diff --git a/airtime_mvc/application/Bootstrap.php b/airtime_mvc/application/Bootstrap.php
index 9bc36a49f..286761395 100644
--- a/airtime_mvc/application/Bootstrap.php
+++ b/airtime_mvc/application/Bootstrap.php
@@ -3,7 +3,10 @@ require_once __DIR__."/configs/conf.php";
 $CC_CONFIG = Config::getConfig();
 
 require_once __DIR__."/configs/ACL.php";
-require_once 'propel/propel1/runtime/lib/Propel.php';
+if (!@include_once('propel/propel1/runtime/lib/Propel.php'))
+{
+    die('Error: Propel not found. Did you install Airtime\'s third-party dependencies with composer? (Check the README.)');
+}
 
 Propel::init(__DIR__."/configs/airtime-conf-production.php");
 
diff --git a/airtime_mvc/application/configs/conf.php b/airtime_mvc/application/configs/conf.php
index fd66453dd..38492c11e 100644
--- a/airtime_mvc/application/configs/conf.php
+++ b/airtime_mvc/application/configs/conf.php
@@ -27,7 +27,13 @@ class Config {
         
         // Parse separate conf file for Amazon S3 values
         $amazonFilename = isset($_SERVER['AMAZONS3_CONF']) ? $_SERVER['AMAZONS3_CONF'] : "/etc/airtime-saas/amazon.conf";
-        $amazonValues = parse_ini_file($amazonFilename, true);
+        try {
+            $amazonValues = parse_ini_file($amazonFilename, true);
+        } catch (ErrorException $e) {
+            //This file gets loaded before the Zend bootstrap even runs so our exception handlers aren't installed yet.
+            //Just die with an error here then instead or handling the error any other way.
+            die("Error: Invalid or missing $amazonFilename.");
+        }
         $CC_CONFIG['cloud_storage'] = $amazonValues['cloud_storage'];
         
         $values = parse_ini_file($filename, true);