Gran Bahia Principe Akumal/Tulum/Coba - POST HERE!

[futuremrswarner]

Yeah, I'm wondering the same thing too now. Is the resort photographer just really expensive, or are they just not as professional as other wedding photographers that we can hire ourselves? Because it seems a lot of people do hire a 3rd party photographer rather than use the resort ones. 

[claruickie]

Trisha thanks for the info on flowers and cake - the answers I wished for so I'm a happy bunny 😃 Ladies regarding Arrecife photographers, I don't think they are any more expensive than what id have to pay at home in Scotland for wedding photos. We are going with them despite reading some negative comments on here, i have spoken with a number if brides from around the world that used them as well as looking at the said brides albums (& all those albums on Arrecife website & fbook page) they are gorgeous. It's not cost effective for us to fly in an external photographer but as you seem to be located in Mexico & Canada it may not be so expensive for you. Trisha above aka Faber photography has experience of the Bahia from being a bride there herself as well as photographer and from what I recall reading before bridal parties have split costs when booking her for weddings close together. Remember and add your names, wedding location and wedding date to the page on here (can't add link from my phone) that way if thinking about external photographer you can see if anyone else around your date to split cost. Trisha has a fountain of knowledge and will guide you in any way she can, as she has done myself. Good luck xx

[gettingwed12]

I used Arrifice and I thought they were really professional as did our friends who also used them, we were both over the moon with our photographs - even more so than what I was expecting. If you look on Facebook you can see some of their work. I think it's more that they are expensive but as claruickie said above it depends where you are coming from, When we were looking at getting married at home in England it was easily going to cost us the same if not more for a photographer, I find photograpy in the UK quite expensive anyway and its just not feasible to fly anyone out to Mexico from the UK for 3 or 5 days like it is when coming from Canada or America.

 

Nic. x

[TATrisha]

They are "professionals" using not professional equipment and over photoshopping their images and they are very expensive. You pay a lot for very few images. Now, it's not that's important to some brides to have a whole album that tells the story of their day. They are perfectly fine with a handful of images. And that's perfectly great. And everyone has their own taste, so if you feel the images are timeless and what you want, then that's perfect and you'll have images youll treasure forever! So it's a personal taste type thing. But I will tell you that most of them are not using professional grade cameras or lenses. But, it's not always about the gear, but more so that they know how to rock what they got! One thing I recommend if you go with them, is that you select beautiful color images. You can always take a picture and turn it black and white or find someone to photoshop it. So it gives you more options which is nice. I will gladly show an example of this if you'd like. I can show you the many different options you have with a beautiful color image, versus buying the black and white and being stuck with black and white.

[shellee]

I used both Arrifice and our friend (was a guest at resort for the week) I only used Arrifice for our 15 free that came with the package and am happy with what we got. I have yet to receive my pics from our Pro photograher (so excited!). I just wanted to add they were very kind and didnt get in the way. I included pics from Arrifice in my review if you would like to see for refference

[Sunshine2680]

I agree with Tlseege  - I think you're overpaying for what you get. Not saying that Arrecife is a horrible photographer but the price should reflect the product you're getting and I personally don't believe it is..going by the pics I've seen online..
I even showed my photographer a few images and he agreed that the quality is just not quite up to par with regards to price.
Having said that however- I understand all the brides over in the UK/Europe...its defo way too expensive to bring their own.

We are lucky enough to have travel credits that covers our photographers travel expenses. So essentially we're just paying his 'fee' which is still pretty substantial but we get 2 engagement sessions (one at home, one in Mexico), the ENTIRE wedding day (I was very irritated to find out you had to pay extra for Arrecife to photograph the reception)...AND TTD session the next day.
If UK/Europe brides are concerned about using Arrecife and dont' want to bring their own photographer from home...i would entertain using a local one and paying for the 3 nights...I can almost bet it would be cheaper to do that.
I was considering this and was SO CLOSE to hiring Ivan Luckie ..(he is AMAZING!!) - or Del Sol if you're willing to spend a bit more. But definitely shop around.

Photography is a different priority for every bride. I personally intended on spending a lot of my budget on photography - because to me...this is all I really have to take home with me after the big day is overwith. For others photography isn't a big deal.
To each their own!

[futuremrswarner]

Oh, thanks for all the tips and comments. I was going to allocate a large portion of my budget to the wedding photographer anyways, but I would much rather pay the extra money to have arrange for my own photographer stay on the resort, and guarantee that I would like his style of photography... rather than just paying a lot of moneyin general.

I just want to confirm (as I have seen different comments and be 100% certain)... 3rd party photographers... they are required to stay on the resort for a minimum of 3 or 5 days?

[TATrisha]

I have always been required to stay for three nights.

[fraggle42]

So after nearly 18 months of trawling through posts on this site and checking almost daily for updates it is finally my turn. We fly out of the UK on Tuesday morning (13th) and get married on the 19th at the Tulum Gazebo.

 

Thank you so much to all of the past and future brides for all of the advice and information especially Tlseege. This thread and Tlseege's thread especially dedicated to GBP are truely invaluable for GBP brides. I have never struggled to get a response from Jazmin (my WC) and she has been very helpful already but I really feel that I would still be mostly in the dark about what is going on if it was not for these threads. So thank you everyone.

 

I will post a review when we are back in December.

 

Kelly

 

xx

[claruickie]

Wishing you a fab holiday and wedding Kelly, look forward to hearing your review and seeing photos when you return. Best wishes Kirstin Xx