Antioquia · Colombia · Elopement Curator
Guatapé
6.23°N · 75.16°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 at Guatapé.
Guatapé is the strangest and most photogenic landscape in Colombia: a two-hundred-metre granite monolith with 740 steps up its seam, a drowned valley turned island labyrinth at its feet, and at its edge the most colourful town in the country, every façade painted with zócalos. Two hours east of Medellín, and unlike anywhere else on earth.
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 finca, the dinner, 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 Guatapé day is only the part that matters.
Best monthsDec to Feb
The curationEnd to end
Packages from$7,900 USD
Guides on file4
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 Guatapé.
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
4 dispatches on fileThe Directory
Everything I have filed about eloping at Guatapé and the lake district, organized by what you are trying to figure out. Start with the El Peñon piece, then come back for the rest as your planning develops.
02
Four days at the lakeReal Elopements
Four elopements from the Guatapé archive, written the way I remember them: the climb, the water, what the lake 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 Guatapé 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, private boats and lakeside fincas bundled where other destinations would charge extra, longer coverage. The same budget simply buys a fuller day at the lake.
Three ways to elope in Guatapé. 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
$7,900 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: the summit at opening or a lakeside terrace
- ✓Photography with videography, shot by me alone
- ✓Planning, permissions, local fixer and transport
- ✓A curated, hand-edited gallery
- ✓Available add-on: The Studio Editorial, from $2,500
Tier II · Recommended
Curated Signature
$13,800 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
- ·The 740 steps at opening, before the crowds
- ·A zócalo walk through the painted town
- ·A private lakeside dinner at a finca
Tier III
Curated Adventuremoon
$19,500 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 private boat day between the islands
- ·A lakeside finca stay woven into the itinerary
- ·A Medellín evening on the way in or out
- ·A second sunrise shoot on the water
Signature locations in Guatapé
The summit of La Piedra at opening time · The zócalos of the painted town · A private boat among the islands · A lakeside finca terrace · The malecón at golden hour · The backroads between the inlets
*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 Guatapé, 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 climb · first light
The 740 Steps at Opening
La Piedra del Peñol is a two-hundred-metre granite monolith with a staircase stitched into its seam, and at opening time you can have it nearly alone. You climb the 740 steps slowly, in your wedding clothes if you are brave, and come out on top of one of the strangest views on earth: a lake shattered into a green labyrinth of islands, all the way to the horizon.
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 Guatapé, 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 Guatapé, 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 Guatapé 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 on the staircase.
Date, location, and curator
The drier windows, December through February and June through August, book first. The summit morning, the boat day, or the lakeside finca, 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 Guatapé ceremony symbolic. If you want the marriage to be legally Colombian, this is when apostilles and official translations start, because the notarial route runs on document time.
Book your flights and stay
You fly into Medellín and the lake is two hours east. Airfare and accommodation are the two things you arrange yourself, for legal reasons. I will point you to the right lakeside finca or boutique stay in town, and I build the itinerary around it.
Boats, terraces, and the climb
I confirm the boat, the finca terrace, the officiant, and the opening-time run at the staircase, and I check the lake weather pattern for your week. The summit is always scheduled early, before the haze and the buses.
Up the rock, out on the water
We climb at opening, drift the islands at midday, and end at a lakeside table at dusk. Your only job is to be in it. I bring the lake home with you.
06
The ones couples ask firstQuestions
The questions I hear most often from couples planning a Guatapé elopement, answered plainly. If yours is not here, it will be in my first reply when you reach out.
07
Lake district dispatchesFrom the Journal
Longer reads for couples who want to go deeper: the monolith day in detail, the surrounding towns, and how Guatapé compares with a city elopement in Medellín.
Field
An El Penon de Guatape Elopement
The granite monolith, the 740 steps, and the island labyrinth below. What a ceremony built around La Piedra actually looks like, hour by hour.
4 min read →
Guide
Medellin's Surrounding Towns: Guatape and Santa Elena
The painted lake town and the flower highlands, both within striking distance of Medellín. What each gives an elopement, and how to combine them in one trip.
4 min read →
Notes
El Poblado vs Guatape: Where to Elope in Medellin
The golden city courtyard against the lake and the monolith. Two very different days within an hour of each other, and how to choose between them.
4 min read →
Guide
Eloping in Colombia: The Guide
The Caribbean walled city, the eternal spring, the Andean capital, and the lake district. One country with more range than most continents, in one guide.
5 min read →Tell me about your day at Guatapé.
Share your date and I will come back within 48 hours with availability, an honest estimate, and the summit, the water, and the shore I would point you toward.
Est. 1999 · Travelling worldwide · Priced in USD