What to include in your Wedding Emergency Kit

Weddings are special and memorable events that should always be enjoyed, hassle-free. Of course, things might not always go as planned. This is why it’s important to make sure you are ready and prepared for whatever the day brings with it and not have to dwell on minor hick-ups.

A Wedding Emergency Kit can save you a lot of unnecessary stress! Trust us, the following tips will come in handy for sure.

WARDROBE MAID – MALFUNCTIONS CAN ALWAYS HAPPEN!

The last thing you want is a wardrobe malfunction on your wedding day. The good thing is that if you have these essentials with you, will be out and about in a jiffy:

• Double-stick fashion tape;
• Sewing kit (keep it compact, just a few needles and thread for the wedding dress of the bride and the maids will do);
• Safety pins;
• White chalk (this will cover up stains on a wedding dress in no-time);
• Stain remover pen.

NURSEMAID – AVOID THOSE BLISTERS AND HEADACHES!

On a wedding day, everyone should feel comfortable. Most probably, the ladies are wearing brand new shoes for this big event, meaning that they probably haven’t had enough time to properly break them in. Additionally, forgetting to eat and hydrate can be a big but common mistake.

Make sure to bring:

• Anti-blister balm;
• Pain reliever;
• Quick snacks (we do not want anyone to get hangry, bananas always provide the right sugar boost);
• Water (like the locals say: ‘Aruba ta cayente!’ (Aruba is hot)).

MAKE-UP MAID – WHEN YOUR MAKE-UP NEEDS SOME EXTRA LOVE!

It’s natural to want to look your best on your special day. Even if you’ve gotten your makeup professionally done, there might be instances when you want to touch up, especially on our sunny One Happy Island. Don’t forget these in your kit:

• Blotting papers;
• Compact mirror (for last-minute make-up checks);
• Same lipstick as used by the make-up artist on the bride;
• Eyelash glue

If you want to be extra proactive and have more space in your kit, these can be useful bonus items that will make sure you got everything covered and are able to fully enjoy your perfect Aruba Wedding!

• Bring some spare underwear, because… you know… don’t ask!
• Sunscreen
• Bug spray
• Power bank for your phones
• Cash

5 unique ways to pop the question

As Wedding Photographers / Videographers based in Aruba, We love to capture anything related to love, whether that is a wedding, maternity shoot or engagement session. It is all about telling stories. There are many creative ways to add some personality and flair to this special moment when it comes to proposal sessions. There is nothing like the look of surprise on your bae’s face when you ask them to spend forever with you. Check out these fantastic ideas on how to make your proposal a memorable moment that your significant other will remember for the rest of their life.

PRIVATE DINNER

Imagine enjoying a private romantic dinner on the beach with your other half. The scenery is gorgeous, sunsets at the beach make for the perfect setting to say the words: “Will you marry me?”. Be inspired by this romantic beach engagement session that we shot a while back.

ISLAND TOUR PROPOSAL

An island tour proposal package offers an out-of-the-box opportunity to pop the question at a unique location that no tourist would ever find on their own. As local photographers and videographers, we know the best spots on and stories about our island. You and your partner will be driven around the island by us on a guided tour, which will end with your surprise proposal. They will never suspect anything!

Watch how Matt booked such a tour to propose to Alexa.

A LOVELY PICNIC

Take a walk on the beach…all of a sudden your beloved sees a lovely little set-up, a few pillows, a nice display of food, wine, champagne and a note…What’s that on the note? Is that you and your fiancé’s name? Wait, what? And as your fiancé looks at you, all surprised…..BAM! There you sit on your knee.

GET PERSONAL

Your beloved will appreciate your attention to details if you do this: While on a romantic walk on the beach, your fiancé-to-be spots their “favorite book or bottle of wine with a note on it, maybe even a special someone or their pet with a sign. Whatever it is, make it personal and show them that you are paying attention!

OUTDOORSY DECISION

You go on a hike through the wilderness or maybe do a little stroll through the city center and all of a sudden, your fiancé-to-be spots a personal message for them, written on a rock or wall. They turn around to look at you, only to find you on one knee. With the help of some drawing chalk (you know, the ones you used to play with as kids), we can already make miracles happen. Plus, it’s easy to wash off, since we always act in a sustainable and environmentally friendly way.

LET’S TURN THE TABLES

For the ladies: sometimes traditions can be broken. Love is universal and so is expressing it. There’s no need to hesitate if you feel like going against the traditions and just popping the question. See how Leticia did it here.

At Aruba Wedding, we love to help you set up and capture the look in your fiancé’s eyes when you pop the question. Let’s do this! If need be, we also have the best contacts on Aruba to make sure we find someone that can help you with the details that will sweep your beloved off their feet. Contact us today at contact@aruba-wedding.com to learn how we can help.

How do we protect your files?

Weddings are a once-in-a-lifetime event (well, hopefully). A lot of planning goes into your special day. It’s filled with countless moments that you would like to have captured forever, and as wedding photographers and videographers, we truly understand how important these snapshots are. This is why we go to great lengths to keep your photos and videos safe.

FROM SHUTTER BUTTON TO DELIVERY AND BEYOND!

To protect all the invaluable moments we capture, we make sure that there are always two copies of every file from the time we press the shutter or hit the record button until the moment we deliver the files to you. When we get back to our office, we make a backup of the two memory cards and store them in a secure location. To provide additional security, we make an extra off-site backup from the server we normally work from. The process works as follows:

BACK IN ROTATION!

Within one week, your files are moved to an off-site backup. After that, the memory cards that were used for your wedding photo or video shootare used again to capture someone else’s big day. We do one final check to make sure that the files are stored correctly and none of them are corrupt. From this moment on, we have two different (off-site) copies in different locations. In case the server’s storage capacity is exceeded, we create an off-line backup which we can access from our office.

A PHOTOGRAPH IS LIKE A PAUSE BUTTON ON LIFE!

We never delete any of your files. Theoretically, we keep your memories safe until the end of days. However, please keep in mind that we are not superheroes. We are not invincible to technical errors! We do everything within our power to make this chance as small as possible. Our way of data management is fairly unique in our industry and we are very proud of that!

A photograph is like a pause button on life. We want you to be able to continue replaying your favorite memories over and over again!

Marrying on Aruba during Covid times

Our whole world got turned upside down when COVID-19 hit. So did our One Happy Island. Every year, thousands of people say “I do” on Aruba. Despite the global pandemic, they still do! How will this impact your special day? Don’t worry, you can still have a pandemic-proof dream wedding!

ENSURING THE PERFECT DESTINATION WEDDING!

Tourism is the main pillar in the Aruban economy. This is why the Aruban government, together with the tourism board, hotels, and the Aruban health department, worked hard to find a balance between your destination wedding and your safety. People from all over the world are still escaping to Aruba to enjoy the pristine white beaches our island is known for! You can rest assured that Aruba has the proper protocols in place to ensure your safety while on the island.

COMMUNICATION IS KEY – AND STILL POSSIBLE!

Communication with your wedding planner and wedding photographer/videographer is essential for the success of your big day! We normally prefer ‘in person’ meetings to maintain a personal touch, but we will not shy away from having online meetings to discuss all the details of your wedding. We focus on flawless communication with all parties involved; that way we make sure that there are no surprises for anyone but the guests!

HOW WE KEEP YOU SAFE.

Before we arrive at your wedding location, all our equipment is disinfected thoroughly. Although we try to minimize contact with your items, our wedding photographers might still have to arrange or compose some items to make perfect detailed shots of your special day. But don’t worry, we always bring disinfecting wipes and hand sanitizer which we use before and after we touch anything other than our own equipment.

DO WE WEAR FACE MASKS?

Obviously, we wear face masks and maintain social distance. Whenever we would like to get closer for a picture, we ask first. The majority of our wedding pictures take place outside in the open air, which reduces your risk significantly. Even when our wedding photographers are outside, we still wear our face masks and stay out of your personal space by social distancing.

WHAT IF THE CORONAVIRUS FORCES US TO CHANGE OUR PLANS?

Rest assured! Just like us, many stakeholders in the Aruban destination wedding industry have joined hands to guarantee your happily ever after with a so-called ‘happily-ever-after-guarantee’. This enables you to reschedule your wedding free of charge if COVID-19 should derail your original plans! For more information about this guarantee, you can visit Aruba’s website here.

DID YOU KNOW ABOUT OUR LIVESTREAM SERVICES?

In case your loved ones cannot be physically present during your big day, you can host your destination wedding ceremony live! Bring your dream wedding to your family and friends back home, because your wedding dreams should come true no matter what! Find out more about our Wedding Livestream Services here.

For up-to-date information about traveler health you can visit the website of Aruba here.

To print or Not to print?

So, you got married on Aruba and had your wedding pictures taken by one of Aruba’s many wedding photographers, preferably one of Aruba’s premier wedding photographers, Aruba Wedding (us! ^_^ ). You love your wedding pictures. As a matter of fact, they are spot-on…they take you right back to that memorable wedding day on Aruba. Now what?! This article is not just about printing your wedding pictures or not. It is applicable to basically any picture. But, we will focus on your wedding pictures for this article. In today’s world, with a camera in every man/woman’s hand, pocket, etc., there are more than 208,300 pictures uploaded to Facebook a minute. Let’s do the math—24 hours times 60 minutes times 208,300…wow, that’s a whopping 300,000,000 images uploaded daily to Facebook alone. And that is not even taking into account all the other social media, duplicate pictures, and the pictures that are not uploaded and shared. Mind-blowing! So how does this affect you and your wedding pictures? Well, one of our preferred ways of delivering the images is digitally. Couples from the U.S., Latin America, and Europe generally don’t stay much longer than a week after their wedding day on Aruba, so although we try to deliver the wedding pictures of a couple’s Aruba destination/beach wedding within a week, more often than not, the couple has returned home before we have been able to deliver a printed image. So, they are left with digital copies to do whatever they want with (within obvious reason). Now, let me paint two scenarios that don’t have to do with wedding photography per se, but for most of you, they will be familiar.

SCENARIO ONE – MY IPHONE

I am a father of two little boys—my pride and joy, and that of my family. So we have a lot of pictures of them taken by my wife, mother, father-in-law, sister-in-law, and whatnot. They are mostly shared via WhatsApp, as is every picture of every tiny little detail of our lives—the car that was parked like crazy, the cup of coffee my wife had waiting for me, etc., etc. To cope with all those pictures flooding my iPhone, I extended my iCloud storage. And yet, within 3 months, I ran out of storage. So now I have a system—some pictures on Dropbox, some in iCloud, and some I just have to delete. But finding that one special picture isn’t that easy. I have to scroll through 1,146 pictures on my iPhone and 3,490 on Dropbox to find it, and by the time I find it, I will have probably reached my mobile data limit.

SCENARIO TWO – MY BABY PICTURES

I was born in the time of good ol’-fashioned photography. My father had an old SLR camera and took pictures of me when I was born and growing up. Bless my mother, she took the time to select the cutest ones and put them in an old-fashioned photo album. A couple of months ago, my second son was born, and about one month ago, we started noticing that I might have won the battle of the genes with this one. In other words, this little boy already started to look like me, and we wanted to verify that by comparing him to me as a baby. So, we went to grab the good ol’-fashioned photo album, and within a minute, we found a couple of pictures of me at about the same age as my son was then. Guess what? You wouldn’t know the difference. Do these scenarios seem somewhat familiar? I’ve noticed that a lot of pictures end up not getting printed and lost in the cloud, together with all the pictures of my kids. So, in conclusion, I’d just like to point out that there is no way of preserving pictures like printing and putting them in an album. It takes up a lot of time and space, but it’s time and space well used. Besides, there are so many creative ways of printing your pictures. These days you can even print on foam board, wood board, aluminum, and pallet wood, so you are not stuck with only canvas and paper. So go out there, get creative, and print your wedding pictures. You won’t regret it!!

Aruba wedding featured shoot

Every month, we select one shoot from all our wedding photography/videography, family portrait, and couple photography shoots as our “Aruba Wedding Featured Shoot,” based on the quality of the photographs/video, the story of the couple, location, or otherwise. With these photographs, videos, and the stories behind them, we want to inspire you. And we want to tell you what makes us tick—the things that get us excited—so that you might get to know us a little better. This month we’ve picked the shoot we did with Jelitza and Brian. Don’t these images look just awesome!?!?!

THE BACKSTORY

As a gift, Jelitza and Brian’s friends gave them 1.5 hours of Wedding Portrait Photography (which we think is a great gesture), and they selected us for the job. We went up to Savaneta, Aruba, to show a different side of the island. Most weddings are held near the hotel area, especially Palm Beach and Eagle Beach. For the portrait session, couples often don’t venture far from that area. We, as one of Aruba’s premier wedding photographers/videographers, think that others don’t venture off the beaten path often enough. Aruba is not just the island of white sandy beaches and turquoise waters. The Aruba we know is far more than that. You can find large rock formations, red rock faces, secluded beaches, rustic buildings, and so much more if you are willing to go the extra mile (and since Aruba isn’t that big, just one or two extra miles will do just fine #LOL).

WHY DID WE SELECT THIS SHOOT

But seriously, back to the topic at hand. Usually wedding photography here on Aruba is done at the beach, with an awesome sunset in the background, leaving all these hidden gems untouched. As wedding photographers/videographers, we make it our business to find the best and most exclusive locations to shoot you and your spouse. This has been the first shoot in a while where we could take a couple (which happend to be a great couple) to some of those spots. Boy, did we get a reward at the end. While finishing up the shoot, a couple of local fishermen came out of the water with nets full of small fish, followed by a flock of seagulls and other birds. I asked the men if we could buy a handful to see if we could create some awesome wedding pictures. One fisherman said, “Oh, no….you’re not going to pay for this. I’ll just throw some of them wherever you want….consider this our wedding gift!” We were consequently enabled to take this great shot and many others.

all goes to show that Aruba is one of the best locations for a destination wedding, with its hospitable, friendly people and its hidden gems that lie in wait for you to pose in, on, in front of, and under for some truly memorable wedding photographs!!

Gallery

A wedding blog by one of Aruba’s best wedding Photographers/Cinematographers

Hi there and welcome to our blog. I hear you think….”Aruba wedding with a blog ?? That would probably be all about Wedding Photography and cinematography” and you are right. We will be blogging about wedding photography / cinematography related stuff. So, if you are in interested in in wedding photography and cinematography, you are in the right spot…and stay tuned. But, for those with a wider scope of interest, we will feed you some cool tips and tricks as wel. Just to give you some idea what we will be talking about….wel basically everything but food. Wedding photographers/cinematographers are hired to capture every Wonderfull moment during a wedding day on Aruba, and since we are considered to be among the best of Aruba we have a ton of little pointers, tips and just plain fun stuff to share and make your wedding, engagement, anniversary or vacation photo’s and videos just look that much better…and the shoots go a little smoother. Basically, we love to share our knowledge of capturing and declaring your love for one and other !!! That is what this blog will be about. We hope you’ll enjoy it !!