The Yucatán · Mexico · Elopement Curator
Bacalar
18.68°N · 88.39°W
Not a photographer for hire, a curator for the whole day: I design it, plan it, book it, style it, photograph it, film it, and hand it back to you. A complete companion to eloping in Bacalar.
Bacalar is the Lagoon of Seven Colours, a vast freshwater lagoon in the far south of Quintana Roo where the water shades through seven distinct blues, ringed by cenotes, stromatolites older than the dinosaurs, and a laid-back pueblo mágico with an old pirate fort. It is the quiet, freshwater, boho alternative to the Riviera Maya, and the most peaceful place I photograph in Mexico.
I do not just show up to shoot. I design the day around you, book every piece of it, the officiant, the florals, the boat, the permits, the dinner, then photograph and film it and deliver the record. One person, start to finish. The ceremony is symbolic, the legal marriage stays quiet and at home, and the day on the lagoon is only the part that matters.
Best monthsNov to Apr
The curationEnd to end
Packages from$9,500 USD
Guides on file6
Why an elopement, and why me
The Spiritual Union
An elopement is unlike a wedding. Whereas the wedding is purely focused on aesthetics and performance, elopements are about the spiritual merge: the two of you, a place that means something, and a day built to be lived instead of performed. Done right, it is the most honest set of photographs a couple will ever have. Done by committee, it falls apart in ways you only see later, in the pictures.
Buy a package from a planner
and the day is beautifully arranged, but there is no real “photographer” involved. The pictures come back looking like they were taken on a smartphone. You planned a film and got a receipt.
Bring your own photographer
and you get a good eye with no say in the day. There is a disconnect between what the plan was and what the pictures turn out to be, because the person shooting it did not build it.
Work with me
and you get the best of both worlds. I am a photographer first who plans the entire thing, then brings it home. The person who designs the light is the person standing in it with a camera.
Everyone else plans a day around an activity.
I write a story and play it through one.
It starts with your story, never a location. Before I plan a single thing, I sit with you and listen: how you met, what you are like when no one is watching, the small private details no one else would think to ask for. I write that into a narrative, and then I design the day to play it out. The hike, the boat, the drive up the mountain, that is only the vessel I run your story through, here in Bacalar.
This is why the film and the album land the way they do. They are built to carry your story, beat by beat, so that years from now they still move you. Anyone can film two people doing something photogenic in a beautiful place. Turning who you actually are into a film and a set of stills that mean something is the harder thing, and it is the whole of what separates me from everyone else.
What it means to just be present.
Every extra person on an elopement is a seam. A planner to update, a second photographer angling for the same shot, a small crowd of vendors to be aware of. Each one pulls you a little out of the day, and the pictures inherit that split. The reason I hold the whole thing, the plan and the camera, is so that on the day there is no one to manage and no one to perform for.
Present means you are only ever looking at each other. You are not thinking about the schedule, because I am. You forget the camera is there, and that is the exact moment the real frames happen.
01
6 dispatches on fileThe Directory
Everything I have filed about eloping in Bacalar, organized by what you are trying to figure out. Start with the how-to guide, then come back for the specific pieces as your planning develops.
02
Four days I photographed in BacalarReal Elopements
Four elopements from my Bacalar archive, written the way I remember them: the light, the water, what the lagoon gave us that day. Open any card to read the full story.
03
Three tiers · all-inclusive*, priced in USDThe Packages
One person plans, books, styles, photographs, films, and delivers your Bacalar elopement. Not photography hours, a curated experience. Three tiers, each all-inclusive* of what I run on the ground, and each with its own album.
Three ways to elope in Bacalar. Each is the whole experience, designed, planned, booked, styled, and shot by one person, and each comes with its own album. The tier sets how many days the trip runs and how much of it becomes a honeymoon. Everything is listed. There is no hourly meter and no add-on column.
Tier I
Essential
$9,500 USD
3 days / 2 nights · all-inclusive*
The Keepsake Album · 20 pages
- ✓A designed three-day, two-night itinerary
- ✓Symbolic ceremony, officiant and styling
- ✓One signature location: a lagoon dock or Cenote Azul
- ✓Photography with videography, shot by me alone
- ✓Planning, permits, local fixer and transport
- ✓A curated, hand-edited gallery
Tier II · Recommended
Curated Signature
$17,500 USD
4 days / 3 nights · all-inclusive*
The Signature Album · 40 pages, layflat
Everything in Essential, plus:
- ✓A fuller four-day, three-night pace
- ✓A cinematic film of the day, cut by hand
- ✓Richer florals, hair and makeup
- ✓A local fixer with you throughout
Experiences woven in
- ·A private sailboat on the Lagoon of Seven Colours
- ·A dawn kayak on the mirror-still water
- ·A chef's dinner on a dock over the lagoon
Tier III
Curated Adventuremoon
$24,500 USD
5 days / 4 nights · elopement + honeymoon
The Heirloom Album · fine-art, boxed
Everything in Signature, plus:
- ✓The wedding and honeymoon woven into one journey
- ✓Upgraded photography, film and design moments
- ✓Full fixer support across the whole trip
Experiences woven in
- ·The stromatolites and swings at Cocalitos
- ·A float down Los Rápidos and the Pirate Channel
- ·A jungle day trip to the Maya ruins of Kohunlich
- ·Stargazing over the lagoon under dark skies
Signature locations in Bacalar
The Lagoon of Seven Colours and its docks · Cenote Azul, deep and round · The stromatolites at Cocalitos · Los Rápidos and the Pirate Channel · The Fort of San Felipe and the pueblo mágico · The Maya ruins of Kohunlich, in the jungle
*All-Inclusive covers everything I curate and run: planning, the symbolic ceremony, styling, activities, the dining on your itinerary, permits, local transport, and photography with videography. It does not include airfare or accommodation, which you book yourself. I am glad to recommend where to stay, but for legal reasons I do not book travel or lodging on your behalf.
Start here
Find your elopement archetype first.
Before the date, the tier, or the locations, take two minutes and find the kind of day you are actually after. It is where every day I design begins, and it tells me exactly where to point you in Bacalar, Mexico.
Take the Elopement Compass →04
What you will actually doThe Experiences
This is what you are really paying for. Not photography hours, but a handful of extraordinary days I design, book, and run for you, each one a chapter of the elopement. Turn the album: the photograph on one page, what it is on the other.
The Experiences
Click arrows to turn pages
The ceremony · a dock over the water
Sunrise Vows on the Lagoon
At dawn we take a long wooden dock reaching out into the Lagoon of Seven Colours, the whole thing still as glass and just turning gold. You read your vows barefoot with the water shading aqua to deep blue beneath you. There is no surf and no wind, just the mirror of the lagoon and the light coming up.
Included in every tier
Tap sides · swipe to turn pages
The day itself
How your elopement day goes
Once you have your archetype, here is how the day itself actually goes. Nothing here is your job to arrange. It is already arranged.
The slow morning
No rush, no room full of people. You get ready in your own time while I quietly catch the first frames: the note, the shoes, the light coming up.
We begin the story
We do not work a shot list. We live the day I designed around you, and I document it as it unfolds across Bacalar, chasing the light I have already mapped.
The vows
Your words, out loud, with no audience but the place and me. This is the quietest and the most important part of the day, and I shoot it from a distance so it stays yours.
Through the activity
The hike, the boat, the dinner, the drive. This is where the story plays out and the best pictures live, because you are doing something real together, not posing beside it.
The last hour of light
I plan the whole day backward from it. When it arrives we are exactly where we need to be, unhurried, with time to spare.
The record
It comes back not as files but as a finished thing: a curated gallery, and on the Signature, a cinematic film and a printed album. The day, kept.
The full guide · free
The Mexico Elopement Guide
Before Bacalar, the bigger picture. I wrote the complete guide to eloping in Mexico: the cities and coasts worth building a day around, how the symbolic ceremony works while the legal side stays simple, the seasons, and what it honestly costs. It is the same thinking behind every day I design, in one place.
Read The Mexico Elopement Guide →
05
A sample plan, counted backward from your dateThe Timeline
A Bacalar elopement has fewer moving parts than couples expect, because the ceremony is symbolic and I handle the ground. This is the order it runs in, from the first decision to the morning itself.
Date, location, and photographer
For a dry-season date, book these first. A dock on the lagoon, a sailboat across the seven colours, or the blue of Cenote Azul, and me to photograph it, are the decisions everything else follows from.
Handle the legal marriage at home
The Bacalar ceremony is symbolic, so almost every couple completes the binding civil marriage quietly at home before the trip. It keeps the day about the vows, not the paperwork.
Book your flights and stay
Airfare and accommodation are the two things you arrange yourself, for legal reasons. I am glad to recommend where to stay, from an eco-lodge on the water to a boutique in the pueblo, and I build the itinerary around it.
Scout light, boats and the water
I confirm the dock and site permits, the sailboat and the dawn kayak, and the exact hour of light on the lagoon. Bacalar runs on the water and the wind, so the day is planned around both.
Go barefoot, follow the water
Bacalar runs slow and so do we. Your only job is to be in it. I bring the seven colours home with you.
06
Introductions on requestThe Company I Keep
The planners, hotels, restaurants, and boat operators I recommend to couples eloping in Bacalar. Every name here has been vetted directly. If you want a warm introduction to any of them, mention it when you write.
Ask and I will make warm introductions to the planners, boutique hotels, and boat captains I trust on the lagoon.
Planners
Boutique Hotels
Dinner for Two
On the Water
07
The ones couples ask firstQuestions
The questions I hear most often from couples planning a Bacalar elopement, answered plainly. If yours is not here, it will be in my first reply when you reach out.
08
Bacalar dispatchesFrom the Journal
Longer reads for couples who want to go deeper: the sailboat on the lagoon, the cenotes, the stromatolites, and what each Bacalar backdrop actually delivers.
Guide
How to Elope in Bacalar
Symbolic ceremony, the dry-season timing, dock and site permits, the sailboat and the dawn kayak, and what an all-inclusive Bacalar elopement actually includes. The complete practical guide.
8 min read →
Field
A Sailboat on the Seven Colours
The private charter across the Lagoon of Seven Colours, the Pirate Channel, and the deep blue over the cenotes. How to build a Bacalar elopement around an afternoon under sail.
6 min read →
Field
Best Time to Elope in Bacalar
The calm, colourful dry season, the mirror-still mornings, the stromatolites at Cocalitos, and the hurricane months to plan around. The exact light and water, month by month.
6 min read →
Guide
The Pueblo Mágico & the Fort
The colourful lagoon town, the old Fort of San Felipe and its pirate history, and the boho, freshwater alternative to the Riviera Maya. What Bacalar gives you that the coast cannot.
5 min read →Tell me about your day in Bacalar.
Share your date and I will come back within 48 hours with availability, an honest estimate, and the lagoon, the cenotes, and the town I would point you toward.
Est. 1999 · Travelling worldwide · Priced in USD