Re: Bahamas advice...hey guys

Aaron the Photographer :) · October 11, 2008

hey guys,

i've been getting the email updates the past couple of days from BDW...and just had to come back here to post.

i don't know what i said earlier about my experience in the bahamas.... but i'm not too happy w/ the Atlantis now b/c i was the photographer for a wedding and got charged for room expense on top of the bride and groom paying for the same expense. how? when i checked out, they went to charge my card for the incidental expenses and also charged my room... Then said they would remove the room expense right then...but that's not what happened. anyway, i'm in the process of going through Visa to dispute the charge. no fun...

yes, the bahamas are beautiful...but i want to agree with an earlier post i saw...get it in writing. as for not being able to hire an outside photog. not true. i'm an outside photog and had to get a permit to shoot the wedding. another last minute expense... : ) BUT i did get some pretty sweet photos...

RedDiamond · October 11, 2008

I know you can use an outside photographer, but I called (as a bride) when my fiance and I first started looking for a location and they hassled us about it. I don't think they have much legal ground to stand on with that since any photographer with a work permit can work in the Bahamas, but that doesn't mean they aren't going to try to persuade couples otherwise. They do consider outside photographers a wedding guest, and require that they stay at Atlantis. Another interesting thing they told us was that ALL of your wedding guests had to be staying at Atlantis, and that Comfort Suites guests aren't permitted. However, we saw plenty of weddings out there and I didn't see them check for the Atlantis bracelets... so either I was told an outright lie or they don't have a way to control it. I would guess though that they simply don't check for bracelets before the wedding. Here's a link to the FAQ section for Atlantis.

I wouldn't bother dealing with Atlantis though. It's too much of a hassle and there are too many other great places to get married. They lost our business already and we found a much cooler venue on the opposite side of Nassau!