About the studio
Planned in Texas.
Made in Mexico.
A small studio with a large network, founded on the belief that the best celebrations come from people who know a place, not people who've visited it.
Marisol Vega, Founder & Creative Director
Our story
It started with a wedding that almost didn't happen.
In 2013, Marisol Vega was running events for a luxury hotel group in Mexico City when a friend from Houston asked her to "just look over" the plan for her Cabo wedding. The planner was in Los Angeles, had never been to the venue, and had scheduled a beach ceremony for 2pm in the wind season.
Marisol fixed it. Then she quit her job. Altamar opened in Austin the following spring, on a simple premise: destination celebrations in Mexico should be planned by people who live on both sides of the border. A studio in the U.S., where the clients are, and a production team in Mexico, where the celebrations are.
12 years and more than three hundred celebrations later, that's still the whole idea. We work in seven destinations, we know them the way locals do, and we're honest about which one is right for you.
- Years
- 12
- Celebrations
- 300+
- Cities we live in
- 4
- Referred clients
- 92%
What we believe
Four things we won't bend on.
- 01
Honesty before beauty
We turn down about a third of inquiries, usually because the destination and the budget don't match. We would rather say so in the first call than in month nine.
- 02
Of the place
Mexican craft, Mexican food, Mexican musicians. Not because it's cheaper (sometimes it isn't) but because a celebration should feel like it couldn't have happened anywhere else.
- 03
No commissions, ever
Our fee is the only money we make. Every vendor quote is the real number, and any discount we negotiate is yours.
- 04
Guests are the point
People spend thousands of dollars and days of their lives to be with you. How the week feels for them is the thing they'll talk about longest.
The team
Four people, two countries, one WhatsApp group.
Small on purpose. You'll know everyone's name by the second call, and they'll all be at your celebration.
Marisol Vega
Founder & Creative Director · Austin, Texas
Marisol grew up between Monterrey and Houston and spent a decade producing events for a luxury hotel group in Mexico City before founding Altamar in 2014. She still leads design on every celebration and is the person who will tell you, kindly, that the venue you saved on Pinterest doesn't have a kitchen.
“A ceremony at the last possible minute of light, anywhere in Oaxaca.”
Camila Ortiz
Director of Production · Mexico City
Camila has produced more than 300 events across Mexico and knows which rental house in every state actually shows up on time. She runs our on-the-ground team, negotiates every vendor contract in Spanish and carries a laminated card of every regional power-grid quirk in the country.
“Watching 600 candles get lit in eleven minutes.”
Grace Whitfield
Senior Planner · Austin, Texas
Grace joined Altamar from a New York planning firm in 2019 and leads our full-service weddings from the Austin studio. She is the calm voice on your weekly call, the keeper of the budget architecture and the reason your mother-in-law's seating chart got resolved without anyone noticing.
“The farewell brunch, when everyone has stopped performing.”
Diego Ferrer
Guest Experience Lead · Los Cabos
Diego ran guest services at two of Cabo's best resorts before joining us in 2021. He builds the welcome guides, runs the guest WhatsApp line during every celebration week and has personally met more than 4,000 guests at the airport.
“The moment a nervous first-time visitor lands and realises Mexico is going to be fine.”
Come see us
The studio is on South Congress. The coffee is from Oaxaca.
Fit calls happen on video, but if you're in Austin we'd rather do it in person, with the materials boards out.
Book a fit call