Cartagena Destination Wedding

We capped off our 2025 wedding season in style with Luisa and Guillermo’s incredibly fun Cartagena destination wedding!

We already had a trip planned to Rionegro, Colombia, just outside of Medellin, to teach a photography workshop with our friend, Christian Cardona. We’ve taught a workshop together each of the last five years, usually in Colorado. But for this year’s edition, we decided to take it to his home turf.

During the planning process, Christian mentioned that he had a wedding in Cartagena just a couple days after the workshop and invited us to tag along. Since we had always wanted to visit Cartagena (and always wanted to experience a Colombian wedding), we said “sign us up!”

What we didn’t expect was how freeing the experience of photographing a wedding without any pressure or official responsibilities would be. Since Christian and his second shooter had all of the “must-have” photos covered, we were able to go as inspiration took us, free from constraints.

Moira spent the afternoon with the bride and saw/photographed much of the day through the eyes of the flower girl. Meanwhile, I took an idea from another photographer friend, Citlalli Rico, and hung out with the workers, documenting all of the work that goes on behind the scenes to make the wedding a reality.

From the ceremony in a 17th century church, to a parade of music and dance, to the reception at the beautiful Hotel Santa Clara, the entire day felt like a fever dream – in the best way possible. We’ve seen some crazy weddings before, but nothing quite like this. I could write 10,000 more words telling you all about it, but better to just scroll down and see for yourself.

Luisa and Guillermo (and Christian), thank you so much for allowing two gringos to hang out and take photos at your Cartagena destination wedding. We’ll never forget it!