beach Archives - Allison Kuhn Creative

STEPHANIE & TRAVIS

A few weeks ago, we had an amazing excuse to take a little trip to Hawaii- my cousin Travis and his fiance Stephanie got married in Maui! We extended our trip a little, had an amazing time, and captured so many gorgeous photos… but Trav and Steph’s wedding day at Royal Lahaina Resort was definitely the highlight of it all. Most of my Dad’s side of the family made the trip so capturing this wedding day was extra fun for us. Hawaii is a photographer’s dream- can we do this all over again please?!

CEREMONY/RECEPTION: Royal Lahaina Resort, Maui, Hawaii | BRIDE’S HAIR & MAKEUP: Love and Beauty Maui | BRIDE’S DRESS DESIGNER & BOUTIQUE: Madi Lane from Luv Bridal, Phoenix Arizona | FLOWERS, LIGHTING, CATERING, CAKE: Royal Lahaina Resort | DJ: Maui DJ Services– Michael

JESSE & BRIANNA

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OUTER BANKS 2016

This time of year my family is usually gearing up for our annual beach week in the Outer Banks- tracking the weather, talking about what happy hour drinks we’ll be making, figuring out when we’ll be picking crabs, preparing to wake up for sunrise every morning (it’s a weird tradition), and wondering if we’ll be motivated enough to do anything besides sit on the beach, play cornhole, and watch our dogs act like idiots. This is the first year in a looong time that we’re not making the trip and I’m already going through withdrawals. So to torture myself (and the rest of my family) I put together a little blog post of last year’s vacation…

COSTA RICA

Pura Vida! Simply translated, that means “pure life”, but in Costa Rica, those are words to live by- a way of life. Travis and I have been meaning to make a trip to Costa Rica for years and never got around to making it happen. But when Tori and Drew decided to get married in Key West in February, we decided that since we were already halfway there, we may as well extend our trip- the multi city flight was just a little too good to pass up. So after spending a week in the Keys, we flew into San Jose, rented a car, and spent the next week finally exploring Costa Rica!

We started the trip by spending the first few days around Arenal Volcano, staying at Arenal Observatory Lodge. We hiked around the volcano, zip-lined through the trees, awoke to howler monkeys, relaxed in the hot springs, found a waterfall, sipped on guaro sours, listened to video game birds, stalked coatis, walked along hanging bridges, took in some amazing views, ducked inside every 10 minutes when a rainstorm breezed through, and tried to brush up on our Spanish.

Next we took a ridiculously long bumpy unpaved road to Monteverde and stayed at El Establo. We hiked through the clouds, took a night walk through the rainforest, found tarantulas and a bunch of other nocturnal rainforest creatures, ate with the locals, explored the Cloud Forest trails, learned how coffee is made, tasted fresh chocolate and sugar cane juice, found a double rainbow, had breakfast with a capuchin monkey, and made our own happy hour on the top of a mountain in the mist.

Our last stop was Uvita beach, where we stayed at Oxygen Jungle Villas– in a private all-glass villa with amazing views of the ocean and surrounding mountains. Uvita is a little off the beaten path and not as touristy as many of Costa Rica’s beach towns, which was what drew us there to begin with. But Uvita is also the closest town to Marino Ballena National Park- a beautiful beach, lined with palm trees, mountains, coral reefs, and protected wildlife… and at low tide, breathtaking views of the famous whale tail, a giant sandbar shaped just like that of a whale fin. This place is exactly what I thought Costa Rica would look like before I arrived- a little remote and completely authentic. This was definitely our favorite place- we could have spent the entire week there! We went hiking through the palm trees and overgrown mangroves, slid down a giant waterfall, followed a pack of howler monkeys, spent hours snorkeling, kayaked around the whale tail sandbar, watched an amazing sunset on the beach, relaxed by the pool, ate breakfast with toucans, walked through a natural sea cave… and cried a little because we had to leave.

Costa Rica was pretty amazing- we will definitely be going back!

And of course a few iPhone photos too! Some of which are on Instagram…
https://www.instagram.com/allisonckuhn
https://www.instagram.com/tkuhnvt

Aaaaand one day we’ll edit all the GoPro videos we took. One day.

DREW & TORI

Tori and Drew are married!!! My sister, Tori, and brother-in-law, Drew recently moved down to the Florida Keys and thankfully rented a house with a spare bedroom- which is why I can’t stop booking trips down to visit them. So when they decided to get married Key West, I was just a little bit excited.

The entire weekend was perfect. Nearly all of their friends and family traveled from Virginia so they were able to introduce everyone to their new Florida Keys lifestyle. As usual, the weather was gorgeous and everyone was happy to take a break from winter. Tori and Drew were completely relaxed the entire weekend and so excited to spend some quality time with all of the people they don’t see quite as often anymore. We walked around the streets of Key West, drank margaritas by the pool, hung out at the beach, ate at some of their favorite restaurants, watched the sun set from a catamaran, danced our way down Duval street… and most importantly, witnessed two of my very favorite people vow to spend the rest of their lives together. Tori looked absolutely stunning and Drew was the happiest I’ve seen him. It was such an awesome weekend! Can we do it over again please?!

Coincidentally, Drew and Tori happen to know a really awesome wedding photographer who jumped at the chance (read: forced them to let me) to capture their wedding weekend. Below are a few images from the weekend… and by “a few”, I mean over a hundred. I had a really hard time narrowing down which photos to post here and went completely overboard. Don’t be surprised if you want to plan a vacation or move down to Key West immediately after viewing these photos- I’m already trying to figure out when I can get back down there!

THINGS I LEARNED WHILE PHOTOGRAPHING MY SISTER’S WEDDING:

1. Holding a camera in one hand and a glass of champagne in the other hand (while also being slightly sleep deprived and hungover) requires a lot of coordination

2. Key West is absolutely beautiful. Okay, fine- I already knew this. But seriously, I just can’t get enough of it’s perfect weather, laid back vibes, charming architecture, clear blue water, awesome food and drink scene, kitschy colorful decor, beautiful sunsets, and just overall happy energy

3. My husband is the hottest wedding officiant I’ve ever seen

4. It’s kinda hard to be a photographer and a wedding guest at the same time- I walked away from the weekend feeling like maybe I could have done a little more in each role! I made a point to just relax and not photograph the whole weekend like I normally would, but that also means that I wasn’t able to tell a complete story of the weekend- which other photographers know can drive you a little crazy. It’s impossible to do both successfully, but it was still so much fun. I looooved spending the entire day with them. And it was such a special experience photographing the wedding of two people I’m so close to. On the wedding day, after the ceremony, Tori made me put my camera down (although I did sneak a photos photos here and there). Because of that, I wasn’t able to get a ton of reception photos, but I was able to get a hangover the following day. Thanks Tor 🙂

5. This can’t be my last Key West wedding. Anyone know anyone getting married in the Keys this year or next year?! We need to talk!!!

WEDDING CEREMONY & RECEPTION VENUE: Rooftop Cafe Key West | OTHER VENUES: The Porch, Fort Zachary Taylor State Park, La Concha, & Pier House | FLOWERS: Love In Bloom Florist | PHOTOGRAPHER: Allison Kuhn Creative | HAIR & MAKEUP: Key West Hair & Makeup | BRIDE’S DRESS: Sky Dress from Bhldn | BRIDE’S EARRINGS: Conch Jewelers | BRIDE’S SHOES: Baylie Thong Sandal | GROOM’S ATTIRE: Hugo Boss | DESSERT: Key Lime Pie from Blue Heaven / Key Lime Tartlets from Rooftop Cafe | SUNSET CRUISE: Fury