Costa Rica Elopement Planning Guide [Updated for 2022]
What we gonna talk about:
Clic to jump to section
Are you considering a Costa Rica elopement?
If you are, you’ve chosen a beautiful place.
For definition Costa Rica is known throughout the world for its natural beauty. Our national parks and protected areas systems cover around 25.21% of the country’s area, including a great variety of flora and fauna, housing 5% of the world’s biodiversity. Our country has immense natural resources that meet the needs of those who want everything from extreme adventures to the tranquility of beaches, mountains, forests, and volcanoes.
Why Elope?
Years ago, eloping meant running down to City Hall or taking a booze-fueled trip to Las Vegas or LA. But, today, many are having intimate, personal, and stylish elopements all around the world. In fact, elopement ceremonies are on the rise, especially among millennials. Here we have a short list of many reasons why to elope:
Eloping will save you a lot of money and help you stay on track with your finances (it means more money for honeymoon).
Without the extended family, elopement becomes an intimate, private experience just for the couple.
Elopements can be a lot more personal and unique than the average wedding.
What is the best time of year?
Well, Costa Rica is pretty famous for its climate, you know, a lot of rainy forests and humidity, and the thing is that it goes pretty much all the year around, so you will have to keep that in mind if you are planning to come between May and mid December, specially in those places nearby the mountains like Monteverde or La Fortuna.
That being said, if you want full sunny days and guaranteed dreamy sunset I do recommend you to come during the summer season which goes from mid December to April. Negative side of this is that prices are higher in pretty much everything because we have a lot of tourist everywhere at the beaches areas.
In the other hand, if you don’t care for “perfect” weather, I could say you could go everywhere in the country. In Costa Rica between August and November we have tons of rain, specially in the central valley and towards south.
*There is an exception with the caribbean beaches that have their best time in October.
Being fully honest, the main point, since our point of view, is the couple attitude to enjoy. If you love rain and your photographer is willing to go with you whether is the best sunset or a rainy day, there is always a chance to get a good picture if you are joyful, positive and willing to do it!
Mountain or Beach?
I think the best method to unwrap this topic is to take in consideration the pros and cons of both sides, so let begin with the beach option:
Beach Weddings:
Pros: Costa Rica has probably the most beautiful beaches in the wolrd, both pacific and caribbean side; your guests will be amazed, it is almost. a honeymoon and wedding at the same time, and of course you can get some tan!Cons: It could be extremely hot!, being stand on the sand may people sweat (a lot!), in summer season it may be a lot of people around.
Mountain Weddings:
Pros: The view!, If you love to hike it could be a great thing to do!, you can have it under the trees, it may be way less crowded.Cons: If there is not an easy access it could be hard for some people to get there walking, and it could take hours to get there depending of the place (there is a lot of Mountain hotels with easy access).
For adventurous couples we also highly recommend to explore other places like waterfalls or rivers!
Photography Packages and princing:
We are based in San José, Costa Rica, but travel to Guanacaste Pacific Coast for a large portion of our weddings. Specifically to locations like Papagayo, Hacienda Pinilla, Manuel Antonio and Northern National Parks. Our photography package for these weddings includes my travel and accommodations. We also travel for weddings to Nicaragua, Panamá and USA.
Elopement Pricing:
From 2 hours packages to 4 hours coverage available.
Printing rights to the fully-edited digital files.
Online gallery with easy image download.
Travel fees included for all around the Country.
Two hours: $1200 | Four hours $2000
Custom quotes and full-day coverage for unique adventures are available.
What about the venues?
We already make an intro in our blog about venues in Costa Rica, however we think is important to mentioned in this guide since we have tons of venues that we even haven't been in all of them, so our recommendations are limited to our expirience.
We also want to share with you three venues that we think they are worth of consideration, they look awesome, don’t you think:
Testimonials
“Chris eased our nerves and made us feel comfortable in front of the camera when the shoot began. We wanted Chris to use his creativity freely, and he did just that incorporating poses and natural feelings into our photos. He never once made us feel rushed. He went above and beyond to get amazing shots.. we trekked through rain, climbed over rocks, walked up and down tons of stairs just to name a few.”
-Kayla & Jake, USA.
My Best advice
If you want to elope in Costa Rica you gotta bring:
Raincoat
Bugspray
Enough Sunscreen
Flexible plans and time
Pura Vida attitude for the Ticos vibes.
*Also you have to consider Costa Rica is pretty expensive country, so keep that in mind if you are in a low budget trip.
Let us know if you want some advice in something specific, no ones know best the country as the locals.
Final Thoughts :
We love our country and we are pretty proud of it, even thou we have a lot of things we are not, but please keep it clean wherever you go. Also, enjoy it, Costa Rica has been really focus in tourism the last decades so we always want to be sure everyone is happy visiting us, there is not a perfect country, but I am sure we can work together to make your elopement an gorgeous experience of life. If you want to reach us out please don’t hesitate, we also love to connect with people when we travel. Click Here to get into the contact form.
Warm Regards
Chris & Karla
