Is the Majestic Lodge the right Costa Rica wedding venue for you?
If you are planning a destination wedding in Costa Rica, the thing that makes this venue different from a resort is that you take the whole property. There is no other wedding that weekend, no other guests at breakfast, and no hotel schedule to work around. The building and grounds are yours for as many nights as you book.
If you are planning a small or intimate wedding, this is built for it. We cap at 50 guests deliberately. Costa Rica has venues that will seat 150 and treat your day as one of three that month. At fifty you get the whole place and the whole attention.
If you want an all-inclusive Costa Rica wedding, the Presidential Package covers food, airport transport, the vehicles and massages for the group, priced to match your accommodation. It does not cover wedding-specific vendors — catering styling, flowers, photography — but it removes the logistics that normally eat the week either side of the day.
If you are having a multi-day celebration, this is where a private property genuinely beats a hotel. Rehearsal dinner on the deck on Friday, the wedding Saturday, brunch with everyone still there on Sunday — all in the same place, with no venue hire three times over and nobody driving anywhere.
Where we are not the right fit: if you want a beach ceremony, or a guest list over fifty, or a venue with an in-house wedding coordinator running the day, this is not it. We are inland, we are small, and we are honest about both.
Where the ceremony and reception happen
Ceremonies are held on the covered deck — open on three sides to rainforest, roofed, and large enough to seat your guests with the volcano beyond. The roof is not a compromise here, it is the reason a La Fortuna wedding works: an afternoon shower passes overhead without anyone moving.
The reception runs on the same deck and out around the pool as the light goes. String lights, the building glowing behind, and rainforest on every side. Most couples do the ceremony in the late afternoon and let it roll straight into dinner.
The grounds below the deck work for photographs, and the drive up gives you the volcano as a backdrop when the cloud lifts.
Where everyone sleeps
Up to 33 of your party sleep on site, across 10 bedrooms that each have their own bathroom. That matters more at a wedding than at any other kind of stay — the wedding party gets ready in the house, nobody is driving back from a hotel at midnight, and the morning after happens where the night before did.
Remaining guests stay in La Fortuna, about twenty minutes away, where there is a wide range of hotels at every price. We can point your guest list at sensible options.
What a wedding here costs
The venue is the property. There is no separate venue hire fee on top of the accommodation.
| Whole property | $1,350 per night, every month — no wedding surcharge (plus $350 for the cleaning fee) |
|---|---|
| Breakfast | Included for up to 16 guests; $20 per person per day above that |
| Sleeps | 33 on site |
| Typical booking | Three to five nights around the wedding |
| Deposit | 50% of lodging reserves your date |
A four-night booking for a party of 33 is $6,760 for the property, breakfast included — about $205 per person staying, before catering and vendors.
Catering, flowers, photography, music, an officiant and any hire furniture sit outside that and are quoted separately.
Full rates and the Presidential Package →
Getting legally married in Costa Rica as a US citizen
This is the question couples ask first, and most wedding pages get parts of it wrong. Here is what we could verify across the US Embassy, Costa Rican attorneys and the civil registry — with sources at the bottom.
The short version
- No residency requirement and no waiting period for most couples. A normal tourist entry stamp is enough.
- A Costa Rican attorney or notary (notario público) performs the civil ceremony. US Embassy and consular staff cannot marry you.
- Two witnesses are required, and they attest to your legal capacity to marry.
- Your marriage is valid in the United States. A marriage legally performed abroad is generally recognised in the US, and you are not required to report it to the Embassy.
What you bring
- Passports, valid at least six months. A passport is the only accepted identification — a driver's licence will not do.
- Birth certificates — certified copies, apostilled.
- If either of you was previously married: an apostilled divorce decree or the former spouse's death certificate.
- Anything not in Spanish needs official translation, which your notary normally arranges.
The single-status question, which trips Americans up
Many countries issue a government "certificate of single status". The United States does not. Instead you sign a declaración jurada de soltería — a sworn affidavit that you are free to marry, made under penalty of perjury. Your Costa Rican notary usually drafts it and you sign it on the day, alongside your two witnesses.
Some notaries prefer it notarised in advance, in which case the US Embassy in San José provides notarial services for a fee. Ask your attorney which they want before you travel — it is the single most common cause of last-minute scrambling.
The 300-day rule
This one catches people, and almost no wedding site mentions it. Under Costa Rican law a woman who is divorced or widowed must wait 300 days from the date of the divorce decree or the death certificate before remarrying. It can be waived with medical proof that she is not pregnant.
If your divorce was finalised within the last ten months, raise it with your attorney early. There is a route through it, but not one you want to discover the week of the wedding.
Apostilles — start these early
Costa Rica is a member of the Hague Apostille Convention, so US documents need an apostille rather than embassy legalisation.
- State-issued documents — birth certificates, divorce decrees — are apostilled by the Secretary of State of the state that issued them.
- Federal documents are apostilled by the US Department of State in Washington.
- Use certified copies from the state registrar, not photocopies.
Turnaround varies by state from days to many weeks. Begin at least three months out.
After the wedding
Your notary files the marriage with Costa Rica's Registro Civil, part of the Supreme Electoral Tribunal. Recording it typically takes roughly two to three months. The certificate is then apostilled by Costa Rica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs so it can be used in the US, and translated if you need it in English.
So: you are married on the day, but the paperwork lands months later. Plan any name change, visa or insurance application around that, not around the wedding date.
Or skip all of it
A great many couples do the legal paperwork at home — a courthouse signing before or after the trip — and hold a symbolic ceremony here. Same day, same photographs, same guests, none of the apostilles. No guest will know the difference, and it removes every item above.
Free download
Getting Married in Costa Rica: a US Citizen's Guide
Everything above as a printable PDF — document checklist, apostille steps, the 300-day rule, the post-wedding timeline, and every source cited so you can check it yourself.
This is not legal advice. We are a venue, not a law firm, and requirements change. Everything here was verified against the sources listed in the PDF, but confirm the current position with a Costa Rican attorney before you book flights.
When to get married in La Fortuna
It rains here in every month — that is what makes it rainforest, and it is why the ceremony space is covered. What changes is how much.
| December – April | Driest, best odds of a clear volcano in your photographs, busiest and priciest for flights |
|---|---|
| May – November | Green season. Afternoon showers that pass, everything intensely green, fewer tourists, cheaper flights |
Practical advice either way: hold the ceremony in the late afternoon rather than mid-afternoon. The light is better, the heat has gone, and you are past the window when rain is most likely. More on the weather →
Vendors, and what we do and don't do
We are a venue, not a wedding planner, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we do is the part we are good at: the property, the beds, the food for your stay, the airport runs and the vehicles.
For the wedding itself — photographer, florist, catering styling, officiant, music, hair and makeup — most couples either bring a planner or book vendors directly in La Fortuna. We are happy to introduce you to people we have seen work well here, and to work alongside whichever planner you choose.
Recommended timeline
This timeline is recommended because it gives you room to plan a destination wedding and to tell the people you want there early enough that they can book time off, find flights and come and stay with you at the lodge. It is a recommendation, not a requirement — we have helped couples put a wedding together with only a few months' notice. If your dates are tighter than this, we are still glad to help you organise it.
| 12 months out | Lock the date and the property. A 50% lodging deposit holds it. |
|---|---|
| 9 months | Book photographer and officiant — the good ones in La Fortuna go early. |
| 6 months | Send invitations with hotel options for guests not staying on site. |
| 3 months | Confirm catering, flowers and furniture. Start the legal paperwork if marrying legally in Costa Rica — apostilles take time. |
| 1 month | Final headcount, flight details to us so transfers are arranged, and a run sheet for the day. |
Common questions
Can we hold the rehearsal dinner and a day-after brunch here too?
Yes, and most couples do. You have the property for the whole booking, so the extra events cost you nothing in venue hire — only the food.
Is there somewhere to get ready?
Ten bedrooms across four floors. Wedding parties typically take the top floor, which has two sitting areas and the massage room, and use the ground-floor Jaguar Room with its own outside entrance for the other half of the party.
What happens if it rains on the day?
The ceremony and reception spaces are covered. It is the first question we get and the least worrying one.
Can we bring our own caterer?
Yes. We can also cook, depending on what you have in mind — tell us and we will be straight about whether we are the right people for it.
Ask about your date
Tell us when, how many, and what you are picturing. We will confirm availability, give you an exact total, and say honestly if the property is not right for the wedding you have in mind.