How to get married in Costa Rica.

The case for Costa Rica is landscape variety in a small country. You can marry on a cliff above the Pacific in the morning, hold the rehearsal dinner beside an active volcano the next evening, and send guests home by way of a cloud-forest zipline. Distances are short enough that a multi-day wedding weekend feels like a tour of the country rather than a series of long transfers.

The country is also politically stable, used to tourists, and fluent in weddings. Planners, photographers, florists and officiants all work with English-speaking couples routinely, and most resorts have in-house coordinators who have run hundreds of ceremonies. The currency is the Costa Rican colón, but U.S. dollars are accepted almost everywhere, which makes budgeting simpler.

Couples pick Costa Rica over Mexico or the Caribbean when they want something wilder: vows with howler monkeys in earshot, black sand instead of white, a welcome dinner beside a thermal pool.

Costa Rica is not one destination but several, and choosing the right region matters more than picking a specific venue. Here is how the wedding-friendly areas break down.

Guanacaste and the Papagayo Peninsula, on the northwest Pacific coast, see the most destination weddings. This is the driest part of the country, with reliable sunshine from November through April, and it holds the highest concentration of resort venues. Liberia International Airport (LIR) is the closest gateway and is often cheaper to fly into than San José.

Manuel Antonio, on the central Pacific coast, pairs dense rainforest with a crescent of beach. It is greener and slightly more humid than Guanacaste, with a shorter dry season. Weddings here lean boho: open-air ceremonies on jungle-edge platforms, with monkeys and sloths overhead.

Nosara and Santa Teresa are surf towns on the Nicoya Peninsula, and they draw a younger, more design-conscious crowd: yoga-retreat aesthetics, driftwood altars, intimate guest counts. Access is harder, a long and sometimes unpaved drive from Liberia, and seclusion is what you get for the trouble.

La Fortuna and the Arenal volcano area is the inland option. You trade the beach for volcano views, hot springs, waterfalls, and cloud-forest light. The photographs look nothing like a beach wedding, which is exactly the point for some couples.

The Osa Peninsula and Corcovado, in the far south, is the wildest region: private eco-lodges, rainforest ceremonies, very small guest lists. It is expensive and logistically involved, and it is the one that ends up looking like a nature documentary.

Costa Rica has two seasons, dry season (verano) and green season (invierno). For a wedding the answer is almost always dry season, which runs roughly mid-December through April.

December through April is peak wedding season. Expect reliable sunshine, calm seas on the Pacific, and the lowest chance of your outdoor ceremony getting rained out. It is also peak tourist season, so airfare and hotel prices are at their highest, and venues book 12 to 18 months in advance.

May and November are the shoulder months. The rains are arriving or leaving, the skies are dramatic, and prices drop noticeably. Most days still have long sunny stretches, with rain clustered into late-afternoon showers you can plan around.

June through October is green season. Landscapes are at their most vivid, crowds thin out, and costs fall by 20 to 40 percent. Rain is a real factor, particularly on the Caribbean and central Pacific coasts, though Guanacaste stays relatively dry through July. Book here and you need an indoor or covered ceremony backup.

September and October are the wettest months and are generally not recommended for a beach wedding, though jungle and volcano ceremonies can still work with the right backup plan.

Costa Rica makes this easy: no residency requirement, no waiting period, no blood tests, and no paperwork to file from home before you travel.

What you need: a valid passport for each partner, both partners at least 18 years old, and a sworn statement (affidavit) confirming you are free to marry. If either partner has been married before, a divorce decree or death certificate is required, translated into Spanish and apostilled.

Who can officiate: only priests, Costa Rican judges, and licensed Costa Rican attorneys (abogados) can perform legally binding ceremonies. If you want a symbolic ceremony led by a friend or a non-Catholic officiant, a lawyer still has to sign the paperwork for the marriage to be recognized. Most wedding planners have a partner attorney on call.

Witnesses: two witnesses over 18 who are not related to either partner within the third degree.

Registration: after the ceremony the attorney files the marriage with Costa Rica's Civil Registry. Your certificate, translated and authenticated, typically arrives at your home address within 8 to 12 weeks. Marriages performed in Costa Rica are recognized in the United States, Canada, the UK, and most of Europe without further action.

Plenty of couples marry legally at their local courthouse before traveling and treat the Costa Rica ceremony as symbolic. That avoids any paperwork delay, and it is what planners recommend if you need the certificate quickly, for a name change, insurance, or immigration.

For a destination wedding with 20 to 50 guests, budget roughly $25,000 to $45,000 for a mid-range celebration in 2026. Luxury weddings at private villas or Peninsula Papagayo resorts can run $75,000 to $150,000 and up. Elopements with just the couple and a photographer start around $2,500 to $5,000.

Here is a rough breakdown for a 40-guest wedding in the $30,000 to $40,000 range.

Venue and ceremony fee: $3,000 to $8,000 depending on whether you book a resort package or a standalone private venue.

Catering and bar: $150 to $250 per guest for dinner and open bar at a resort; $100 to $180 per guest at an independent venue. Budget $6,000 to $10,000 for 40 guests.

Photography: $3,500 to $7,000 for a full-day package from an established local photographer. Costa Rica has a deep bench of international-level wedding photographers, and this is not the category to cut.

Flowers and decor: $2,500 to $6,000. Tropical blooms such as heliconia, ginger and orchids are locally abundant and affordable; imported peonies and garden roses get expensive fast.

Planner and coordinator: $3,000 to $8,000. A local planner is effectively required if you are not booking an all-inclusive resort package, and worth having even if you are.

Music and entertainment: $1,500 to $4,000 for a DJ plus ceremony musicians; live bands start around $3,500.

Officiant and legal fees: $500 to $1,200 if you want the marriage legally binding in Costa Rica.

Welcome events, rehearsal dinner, and farewell brunch: budget an additional $3,000 to $8,000 if you plan a full wedding weekend.

Guests typically pay their own airfare and lodging. Airfare from the U.S. to Liberia or San José runs $400 to $800 round-trip in dry season. Hotel rates at wedding-friendly resorts range from $250 to $800 per night, and more couples are blocking villa rentals as a mid-priced alternative.

These are the names that come up repeatedly when planners talk about Costa Rica weddings.

Andaz Costa Rica Resort at Peninsula Papagayo is the luxury benchmark. Ceremony sites include a hilltop overlook, a private cove beach, and an open-air pavilion. Prices are Peninsula Papagayo prices, among the highest in the country.

The Westin Reserva Conchal is an all-inclusive in Guanacaste, popular for mid-to-upper-budget resort weddings. Ceremonies happen on the beach or a cliff-top terrace, and the resort handles most of the logistics in-house.

Cala Luna Boutique Hotel in Tamarindo is smaller and more design-forward. Cala Luna Point, a rocky outcrop where the beach curves out to sea, is one of the country's most photographed ceremony spots.

Hacienda Pinilla is a sprawling private residential-and-resort community with a historic colonial chapel, a beach club, and several hotel partners. Couples who want a multi-day weekend across varied settings often land here.

Nayara Tented Camp and Nayara Gardens, near La Fortuna, are the benchmark for volcano-view weddings. The sister properties share the views and differ in style, safari-tented against lush garden.

Lapa Rios Lodge on the Osa Peninsula is the pick for small, fully-immersed rainforest weddings. Maximum 30 or so guests, and booking often means buying out the lodge.

Pranamar Villas and Hotel Nantipa, both in Santa Teresa, anchor the boho-surf end of the spectrum. Both favor barefoot beach ceremonies and small counts.

Secrets Papagayo and Dreams Las Mareas are the better-known adults-only all-inclusive options in Guanacaste, with published wedding packages that start around $3,000 to $6,000 before per-guest add-ons.

A destination wedding in Costa Rica benefits from a 12-to-18-month planning runway. Here is roughly how the months should go.

Twelve to fifteen months out: lock in the region, the date and the venue; hire a local planner; send save-the-dates; book your photographer. Peak-season Saturdays at the best venues go first, often a full year ahead.

Nine to twelve months out: book the room block, the vendors (florist, DJ, officiant, ceremony musicians) and the rehearsal dinner venue. Set up a wedding website with travel details. Guests will want flight recommendations, airport guidance (LIR against SJO), and transportation logistics.

Six to nine months out: send invitations, start tastings (many planners arrange video tastings, or in-person during a planning trip), settle the decor direction, and confirm guest transport between the airport, the hotel and the ceremony.

Three to six months out: finalize the guest count for catering, confirm room blocks, order attire, and schedule hair and makeup trials. A planning trip three to four months before the wedding is common and genuinely useful.

One to three months out: final vendor payments, seating charts, welcome bags assembled, and the marriage paperwork submitted if you are going the legal route.

One month out: confirm flight arrivals, coordinate welcome events, and finalize the timeline with your planner.

A Costa Rica wedding asks more of guests than a closer destination, so plan for it.

Fly into Liberia (LIR) for Guanacaste, Nicoya and Papagayo weddings, and San José (SJO) for Manuel Antonio, La Fortuna and southern coast weddings. LIR is much closer to most wedding venues, so tell guests explicitly which airport you want them to use.

Internal travel is slower than a map suggests. Even short distances can take two or three hours on winding roads. Budget extra transfer time, and arrange group shuttles rather than leaving guests to rent cars.

U.S. citizens do not need a visa for tourist stays under 90 days. Passports must be valid for the duration of the trip.

Pack for humidity. Linen suits, lightweight dresses, and open-air fabrics are the standard dress code for Costa Rica weddings, and most beach ceremonies are explicitly barefoot or sandal-friendly.

Yellow fever vaccination is not required for travel from the U.S., Canada, or Europe, but it is required if arriving from certain South American and African countries, which matters if you have guests flying in from those regions.

Travel insurance is worth recommending. Long flights, rainy-season unpredictability and adventure-heavy itineraries together make it a sensible spend.

A few patterns show up over and over in planner debriefs.

Booking green season without a real indoor backup. Rain is not a maybe, it is a given. Every outdoor ceremony needs a tent, a covered pavilion, or an indoor alternative.

Underestimating transfer times. Couples who schedule a welcome dinner for the same day as international arrivals watch guests trickle in hours late.

Importing too much decor. Costa Rica has gorgeous native flora and strong local vendors. Shipping peonies from Ecuador or rentals from Miami adds cost, logistics headaches, and customs risk.

Skipping the planner to save money. Resort coordinators handle the venue well, but a dedicated local planner handles the country: vendor negotiations, paperwork, transportation, contingencies. This is not where to cut.

Forgetting the humidity when you plan hair and makeup. Beach-proof, humidity-proof trials are essential, and an air-conditioned getting-ready space saves the morning.

Book dry season, hire a local planner, and pick the region that matches what you want: Guanacaste for reliable sunshine, Manuel Antonio for jungle and beach together, La Fortuna for the volcano, Osa for wild seclusion. Then build the weekend around the country itself, because that is what your guests are flying for.