Everything You Need to Know About Eloping in Tulum

You didn't want the big wedding.

You wanted Tulum, a cold cocktail,

and the person you love most. 

So that's exactly what you did.

This Is Not the Elopement You've Seen on Pinterest

Forget the perfectly curated clifftop ceremony with

the arch and the florals and the fifteen

vendors coordinating on walkie-talkies. That's a small wedding. Beautiful, but not this.

A real Tulum elopement is something else entirely. It's the two of you deciding that your love doesn't need an audience to be real. That the most important moment of your life deserves to be lived, not produced. That you'd rather spend your wedding day actually present with each other than managing everyone else's experience of it.

It's a little rebellious. It's deeply romantic. And when you do it in Tulum with that light, that air, that feeling that the jungle is leaning in and keeping your secret it becomes something you'll spend the rest of your life talking about in the quiet moments.

If this is already feeling like you

Tell me about your day

The Kind of Day I'm Talking About

You get ready together.

Maybe that's just the two of you in a beautiful room, slow morning light, no schedule, no bridesmaids knocking on doors. You help each other. You laugh. You feel the weight of what you're about to do and it doesn't feel heavy, it feels like the most natural thing in the world.

The ceremony is short and completely yours. Your words, or words someone wrote just for you.

Barefoot or not.

On the beach, on the rocks, in the jungle as the light goes gold. I'm there, but you forget I'm there that's the whole point of how I work.

And then, you go live your wedding day! A beer in town. Tacos somewhere you'd never find in a guidebook. A swim. A long dinner. Golden hour somewhere that takes your breath away, me somewhere nearby, catching all of it without you having to think about me once.

You go home with a gallery that looks like a film. And a secret that belongs only to you.

You Don't Have to Be the 'Elopement Type'

Here's what I've learned shooting intimate weddings in Tulum: there is no type.

I've photographed couples who planned their elopement in two weeks and couples who planned it for two years. Couples who told their families everything and couples who landed in Mexico and sent a photo home after. Couples who wanted nothing but each other, and couples who brought their four closest humans and called it enough.

What they all had in common: they cared more about the feeling of their wedding day than the optics of it. They wanted to remember how it felt to be with each other.

If that's you, you're in the right place. See what these days look like in real galleries — no staging, no setups, just real moments from real couples who chose this.

Why Tulum Does Something to You

There's a reason couples fly across the world for a Tulum elopement. It's not just that it's beautiful, though it is, in a way that still surprises me even after years of shooting here. It's that Tulum has a particular energy that makes people feel permission to be exactly who they are and do whatever they want.

How Easy This Actually Is

A Tulum elopement is simpler than you think. You don't need a venue coordinator or a fifteen-item day-of timeline.

For the ceremony setup and logistics, I work alongside companies like Bow & Arrow who handle every detail so nothing falls through the cracks. And I take care of what I do best — finding the right light, the right moment, the right frame. You just show up and be with each other.

Ready to see if your date is available? Let's talk — even if you're still in the dreaming stage, I love hearing about what you're imagining.

For the Couple Reading This at Midnight

You're lying in bed, phone in hand, and something about this post felt like it was written for you.

Maybe you've been quietly wondering if you could skip the big wedding entirely. Maybe you've already decided and you're just looking for someone who gets it. Maybe you're not even engaged yet but you already know this is how you want to do it.

Whatever brought you here, you're allowed to want this. You're allowed to have a wedding day that's entirely yours. You're allowed to get married in secret in one of the most beautiful places on earth and spend the whole day just being wildly, quietly, completely happy together.

That's what I'm here for.

Come say hello →

Chérie Wedding Photos · Tulum based, shooting across Mexico and the Riviera Maya · @cheriewedding.photos