Jill contacted me last summer about photographing her intimate wedding in Rincon. We talked on the phone for a bit about different ideas for places to do wedding photographs. I was so happy when I realized she was a hula hooper! I am an avid hula hooper myself and have several LED hula hoops. After the wedding ceremony my assistant and I went back to the villa with them and made some great LED hula hoop photographs. This intimate wedding was a lot of fun to photograph, great people, good times and lots of smiles. They even read from a Dr. Seuss book as part of their ceremony!

Check out Jill’s Q&A:

Tell us about your first date…

Our first date was to see Toy Story 3. It was great because the theater was empty and so we were able to talk through the whole movie.

Why did you choose the Barefoot Bodega as your venue?

I had seen pictures on the website and I thought that it would be a very peaceful and serene setting for us to be married in.

How did he ‘pop’ the question?

We were on a sunset cruise off the coast of Rincon sitting on the front of the boat. He asked, I said yes, and we cheers-ed. 🙂

What about your wedding was unique and different?

Well the ceremony was something that I wrote, I looked through a lot of scripts and I didn’t feel like any of them really matched us, so that was crafted from scratch. We didn’t have any sort of traditional processional or a unity ceremony or anything you typically see.
We did a reading from Dr. Suess, a short prayer, said our vows and were on our way. We wanted the ceremony to be short and sweet.
We also did not have a typical reception.
We wanted our wedding day to feel like, our day. I have been to several weddings where I hear the bride and groom talking about how the wedding is for the family and the marriage is for the couple; and I really wanted to avoid that sort of feeling. We tried to focus on who we are, what we like, and what we wanted to do. We played with hoops and listened to music, we eat and drank and danced. It really was just an enjoyable evening and a fun night.

The whole wedding day really did feel stress free and fun because of that focus on keeping things down to earth, and us.

I love the photograph I took of your ring, can you tell me what its made of and where it came from?

The center ring is made out of white gold and the bands are made of rose gold; they both also have diamonds are are from Zale’s.

What are you most excited about when you think of spending the rest of your life with your partner?
I am excited for our future adventures. We both love to travel and we want to see the world and I’m really excited to do and see as much as we can.

Why did you choose a destination wedding in Puerto Rico?

We really love Puerto Rico, we went last year and fell in love with Rincons’ whole atmosphere, it is where he proposed. Once we decided we wanted to do something destination, Puerto Rico just made sense.

What is your favorite memory from your trip to Puerto Rico?

I have a lot of favorite memories from the trip but I really enjoyed doing yoga at the Barefoot Bodega. The day before the wedding we had a private class there and it was just a really great way to relax and take a deep breath before the big day.

Why did you choose Rincon Images photography? How did you find us?

I really liked the work on your website peculiarly the “& More” section.

Why did you choose the Barefoot Bodega as your venue?

I had seen pictures on the website and I thought that it would be a very peaceful and serene setting for us to be married in.

What was your favorite thing about your wedding day?

My favorite thing about the wedding day was just hanging out at the villa at the end of the day. Hooping, music, talking, hanging out, eating, it was just a really fun and relaxed night. We really wanted our wedding day to feel genuine to our every day lives, our number one goal was to keep things simple and as relaxed as possible and I think that we achieved that goal.

What was your favorite detail from your wedding day, dress, shoes,

flowers..?

My favorite detail was the backdrop for the ceremony. It was our only actual decoration and I’m really glad that it stood out.

Tell us a little bit about what you did after the ceremony.. dinner, dancing?

After the ceremony we walked around on the beach, stopped by the bar for a shot, and then we went back to the villa we were staying. We spent the evening eating skewers and flan, listening to music, hooping, and relaxing.

What advice do you have for brides having professional pictures taken for the first time?

Hire Frances! No one in our whole group has ever taken professional photos before and so no one really knew what to expect for the picture portion of the day, and honestly we were kind of dreading it. We were expecting to be asked to stand in a line doing the same things over and over and that’s not at all what happened. I really liked how you were able to guide us and make us feel really comfortable throughout the whole day while allowing us to keep our identity.

How many dresses did you try on before you settled on the one you wore for your wedding day. Where did you find it?

I actually purchased two previous dresses, when I bought my first dress we were planning on a big family wedding, and so when we scratched that idea I also canceled the first dress.
I then bought a tea length dress, but between the time I bought the dress and around the time of the wedding I went from a size 14 to a size 6, and the estimates for the alterations were more than what I paid for the dress.

The dress I ended up wearing; I bought about a month before the wedding.

How did you get the idea to cut your wedding dress so you could hoop in it? I loved that idea!

When we were on the beach, I was trying to hoop in the dress and the tool kept catching under my feet and tripping me. I knew that the dress wasn’t going to be worn again and I didn’t want to go just put on any old thing so I figured why not? I had someone find me a pair of scissors so I just started cutting. Matt helped for awhile and then my bridesmaid Chloe evened out the final look.

What do you think makes for a good, life long marriage?

The ability to take things as they come. We have not been married for very long, so we are no experts but I think that it’s a desire to be together and the ability to push each other to being better people that makes things last long term.

When planning your wedding what were your favorite places to look for inspiration?

My number one source of inspiration was Offbeatbride. I checked it pretty much daily to see cute centerpieces, adorable shoes, funky dresses, and everything in between. I actually bought several dresses off of modcloth after seeing their vendor posts. Offbeat bride was just a great place to see a different side of the typical wedding world.

Looking back is there anything you would have done differently?
I would have remembered to take the hair tie off my wrist! But really, I think that the day was perfect.