A Lush Garden Wedding in El Valle de Antón Rooted in Family and Nature
Some wedding locations already mean something long before the guests arrive. For Camila (she/her) and Isabel (she/her), that was El Valle de Antón, Panama. They married at Isabel’s grandmother’s home, on land that had once belonged to Camila’s grandparents too, bringing two sides of their family history into the same place.
They spent months working on the garden before filling it with around 230 people they love, their dogs, their own vows and a coffee and tea ritual borrowed from their mornings together. It was personal in ways that had very little to do with following tradition and much more to do with the life they had already built together.
Even the weather found its timing. After rain through most of the day, it stopped just five minutes before the ceremony. With Ana Hinojosa there to photograph it all, the celebration unfolded in a place that already felt like part of their story.
How did your love story begin?
Camila: Our story began quietly and unexpectedly. We met through a close friend over breakfast on December 24, just two days after I moved back to Panama. Somehow, our lives had run alongside each other for years without us ever crossing paths.
From the beginning, being together felt easy and real. There was no pressure or feeling like we had to perform for each other. It was just calm.
Our relationship grew through everyday things. Long conversations, shared silences, travelling, cooking, building a life with our dogs and learning how to grow together.
Why did you choose February 22 for your wedding?
We were engaged for six months. We both work in design and love thinking through every detail, so we knew that if we gave ourselves too much time, we would probably overthink everything.
February 22 was exactly three years after we officially started dating, so the date already felt special to us. Later, we learnt about the meaning people associate with 222 and the idea of being in the right place, at the right time, with the right person.
It resonated so much that we each got a small 222 tattoo in the other person’s handwriting.
It also happened to fall during one of the best times of year for weather in El Valle de Antón, so everything lined up.
What made El Valle de Antón, Panama, the right place to get married?
El Valle de Antón was the biggest inspiration for the entire wedding. It is lush, surrounded by mountains and filled with misty mornings and birdsong. It is where our story began and somewhere we have spent so many beautiful weekends together.
The wedding took place at Isabel’s grandmother’s house, which made it even more meaningful. Years before either of us was born, my grandparents had actually owned that same piece of land.
There was already so much family history there. We never wanted to bring in a concept that competed with the setting. We wanted the place itself to guide everything.
How did you bring the wedding design together?
We wanted everything to feel natural, grounded and full of life rather than overly curated.
The garden became the centre of the design. We worked on it for months, planting, pruning and shaping it together. Isabel is a landscape architect, so she naturally took the lead on the garden, layout and spatial elements. I focused more on the food, mood and graphics.
From there, everything followed naturally. We used earthy tones, handmade details, intimate lighting, art and plenty of flowers, with Mynt Eventos creating the florals. Lymma worked on the signage and stationery.
We were involved in almost every part of the process. There were lots of lists, shared notes and planning sessions, but we kept the team small and worked with people we trusted.
How did you choose the people you wanted to work with?
This was especially important to us because we were choosing to marry in our home country, where same sex marriage is still not legal.
We wanted every person involved in the wedding to make us feel safe, comfortable and able to be completely ourselves. It was less about finding people who could execute a certain look and more about finding people who understood what the celebration meant to us.
We booked Ana Hinojosa, our photographer and Edgar Hernández, our chef first because we knew they would shape so much of the experience.
Our planners, Simi and Melanie, were with us from day one. They supported every wild idea we had and helped bring all the details together.
Ana also made us feel incredibly comfortable even though we are both a little camera shy. Nothing ever felt forced, which mattered so much to us.
What did you want the ceremony to feel like?
The ceremony was everything to us. We wanted it to feel honest, intimate and deeply personal, so writing our own vows felt important.
Sitting down to write them meant really looking at our story and deciding what we wanted to say when we had the chance to stand in front of everyone we love.
We also created some traditions of our own. We started the ceremony with a short meditation so everyone could settle into the moment. Isabel’s sister Anabella and one of my oldest brothers, Tomás, both spoke.
Our dear friend Juliette Chevalier guided the ceremony. Asking her to do it was one of the best decisions we made. She held the space in a way that felt personal and grounding.
We also set up coffee and tea for our guests. Morning coffee together is one of our favourite rituals. We can sit there talking about life for hours, so bringing that into the ceremony felt like inviting everyone into a small part of our everyday relationship.
And of course, our dogs had to be there. We could not imagine walking down the aisle without them.
What happened on the wedding day?
It rained all morning and through most of the afternoon.
We tried to stay calm, but five minutes before we were supposed to walk out, the rain stopped. The sky cleared just enough, the garden dried and suddenly we had this little window of light.
We got ready separately with the people closest to us, with plenty of emotion, laughter and tears.
Then we each walked down the aisle with both of our parents and met beneath a circle of yellow flowers in the garden we had spent months creating.
Afterwards, everyone stayed in the garden for cocktails before moving into dinner. Edgar Hernández and his team created the food, while the wedding cake came from Rachel Pol. Our close friend created an art installation, there were flowers everywhere and the whole evening felt connected to the story we wanted to tell.
Music carried through the celebration too, with live music from Idania Dowman and sets from Moy Abbo, Caro Aybar and Funky Josh.
Later, Isabel surprised everyone with a flash mob. I was definitely hesitant when I first heard the idea, but it ended up being one of my favourite moments of the entire night.
We finished the evening dancing outside under the stars.
How did a wedding of around 230 guests still feel personal?
We originally imagined something much smaller, where every person there had a close connection to us.
Then we started making the guest list and remembered that Isabel has a very big family.
We ended up with around 230 guests, which was much bigger than we had initially pictured, but we still wanted every decision to come back to connection rather than obligation.
We wrote personal notes to many of our guests and thought carefully about how the space could feel warm and welcoming.
What moments from the wedding stay with you most?
For me, nothing came close to the ceremony.
Standing in front of the person I love and saying words I had written from such a vulnerable place was overwhelming. I felt completely seen. There was so much love in that moment, not only between us, but in the people around us too. I still get butterflies thinking about it.
For Isabel, it was seeing all the people she loves together in one place. The faces, the laughter and that feeling of community stayed with her.
We never went into the wedding expecting it to become the best day of our lives. Somehow, it did.
Captured by Ana Hinojosa
Cake Maker Rachel Pol
Caterer Edgar Hernández
Celebrant / Officiant Juliette Chevalier
DJs Caro Aybar, Funky Josh, & Moy Abbo
Dress Boutique Maison75
Dress Designer Marta Marti
Florist Mynt Eventos
Hair Stylist Yirson
Live Music Idania Dowman
Make Up Artist Jen Brown
Signage & Stationery Lymma
Videographer Visu Films
