The Cancún editorial studio that travels to Banderas Bay for couples. The Malecón, Los Muertos, the Zona Romántica, Conchas Chinas and Sayulita, photographed at golden hour with a quiet, editorial hand. LGBTQ+ welcome.
Plan Your SessionPuerto Vallarta is a city built for two. The seaside Malecón curls along Banderas Bay, the cobbled lanes of the Zona Romántica climb into pastel rooftops, and the bay itself faces west, so the sun sets directly over the water. It is the kind of place where an afternoon together becomes a set of photographs worth keeping. A couples session here is that afternoon, made permanent. Whether you are newly engaged, on your honeymoon, planning a surprise proposal, or marking an anniversary, this stretch of the Pacific holds the light for it.
A note of honesty first, because it matters. IVAE Studios is based in Cancún, on the opposite coast, and we travel to Puerto Vallarta by inquiry. We are not a local Vallarta studio and we do not pretend to be. What we bring instead is an editorial eye, years of photographing couples on Mexican coastlines, and the kind of careful planning that a travelling photographer has to do well: scouting the public spots that read best on camera, timing the session to the bay's western sunset, and quoting the travel transparently so the numbers are clear before you commit.
This page is the couples service for Puerto Vallarta specifically, and it sits inside our wider destination couples photography practice across Mexico. If you want a single studio to hold the whole chapter of your trip, in one consistent visual language, you are in the right place. We will be honest about what a travelling session involves and shape it around the days you have on this coast.
Led by Director Vianey Díaz, the studio works in two languages and a single visual register: warm, restrained color, the honest light of the last hour before sunset, and direction quiet enough that the two of you forget the camera is there. Puerto Vallarta is also one of Mexico's most welcoming destinations for LGBTQ+ couples, and the Zona Romántica is the warm, inclusive heart of it. We photograph every couple with the same care, and you are welcome here exactly as you are. This work belongs to our wider couples photography approach, alongside engagements, honeymoons, proposals and anniversaries.
Every session is built the same careful way, whether it is an engagement, a honeymoon, a proposal or an anniversary. Six things sit inside the service, and a few extras can be added by inquiry to suit your plan and your days in Puerto Vallarta.
Before anything is booked we talk through your dates, your story and the feeling you want. From there we recommend locations, a call time and a loose flow, so the session feels considered rather than improvised once we are on the coast.
We plan one or two public settings matched to your mood: the open Malecón, a quiet cove at Conchas Chinas, the pastel streets of the Zona Romántica. As a travelling studio we research access, light and the calm hours carefully, so the route flows.
Because Banderas Bay faces west, the session is built around the sunset window. We hold the most important frames for the warm hour as the sun drops over the water, when the bay is at its most flattering and the beaches begin to thin.
On the day we direct gently in English or Spanish. The aim is movement, not stiff poses: a walk, a turn, a quiet word between you. Couples who feel awkward in front of a camera tend to relax within the first few minutes.
The session includes a second outfit and the styling notes to make both work. We send guidance after booking and gladly review your choices, so your looks suit the sea breeze, the pastel streets and the warm Pacific palette.
After a careful, individual edit, your images arrive in a private high-resolution gallery with a print release. It is yours to keep, share and print, whether the session marks an engagement, a honeymoon or simply the two of you in Puerto Vallarta.
Puerto Vallarta's seaside promenade, lined with bronze sculptures and looking straight out over Banderas Bay. At golden hour the boardwalk glows, the water turns warm, and you get the classic Vallarta backdrop most couples picture first.
The city's most beloved beach, edged by the sculptural Los Muertos pier. West-facing sand makes it a natural sunset spot, with the pier's white arches giving a clean, modern frame to a couples or honeymoon session.
The cobbled, bougainvillea-draped streets of the Romantic Zone, the warm and inclusive heart of the city. Pastel walls, rooftops and little plazas make a colourful, intimate counterpoint to the open beach, and it is wonderfully LGBTQ+ welcoming.
Just south of the Zona Romántica, Conchas Chinas is a string of rocky coves and tide pools below the hillside homes. The smooth boulders and quiet water make a more private, editorial setting for couples who want something away from the crowds.
About an hour north along Bahía de Banderas, in Nayarit, the bohemian surf town of Sayulita offers colourful streets, papel picado and a relaxed beach. It can be added to a longer session or a separate day, planned in advance and quoted transparently.
Beyond any single landmark, the bay itself is the location. Because Puerto Vallarta faces west, the sun sets over open water nearly every evening, and we shape the whole session around catching that light from whichever shoreline suits your story.
Two questions decide when a session happens: which chapter you are marking, and where the light sits in the day. Because we travel in from Cancún, we plan both carefully so the session lands when you need it and looks the way Banderas Bay looks at its best.
If you are newly engaged or planning to ask the question, we time the session for a quiet stretch of your trip and build it around a private, golden-hour moment. A surprise proposal is scouted and signalled in advance, so the answer is the only thing left to chance.
For honeymooners and couples marking an anniversary, the session is a relaxed hour together with no wedding-day pressure: a walk on Los Muertos, the Zona Romántica streets, the bay at sunset, and a gallery you keep long after the trip ends.
The last 75 to 90 minutes before sunset is when the bay turns warm and the beaches thin. Because Puerto Vallarta faces west, the sun sets straight over the water, so we hold the frames that matter most for this window and shape the session around it.
The dry season, roughly November through April, brings the clearest skies and the calmest evenings. The summer months are greener and more humid, with afternoon rain possible, so for those dates we plan the call time around the forecast and keep a flexible window.
What you wear matters as much as where you stand. The Pacific coast and the pastel streets of the Zona Romántica have a palette of their own, and a little planning lets your looks sit inside it rather than fight it. Here is how we guide wardrobe for a couples session.
Two looks that complement each other read better than identical outfits. Pair one relaxed look with one more elevated, in tones that sit beside each other. We help you build the combination so the two of you look like a pair, not a uniform.
Flowing dresses, light linen and soft layers come alive in the sea breeze off the bay. Movement is what makes a couples frame feel alive, so we steer toward fabrics that catch the wind rather than stiff, structured pieces that stay flat.
Creams, sand, terracotta and muted earth tones echo the coastline and the warm walls of the Zona Romántica, and they hold up beautifully at golden hour. We tend to steer away from bright neons and busy logos, which pull the eye away from your faces.
If you are pairing a beach with the Zona Romántica, we suggest a look for each. Breezy and barefoot for Los Muertos, a touch more structured for the cobbled lanes and rooftops, so each setting gets the wardrobe it deserves.
The ring, of course, but also the small things: a hat for the sun, sandals you can walk the cobbles in, a light layer for the breeze off the bay. We flag what to bring so nothing is missing and you can forget the logistics.
Send photos of your shortlisted looks and we will give honest, gentle feedback before you travel. It is far easier to adjust a wardrobe over a message than to wish you had on the beach, so we make that part of planning.
Send your dates, the part of Puerto Vallarta you are drawn to, and whether it is an engagement, honeymoon, proposal or anniversary. We reply the same business day with availability and a planning conversation about the feeling you want.
We map the session to the western sunset, research the locations, send wardrobe guidance and a call time, confirm the travel from Cancún, and answer every logistical question, so you arrive on the day with nothing left to figure out.
We photograph quietly and direct gently in English or Spanish. It feels less like a shoot and more like a walk together along the bay, with the most important frames landing as the light turns warm over the water.
A private, high-resolution online gallery with a print release, delivered after a careful edit. It is yours to keep, share and print, the two of you in Puerto Vallarta, held in one consistent visual language.
A Puerto Vallarta couples session is wonderful on its own. It is even better as one chapter of a larger story. If you are planning a destination wedding elsewhere in Mexico, booking your couples session with us means one studio carries your whole arc in a single visual language, from these images on the bay to the last frame of the wedding night.
There is a practical gift in it, too. By the time a wedding morning arrives, we are no longer strangers with cameras. You already know how we move, how we direct, and how quiet we keep the work, and we already know how the two of you look in this light. That familiarity shows in every photograph that follows. The ease you felt walking the Malecón is the same ease that carries into the most important moments.
The session also slots naturally into the wider couples journey we photograph across Mexico: the engagement, the honeymoon, the proposal, the anniversary. Couples who plan ahead often book more than one chapter at once, so the whole season of their relationship lives in one consistent archive rather than scattered across different photographers and styles.
You are not required to book a wedding to book the session, and many couples come to us for a single afternoon in Puerto Vallarta and nothing more. Either way, we will tell you honestly how the pieces fit together, and quote the session and the travel from Cancún by inquiry so the numbers are clear before you commit to anything.
No. IVAE Studios is based in Cancún and travels to Puerto Vallarta for couples sessions by inquiry. We do not keep a studio or a permanent team in Puerto Vallarta; we come to you for the dates you book, with travel quoted transparently in your proposal so there are no surprises.
We plan sessions around the city's most photogenic public settings: the seaside Malecón and its sculptures, Playa Los Muertos and the Los Muertos pier, the cobbled streets and rooftops of the Zona Romántica, the rocky coves of Conchas Chinas, and, a short drive north along Bahía de Banderas, the bohemian beach town of Sayulita. We match the location to the mood you want.
Yes, wholeheartedly. Puerto Vallarta is one of Mexico's most welcoming destinations for LGBTQ+ couples, and the Zona Romántica in particular is a vibrant, inclusive neighborhood. We photograph every couple with the same care and direction, and we are glad to be your photographer for an engagement, honeymoon, proposal or anniversary.
A standard couples session runs about ninety minutes to two hours, which is enough for one or two locations at a relaxed pace. Couples who want the Malecón at golden hour, the Zona Romántica streets and a beach often book a longer half-day. We tailor the length to your plan and the distances between settings.
A single-location session typically delivers a curated gallery of around eighty to one hundred and twenty finished images. A longer half-day across several settings delivers more. Every photo is individually edited in our warm, restrained style, not bulk filtered, and delivered in high resolution with a print release.
Golden hour on Banderas Bay, the last 75 to 90 minutes before sunset, is when the water turns warm and the west-facing beaches glow; because the bay faces west, Puerto Vallarta sunsets fall directly over the sea. The dry season from roughly November through April brings the clearest skies. The summer months are greener and more humid, with afternoon rain possible, so we plan the call time around the forecast.
Yes. A discreet surprise proposal is one of the most-requested sessions on this coast. We scout a quiet spot, agree on a signal and a vantage point, and capture the moment from a distance before stepping in for portraits once the question is answered. Tell us the plan and we shape the logistics around it.
Yes. The same couples session works beautifully for a honeymoon or an anniversary. Many couples on their honeymoon want a relaxed hour together on Los Muertos or in the Zona Romántica without the pressure of a wedding day, and we keep it that way: a walk, a few quiet frames, and a gallery you keep forever.
Choose two coordinated looks rather than matching outfits: one relaxed and one more elevated. Flowing fabrics read beautifully in the sea breeze, and warm, soft tones suit the Pacific palette and the pastel streets of the Zona Romántica. We send styling guidance after booking and gladly review your choices before the day.
Sayulita sits roughly an hour north of Puerto Vallarta along Bahía de Banderas, in the state of Nayarit. It is a bohemian surf town with colourful streets and a relaxed beach, and it can be included as part of a longer session or a separate day. Because it involves additional travel, we plan it in advance and quote it transparently.
A short film alongside your couples session can be arranged by inquiry, depending on the date and locations. Many couples add motion so they have a brief, cinematic piece to share. Tell us during planning and we confirm what is possible for your session in Puerto Vallarta.
A Puerto Vallarta couples session can be a standalone, or the first chapter of a wider story. If you are planning a destination wedding, booking the session with us means one studio holds your whole arc in a single visual language. We will tell you honestly how the two fit together and quote both by inquiry.
Send your dates, the part of Puerto Vallarta you are drawn to, and whether it is an engagement, honeymoon, proposal or anniversary. We reply the same business day with availability and a planning conversation, then send a proposal with the session and travel from Cancún quoted by inquiry. A retainer and signed agreement secure your date.
Send us your dates, the part of the bay you are drawn to, and whether it is an engagement, honeymoon, proposal or anniversary. We reply the same business day with availability and a planning conversation. Bilingual, golden-hour scheduling, LGBTQ+ welcome, and a private gallery to keep.