Wedding · Tulum & Riviera Maya
Candlelight in the jungle
Priya & Daniel
A two-culture wedding in a Tulum clearing: a Hindu ceremony under a mandap built from local wood, a Western vow exchange at the cenote, and a beach dinner lit entirely by candles.
The brief
Two families, two ceremonies, one weekend. Priya’s family wanted the full arc of a Hindu wedding; Daniel’s wanted vows at a cenote. Both wanted Tulum’s jungle rather than its beach clubs, and neither wanted the weekend to feel like a compromise.
What we did
Friday’s sangeet became the welcome party, held around the estate pool with a DJ from Mexico City who spent two months learning the family’s playlist. Saturday morning the baraat arrived by golf cart through the jungle. The mandap was built by our team from chukum-finished wood and dressed in marigolds flown from Puebla, sourced through the same growers who supply Día de Muertos.
At dusk everyone walked the path to the cenote, where Daniel and Priya exchanged Western vows on a platform over the water, lit by 600 candles on the limestone shelves. Dinner was on the beach, a fusion menu built by a Tulum chef and the family’s Houston caterer working side by side for the first time.
The detail people remember
The candle plan. Every one of the 600 was lit by a crew of eight in eleven minutes, timed to the last verse of the processional.
“Two families, two religions, two ceremonies, one jungle. Marisol and Camila made it feel effortless, which we now know it absolutely was not. Our parents still talk about the candles.”
- Photography
- Selected from Unsplash for this sample site
- Mandap & builds
- Altamar production team
- Catering
- A Tulum chef and a Houston-based Indian caterer, together
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