Felicia & Shaun’s love story brought them from Canada to our “jewel of the Caribbean” – Dominican Republic for a small and very beautiful wedding at the Dreams Palm Beach Punta Cana hotel. Dreams Palm Beach Punta Cana hotel is small family-friendly getaway for couples and couples with children on the sun-soaked beach on the east coast of the Dominican Republic. “For our wedding we wanted something that would be more than just a day to remember. Ever since I was a little girl, I knew I wanted a destination wedding. Convincing Shaun was easy, one-week free beer. Our colors were navy and blush, we wanted the simplest beachy wedding”.
I’ve photographed a lot of Dreams Palm Beach weddings, but what sets Felicia & Shaun’s wedding apart was the amount of love and positive vibes radiating from the two of them and all their guests that made real pleasure to work with them. Felicia & Shaun’s love story is wonderful to witness. You can see their love for each other in the way they interact, look at each other, even the way they hold one another. “At age 18 and 19 we found each other. Both college students, both broke but both in love. We are polar opposites he’s quiet, and shy, and well I know some say opposites attract. I was lucky to find the one. I met my husband through a friend. She was on social media and she showed me a picture of him and I thought oh wow he’s cute. I friend requested him on Facebook and followed him on twitter. A few weeks later we met at a party. The proposal after 7 LONG years of waiting we took a trip to Point Peele with a few friends, at the beach he got down on one knee and proposed. It was the greatest day ever“, Felicia told us. I hope I succeeded to capture all those sensations on my film.
The absolutely amazing Punta Cana sunset didn’t fail me this time neither at at Dreams Palm Beach hotel. I took some amazing photos of the bride and groom after the ceremony and even managed to capture few sunset shots from the air (photos below the text). The reception was on the beach with incredible Caribbean Ocean as the backdrop. Cutest, sea-inspired decoration was so beautifully complementing long table sitting arrangement. This is what bride told us: “Having the wedding ceremony on the beach provided a beautiful background. Decorations for the reception were 3 vases for the bridesmaids DIY flowers, a few seashells on the table. The names tags for seating arrangement were DIY. We had real floral for my bouquet blush and ivory roses, my bridesmaids bouquets were DIY and brought from home. We wanted to keep the flowers simple“.
A little advice that Felicia have for all future brides: “Don’t try pleasing everyone. We started planning our destination wedding 1 year prior (2020) we all thought covid would be over. We had 30 people put down a deposit for the trip. When it came to final payments it was us plus 10. So many friends and family said we should push it back a year, but we stood our grounds. We wanted to have our wedding this year. I was beyond happy with our trip and wedding“.
They had a ton of beautiful photos from their wedding (exactly 1223 of them, from 6 hours of work). In a text below I’d share some of them for your viewing pleasure.
Vendors:
– Venue: Dreams Palm Beach Punta Cana
– Travel Agent: Kim Machan at Essence of Romance Travel
– Photography: Punta Cana Wedding Photographer – Photo Cine Art
– Ceremony Officiant: Resort Officiant
– Hair and Makeup Artist: hair: Resort SPA, make up: sister-in-law Shayla
– Cake: Resort
– Bride Dress: David’s Bridal
– Bridesmaids Dresses: Etsy
– Groom Suit: Moores
– Groomsman’s suits: Moores
More destination weddings you might find interesting:
Secrets Cap Cana wedding, amazing Missouri couple Katie & Nick
