Bryan Morris - Aruba’s Premier Wedding Photographer

I’ve had an interview with Mr Cayetano “Betto” Christiaans at the City Hall downtown Oranjestad, Aruba. I’ve had a great time getting information from Mr Christiaans, this is the first of a three part series.

Enjoy,

Bryan Morris

Bryan: How long ago was the building restored?

Mr. Christiaans: October 1997

Bryan: The area that weddings are conducted now, what part of the house was this?

Mr.Christiaans: This was the living area

Bryan: When did Aruba open up for destination weddings?

Mr. Christiaans: January 1, 2002

Bryan: How many weddings are done per year?

Mr. Christiaans: Anywhere between 800 and 900

Bryan: That’s all?

Mr. Christiaans: Yes, in 2002 was the only year the wedding count went over the thousand mark.

Bryan: What percentage are destination weddings?

Mr. Christiaans: About 40% are destination weddings

Bryan: Explain the procedure of getting married from the beginning to end.

Mr. Christiaans: Contact me (Betto Christiaans) and register 20 days prior to wedding date, fax all documents, if they’re OK, you can either ship the originals or bring them as you come to the island.

Bryan: What is your preffered manner of shipping the documents?

Mr. Christiaans: FEDEX

Bryan: What’s the ship to address for the documents?

Mr. Christiaans: Att. Betto Christiaans, Schoolstraat 2, Oranjestad, Aruba

Bryan: Do you offer the services of providing witnesses and what’s the cost?

Mr. Christiaans: Mondays to Fridays we can provide you with witnesses between the hours of 10 AM to 12 Noon and 1 PM and 3:30 PM. This service is free. Gratuity is appreciated.

Bryan: Is there a preferred time of day or day of the week to have a wedding?

Mr. Christiaans: No we are open from Monday to Friday office hours so anytime then it’s OK, we also open on Saturdays upon request but that has an additional cost.

Bryan: What’s the cost of a civil wedding?

Mr. Christiaans: $150 including ceremony, wedding book, certificate of translation, verification apostille. This is the price for during the week and in the weekend it’s $275.

Bryan: Seeing that most wedding planners just offer one hour of photography, the couple rather use that one hour for the beach, having in mind that the civil ceremony is similar to back home in the US, Canada or the UK in a white office, just sign papers and that’s it. What would you say to anyone considering photography only on the beach?

Mr. Christiaans: It’s a beautiful building with a lot of history, very colorful in a tropical setting. So, great for pictures.

Bryan: Getting this information of a civil ceremony out, what would you like to stress to the potential or future brides having a civil wedding on the island?

Betto: It’s an honor to marry you here in our beautiful City Hall. The process if very easy, Just get me all the necessary paperwork and I’ll be happy to process it for you and ultimately marry you.

Bryan: Do you have a website or an email address?

Mr. Christiaans: I do have an email address, cayetano.christiaans@aruba.gov.aw

Bryan: Mr Christiaans, it was a pleasure to spend some time with you and discuss a little about what you do. Thank you very much for all your help.

Mr. Christiaans: Bryan, the pleasure was mine; thanks for assisting in every which way you can in getting the word out there.

I also walked away with a list with the requirements needed to get married here on the island.

1. Birth certificate of the couple (With names of the parents) and furnished with an apostil given by the secretary of state where the birth took place.

2. A declaration of unmarried (A search given by the department of health)

3. If you were married before, a divorce certificate or death certificate of your previous spouses with an apostil also.

4. Copy of your passports

5. Letter of intent to marry

6. Copy of passport of two witnesses

7. All these documents should be faxed into Mr. Christiaans with your registration latest 20 days prior to your intended date to marry.

It has been some time that I haven’t been around.

Since the ailments of my daughter, I was backed up with a few projects which I had to catch up on before I get on to a few busy days. During the few busy days I was really hoping to sneak in a few posts but I came down with a heavy dose of the influenza virus. I think that my immune system was probably being chipped away little by little while I spent that week at the hospital. I’ve never felt this bad except for last summer when I was infected by the Varicella Zoster Virus. That’s just a funky name for chicken pox.

Well yes, it seems as though we’re being followed by a plague, because this time around we’re all sick except for Shaydee. So you know she’s our nurse just as we’ve been a few weeks ago.

Now, enough of my sad stories.

In these past weeks that have seemed to have gone by uneventful, I must say that was not the case. I’ve had a very interesting meeting with Aruba’s registrar, Mr. Cayetano “Betto” Christiaans. This meeting along with some investigation turned up some very interesting information.

I’m currently working on this, I will hint you that it will be a three part series called “To marry or not to marry@ City Hall”

I must also inform you that this year 2008 is a year of festivities, I’ve recently celebrated my 5^th wedding anniversary and the photography business will soon celebrate 5 years as well. So look forward for many specials and even surprises. There’s a lot on the horizon, so keep coming back.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

I’ve heard these questions yelling in my mind all week. I know you’ve been wondering? My apologies for not responding to any emails this week. I usually do respond within 24 hours, if not right away as I spend most part of my days behind the computer anyways. I do have a legitimate reason for not responding to any of my emails this week.

It was on Tuesday afternoon my daughter had a slight fever nothing to be alarmed about and she went on her bed. My wife was preparing a soup for the kids, at serving time she went to Shaydee and asked her if she would like to have some soup now. After some silence I heard her say ” Shaydee?, Shaydee? Say something.. by then I knew something was up I got up and met her on the way to the bathroom to put her under the shower, all in a panic attack.

Someone had to remain composed in all this pandemonium going on in the house so I decided that it would’ve been me. I’ve tried with Shaydee while my wife called 911. Shortly after the ambulance came and determined that she has had an epileptic attack and that she must go to the ER. I remained at home on standby as I had the boys with me.

Upon checking her and running a minimal amount of tests on her, they’ve decided to keep her as she had to be under observation and Wednesday she had to do a full scale of tests to determine if there’s any damage to the brain.

Fast forward to Thursday, I’ve then had a long meeting with the doctor and the neurologist and thanks be to God they’ve not determined any damage to the brain.

She contracted a virus that caused an infection in her throat which triggered high fever and caused febrile seizures.

As soon as they can regulate her body temperature she will be dismissed and I can resume to my regularly scheduled programming, which is answer your emails. I’m currently just camping out at the hospital, with no Internet access.

Once again I’m sorry but you should be hearing from me over the weekend.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

There is so much going on that I’m excited to share, I really wanted to keep this until later down but excitement burning inside can’t wait any longer.

Very soon I’ll be switching over to my custom blog, I have a company working on something for me. It looks nice. I always knew that I wouldn’t stay with this generic layout and therefore I’m holding back on posting a lot of stuff until the new blog is fully functional. I’ll however tell you a little of the much that will be going on around the blogosphere. Below I’ve posted an image of the first draft of the layout. there are a few changes made but not much. I really like it but it’s just down to the fine tuning and make sure that the platform works fine and then I’ll switch over.

I’ll be celebrating my 5th year anniversary in business as well as married in 2008. I’m so excited with this milestone that next year 2008 will be the year filled with love. I will be showing some love and  giving away some prizes worth quite a few thousand of dollars, so stay tuned.

Bryan Morris Photography TV will be launched. Right here on my blog for the beginning. I however have plans to expand it to something even bigger than the blog. I totally know that it can be pretty frustrating being so far away and still trying to set up a wedding in a strange country and with people you don’t even know. Through BMP TV I would if they permit me to introduce you all to the local wedding planners and the different locations on the island for weddings.

I’ll be launching the “This Is Why I’m Hot” campaign. Along with this I’ll be preparing a slideshow for the best of 2007 and I just might add, 2006 and 2005 if I can just find those files.

I’ll also be very active on the Aruba’s Main Site Forum, mainly the Weddings and Honeymoon section. I’ve purposed to do as was done unto me in 2007, by my mentors and give back to the community.

Feel free to leave comments if you wish in the comment box below.

 Blessings,

 Bryan Morris

I was contemplating this weekend of topics I should publish this week on my blog and I’ve decided that I wanted my audience,brides to get to know me just a little bit more so I decided to confess….that…….

…………..I’m a Dancing With The Stars junkie.

This season had been the best season ever. Awesome dancers. The competition is so tight that I don’t even really have a favourite. I know who I don’t want to win, Marie Osmond of course but I believe that she has an enourmous support after fainting before the judges and then the death of her father and let’s not forget the ever visible promotion that she gets through her brother being on ET every evening.

The disagreeable thing is that the judges judge the dancing but the fans vote for the dancers they like. Technique is certainly not one of the factors considered during the fan votes. I was totally surprised a couple of weeks ago when Sabrina Bryan was eliminated for the lack of fan support.

I always loved dancing and since the beginning of this show, Dancing With The Stars on ABC Network, I promised myself that I would really get myself involved in dancing. The reason, I haven’t started dancing yet is because I have to first get all my ducks in a row, but dancing shall we.

I’m really expecting a great show tonight, the grand finale of Dancing With The Stars and I really hope that either Helio Castroneves and Julianne Hough or Melanie, Mel B aka Scary Spice and her partner Maksim Chmerkovskiy would take home the trophy of this season’s Dancing With The Stars.

Enjoy the show to might and may the best one win, but really the best one not the people’s choice. In cases like this the people’s choice is not always the best one technically.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

This is not such a big celebration here on the island of Aruba. Tourism is by far the biggest industry here on Aruba and the Americans (Thank You!) make up the largest percentage of tourists visiting Aruba, so thanksgiving is however still celebrated on Aruba to some extent.

I would personally like to wish you all a happy Thanksgiving.

I know that Thanksgiving is all about celebration with your family and eating a hearty portion of food. Today as you celebrate Thanksgiving with your loved ones, don’t forget to whisper a prayer giving God thanks for everything in your life.

“In every thing give thanks for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”1Th 5:18

The part I want to really stress on from this scripture is the first part, “In every thing give thanks…..” In the good, give thanks, in the bad, give thanks.

Be blessed this Thanksgiving,

Bryan Morris

Today it’s Naeem’s day to shine. What can I say about Naeem? He’s probably my shadow. He consumes all his energy to emulate me in all arenas.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

Do you see the modern day Gandhi. (No offence mainly the looks but really the wit as well)

Here he’s acting out Madagascar

Here he’s enjoying nature at 30 feet

How cool is nature?

Up, close and personal

Enjoys being goofy

This is the first of a three part series. I have to many nice images to post them all in one post.

You might think that me being a photographer would have a gazillion of images of my kids. Well I’m sorry to dissapoint you but I don’t have. After all day on the road shooting when I come home I don’t want to break out a camera to shoot my kids. I purposed to shoot them more often and even if that don’t work at least once a year around there birthday. I have gotten this idea from a fellow photographer.

It was Shaydee’s (7) birthday in September, Naeem (6) and Ishaq’s (5) in October. The season slowed down quite a bit and last week I’ve decided to go and take them somewhere and take a couple shots of them.

WOW, I really loved them all. I didn’t even go far from home. It took me 3 minutes away by car to get to the spot, very close to the Alto Vista Chapel. I took them one by one to avoid one distracting the other.The entire shoot took me about 1 hour.

See some of what was captured in that hour. I tend to shy away from studio as Aruba is a beautiful backdrop. So by now you know that the shoot was done outdoors. I must also add that my kids are growing up so quick they are really getting big. I had fun doing the shoot and decided that I’ll be repeating this more often. I love my kids! It’s really funny to get them in their moment and capture them just the way they are. Their expressions really show this. Every picture you see is them in real life.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

This is a candid shot of all three of them walking back to the car after the shoot.

Shaydee just enjoying nature.

Doing what she loves best!

Isn’t she cute?

Blowing kisses in the wind.

WOW, I even forgot that I did this shoot. I worked these images to put them on the blog and I forgot them in the folder. I was cleaning my PC today and I remembered that I had them there. It was Anneke’s mom’s birthday she celebrated her 74th birthday. All of Ms Ruby’s kids surprised her and flew in for her birthday. Anneke called me and informed me that her brother and sister is on the island and she wants to take a family for her mom. I was much delighted to do that as I’ve gotten the chance to see her brother Ricardo a.k.a. Ricky who I haven’t seen in a while. He says it should be at least 21 years so I was happy to see him and meet his family.

Enjoy this family shoot.

The entire family.

The man, Ricky himself!

Ricky and his daugther, Sammy.

Ricky, his daughter and his nieces.

This is Stacey Ann, a.k.a. Beyonce

This is the entire clan again.

Did you notice the unconventional ways of doing family portraits? The experience just has to be different if I’m behind the lens. I’m not into this roll call line up portraits. They have to be casual and look effortless. Just different, just hot.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

Candice and Brendan, what an easy going couple. They were up to anything. I don’t know if you’ve noticed that in the title I’ve placed the name Cindy between brackets. For some reason upon replying to Candice’s first email I’ve called her Cindy and every now and then I still slip and do the same. For some strange reason I insist on calling her Cindy. Thank Gosd that she’s so easy going she just laughs hard anytime I do it.

Candice and Brendan know each other for 19 years but it was up till about 3 years ago they realised the sparkle in each other’s eyes. So they started to date. They love to Travel and in the 3 years they’ve been to Aruba 5 times.Brendan ask her to marry him at the lighthouse, so they’ve decided what better place to get married. They had a very nice ceremony and great guests, 60 in total. They can party. They all stayed at the Marriot and had there ceremony and reception at the Rennaissance Island.

Candice and Brendan whenever you’re back just know that you have some new found friends here on the island. You guys are absolutely great. Keep Sweet and remember never to be part of a statistic. Just remember life has it’s ups and downs but it will work if you work it. Giving up is the easiest thing to do.

Blessings,

Bryan Morris

The cutest flower girl ever. She’s a future runway model. She loves the camera.

Brendan’s first sight of Candice as she walks down the isle. Look at that expression!

Candice coming down the isle with her parents.

Listening attentively to the officiant.

A detail shot of the flowers.

The first kiss.

Candice and Brendan walking down the isle as Mr & Mrs O’Connell.

Don’t we have beautiful sunsets here in Aruba

The newlyweds just chillin in a hammock.

Another portrait.

The bestest best man! OH Brother, he can dance.

The first dance…..

Here you have the Puerto Rican version of Celia Cruz. This is Candice’s grandma. Man, she can dance.

Another detail shot…..The rings!

This is the famous lighthouse where they were engaged.

Having fun at the beach!

Dancing on the beach….

This was a very beautiful day. We cancelled to days in a row prior due to the sky being grey and dark.

A spontaneous portrait!

This is the end. Stay tuned for the slideshow.