There’s a particular kind of light that falls over Minitas Beach Club in the late afternoon — golden, low, made for a beach ceremony under a floral chuppah. Zach and Elisabeth chose Casa de Campo for exactly that reason: a wedding that felt unmistakably theirs, rooted in tradition, set against the Caribbean. Every detail of the day carried the hand of Claire Duran Weddings & Events, one of my favorite planners to work with — organized, chic, effortless from the outside looking in.
Elisabeth got ready quietly, without the big matching-robes production some weddings build the morning around — at a villa filled with light and space, surrounded by her family and her closest friends. Zach got ready separately, at his family’s home — the same place that had hosted their welcome party just the night before, and where the first look, family portraits, and the ketubah signing all happened once Elisabeth arrived. It was simple, unhurried, entirely their own pace. And from the moment I arrived, Elisabeth gave me complete freedom to document the day exactly as I saw it — no shot list, no direction, just trust. It’s the kind of freedom every documentary photographer hopes for and doesn’t always get.
When it was time, everyone made their way to Minitas Beach Club for a sunset beach ceremony built around the chuppah, officiated by a close friend of the couple — golden light catching Elisabeth’s face as she walked in, laughter breaking through the traditional moments as much as the emotional ones. And then, the parts that make a Jewish wedding impossible to sit still through: the hora, the chair lift, both of them raised above the crowd while everyone danced in a circle around them. It’s one of my favorite things to photograph — there’s no posing for it, no directing. It just happens, and you chase it.
From the ceremony, we walked straight to the beach for newlywed portraits — barely fifteen minutes, and somehow that was all it took. No forced poses, no working through a list, just two people fully in the moment they’d just stepped into. Some of my favorite frames from the whole day came out of that quick, easy stretch on the sand.
Dinner moved into the golden-hour glow of an impeccable reception, designed by Claire Duran Weddings & Events for a beach wedding — candlelit tables, string lights, toasts that had half the room laughing and the other half in tears. The party that followed was, in Elisabeth’s own words, “absolutely wild.” It didn’t end at the reception tent, either — Zach and Elisabeth closed the night on the sand, a bonfire lit, guests walking down with torches, fireworks catching the black-and-white of the send-off.
Elisabeth said it better than I could, in a review she left afterward: “I wanted [our wedding photos] to feel alive. I wanted them to not be so perfect — a little messy, a little blurry, romantic, moody, fun, warm. Asia captured all of that.” That’s the whole job, really — not the perfect frame, but the true one.
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