Alyson and Craig. A Wedding in the Rainforest

When Sarah and I received our first email from Alyson, we were pretty excited. Would we be interested in shooting a destination wedding in the Costa Rican rain forest? Uh, yes please.See, Alyson and Craig are adventurers, and it was something that resonated with us both. Packing up and heading across the globe is second nature to these two, and we were lucky enough to be caught up, if ever so briefly, in this exciting story of theirs.Friends and family came from all over to celebrate, and it really felt like a reunion of sorts. A gathering to celebrate family...in the jungle.After a gorgeous boat ride across the lake, the boys met up with the rest of the wedding party at Rancho Margot, a self-sustainable ranch near the Arenal volcano. We joined the caravan of trucks and made our way up an adjacent mountain to the mirador at the top. Before things got underway the rain started to roll in, sending a rainbow down the valley as Matt plucked Somewhere Over the Rainbow on his ukulele. The pre-chosen song for the ceremony. Yes, that happened.It made me stop and just stare. It’s one of those serendipitous moments that takes you so off guard, that you almost forget there is a camera hanging around your neck. But it perfectly captures what the day really was. Creating a wedding in the rainforest, in a remote area of Costa Rica no less, took a level of organization and determined planning from these love birds that still makes my head spin. But at the end of the day all they could do was set the stage for friends and family to fill. The wind, the rain, the accidents, the coincidences, the small miracles became just as much a part of the story as everything that was placed and planned intentionally.Pura VidaWedding coordinator: Perennial WeddingsWedding ceremony & reception site: Rancho Margot