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.

SEE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

CHECK AVAILABILITY

Planning a Four Seasons Costa Rica wedding is less about choosing a single ceremony space and more about building several days around one place.

The resort sits on the Papagayo Peninsula in Guanacaste, surrounded by tropical dry forest and water. For a destination wedding, the appeal is not simply having a beach ceremony. Your guests can arrive, settle in and spend several days together without constantly changing hotels or reorganizing transportation.

That makes Four Seasons particularly interesting for couples planning more than a single wedding day. If you are comparing properties across the peninsula, my Papagayo wedding photographer guide gives more context on the wider area.

Four Seasons Costa Rica wedding at a glance

Location: Peninsula Papagayo, Guanacaste
Nearest international airport: Liberia International Airport
Setting: Pacific coast, tropical dry forest and resort
Wedding spaces: Beach, lawn, open-air pavilion and ballroom
Largest published reception capacity: 450 guests
Good for: Destination weddings where guests stay together
Rain options: Covered and indoor event spaces
Wedding style: Refined resort wedding surrounded by Costa Rican landscape

Four Seasons currently lists 10 indoor and nine outdoor event spaces. The main wedding locations include Playa Virador, Event Lawn, Nemare Lawn and El Armadillo. Four Seasons wedding venues.

What it feels like when everyone stays here

One of the things that matters most when planning a Four Seasons Costa Rica wedding has almost nothing to do with the ceremony.

It is what happens to everyone else.

You may have parents visiting Costa Rica for the first time, friends arriving with children, people who want to spend the day at the beach and others who simply want breakfast, a pool and somewhere comfortable to relax.

A recent guest travelling with family described Four Seasons as one of the highlights of their Costa Rica trip. Another couple praised staff for doing things as small as finding coats left behind after checkout and sending a golf cart when they did not want to walk back across the property. Tripadvisor reviews.

Those details matter to me more than another list of hotel amenities.

At a destination wedding, the couple should not become the unofficial concierge for 80 guests. The more independently everyone can enjoy the weekend, the more space you have to actually be part of your own wedding.

Not every stay is perfect. One recent guest had a much weaker experience with service around the pool and beach even though they praised check-in, restaurants, activities and the property itself. Reddit guest experience.

That is worth knowing too. A wedding venue should not be presented as flawless. What matters is understanding the kind of experience you are asking your guests to step into.

The wedding spaces that matter

Playa Virador

If the image in your head is a wedding directly on the sand, Playa Virador is probably the Four Seasons space closest to it.

The resort uses the beach for receptions, barbecues and candlelit dinners and publishes capacity for up to 450 guests.

From a photography perspective, this is the kind of space where timing matters enormously.

On a beach ceremony, the direction and quality of light, heat, tide and the transition into sunset can matter more visually than adding another layer of decoration.

I would rather build the photography around what the landscape is already giving us than make the wedding compete with it.

Event Lawn

The Event Lawn overlooks the Pacific and accommodates up to 250 guests for a reception or 130 seated banquet-style. It also has nearby shelter for inclement weather.

For couples who want the landscape around them without putting the entire celebration directly on the sand, this is an important alternative.

It also means that an outdoor wedding does not have to depend entirely on perfect weather.

Nemare Lawn

Nemare Lawn looks across the golf course toward the Pacific and is listed for up to 150 banquet guests or 200 at a reception.

This is a useful reminder that a Four Seasons Costa Rica wedding does not necessarily need to look like a beach wedding.

You can still have the Papagayo landscape around you while creating something visually different from a ceremony on the sand.

El Armadillo

El Armadillo is one of the spaces I would pay attention to when thinking about weather.

It is a covered, open-air pavilion directly across from the resort lobby. Four Seasons lists capacity for 280 banquet guests and up to 450 for a reception.

In Costa Rica, a covered venue does not have to be the disappointing Plan B.

Especially during green season, I would rather see a couple choose a weather option they genuinely like from the beginning than spend the week before the wedding refreshing a forecast.

Your guests are coming to Costa Rica, but this is a particular version of Costa Rica

This may be one of the most useful things to understand about Four Seasons before choosing it.

A recent guest loved the resort, particularly the wildlife, layout and service, but described Peninsula Papagayo as a polished resort interpretation of Costa Rica rather than an immersion into everyday local life. Tripadvisor reviews.

I think that distinction is useful rather than negative.

If your idea is that everyone arrives, stays together, goes to the beach, has dinner, takes a boat out, celebrates the wedding and slowly disappears home a few days later, Four Seasons makes that experience relatively easy.

If what you imagine instead is guests walking into a beach town, discovering small restaurants independently and moving more freely through local Costa Rica, I would look at a different kind of venue.

Neither makes a better wedding. They’re simply different experiences.

What I would pay attention to when planning the photography

With a place like Four Seasons, I would not try to use every beautiful location simply because it exists.

When I’m photographing a destination wedding, I would rather work with the way the day naturally moves.

If the ceremony is by the beach, the changing light around the ceremony, cocktail hour and sunset may already give us everything we need.

The wedding should not stop so that we can go and make photographs of the wedding.

Your guests travelled to Costa Rica to be with you.

A few minutes in beautiful light is often much more valuable than disappearing for an hour to collect ten different backgrounds.

The wedding weekend matters as much as the wedding day

A Four Seasons Costa Rica wedding makes more sense to me as a wedding-weekend experience than simply as a ceremony at one beautiful location.

One day might be welcome drinks. Another might have nothing officially planned except beach and pool. Then the wedding. Then breakfast the following morning with whoever has not yet left.

You do not need four days of scheduled events.

Sometimes the real luxury is simply creating somewhere good for everyone to be together.

Those unplanned hours are often where destination weddings become memorable.

Who Four Seasons Costa Rica works particularly well for

I would look seriously at Four Seasons if:

• you want most guests staying together;
• you are planning several events around the wedding;
• guest comfort and logistics matter a lot;
• you have children or older family travelling;
• you want both outdoor and substantial covered options;
• you want Costa Rica’s landscape with the infrastructure of a major luxury resort.

I would think more carefully about it if:

• you want complete private-villa exclusivity;
• the experience needs to feel rustic or locally embedded;
• you want guests independently exploring a town;
• the hotel itself should barely feature in the wedding experience.

The useful question is not really whether a Four Seasons Costa Rica wedding is a good idea in general. You can compare it with other options in my Costa Rica wedding venues. For the broader planning process, see my Costa Rica wedding guide.

The better question is whether this is how you want your guests to experience Costa Rica with you.

Four Seasons Costa Rica wedding photography

What interests me about a destination wedding is not simply making photographs that prove you got married somewhere beautiful.

It is the experience around it.

Someone seeing the Pacific for the first time. Friends who have not seen each other in years having breakfast together. Children disappearing toward the beach. Parents finally relaxing once everyone has arrived. A quiet ten minutes before the ceremony.

Then the wedding happens inside all of that.

Most of the time, I let those things happen. When a little direction makes a photograph better, I give it. But the weekend should never become a photoshoot.

Planning a Four Seasons Costa Rica wedding?

If you are considering Four Seasons Papagayo and want photography that covers the experience around the wedding as well as the ceremony itself, I photograph destination 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.

SEE WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY

CHECK AVAILABILITY