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Mexico — clearing by four, golden hour holding late. Ideal light.
The Elopement Gazette
Arman Arai’s journal of marriages made quietly · Est. MMXXVI
Price: one exposure
Printed nightly in the darkroom. Delivered at dusk, by owl or by inbox.
DispatchMexico

A Bacalar Lagoon Elopement on the Water

A ceremony held on a sailboat in the middle of the Lagoon of Seven Colours, with nothing around you but turquoise water, white sand shallows, and the open sky. The signature Bacalar day.

You picture a lagoon elopement as portraits from the shore.

The signature Bacalar day happens on the water, on a boat, surrounded by seven blues.

The most extraordinary Bacalar ceremony is not beside the lagoon. It is on it.

(Continued on Page 2, Col. 1)

An aerial view of the glowing seven-coloured turquoise water of the Bacalar lagoon
Photograph — Mexico · the picture moves
Readers are advised the subjects may wander out of frame.
The ceremony on the water

A private sailboat carries you out onto the Lagoon of Seven Colours, and the ceremony happens in the middle of it, with nothing around you but turquoise shallows over white sand, deep indigo channels, and open sky. Anchored over a sandbar, you can step into water that is warm, waist-deep, and impossibly clear.

Couple on a sailboat ceremony in the middle of the Bacalar lagoon Mexico
A private sailboat carries you onto the Lagoon of Seven Colours, and the ceremony happens in the middle of it, surrounded by turquoise shallows, deep indigo channels, and open sky. — stationary
Page two

The ceremony on the water

Couple on a sailboat ceremony in the middle of the Bacalar lagoon Mexico
A private sailboat carries you onto the Lagoon of Seven Colours, and the ceremony happens in the middle of it, surrounded by turquoise shallows, deep indigo channels, and open sky. — stationary

A private sailboat carries you out onto the Lagoon of Seven Colours, and the ceremony happens in the middle of it, with nothing around you but turquoise shallows over white sand, deep indigo channels, and open sky. Anchored over a sandbar, you can step into water that is warm, waist-deep, and impossibly clear.

Page three

Why the water works

On the lagoon there are no crowds, no backdrop to share, and no fixed venue, just the two of you and the colour. The light at sunrise turns the water luminous, and a ceremony out there is as private and as elemental as an elopement gets.

As your Elopement Curator I arrange the private sailboat, plan the day around the sunrise, coordinate the ceremony, and both shoot and film it. Twelve years and 240+ couples in, a ceremony in the middle of the Lagoon of Seven Colours is one of the most serene days I create.

Is a lagoon-water ceremony yours? Start with the Elopement Compass →

Couple in the clear turquoise shallows of the Bacalar lagoon at sunrise Mexico
On the lagoon there are no crowds and no fixed venue, just the two of you and the colour. The sunrise light turns the water luminous, and a ceremony out there is as private and elemental as it gets. — stationary
Page twelve — Classified dispatches
© MMXXVI The Elopement Gazette · Printed nightly in the darkroom of Arman Araiarmanarai.com/blog · Set in Cormorant & Jost