Rennie & Claudio

Claudio is a good friend of mine from photography school. Actually, we never spent much time together in school, but I always had high respect for him as a person as well as his work. He moved to Key Biscayne, and we hung out for a bit when I was there to shoot a wedding at the Ritz-Carlton a few years ago. Earlier this year, Claudio announced his engagement and asked me to photograph his wedding. Naturally, I was flattered and honored that he would consider having me fly across country for this event.

This was the first time I met Rennie, and she is a wonderful gal. Both their families were extremely nice and I felt very welcome there. It’s always nice to make a few friends during a gig.

On the morning of the wedding, I went to the location to scout a few spots for portraits. The weather, however, was not cooperating very much. Although the rain stopped before the ceremony and the light was quite nice, it was still very muggy so we stayed indoors as much as we could. As you scroll through the images, you’ll see some of my commentary about the day’s events.

Be sure stop by at Claudio’s web site and check out his work!

Congratulations and best wishes to Claudio and his new wife (and my new friend) Rennie!

Location: Grand Bay Club, Key Biscayne, FL.

 

It’s always nice to see a card with my name on it.

The next two images are of Rennie’s father, sister and mother reacting to how brilliant she looked that day.

A couple of portraits.

We took a few minutes to get this one shot. And what I really mean is we took a few minutes to get to this location, and less than a minute to get a few frames. After this frame, we headed back as we were already starting to sweat. Three minutes later, a mosquito bite I got just before I took this shot was about the size of a nickel on my neck!

I would have welcomed more of these torches to ward off the mosquitoes.

The thing I like about thunderstorms is the dramatic skies that they bring. This is what it looked like as it was clearing and the sun was setting.

Can you see the steam on the windows? That’s how humid it was, and also the reason why most of the portraits were done inside.

Instead of reading their vows out loud, Rennie and Claudio whispered them to each other while everyone enjoyed the sunset.

Claudio had a heck of a time repeating lines during the ceremony. I think this was after his 3rd try.

Mojitos were served right after the ceremony.

My seat!

I think I was the only one who actually saw this happening.

This is Claudio’s dad sharing some funny moments caught on camera the night before. Yeah, the guys had an ad hoc bachelor party for Claudio!

What I loved about their dance was that they were simply dancing to their song — their way, not choreographed.

It wasn’t long before shoes were off and everyone was on the dance floor.