Bolívar · Colombia · Elopement Curator
Cartagena
10.39°N · 75.48°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 Cartagena.
Cartagena is the most romantic city in the Americas, and I say that as someone paid to be skeptical about the word. Five hundred years of walls around streets of bougainvillea and painted balconies, Las Bóvedas at dawn, Getsemaní in full colour, the ramparts at blue hour, a sailboat on the bay, and the Rosario Islands an hour offshore. One small city, a week of backdrops.
I do not just show up to shoot. I design the day around you, book every piece of it, the officiant, the florals, the sail, the dinner, the heritage access, then photograph and film it and deliver the record. One person, start to finish. The ceremony is symbolic, the legal marriage stays simple, and the Cartagena day is only the part that matters.
Best monthsDec to Apr
The curationEnd to end
Packages from$8,200 USD
Guides on file14
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 Cartagena.
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
14 dispatches on fileThe Directory
Everything I have filed about eloping in Cartagena, organized by what you are trying to figure out. Start with the planning guide, then come back for the specific pieces as your thinking develops.
Guide
Notes
How to Get Married in Cartagena as a US or Canadian Couple
4 min read
Notes
Cartagena Elopement Permits: What You Actually Need
4 min read
Notes
What a Cartagena Elopement Actually Costs
4 min read
Field
The Best Season for a Cartagena Elopement
4 min read
Notes
What to Wear for a Cartagena Elopement
4 min read
02
Four days in CartagenaReal Elopements
Four elopements from the Cartagena archive, written the way I remember them: the light, the streets, what the city 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 Cartagena elopement. A curated experience rather than photography hours. Three tiers, each all-inclusive* of what I run on the ground, and each with its own album. And because Colombia's on-the-ground costs run well below Mexico or Costa Rica, each tier here carries noticeably more: richer florals and styling, more experiences on the water and the walls, longer coverage. The same budget simply buys a fuller day in Cartagena.
Three ways to elope in Cartagena. 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
$8,200 USD
1 elopement day · all-inclusive*
The Keepsake Album · 20 pages
- ✓One designed elopement day, start to finish
- ✓Symbolic ceremony, officiant and styling
- ✓One signature location: dawn inside the walls or the ramparts
- ✓Photography with videography, shot by me alone
- ✓Planning, heritage access, local fixer and transport
- ✓A curated, hand-edited gallery
- ✓Available add-on: The Studio Editorial, from $2,500
Tier II · Recommended
Curated Signature
$14,500 USD
2 elopement days · all-inclusive*
The Signature Album · 40 pages, layflat
Everything in Essential, plus:
- ✓A second day, so the story has room to breathe
- ✓A cinematic film of the day, cut by hand
- ✓Richer florals, hair and makeup
- ✓A local fixer with you throughout
- ✓The Studio Editorial session, included (a Colombia exclusive)
Experiences woven in
- ·A private sunset sail on the Bay of Cartagena
- ·Getsemani at golden hour, murals and plazas
- ·A rooftop dinner over the domes
Tier III
Curated Adventuremoon
$20,500 USD
4 elopement days · elopement + honeymoon
The Heirloom Album · fine-art, boxed
Everything in Signature, plus:
- ✓The elopement and honeymoon woven into one four-day journey
- ✓Upgraded photography, film and design moments
- ✓Full fixer support across the whole trip
- ✓The Studio Editorial session, included (a Colombia exclusive)
Experiences woven in
- ·A Rosario Islands day by private boat
- ·Castillo San Felipe at golden hour
- ·A beach afternoon on Tierra Bomba
- ·A cumbia and rum evening in Getsemani
Signature locations in Cartagena
Las Bovedas and the walled Old City at dawn · The balconies and bougainvillea streets · Getsemani's murals and plazas · The ramparts at blue hour · A sailboat on the Bay of Cartagena · The Rosario Islands offshore
*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 Cartagena, Colombia.
Take the Elopement Compass →04
What you will actually doThe Experiences
This is what you are really paying for. 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 · first light
Dawn Vows at Las Bovedas
At six in the morning the walled city belongs to the two of you. We meet at the yellow arches of Las Bovedas before the vendors arrive, a celebrant, two witnesses, and five hundred years of stone going soft pink in the first light. Vows read against the old vaults, the Caribbean breathing on the other side of the wall, and an entire city still asleep around you.
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 Cartagena, 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 Colombia Elopement Guide
Before Cartagena, the bigger picture. I wrote the complete guide to eloping in Colombia: the Caribbean walled city, the eternal spring of Medellín, the high Andean capital, how the symbolic ceremony works while the paperwork stays simple, and what it honestly costs. It is the same thinking behind every day I design, in one place.
Read The Colombia Elopement Guide →
05
A sample plan, counted backward from your dateThe Timeline
A Cartagena 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 curator
For a dry-season date, December through April, book these first. Dawn inside the walls, the ramparts, or a ceremony built around the bay, and me to design and photograph it, are the decisions everything else follows from.
Settle the legal path
Most couples sign the legal paperwork quietly at home and keep the Cartagena ceremony symbolic. If you want the marriage to be legally Colombian, this is when the apostilles and official translations start, because the notarial route runs on document time, not wedding time.
Book your flights and stay
Airfare and accommodation are the two things you arrange yourself, for legal reasons. I will point you to the right boutique hotel inside the walls or in Getsemani, and I build the itinerary around where you wake up.
Access, boats, and light
I confirm the heritage access, the officiant, the sail, and the exact minute of first light at Las Bovedas. Cartagena runs on heat and light, so the timeline is engineered around dawn, siesta, golden hour, and the breeze.
Dawn inside the walls
We start before the city wakes and finish on a rooftop over the domes. Your only job is to be in it. I bring the Caribbean home with you.
06
The ones couples ask firstQuestions
The questions I hear most often from couples planning a Cartagena elopement, answered plainly. If yours is not here, it will be in my first reply when you reach out.
07
Cartagena dispatchesFrom the Journal
Longer reads for couples who want to go deeper: the sunrise window inside the walls, the boat day on the bay, and how the legal side actually works for North American couples.
Guide
Eloping in Cartagena: The Caribbean Walled City
The colonial mansions and bougainvillea of the Ciudad Amurallada, the murals of Getsemani, blue hour on the walls, and the Rosario turquoise offshore. The complete picture.
4 min read →
Field
A Sunrise Elopement in the Cartagena Walled City
The ninety minutes after dawn when the old city is empty, the light is soft, and the whole Ciudad Amurallada belongs to a ceremony. How I build a wedding inside that window.
4 min read →Field
A Cartagena Bay Boat Elopement
The walled city photographs best from the water. A private sailboat on the Bay of Cartagena, the domes and ramparts turning gold, and the case for a ceremony under sail.
4 min read →Notes
How to Get Married in Cartagena as a US or Canadian Couple
Symbolic ceremony or the Colombian notaria: what the paperwork actually involves, what to sign at home, and the honest sequence for North American couples.
4 min read →Tell me about your day in Cartagena.
Share your date and I will come back within 48 hours with availability, an honest estimate, and the streets, the walls, and the water I would point you toward.
Est. 1999 · Travelling worldwide · Priced in USD
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