The Story
Kat and Sep found each other in Sydney and got married in Puerto Vallarta because they both loved Mexico and wanted a destination wedding that felt genuinely Mexican rather than resort-generic. Hacienda San Angel was exactly that.
Hacienda San Angel is one of the most unusual properties in Puerto Vallarta — a compound of colonial buildings perched on the hillside above the Romantic Zone, with a history that includes a decade as Richard Burton's private residence. Every room is filled with Mexican antiques. Every corridor has candlelight. The chapel on the property is a real chapel.
Kat and Sep chose October, which is technically the end of rainy season in Puerto Vallarta. They were prepared for rain; it didn't come. What they got instead was the kind of deep green landscape that only exists in October, after months of afternoon showers have saturated everything. The hillside behind Hacienda San Angel was extraordinary — layered shades of tropical green, still and vivid.
The ceremony was held in the Hacienda's courtyard as the last light faded from the sky. The space is small — maybe thirty people at most — and the intimacy of it was exactly right for this couple. Sep is quiet and thoughtful; Kat is warm and expressive. Together they're balanced in a way that's immediately evident and very easy to photograph.
What made this wedding memorable for me photographically was the mixed light. Hacienda San Angel at night is lit almost entirely by candles and lanterns — hundreds of them, placed throughout the courtyard and corridors. The color temperature is entirely different from the blue sky still visible above the rooflines. Working in that split light, finding exposures that honored both the warmth of the candles and the depth of the October sky, produced images unlike anything else in my portfolio.
The reception dinner was served in the main dining room, a long table under a painted ceiling, candlelight on every surface. The food came out slowly and the wine kept flowing and no one seemed to be in any hurry. A perfect October night.