Why marry at a private venue?
A resort runs about four events a day. A private venue runs yours, and it shows in who notices your glass is empty.
Everything we learn, written down
Notes from the coast we work on, what the season does, what a cenote costs you in daylight, which month the tide behaves. Scroll: the archive opens where you are reading.
18 entries
How a Mayan ceremony works
A symbolic union held between the four elements, led by a shaman. What happens, and in what order.
What a vendor fee actually is
The charge a resort adds for using a photographer who is not on its list. Why it exists, and when paying it is still right.
Choosing between the coasts
Riviera Maya is easier for guests. Tulum is quieter and stranger. The honest difference, from people who work both.
A cenote at four in the afternoon
Light falls into open water for about ninety minutes a day. Here is how to put your ceremony inside that window.
What the season really does
November to May is the dry season, and that is the easy part. The useful detail is what the tide does in each month.
Menus that survive the heat
Thirty degrees changes what should be on a plate at eight in the evening. What we serve, and what we have stopped serving.
Dressing for sand
Heels sink. Chiffon moves. Hair worn down does not survive the hour. A short, practical list for guests.
Hosting a welcome party
Most of your guests have flown a long way and know three people. The night before is what fixes that.
An island for one wedding a day
Fifteen hectares off Cozumel, a kilometre of beach, and a chapel the church recognises.
Getting a hundred guests here
Flights, transfers, and the two decisions that determine whether your guest list actually arrives.
The rain plan nobody writes
Every venue says it has one. Here is the version we make you approve before you book.
Charrería, and other Mexican weddings
Traditional horsemanship at a wedding reads as spectacle abroad and as home here. When it works.
Photographing white on white
A white dress, white sand and midday sun is the hardest exposure on this coast. What photographers do about it.
The paperwork, plainly
A symbolic ceremony needs none. A legal one needs more than you think, and earlier.
Where guests stay when there is no resort
Off-resort does not mean far. The hotels within fifteen minutes of each venue, by budget.
Music until two
Noise rules end most parties at eleven. Ours do not, and this is why that changes the evening.
What a thousand weddings taught us
The five things couples worry about that never matter, and the two nobody asks about that always do.