The wedding Tulum quoted you $42k for — on a Pacific beach, for $14k.
Same ceremony, same dinner, same photographer-and-videographer pair, same 30 guests. Without the Tulum tax, the resort markup, or the "destination fee" that nobody can ever explain.
Five years on this coast. Twenty weddings a year, not two hundred. Six vendors we've worked with since 2021. The person you message tonight is the person standing next to you on the beach.
Six moving parts. One WhatsApp number when any of them goes sideways.
We aren't reselling a venue's package — we're the planner. The savings come from cutting the resellers in between, not from cutting corners on the day.
Venue + setup
Beach permits, the bamboo arch, chairs, aisle petals, hanging lights, signage — sourced and built by local crews who do this every weekend. You walk down an aisle that looks like the inspiration board, not a JPEG of it. We've done Playa Maderas, Playa Marsella, Aposentillo, and Granada's colonial courtyards. We know which beaches need a permit and which need a friend.
Legal marriage paperwork
A legal civil wedding registered with the municipal registry, apostilled at Nicaragua's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, couriered to your home address. You change your name at the DMV with a Nicaraguan certificate. It works in 100+ Hague-Convention countries. Six-week timeline. ~30 expat weddings completed since 2022.
Officiant + ceremony
Bilingual officiant who can run the legal civil ceremony, or a symbolic one if you're handling the legal part at home. The vows happen in your language. The signing happens in theirs. Nobody is standing on a beach holding back tears while a stranger reads in monotone. Three regulars in our rotation — one priest, two civil officiants. Warm, never preachy.
Photo + video
A husband-and-wife shooter pair, ~60 weddings in this region, warm Pacific-light editorial style. Proofs in 10 days, full gallery in 4-6 weeks, every RAW file yours. You're scrolling the gallery on your phone before your friends are back from their honeymoon, not waiting four months for a stranger's edit you'll have to ask them to redo.
Food, drink, and the toast
Private chef from Granada — Pacific seafood, finca beef, vegetarian options that aren't sad. Bartenders who can build a Flor de Caña Old Fashioned, not just open bottles. Your dad still texts you about the short rib eight months later. Scales from a chef's table for 10 to a sit-down for 50.
Guest concierge
Hotel and villa blocks, airport pickups, surf-lesson day trips, a Sunday Funday reservation, recovery breakfast the morning after. Your mom isn't WhatsApping you at 11pm asking how to get from Managua airport to her hotel. We are. Run it as a full weekend program or just give your guests a number.
Five steps. Six months. One Google Doc.
No CRM login. No "client portal." No fourteen-tab spreadsheet that updates itself wrong. One shared document, one WhatsApp thread, the same two humans the whole way through.
WhatsApp us
When, roughly how many, what kind of feel — beach barefoot, colonial courtyard, finca. Within 24 hours you've got two or three venue options and a real budget range. No sales call required.
Scout call (or visit)
A 45-minute video call to walk venues, dates, and the honest budget conversation. Most couples then fly down for a scout weekend three to six months out — we set up the visits. It's the trip that locks in the rest.
Lock the date
A $1,500 deposit holds the venue and blocks the vendor calendar. We open a planning doc — vendors, costs, deliverables, deadlines — and edit it live as decisions land. No CRM, no logins, just a link you can text your sister.
Paperwork in parallel
If you want a legal Nicaragua wedding, our lawyer kicks off the document chain ~10 weeks out. Birth certificates, single-status affidavits, apostilles. We send the checklist; you ship the documents; we handle every translation, stamp, and registry filing on this end.
Arrive, get married
We're at the airport. We walk the timeline with you the day before. We run the ceremony, settle the vendors, and stay until the last toast. The apostilled marriage certificate lands on your doormat 4-6 weeks later.
$14k vs $42k — the same wedding
Same 30 guests, same beach ceremony, same sit-down dinner, same photo+video coverage, same 3-day planner involvement — priced across three destinations. Our numbers are real. The Tulum and Tamarindo numbers are published 2024-2025 averages from The Knot, Brides, and venue surveys.
By format — typical all-in budgets
- Elopement (just the two of you): $3,500-$6,000 — officiant, photographer, sunset dinner
- Vow renewal (under 10 guests): $4,500-$7,500
- Intimate wedding (10-25 guests): $10,000-$18,000
- Mid-size (25-50 guests): $16,000-$32,000
- Full weekend (multi-day): add 25-40% for welcome dinner + day-after brunch
By venue type — venue fee only
- Public beach with permit: $250-$600 (Maderas, Marsella, Aposentillo)
- Private beach club / hotel: $1,500-$4,500
- Granada colonial courtyard: $1,800-$5,000
- Finca / coffee estate: $2,000-$4,800
- Private villa rental: $3,000-$8,000 (also sleeps the wedding party)
Six people we'd put our own wedding on
Most destination-wedding planners hand you a "preferred vendor list" of 40 names they've never personally met. Ours is six. We use the same officiant, the same shooter pair, the same chef, the same florist, the same DJ, the same lawyer — every single time. They know our couples; they know us; mistakes don't compound across strangers.
Lawyer (legal weddings)
Managua-based attorney who runs civil weddings and the registry filing. ~30 expat weddings since 2022, with a strong track record on registry filings. Walks couples through apostille for the home country. Flat-fee, speaks English well. You sign once, in person, in 45 minutes.
Civil officiant (bilingual)
Licensed civil officiant in SJDS, runs the legal ceremony in English with the Spanish overlay needed for the registry. Warm, secular, comfortable with non-traditional vows. Your grandma understands every word. Your in-laws who only speak Spanish do too.
Photographer + videographer pair
Husband-and-wife team based in SJDS. He shoots photo, she shoots video — they cover angles a single shooter physically can't. ~60 weddings in this region. Proofs in 10 days. Every RAW file yours forever. Warm Pacific-light edits that don't look like a 2018 Pinterest board.
Florist
Local florist who works with the tropical foliage that's actually around — palm fronds, hibiscus, tropical orchids — sourced from Granada and Masaya markets the morning of. Arches, bouquets, table florals. Nothing wilts by sunset because nothing flew in. From minimalist to full lush jungle.
Caterer + bar service
Private chef from Granada — Pacific seafood, finca beef, vegetarian options nobody apologises for. Paired with bartenders who can build a cocktail, not just pour rum-and-coke. The "wedding dinner" thing where everyone politely pushes food around the plate? Doesn't happen. Both teams have run weddings up to 60 people.
Music + DJ
A duo who plays acoustic Latin for the ceremony and pivots to a DJ set for the reception. Bilingual playlist requests welcome. Tasteful, not Top 40. Nobody's tío commandeers the AUX cable. Add a mariachi trio for the cocktail hour if your family will love it.
Yes — it's a real marriage when you get home
A civil wedding in Nicaragua is recognised in the US, Canada, the UK, the EU, Australia, and 100+ other countries under the Hague Apostille Convention. You can change your name at the DMV, file taxes jointly, and add a spouse to insurance — all with the Nicaraguan certificate. Here's exactly what's required.
Legal civil wedding in Nicaragua
Six-week paperwork timeline · ~$1,200-$1,800 in lawyer + government fees · documents apostilled and shipped to your home country
What you bring
- Original birth certificates — apostilled in your home country, translated by an official translator (we arrange)
- Single-status affidavit (a "soltería" / unmarried statement) — notarised & apostilled at home
- Passport copies — colour, both sides, multiple sets
- Two witnesses — can be ours or yours, must be over 21 with passports
- Previous divorce decree (if applicable) — apostilled & translated
What we handle
- Translation of all foreign documents by a sworn translator
- Lawyer + notary for the civil ceremony itself
- Filing with the municipal registry in the city where you marry
- Apostille at the Nicaraguan Ministry of Foreign Affairs — this is the certification that makes the marriage recognised abroad
- Courier shipping of the apostilled certificate to your home address (4-6 weeks after the ceremony)
The eight questions every couple asks us
In that order, roughly. If yours isn't here, text us. We'd rather answer once, in detail, than ship a generic FAQ.
How far in advance should we book?
Six months is the sweet spot. Three months is doable for elopements and weddings under 15 guests. Anything under six weeks gets tight on the legal paperwork side and we'd suggest doing the legal marriage at home and a symbolic ceremony here.
The high season for weddings on this coast runs December through April (dry season). Saturday dates in February and March book out 9-12 months ahead. Off-season (May, September, October) is wide open and slightly cheaper.
What's the weather like? Will it rain?
Pacific Nicaragua has a clean dry-season/wet-season split. December through April: virtually no rain, sunny most days, low humidity. May through November: rain comes in the afternoon as predictable two-hour showers, usually 3-5pm. Mornings and evenings stay clear.
For weddings outside the dry season we plan a ceremony time before 2pm or after 5:30pm. We've had one rain-day in the last three years that forced a venue switch — we had a covered backup an hour away on standby. We always have a backup.
Can my parents come? Is it safe enough for older guests?
Yes, on both counts. San Juan del Sur, Tola, and Granada are tourist towns with US and Canadian retirees living in them year-round. Crime against tourists is rare and almost always opportunistic petty theft (don't leave a phone on a restaurant table). Violent crime against expats is statistically lower than most US cities you've heard of.
Practical accommodations for older guests: ground-floor rooms, air-conditioned villas, hospitals are 90-120 minutes away in Managua (Hospital Vivian Pellas, Hospital Metropolitano — both modern, both used by expats). We can arrange airport pickups and a fixed driver for the wedding weekend so no one has to figure out a taxi.
Do you do same-sex weddings?
Yes, and we want to be clear about the legal piece since you'll have heard things: same-sex marriage is not legally recognised under Nicaraguan civil law as of 2026. A symbolic ceremony with all the meaning, vows, paperwork-of-the-soul stuff is absolutely possible here, and we've coordinated several beautiful ones. For the legal piece, most couples handle it at home or in Mexico City (the closest jurisdiction with full marriage equality and a smooth process for foreigners).
What we won't do: pretend the legal situation is something it isn't, or steer you to a workaround that creates problems later. Honest conversations on the first call.
Can guests bring kids? Is the venue kid-friendly?
Yes, very much. Beach venues are basically the most kid-friendly setting that exists — sand, water, palm trees, room to run. We can build a "kids' table" with simpler food, hire a sitter or two to cover the reception so parents can actually drink champagne, and choose villa accommodations with pools.
The one note: Nicaragua hotels often classify infants and young children differently than US hotels. We'll handle the room blocks so you don't get a surprise bill at check-in.
What's the deposit and payment schedule?
A non-refundable $1,500 deposit locks the date and starts the vendor calendar. From there: 30% of total budget six months out, 30% three months out, balance two weeks before. All in USD, wire or Wise. Vendor payments are passed through at-cost; our coordination fee is the only line item that has our margin.
What's in the deposit if you cancel: covered through 90 days out. Inside 90 days the vendors have committed dates and we honour that — partial refunds are case-by-case. We've never been hard about this; one couple cancelled inside 60 days during a family emergency and we refunded everything we could legitimately get back from vendors.
Do you handle the bachelor / bachelorette weekend too?
Absolutely. SJDS is famous for Sunday Funday (a structured pool-crawl through several hotels — better than it sounds), surf lessons are easy to arrange, and we know a sportfishing captain who runs an excellent half-day for groups of 4-6. Granada has a colonial-cocktail-bar circuit that's a softer landing for an older crowd. We can build a full pre-wedding day with whatever mix matches your guests.
Some of this is covered on our Tours & experiences page if you want to browse before you book.
What about my dress / suit and the rest of the wedding gear?
Most couples bring everything in checked bags — a wedding dress in a garment bag flies fine, and a suit packs flat. For larger items (welcome boxes, signage, personalised gifts for guests, a custom cake topper) we use Fast Pack — our sister shipping company — to consolidate a single box from the US to SJDS in 3-4 weeks. We coordinate the shipment with your timeline so it lands before you do.
One thing not to skip: bring a backup pair of comfortable sandals. The "beach barefoot" idea sounds romantic until you have a 90-minute photo session.
This is the wrong destination for some couples
We'd rather you find out now than after the deposit. Read both columns honestly — and if the right column describes you, we'll gladly point you to a planner in Costa Rica or Mexico who'll do better by you than we would.
A great fit if you
Most of our couples find us through a friend's wedding, not a Pinterest board.
- Want intimate over impressive. Under 50 guests is where Nicaragua shines — the energy is dinner-party warm, not gala-loud.
- Prefer "what a place" over "what a brand." The beaches feel undiscovered because, mostly, they still are.
- Have a budget that punches harder elsewhere. Couples regularly tell us they spent half what Tulum quoted them and got better food.
- Are open to two days of paperwork and one set of apostilles. If you can manage a passport renewal, you can manage this.
- Like Spanish-ish even if you don't speak it. Half your weekend will feel Latin in tone, and that's the point.
- Aren't tied to Saturday in February. Flexibility on date saves 20-30%.
Probably not your match if you
No hard feelings — these are real and we'd rather you know now.
- Want a 200-person rager. Logistics get expensive fast above 60 guests. Costa Rica and Mexico have the resort infrastructure built for scale; we don't.
- Need a name-brand resort. No Four Seasons, no Aman, no Auberge. The "luxe" tier here is boutique villas and finca estates, not five-star hotel groups.
- Won't budge on the legal paperwork. If the apostille process is a non-starter, do the legal piece at home and we'll run a symbolic ceremony — but if you want the legal Nicaragua marriage and won't gather documents, we can't help.
- Expect Pinterest-curated Instagram fame. We can deliver beautiful photos, but if your goal is a viral hashtag, Tulum and Santorini have that locked.
- Have guests who won't fly to Central America. Some family will say no to Nicaragua specifically. We can't fix that perception — but we can help you talk through it.
Two couples, two budgets, the same Sunday morning feeling
Tulum quoted us $38k and we hadn't even picked a date yet. Destination Nica got us married on Playa Marsella with 28 of our favourite people for less than half that — and the short rib was better than anything we ate in Mexico on our honeymoon. A year later our families still talk about that Sunday Funday brunch like it was their wedding.
We didn't want a wedding. We wanted to be married. So we eloped — just the two of us, our officiant, and a photographer at sunset on Playa Maderas. They handled every piece of paperwork, the apostilled certificate showed up at our house six weeks later, and we didn't have a single panicked moment in the whole process. Those photos still wreck me a year on.
Tell us your date
Send us a rough window, a rough guest count, a rough vibe. Within 24 hours you'll have two or three real venues and an honest budget range — no slide deck, no sales call, no pressure. February and March Saturdays fill 9-12 months out; if your date is in that window, the earlier you ping us, the more of the bench is still free.