Southern Mexico · Mexico · Elopement Curator
Oaxaca
17.06°N · 96.72°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 Oaxaca.
Oaxaca is the most colourful and most soulful city in Mexico, a colonial capital of green-stone churches and terracotta streets set in a high valley ringed by mountains, surrounded by Zapotec ruins, petrified waterfalls, agave fields and the best food in the country. For a few days each November it becomes the beating heart of the Day of the Dead. It is the richest 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 permits, the mezcal, 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 in the valley is only the part that matters.
Best monthsOct to Apr
The curationEnd to end
Packages from$9,300 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 Oaxaca.
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 Oaxaca, 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 OaxacaReal Elopements
Four elopements from my Oaxaca archive, written the way I remember them: the light, the location, what the valley 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 Oaxaca 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 Oaxaca. 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
$9,300 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: the historic centre or Monte Albán
- ✓Photography with videography, shot by me alone
- ✓Planning, permits, local fixer and transport
- ✓A curated, hand-edited gallery
Tier II · Recommended
Curated Signature
$17,000 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 mezcal palenque tasting in the agave fields
- ·Monte Albán at golden hour
- ·A tasting-menu dinner at one of the great tables
Tier III
Curated Adventuremoon
$24,000 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
- ·A sunrise at the petrified falls of Hierve el Agua
- ·A day among the ruins of Monte Albán and Mitla
- ·The Teotitlán weavers and the Tlacolula market
- ·A Día de Muertos elopement, if the date lands
Signature locations in Oaxaca
Santo Domingo and the historic centre · The petrified falls of Hierve el Agua · The Zapotec ruins of Monte Albán · The agave fields and mezcal palenques · The painted streets and the Andador · Teotitlán, Mitla and the Tlacolula market
*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 Oaxaca, 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 · green cantera stone
Vows at Santo Domingo
At the end of the day we take the streets around Santo Domingo, the great church built of green cantera stone with an interior carved in gold. You read your vows as the low sun turns the stone amber and the papel picado glows overhead. No city in Mexico wears colour like this one.
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 Oaxaca, 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 Oaxaca, 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
An Oaxaca 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, or the Día de Muertos window at the start of November, book these first. Santo Domingo and the centre, the petrified falls of Hierve el Agua, or the ruins of Monte Albán, and me to photograph it, are the decisions everything else follows from.
Handle the legal marriage at home
The Oaxaca 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 a converted convent to a boutique house in the centre, and I build the itinerary around it.
Scout light, permits and the valley
I confirm the site permits, the exact hour of light at Santo Domingo and Monte Albán, and the drives out to Hierve el Agua or the mezcal palenques. Oaxaca is a valley of day trips, so the itinerary gets planned around the light and the roads.
Follow the light, eat everything
Oaxaca rewards the unhurried, and it is the best eating in Mexico. Your only job is to be in it. I bring the valley home with you.
06
Introductions on requestThe Company I Keep
The planners, hotels, restaurants, and experience operators I recommend to couples eloping in Oaxaca. 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 operators I trust in the valley.
Planners
Boutique Hotels
Dinner for Two
07
The ones couples ask firstQuestions
The questions I hear most often from couples planning an Oaxaca elopement, answered plainly. If yours is not here, it will be in my first reply when you reach out.
08
Oaxaca dispatchesFrom the Journal
Longer reads for couples who want to go deeper: the petrified falls, the Day of the Dead, the mezcal country, and what each Oaxaca backdrop actually delivers.
Guide
How to Elope in Oaxaca
Symbolic ceremony, the dry-season and Día de Muertos timing, site permits, the drives out to Hierve el Agua and Monte Albán, and what an all-inclusive Oaxaca elopement actually includes. The complete practical guide.
8 min read →
Field
The Petrified Falls of Hierve el Agua
The frozen mineral waterfall, the infinity pools on the cliff, and the dawn window before the crowds. How to build an Oaxaca elopement around the most dramatic view in the valley.
6 min read →
Field
Best Time to Elope in Oaxaca
The warm dry season, the extraordinary Día de Muertos window in early November, the summer rains to plan around, and the agave country at dawn. The exact light, month by month.
6 min read →
Guide
The Painted Streets & Mezcal Country
The terracotta-and-cobalt lanes of the centre, the papel picado and marigolds, and the agave fields and palenques an hour out. What each Oaxaca backdrop delivers, and how they combine.
5 min read →Tell me about your day in Oaxaca.
Share your date and I will come back within 48 hours with availability, an honest estimate, and the churches, the ruins, and the valley I would point you toward.
Est. 1999 · Travelling worldwide · Priced in USD