In 1999 I graduated from high school with almost enough college credits for an Associate Degree and set out to explore Central America. My plan was to travel for 6 months, but very soon after I got there, I realized that I wanted to stay for much longer. Before I left, I had saved a good chunk of money while working at a coffee shop and so once I was down in Central America, I was able to stretch my money and make it last for a while by living simply. Still, when I realized that I wanted to stay and travel down to South America as well, I began working as an ‘Artesana’ making and selling jewelry as a street vendor. I learned Spanish quickly and lived with local families from Amazon jungle villages in Ecuador to high Andean Quichua villages in Peru, to living on the Beaches in Costa Rica and Panama. I’ve hitch-hiked from Quito Ecuador to Cusco Peru and back, almost the exact same distance between Seattle and Tijuana, Mexico and back. I’ve been kidnapped by four men, and then saved by Guatemalan police with machine guns, snatched up by Ecuadorian police in a street raid for no apparent reason and forced to sit awake all night watching them as they drink heavily and taunt their ‘prisoners’. I’ve had all of my belongings stolen including my passport and credit cards in Ecuador, pitched a tent and slept on top of burl lock bags of sugar on a flatbed semi truck, and I’ve spent the night on a broken down bus with no rescue as the single white person among all native speaking Indigenous Peruvians. I’ve also seen true happiness where I didn’t expect to find it – with the poorest of families living in the poorest of circumstances, I’ve learned to believe in miracles, I’ve encountered beauty unimaginable, and I’ve been to a place in Bolivia where the sky meets the earth and reflects upon it, making it appear as if you are walking in heaven. Each place I went, I would fall in love with it and the people, and never want to leave, but deep within me was a yearning to explore more places. This trip ended when I decided to follow the advice of some American tourists and go to Block Island, RI for the summer to work as a waitress and make money so that I could continue my trip. And that is where I met my husband, who happens to be from Peru. We have gone back twice since then.

If you are planning a destination wedding in Central or South America please contact me with any questions or concerns you might have! There are so many gorgeous places to get married in these countries – Machu Picchu is near the top of my list of dream wedding locations (for the ultimate surroundings and history), along with the Four Seasons Resort in Costa Rica (for a peaceful, blissful wedding), Madre Tierra in Ecuador (for a smaller country wedding) and a secret place in Bolivia…if you email me…I will give you its name (for a totally out-there, insanely gorgeous wedding in a place that stretches the imagination and pushes the boundaries of earth as we know it). I also speak fluent Spanish, as I mentioned above, so if you have any translation issues, don’t hesitate to ask. I love helping out in any way I can to make your wedding extra special and perfect for you! And of course, I’d be honored to photograph your Latin America destination wedding!