In this guide
Planning an Andaz Costa Rica wedding means choosing a resort inside Peninsula Papagayo that has a personality of its own.
The architecture follows the hillside through the tropical dry forest, with curved buildings, open spaces and views over Culebra Bay. Rather than separating the resort from the landscape, much of the property is designed around it.
For a destination wedding, that creates an interesting balance.
Your guests get the convenience of staying together inside a resort, while the forest, wildlife and coastline still have a strong presence around the celebration. If you are comparing locations across the peninsula, my Papagayo wedding photographer guide gives more context on the wider area.
Andaz Costa Rica wedding at a glance
Location: Peninsula Papagayo, Guanacaste
Nearest international airport: Liberia International Airport
Setting: Tropical dry forest, bay and Pacific coast
Wedding spaces: Beachfront, garden and indoor event spaces
Largest published capacity: 500 guests
Good for: Destination weddings and multi-day celebrations
Rain options: Covered and indoor venues
Wedding style: Contemporary Costa Rican design surrounded by forest
Andaz currently lists six wedding spaces. El Jardín accommodates up to 500 guests, Casa de Playa up to 300, and Studio 1 up to 200. Andaz wedding information.
What it feels like when everyone stays here
This is where the experiences of couples who actually planned an Andaz Costa Rica wedding become much more useful than the hotel’s marketing.
A bride who married there remembered the team handling the details and logistics before and during the wedding so thoroughly that she described the decision to marry at Andaz as one of the best she and her husband made.
Another couple remembered something much smaller: members of staff learned not only their names, but their guests’ names too. WeddingWire reviews.
That second detail interests me.
Because a destination wedding can easily become logistical.
Guests arrive at different times. Someone needs directions. Someone else cannot find dinner. Welcome gifts need to reach rooms. Parents have questions.
The couple should not be managing those things all weekend.
When people working at a resort start recognizing the wedding party as actual people rather than room numbers, it changes the atmosphere of the whole celebration.
The wedding spaces that matter
El Jardín
El Jardín is the largest wedding space at Andaz, with views over the tropical forest and Culebra Bay. The resort currently lists capacity for up to 500 guests.
What makes it interesting is that it does not rely on a beach to communicate Costa Rica.
The forest, bay and architecture already give the space a very specific sense of place.
From a photography perspective, I like venues where the surroundings are strong enough that we do not need to manufacture atmosphere with endless decoration.
The setting should support the wedding rather than compete with it.
Casa de Playa
Casa de Playa gives you the other side of Andaz.
It is the resort’s beachfront wedding environment, with published capacity for up to 300 guests.
That creates an opportunity to make different parts of the weekend feel visually distinct.
A welcome gathering near the forest and a wedding event beside the water do not have to feel like versions of the same party.
That is one of the things I would use rather than trying to visit ten portrait locations in one afternoon.
Studio 1
Studio 1 is Andaz’s largest indoor wedding venue and accommodates up to 200 guests. It can be configured for a ceremony, dinner or afterparty.
In Costa Rica, I think every outdoor wedding should have an answer to one simple question:
What happens if it rains?
Not because rain will ruin the wedding.
Quite the opposite.
When the backup is decided beforehand and everybody likes it, rain becomes something that happens rather than an emergency.
What couples remember afterward
A bride who married at Andaz said the food became one of the things guests continued talking about after the wedding. She remembered several people telling her it was among the best food they had experienced at a wedding. WeddingWire reviews.
That matters because at a destination wedding, food does a much bigger job than simply feeding people at the reception.
There may be breakfast together. Welcome drinks. A rehearsal or welcome dinner. The wedding meal. Late-night food. Then breakfast or brunch the next morning.
People spend a surprising amount of the weekend sitting around tables together.
Those meals become part of the story.
A destination wedding can start before the wedding day
A recent 160-guest wedding documented by Condé Nast Traveler is a good example of this.
The couple hosted a welcome party two days before their December 2025 wedding, then built the celebration around several days together rather than treating the ceremony as an isolated event. Read the wedding story.
I think that is where an Andaz Costa Rica wedding makes the most sense: not as a single event, but as several days where everyone is already in the same place.
Not because every destination wedding needs three days of scheduled activities. It doesn’t.
But having everyone already in the same place gives you options.
One night can be drinks. One day can simply be beach and pool. Then the wedding. Then breakfast with whoever is still awake the following morning.
The unscheduled parts are often as important as the official ones.
Your guests are still inside the Costa Rican landscape
This is one of the qualities that separates Andaz from a more conventional resort experience.
The forest does not disappear once you enter the hotel.
It moves around the buildings. Wildlife appears. Views open between trees and architecture instead of everything being organized around one enormous manicured beachfront.
For a wedding, I think that matters visually.
You can still have comfortable rooms, restaurants, pools and staff helping your guests, but the environment continually reminds people why everyone travelled to Costa Rica in the first place.
What I would pay attention to when planning the photography
Andaz gives us enough visual variation that I would not turn the wedding day into a tour of the property.
When I photograph destination weddings, I am more interested in transitions.
The quiet shade before people walk into the ceremony. Moving from the forest into open coastal light. Everyone gradually becoming louder as dinner turns into a party. Friends returning to the pool the following morning.
Those things tell me much more about the weekend than twenty portraits against twenty backgrounds.
If part of the celebration happens at Casa de Playa and another part happens around El Jardín, the venue has already given the story different visual chapters.
There is no need to force it.
Who Andaz Costa Rica works particularly well for
I would look closely at Andaz if:
- you want the convenience of a resort but still want nature to feel present;
- you want guests staying together;
- different parts of the wedding weekend need different environments;
- you like contemporary architecture more than a traditional grand-resort aesthetic;
- you want substantial indoor alternatives without making the wedding feel ballroom-first.
I would think more carefully if:
- you want a private villa experience;
- you want the wedding completely separated from a resort;
- several important guests have mobility requirements that need particularly simple movement around the property;
- your vision depends on everyone independently exploring a nearby town.
An Andaz Costa Rica wedding is not simply another version of a Four Seasons celebration because the two resorts happen to share the same peninsula. You can also compare it with other properties in my Costa Rica wedding venues. For the broader planning process, see my Costa Rica wedding guide.
The experience is different, and that difference matters much more than which one looks prettier in a venue directory.
Andaz Costa Rica wedding photography
What interests me about photographing a destination wedding here would not be proving in every photograph that we are at Andaz.
It would be how the environment becomes part of what everyone is doing.
Friends walking through the forest to dinner. Someone spotting wildlife over breakfast. The difference between the shade around the architecture and the open light closer to the water. People who arrived as separate groups slowly becoming one wedding party.
Those moments are what make destination weddings different.
Most of the time, I photograph them as they happen. When some direction helps, I give it. But the weekend still needs to belong to you.
Planning an Andaz Costa Rica wedding?
If you’re considering Andaz Papagayo and want photography that includes the experience around the wedding as well as the ceremony itself, I photograph weddings and multi-day celebrations throughout Costa Rica.
My wedding collections begin at $3,500, with travel within Costa Rica included. You can see the current options on my Costa Rica wedding photography packages page.
