Last winter, I got a phone call from my brother’s sister-in-law, who was planning a destination wedding in North Carolina. My sister-in-law had recommended me to her, since they didn’t know who any of the photographers in that area were, and I happily agreed to photograph her wedding! Then, about a month later, I got a message that everything had been switched to Fort Lauderdale and they wondered if I could still do the wedding down there.

Um… YES PLEASE???!!!!

So although that changed my travel plans considerably (what went from a day’s drive now turned into flights for two), I thankfully have a brother who lives in Florida with his family and they generously allowed me to stay with them for almost a week just to make a vacation of it.

When Katie and Andy’s big day had finally arrived, we came to the hotel (Hilton Fort Lauderdale Beach Resort), which had absolutely incredible views of the beach, to take photos of everyone getting ready and to get photos of some of the details. With the weather being very windy with off and on rainstorms, we kept most of the photos to indoor locations. I was able to get a few photos of the gorgeous views before the showers came in though.

One of my favorite things that people do at their weddings is include their pets as part of the festivities!  Katie and Andy’s adorable golden retriever dog, Penny, even got to be a big part of the day as part of the wedding party.  Thank goodness I just had my own puppy in puppy classes so I think I did pretty good at getting Penny to look at the camera, haha!

Anyway, once we arrived at Funky Buddha Brewery, everything went fast, with first looks, portraits, family photos, ceremony, and then straight into the reception. The day was truly nonstop from that point on and flew through everything. However, working with Gina Marie Events helped keep the day running on schedule and amazingly smooth! Seriously I have worked with many wedding planners that barely have said a word to me, while Gina was communicating long before the big day, making sure that all of the vendors had what they needed and that everything was prepared to run smoothly once the wedding day came.

Enjoy this gallery of photos from one of my favorite weddings to date! Also if you are landing here in our quest for a Florida wedding photographer, I’m ready to come down again! 😉