Lorena and Manny were married at Shula's Hotel in Miami on August 28, 2020, photographed by Acromatico. Despite the pandemic and a forecast Category 1 hurricane that never arrived, the day unfolded under clear blue skies, from bride prep through the ceremony to the reception.
Lorena and Manny were determined to make their wedding happen no matter what. Beyond the pandemic, the same day was forecast to bring a Category 1 hurricane, but it never struck, leaving beautiful blue skies clear enough to fly a drone for photos and video of the party. The day began at Shula's Hotel in Miami, where Lorena got ready with her hairstylist Jany before heading to the ceremony, where Manny saw his future wife for the first time.
The night closed with a detailed reception the couple planned at Shula's Hotel, where everyone followed the COVID-19 guidelines of the time. For couples wondering whether a wedding is doable during moments like these, Lorena and Manny proved it is: you just have to get creative and improvise.
“For all of our brides thinking if it's doable to do a wedding during these times, it truly is. You just have to get creative and improvise like Lorena and Manny did.”
Good to know
Shula's Hotel is located in Miami Lakes, in northwest Miami-Dade County, Florida, a planned community north of Miami International Airport. The property is part of a hospitality and golf complex within the Miami Lakes town center, which keeps lodging, dining, and event space close together. For wedding photography, that compactness is practical: a bride can get ready on-site, move to a ceremony, and reach a reception without long travel across Miami traffic.
South Florida's wedding season runs against an Atlantic hurricane season that peaks from August through October, so flexibility matters for late-summer dates, as Lorena and Manny's day showed. Clear skies in Miami also open up drone coverage when conditions and local rules allow, adding aerial perspectives of the venue and celebration that ground-level photography alone cannot capture.
