San Miguel de Allende
Elopements

Why elope in San Miguel de Allende

“Colonial rose-pink facades, rooftop terraces over the Parroquia, and the richest street light in Mexico.”

San Miguel de Allende is the most architecturally beautiful city I have photographed in all of Mexico, and I have covered a lot of ground. The rose-pink neogothic spires of the Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel rise above a perfectly preserved colonial centro that has barely changed in two centuries. The streets are cobblestone, the facades are painted in terracotta and ochre and burnt sienna, and the rooftop terraces look directly over the Parroquia toward the mountains. I have photographed four weddings in San Miguel and every single one produced images I consider among my best work. The city does things to photographs that are difficult to explain and impossible to manufacture elsewhere.

The light

San Miguel sits at 1,900 meters in the central highlands of Mexico, which gives it the same clean, altitude-sharpened light that makes Medellín so photogenic. The colonial facades act as enormous warm reflectors in late afternoon, and the city's compact layout means portrait locations are minutes apart rather than hours.