to the ocean, where it was much calmer. All of us were wet, smelled like fish and extremely shaken up. BUT HEY, WE GOT THE SHOTS AND MADE IT OUT ALIVE!!! WOOHOOO!!!!! Then the fisherman begins to tell me in Spanish, “now hey, since you speak Spanish… if the police ask, you’re my sister. Because I am not licensed to take people out.” BAHAHAHAHAA. Perfect way to end this insane adventure… worrying about getting arrested in Mexico. Nice.

Even though it got seriously scary, it was so worth it. We all got to witness one of the most beautiful places ever and take some incredible photos that ALL FOUR of us will cherish and remember forever. I am so glad all 4 of us possess a spirit of adventure, otherwise we wouldn’t have been able to make any of this come true.

Thanks Travis and Lyndsey for just being simply put, RAD. Many hugs and kisses to you both!

And just to give you an idea of what Lover’s Cove NORMALLY looks like 7 out of 8 years, here is a photo I grabbed off of Google. See, no land.

Marissa + Mike :: Trash The Dress (Jamaica)

courtney — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:39:02 +0000

Another thing I love about being a part of destination weddings… is we generally get the opportunity to do a “trash the dress” or “day after” shoot with the happy couple. If you saw my post from yesterday, you have already seen Marissa and Mike’s wedding day in Jamaica. And now I want to share with you some of their images from their TTD shoot!! A shoot like this is super fun because it allows us to take our time and get even more relaxed and fun photos. And you can’t go wrong with a location like Negril Jamaica!!

And HAPPY BIRTHDAY MARISSA!!! I didn’t plan it for these to be blogged on your birthday but I am so glad it worked out that way!!! Hope you have an amazing birthday. You deserve it!!

And thank you Jamaica for being as always, beautiful and welcoming.

Love this one Deirdre captured:

A little friend came to play.

Love.

Allison + Jonathan :: Trash the Dress (Playa Del Carmen)

courtney — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:43:22 +0000

So a couple of days after Allison and Jonathan’s wedding we woke up early and and headed to shoot their Trash the Dress pictures. It was an absolute gorgeous day and I was so excited to get some more photos of this beautiful couple in the beautiful country of Mexico. We shot a few on the beach at the resort and then took a cab about 45 minutes away to a lagoon/cave/spring area we had found the day before. Enjoy a few of my favs!!

This spot was seriously one of the coolest places I have shot! So exotic and secluded.

It was so much fun getting to shoot in the water. It felt amazing and we had a BLAST!

Looking at this makes me want to jump on a plane and head back to Mexico!!!

I suggested Allison bring a white bathing suit for a few more shots after shooting in her dress since we were going to be in the water… why not right?

All of the flowers you see I brought from my studio! : ) I think they were a nice touch.

Are Allison’s eyes to die for or what!? And NO… there is absolutely no retouching or editing done to her eyes… they really are that beautiful all on their own.

Deirdre captured the photo below of me in my element. Ah, bliss.

Keri + John :: Trash the Dress {Jamaica}

courtney — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:50:27 +0000

Even after the celebration of the wedding from the night before, John and Keri were complete sports and woke up before dawn to get ready for their trash the dress shoot we did early in the morning. It’s rare in Jamaica that it’s not sunny but we ended up only seeing the sun for 1 minute while driving to our location before it went behind the clouds for the rest of the shoot. But I actually quite love the mood it set for the pictures. We went to a few spots in Negril that Michael and I had scouted out the day before and had an awesome time. It was super windy and the waters were really rough but that wasn’t about to stop these two adventure seekers. I absolutely love it when my clients are up for anything and John and Keri are another example of that radness. Below are a few of my favorites!

One of my favorite things about Jamaica: there are always beautiful flowers!

I adoorrrre the tenderness in this one that Michael got. It’s so obvious John loves Keri to the core.

How flippin cool is this spot? Random abandoned building? YES PLEASE.

LOVE this:

and this:

Mike got this one as well and I must say it’s another one of my favorites.

Final shot of the day. There is nothing that says “cool” more than being willing to get in the water with your wedding dress!

Thanks again Keri and John for everything!!! xoxo

Amber + Luke :: Day After/Trash The Dress {Colorado}

courtney — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 17:03:49 +0000

A “day after” trash the dress is always a challenge for the bride and groom even though I am always VERY excited about it. The sun didn’t come up until 7am but Amber and Luke wanted to go out to the area that their love first began so they barely got any sleep and still got up and looked gorgeous for the early morning shoot. A “trash the dress” or newlywed photo shoot is a great way to get even more beautiful pictures of you and your new spouse when you can relax a little more and don’t have the pressure of the wedding day events on your mind. Plus you don’t have to worry about keeping your dress spotless anymore.

We stopped at a couple beautiful spots on the side of the highway while the sun was still low and the light was perfect and ended in the snow at Estes Park near the sight of their first romance. After it was all over Amber and Luke took Mikey and I to a little breakfast place at the foot of the mountains where we got to share laughs and get to know each other better. I truly love my clients!!! Amber and Luke it has been so great getting to know you. I trust that you are having a great time in Hawaii! — jealous!!

How beautiful is this light? Mikey got this first one and I love it.

M took this one as well and it’s definitely one of my favs.

I absolutely LOVE the chemistry these two have. Luke was constantly making Amber laugh.

M captured Amber’s expression beautifully here:

What a good looking pair:

Once we got to Estes Park, there was tons of snow everywhere. It was so cold but SO worth it for the photos we got.

M shot this beauty: (has anyone noticed how many of his shots I am using? I should probably be worried- but I’m actually just super proud of him!)

I just love Amber’s red coat she brought. It was the perfect touch!

I suggested a snowball fight but I think Luke was cheating and grabbed armloads of snow instead of a ball of snow.

Tackle!!!!

They are true sports for laying in the snow long enough to get pictures like this one.

One more that Michael shot:

… the end to a perfect shoot and the beginning of a perfect life together.

Vas & Julia: {trash the dress}

courtney — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 20:24:19 +0000

Can I tell you how excited I got when Julia told me she absolutely wanted to do a trash the gown shoot?! Pretty darn excited. She was clever enough to buy a cheap wedding gown that was an imitation of her original for the shoot. So for all you ladies who are nervous about “trashing” your wedding gown, buy a cheap one! It’s a great idea and will give you the opportunity to get some amazing photos.

We had so much fun with this shoot… and when I say they were up for anything, I mean anything. You’ll see what I mean towards the end. Mikey and I went exploring in Negril, Jamaica the day before the shoot to scope out some sweet spots and I love what we found.

We woke up to start shooting around 6:00am because the sun rises early in Jamaica!

Gosh, they are beautiful!

Is she FABULOUS or what!

We found this super cool resort/restaurant called Xtabi that apparently had a cave underneath it! We asked if they would let us use it for our shoot- we were pumped when they said yes. Definitely one of the coolest places I’ve ever shot.

Decided to take a ring shot while I was in there. Why not right?

So these next two shots were all Mikey’s idea. He is so creative!

Rick’s Cafe is one of the famous hot spots in Jamaica. The owners were SO nice to let us in HOURS before they opened so Julia and Vas could jump off the cliff into the Caribbean. (I told you they were adventurous!!) Mikey, Vas, Julia and I along with the entire wedding party came back later that day when they were open and had a BLAST. This was definitely one of the highlights of the trip and Mikey keeps telling me how ready he is to go back and hang out at Rick’s again!

I LOVE THIS!! Julia, I’m so proud of you! I seriously have the coolest couples in the world. Mikey took it from this angle…

This is the very last shot taken of Julia and Vas right after they jumped and it happens to be one of my absolute favorites…

Vas & Julia- you guys are A-M-A-Z-I-N-G. We had so much fun with you both and feel like we have made new friends for life. Thank you SO much for everything. Michael and I wish you both all of the happiness in the world. XOXO, M&C