Last summer, I went traveling with a good friend of mine. It was the last trip I had in my agenda. Since I haven’t traveled with my boyfriend yet, I was looking forward on talking travel with him and search the Internet to find a place we both wanted to visit together. My excited state of mind didn’t last long. A month after my return, two of our friends got engaged and decided to get married in Dominican. Since my boyfriend was standing in the wedding, I guess we knew where our first trip together would be.



As we were approaching the dead line to book the trip and be part of the group, I realized we would be part of a group of 29 friends and family members who were going down south for the wedding. 29 people! All I could think of was: that’s gonna be interesting and of course, a lot of fun! I was looking forward to it and was getting really excited.

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I then did what I always do before traveling; I bought a book about my travel destination and read it cover to cover. It’s good to read about a country before going there, but I realized that when someone goes to an all-inclusive resort, you don’t necessary leave the resort. I brought the book with me, but didn’t open it since we stayed on the resort all week except for one morning. My boyfriend and I went on an adventure: snorkeling, snuba diving, and jet boat. I had a blast! Snorkeling and the jet boat was really fun, but the snuba, what an experience! Snuba is the same thing as scuba, but instead of having the air tank on you it stays afloat on a boat, linked to you by a pipe so you can only go so much deep and you don’t need a course and/or license like scuba diving. My boyfriend wasn’t feeling good, he started feeling sick the day before and therefore didn’t enjoy the adventure as much as I did. He still made the effort to come with me, which I really appreciated.



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Going to Dominican was my boyfriend’s first real traveling experience. A few weeks before leaving he started asking tons of questions. I was answering him at the best of my knowledge before I realized he was asking the exact same questions to everyone around us. I started to feel like he didn’t trust me and got angry at him. Big error. I can’t recall what it was like for me when I first traveled, if I was anxious or stressed but I was going on a family vacation with my parents and I was 11. How stress can you be at 11! I realized after that he was going into the unknown and I therefore tried my best to be supportive.

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I thought that airports and customs would be very stressful and overwhelming for him but I was so wrong. I couldn’t believe how easy going he was while traveling to Dominican. Even through the week at the resort, he was easy going (not that he is not when we’re home). Not everyone will react that way, but it is way easier if they do. He did very well for a first time traveler, I was really proud of him. Now I can’t wait to travel with him again!



The wedding was beautiful. I was the official photographer, and it was my first wedding photo shoot experience. Needless to say, I was a bit stressed. It went great and the pictures turned out fine. If you want to get married down south, be sure you are prepared and be aware that it still costs a lot of money. For the preparation, you need all your papers to be sent there, filled up and sent back to your lawyer. Plus, your marriage certificate will be in Spanish. An easier way to get married down south is to get married at home first, by the law, and do a renewal of vows down south.  It’s cheaper, and way easier.

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The rest of the week was a lot of drinking and staying up late. Tips for you: if you go down south in an all-inclusive vacation and drink a lot of alcohol, DRINK WATER! It is very important to stay hydrated. And cover yourself with a lot of sunscreen. It’s not the same sun you know! Almost everyone in our group got sick from either dehydration or sunburns. Some got sick over food as well, since it’s cooked differently from home. Depending on what resort you are going, if it’s 5 stars, the food should be good (and the drinking water but never drink tap water). But then again, it’s not everyone who reacts to everything the same way.