Quintana Roo · Mexico · Elopement Curator
Riviera Maya
20.21°N · 87.46°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 the Riviera Maya.
The Riviera Maya is more than the strip of all-inclusive hotels it is known for. Run south from Cancún and you reach the cliffside Mayan ruins of Tulum, a jungle riddled with cenotes where a shaft of light drops through the cave onto turquoise freshwater, the untouched Sian Ka'an biosphere reachable only by boat, and the lost jungle pyramid at Cobá. Four completely different worlds in ninety minutes of driving.
I do not just show up to shoot. I design the day around you, book every piece of it, the officiant, the florals, the activity, the dinner, the permits, 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 Caribbean day is only the part that matters.
Best monthsDec to Apr
The curationEnd to end
Packages from$9,400 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 the Riviera Maya.
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 the Riviera Maya, 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 the Riviera MayaReal Elopements
Four elopements from my Riviera Maya archive, written the way I remember them: the light, the location, what the coast 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 Riviera Maya 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 the Riviera Maya. 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
$9,400 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 beach or a cenote
- ✓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 cenote session with the light beam
- ·The Tulum ruins at golden hour
- ·A beachfront chef's dinner in Tulum
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
- ·A Sian Ka'an biosphere boat day
- ·Swimming with turtles at Akumal
- ·The Cobá jungle pyramid at dawn
- ·Snorkelling the Mesoamerican reef
Signature locations in the Riviera Maya
Tulum beach and the cliffside ruins · Jungle cenotes near Tulum · Playa del Carmen · Akumal and the turtle bay · The Sian Ka'an biosphere · The Cobá jungle pyramid
Frames from the Riviera Maya
A few of mine, from this coast
Cover
Click arrows to turn pages
Tap sides to turn · swipe to navigate
*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 the Riviera Maya, Mexico.
Take the Elopement Compass →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 the Riviera Maya, 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 the Riviera Maya, 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 →
04
A sample plan, counted backward from your dateThe Timeline
A Riviera Maya 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, December through April, book these first. The Tulum ruins, a specific cenote, or a Sian Ka'an boat day, and me to photograph it, are the decisions everything else follows from.
Handle the legal marriage at home
The Riviera Maya ceremony is symbolic, so almost every couple completes the binding civil marriage quietly at home before the trip. It keeps the Caribbean 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 Tulum beach cabana to a Mayakoba villa, and I build the itinerary around it.
Scout light and permits
I confirm cenote access, Sian Ka'an boat timing, and Tulum's opening hours, and the exact hour of light at each location. Sargassum forecasts and tide charts get checked here, because the right beach this week may not be the right beach next week.
Arrive early, stay barefoot
We start before the sites fill. Your only job is to be in it. I bring the Caribbean home with you.
05
Introductions on requestThe Company I Keep
The planners, hotels, restaurants, and experience operators I recommend to couples eloping in the Riviera Maya. 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 cenote guides I trust on this coast.
Planners
Boutique Hotels
Dinner for Two
Cenotes & Wild
06
The ones couples ask firstQuestions
The questions I hear most often from couples planning a Riviera Maya elopement, answered plainly. If yours is not here, it will be in my first reply when you reach out.
07
Riviera Maya dispatchesFrom the Journal
Longer reads for couples who want to go deeper: the legal-versus-symbolic question, cenote logistics, the sargassum calendar, and what each backdrop actually delivers on this coast.
Guide
How to Elope in the Riviera Maya
Symbolic ceremony, dry-season timing, cenote permits, sargassum, and what an all-inclusive Riviera Maya elopement actually includes. The complete practical guide.
8 min read →
Field
Cenote Elopements: A Field Guide
How a cenote ceremony works: access, the forty-minute window of light, what to wear in the water, and why a jungle sinkhole photographs unlike anywhere else on earth.
7 min read →
Field
Best Time to Elope in the Riviera Maya
Dry season versus shoulder months, hurricane season, the sargassum calendar, and the exact hours of light at Tulum, in a cenote, and out in Sian Ka'an.
6 min read →
Guide
Tulum, Sian Ka'an, or Cobá?
The cliffside ruins, the untouched biosphere, and the jungle pyramid. What each Riviera Maya backdrop gives you, and how the best days combine two of them.
5 min read →Tell me about your day in the Riviera Maya.
Share your date and I will come back within 48 hours with availability, an honest estimate, and the ruins, cenotes, and coast I would point you toward.
Est. 1999 · Travelling worldwide · Priced in USD