Joe and Cassie’s Wedding at The Wyndham Grand Orlando
I recently photographed the wedding of Joe and Cassie at The Wyndham Grand Bonnet Creek Resort in Orlando. There are so many great resorts in Orlando for a wedding, maybe more than any other place on earth. The Wynham is a favorite for me for reasons that I’ll explain in a minute.
For the first time in my career, the father of the bride was also the DJ at the wedding. That’s right. Sounds weird but not when you discover that the parents of the bride run a wedding company in Miami. Why hire a wedding company when you have one in the family? So, when we arrived early on the big day, Mom and Dad were busy helping to setup the reception area and light the dance floor.
The Wyndham Grand is a fantastic resort on a lake in Orlando. There are a couple of things that I really like about it (reception hall on the first floor just off the lobby, yea! Friendly and attentive staff and coordinators, yea!) but the best part, at least for a wedding photographer, is the Bridal Suite.
Cassie told me that the Bridal Suite was the thing that really sold them on the resort. It’s huge! How huge? Well, it has a second floor. The place where you get dressed for your wedding may seem like an afterthought but the reality is that you will probably spend more time in that room than any other the whole day. Add to that the fact that there may be 20 people in the room with you and you can see where a big bridal suite can make your day much more relaxing. Seriously, you could play basketball in this thing.
One of the cool things about this wedding is that there was a man on the bride’s side and a woman on the man’s side.
The groom’s room, like every groom’s room on the planet, was just a hotel room but that’s fine because they don’t need the room that the bride needs.
The first look is always a great idea. I totally respect the folks who don’t want to do it but I find that the moment is more intimate and emotional if the groom gets to see the bride alone before the ceremony. It also means you can do couple’s portraits and wedding party portraits before the ceremony which frees up time after for more family pictures.
It’s always nice if we can do a “Daddy reveal” as well. Sometimes we can’t because Dad’s not available or he’s just been in and out all day anyway but in this case, Dad hadn’t seen her all day.
After the reveals, we did the bridal party shots. I love getting to do these early when possible but it doesn’t always work, it really depends on the location. (You have to be able to do it without arriving guests seeing the bride.) Unfortunately for us, it started raining so we couldn’t go outside (the original plan was to shoot by the lake). Lucky for us, The Wyndham Grand has a lot of cool spaces inside for photography.
The ceremony was outside by the pool and the rain passed over with plenty of time to get everything ready. The sun set just before they said, “I do.”
The reception room was fabulous. Cassie’s mom did a great job and everything looked wonderful.
Joe and Cassie both work for Disney and Cassie may be the biggest Disney fan I’ve ever met. She just loves everything about it and I could tell because she has a favorite fireworks display. That’s right, she knows the difference in the fireworks at the three parks. Epcot’s display is her favorite so we headed back up to the bridal suite balcony for one last picture.
