Getting married in Hernandarias and Ciudad del Este

Almost everything written about weddings in Paraguay is written for Asunción. We work a great deal here, in Alto Paraná, and it's a different proposition: different climate, different distances, different light, and a border next door.

This one is for couples marrying in Hernandarias, Ciudad del Este or nearby.

Three things that weigh more here than in Asunción

Heat and humidity. From November to March, an outdoor ceremony in mid-afternoon is uncomfortable for everyone: guests in suits, the bride with her hair and make-up, and skin in the photographs. It isn't an aesthetic problem, it's a comfort one. Moving the ceremony an hour or two later solves it.

Rain. This is the wettest part of the country and it doesn't announce itself. Every outdoor wedding here needs a real plan B: not "we'll see if it rains", but a specific covered space, decided in advance. If plan B doesn't exist, it gets improvised in a hurry, and that always shows.

The green. It's the region's great advantage and almost nobody uses it. There are enormous trees, real grass and open space ten minutes from nearly any venue. In Asunción you have to travel a long way for that.

The border: it's right there, but plan for it

Foz do Iguaçu is next door, and that side has hotels and the Falls. We've used it and it works very well for sessions.

Two honest warnings:

• The bridge can eat a full hour. Crossing at 8 am on a weekday is nothing like crossing on a Friday afternoon. If something is happening on the other side, the crossing gets planned, not improvised.
• Document requirements change. Before counting on family crossing over, it's worth confirming what immigration is asking for at that moment. We don't want anyone stuck in a queue.

Our recommendation: the party on this side, the session on the other, on a different day. Crossing between the ceremony and the reception squeezes the day too hard.

The places we already know

The Journal has a whole piece on the places we've already worked, and what each one gives you: where to shoot your pre-wedding. Several are right here — hotels in Ciudad del Este, the green spaces of Área 1, the Paraná Country Club — and others are on the Brazilian side.

Us already knowing the venue isn't a small detail: we know where the light comes in at six in the evening and where to stand if it starts to rain. On the day, that's worth more than any new idea.

The civil ceremony, usually separate here

Many couples in the region do the civil ceremony weeks or months earlier, midweek, with their witnesses and nobody else. That's what we did with Patricia and Luis, in Hernandarias.

It's short, inexpensive coverage, and it's literally the day you got married. It has its own piece: is the civil ceremony worth photographing?

Our own weddings in the region

Three of the works in the portfolio are from Hernandarias:

• Cami and Dominic — film.
• Lorena and Bruno — film.
• Patricia and Luis — civil ceremony, photography.

Three very different weddings in the same city. They're a good way to see that "getting married in Hernandarias" doesn't mean one single thing.

What to settle before booking the venue

1. The ceremony time, checking what hour it gets dark on that exact day. It's the decision that changes the photographs most: what time to set your ceremony.
2. The rain plan, with a name and a place.
3. If anything is happening on the Brazilian side, which day and at what hour you cross.
4. Half an hour of just the two of you, near sunset, built into the schedule.

With those four settled, everything else falls into place.