Sidney and I wanted to bring back something from Cancun that would always remind us of our honeymoon. Of course we could have purchased one of the million items from the flea market but those souvenirs have a way of getting lost. Rather, we wanted to almost freeze a moment in time. We wanted to have something that would take us right back to the white sandy beach and the turquoise water.

We wanted to forever remember our honeymoon.

In our hotel lobby was a kiosk operated by a company called DreamArt Photography. Early on in our honeymoon, I asked the lady working at the kiosk what time it was (we didn’t carry our phones around). She pleasantly told me the time but while I stood there my eyes caught the large monitor displaying rotating photos of happy couples. The pictures weren’t like anything I had ever seen. Each image contained so much detail, so much personality, so much emotion. Best of all, the photos were set against the backdrop of the beautiful beach at the resort we were staying at, Sun Palace.

DreamArt Photography is a company that takes candid photos of couples in tropical locations.

For a second I turned away from the kiosk and started walking back to the elevator but then I went back to the desk and talked to the woman about the photos. She told me how DreamArt Photography worked and explained rates and availability with me. I knew if Sidney and I took time out of our vacation to do a photo shoot, we wouldn’t regret it.

I knew the photos I saw of other happy couples would morph into photos like this if we went through with our own photo shoot with DreamArt Photography.

I pitched the idea to Sidney a day later. I was sensitive to the fact that she probably wouldn’t want to waste precious morning time to be in front of a camera while people on the beach stared at us. But she was totally down for it! The two of us knew this would be that special keepsake from our honeymoon that we would always cherish. Also, like I said, we didn’t have our phones with us much of the trip so we didn’t have many of our own photos from our time in Cancun. This would fill that void.

We wanted something that would remind us of beautiful Cancun.

We scheduled our session on Thursday of our honeymoon week. On Friday morning we were the stars of a photo shoot! DreamArt Photography contracts out superb independent photographers. The day of our session we met ours. When we met her, she sat us down in the hotel lobby and gave us a quick pep talk. In her thick accent, the photographer told us that we would work together to create great shots. She told us the effort we put in would be the direct result of the final product.

In order for our photo shoot to be successful we were going to have to work hard and have fun.

We started by taking photos in casual clothes around the resort. We went on staircases, patios, and balconies. We even posed on the hotel floor itself. I guess I shouldn’t even use the word “pose.” Our photographer was strictly against anything that was posed. Rather, she would just have us interact. For example, for the floor shot she just told us to get comfortable and then she directed me to “whisper something sweet into your wife’s ear.”

This was one of our photos on the floor.

After we did our more formal shots around the resort, it was time to hit the beach. Sidney and I changed outfits and then we walked out on the sand with our photographer. This was where the real work of the shoot took place. Our photographer had us running back and forth along the shore. She had us kicking sand. She had us splashing water at each other. She had us doing all of this over and over. One particular point that sticks out to me was when I picked up Sidney and spun her around…about 8 different times. I was so incredibly dizzy that I thought I would pass out.

I was so dizzy after we perfected this shot. However, I love how it turned out.

By the time our shoot was over we were ready for drinks! We had given 100% but our photographer probably gave 110%. While we were in comfortable beach clothes she was not. She worked extremely hard to get all the shots that she thought we would be happy with. As we walked off the beach, she told us she took over 1,000 photos of us.

These piggy back photos were some of our favorites that she took.

The next morning was when we got to view our photos. We went back to the kiosk where our photographer arrived to give the files to the lady working the kiosk. Sidney and I then sat down as the lady played the images for us on the monitor. It was such a cool experience! The photographer had narrowed her work down to about 100 photos or so and most of them looked great. We had just never really seen photographs of us like that before. After we went through all the images, the DreamArt employee went through a couple rounds with us to narrow it down to 12-13 images that we would actually purchase. We made our cuts and by the time we were headed to the airport later that day, we had a true reminder of our honeymoon bliss contained right on a flash drive.

The photos look absolutely effortless. But believe us, there was plenty of effort poured in.

I would 100% recommend DreamArt Photography or other similar companies that set up shop at resorts in tropical locations. You truly get amazing work. Not only that, but I believe it is the best way to take advantage of the beautiful area you are in, an area which you probably won’t visit too many other times in the future. We wanted to cement Cancun in our hearts forever, and these photos will help us do that. Don’t Blink.