Planning your wedding is Costa Rica is a bit like gliding down a slip-and-slide rabbit hole: You fall hard and fast, often flying past details, information, and tidbits you'd like to return to later.
It's easy for one of those must-knows to fall through the cracks. So, we've pulled together five easily missed, but important details you absolutely want to know about Costa Rica destination weddings:
If you're still in the beginning planning phases, you should know that there are four distinct seasons for Costa Rica destination weddings: High Season, Mid-Season 1, Green Season, and Mid-Season 2. Each has its own benefits and considerations:
Of course, beach weddings are the most popular nuptials in Costa Rica and Tamarindo – but that doesn't mean that's your only option! Even here, in Tamarindo (a professed beach town), your options reach beyond the sand and into hilltop luxury villas, secluded waterfalls, palatial pools, and other tropical-but-not-the-beach locales.
Check out some of our favorite Tamarindo wedding photo-ops and wedding venues.
The thing about Costa Rica destination weddings – about international destination weddings, generally – is that they're better when they're simpler. In other words, don't over-complicated the details. If at all possible, don't ship down your décor. Don't hire a wedding planner based anywhere outside of Costa Rica. Don't choose a photographer who has never shot a wedding at your venue. Etcetera, etcetera.
It's not about changing your vision for your wedding, but rather minimizing your risk of complications and/or frustrations. Learn more about hiring a Costa Rican wedding planner and/or photographer.
As you begin your research, you may stumble across wildly disparate requirements to get married in Costa Rica. The truth is simple: If you have a good lawyer/officiant, then your only real requirement is your passport.
Getting your marriage validated back home is equally easy, at least as far as Costa Rica goes. The National Registry of Costa Rica (el Registro Nacional de Costa Rica) will issue your marriage certificate within 8-12 weeks, at which point your lawyer will have it translated, apostilled, and notarized for validation in your home country.
When it comes to Costa Rica destination weddings, there are many, many potential venues. From dedicated event venues and upscale restaurants, to beach clubs and public beaches, you have options.
Here's one you shouldn't miss – the one that we consider to be one of the best, if not the very best. Luxury vacation homes offer the best flexibility and the most unforgettable, private settings in the country. You won't have to worry about "venue hours"or after-hours charges, shared spaces or lack of privacy. But, beyond that – luxury venues offer only-in-your-dreams settings and the ability to customize every detail of your wedding celebration, with the added benefit of lavish honeymoon accommodations and, if you'd like, a place to house close family and friends.
Interested? Whet your appetite with these picture-perfect wedding venues or get in touch, and we'll be happy to answer your questions!
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There Are Four Distinct Wedding Seasons
If you're still in the beginning planning phases, you should know that there are four distinct seasons for Costa Rica destination weddings: High Season, Mid-Season 1, Green Season, and Mid-Season 2. Each has its own benefits and considerations:
- High Season (Christmas through Easter; July): The weather is perfect and the sunsets are spectacular. But, this is also the busiest and most expensive time of year.
- Mid-Season (Post-Easter through June; November to mid-December): Near-perfect weather and a picturesque greening-up of the scenery, with all-around lower prices.
- Green Season (August through October): Great prices and major negotiating power come with one caveat: a solid chance of rain, every day.
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We're More than Beach Weddings
Of course, beach weddings are the most popular nuptials in Costa Rica and Tamarindo – but that doesn't mean that's your only option! Even here, in Tamarindo (a professed beach town), your options reach beyond the sand and into hilltop luxury villas, secluded waterfalls, palatial pools, and other tropical-but-not-the-beach locales.
Check out some of our favorite Tamarindo wedding photo-ops and wedding venues.
-
You Should Arrange Everything Locally
The thing about Costa Rica destination weddings – about international destination weddings, generally – is that they're better when they're simpler. In other words, don't over-complicated the details. If at all possible, don't ship down your décor. Don't hire a wedding planner based anywhere outside of Costa Rica. Don't choose a photographer who has never shot a wedding at your venue. Etcetera, etcetera.
It's not about changing your vision for your wedding, but rather minimizing your risk of complications and/or frustrations. Learn more about hiring a Costa Rican wedding planner and/or photographer.
-
The Requirements to Get Married are Super Simple
As you begin your research, you may stumble across wildly disparate requirements to get married in Costa Rica. The truth is simple: If you have a good lawyer/officiant, then your only real requirement is your passport.
Getting your marriage validated back home is equally easy, at least as far as Costa Rica goes. The National Registry of Costa Rica (el Registro Nacional de Costa Rica) will issue your marriage certificate within 8-12 weeks, at which point your lawyer will have it translated, apostilled, and notarized for validation in your home country.
-
Luxury Homes are the Perfect Wedding Venue
When it comes to Costa Rica destination weddings, there are many, many potential venues. From dedicated event venues and upscale restaurants, to beach clubs and public beaches, you have options.
Here's one you shouldn't miss – the one that we consider to be one of the best, if not the very best. Luxury vacation homes offer the best flexibility and the most unforgettable, private settings in the country. You won't have to worry about "venue hours"or after-hours charges, shared spaces or lack of privacy. But, beyond that – luxury venues offer only-in-your-dreams settings and the ability to customize every detail of your wedding celebration, with the added benefit of lavish honeymoon accommodations and, if you'd like, a place to house close family and friends.
Interested? Whet your appetite with these picture-perfect wedding venues or get in touch, and we'll be happy to answer your questions!