Nikki & Kyle, both American, wanted to escape from the Madness of 4th of July celebrations, but still wanted to hold their wedding on the same day.
Their solution? they headed to the Small Hope Bay Lodge in Andros – about as remote and tranquil as you can get without a four day hike through the wilderness!
This beautiful little eco-lodge treats every guest as a family member, and pulled out all the stops to make sure that despite being far from the madding crowds, Nikki and Kyle would have a day to remember for the rest of their lives.
With a stunning ocean backdrop, followed by an even more stunning sunset, Mother nature did her part to make this celebration beat anything 4th of July normally has to offer!
Enjoy!
Well, what can I say? When Niki and I set out to get married in Andros I never would have expected it to be so amazing!!
In planning for the wedding, I was more than a little skeptical about hiring a photographer I’d never met and knew nothing about. I told Niki, “We could probably save some money if we place an add on craigslist in Florida and offer a free vacation in exchange for professional wedding photography.” She agreed, and we did just that. I’m not much of a picture person, so when Niki started dismissing every photographer as “Nowhere NEAR as good as Ben Jamieson,” I asked her to show me why. We went through some pictures on multiple websites and I’m glad to say that Niki convinced me Ben would just be better. (oh yeah, and because his prices are reasonable, we wouldn’t have saved much by going with some hack we found online)
Fast forward several weeks to Andros. We met Ben the morning of our wedding and walked the grounds so that he could help us pick out exactly the best spot to get married at. The afternoon of the wedding comes and Ben looks something like a kangaroo (though not distracting) as he hops around taking picture after picture durring the ceremony and registry signing. After the ceremony we walked over to the dock. In order to “get just the right angle” Ben went from slithering on his belly like a snake to looking something like a turtle trapped on his back all the while loving every minute of his job. His passion for what he did was clear.
After some dancing, a few drinks, a great meal and delicious cake it was time for sunset. Ben was set up with some crazy box that helps diffuse light or something cause he said it would help the pictures. As you can see above, he was right.
So, here’s where things get a little tricky. After hearing comments from multiple guests about “If his pictures are half as good as he seemed taking them, you two will have some GREAT memories,” Niki and I were very excited to see the results. We had a reception back in Arizona scheduled for 2 weeks later and Ben assured us he would do everything he could to get us the pictures before then.
Mailing items, even overnight, from the Bahamas to the US is apparently a difficult task some times and tends to be slow. So, as we got close to our reception date, Ben e-mailed us the “low resolution” photos so that we could at the very least use those in a slide show. I put “low resolution” in quotes cause they seemed pretty awesome to me. Niki and I were excited to open the e-mail, and even more excited when we saw the results!! We were content with using the e-mailed pictures for our slideshow, but it was clear that Ben was committed to making the high resolution ones available. Our DVD went out in the mail, and Ben told us that if we didn’t get that in time, he would post a link where we could download them from his website.
The DVD arrived a few days early, along with daily e-mails from Ben asking us to let him know when the disk got to us, so he could stop worrying. Even the DVD itself was great. We would have expected it to come in a basic case, MAYBE with a custom label. No, that’s just not Ben’s style. The DVD’s presentation was just as amazing as the pictures it held.
I truly can’t say enough good things about Ben Jamieson. I’m glad that my wife was smart enough to convince me to use him and that she saw the difference in his skills. When we make it back to the Bahamas (at some point) I’m sure we’ll look Ben up for suggestions on places where we can take him and his family to dinner, or where we can all go grab a drink.
Ben is a hell of a great guy and an even more amazing photographer. I’d recommend him any day of the week and three times on your wedding day.
This is simply beautiful and as a proud Androsian I say Kuddos to the Mr. Birch and Staff of Small Hope for always making their guest feel super special, whether its a wedding or simply stoppin in for a meal, you always feel at home there.