Costa Rica Adventure Wedding
For us and our love of traveling there was no question that we would have a destination wedding. The location was easy, Costa Rica! We had been there before, which would help make the planning easy, and we absolutely loved everything about it! Not only did we get married in Costa Rica, but it was the same place Casey proposed so it holds an extra special place in our hearts and we can’t wait to return one day!
In the beginning our vacations started off as the typical easy to get to all-inclusive resorts somewhere on a warm beach or with a swim up pool! Cancun, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St. Thomas were all great trips, but Costa Rica is what really started getting our adventure juices going! We loved our adventure to Costa Rica so much we wanted to share our experience with our closest friends and family and what better excuse was there then to have a wedding at the same time!
So, let me tell you about this wedding and all the cool things we did in Costa Rica!
For starters our favorite spot to visit is a town called Santa Teresa located on the Nicoya peninsula at the southernmost tip on the Pacific Ocean. We love the small-town feel, boutique hotels and the dirt roads lined with quaint restaurants and super cute shops in town! It’s a surfer and yogi retreat haven and everyone is very friendly. I suppose why not tho when you live in such a beautiful place! The popular saying is Pura Vida and means Pure Life, you’ll hear it a lot!
It’s not exactly a quick trip to get to the final destination but it’s well worth the travels. After flying into San Jose International you have two options: rent a car and take the ferry which is approximately a 6-hour drive or hop on over to the domestic airport and take a small charter flight and a taxi which is more like 45 minutes. Our group had 25 people and we charted a private flight thru Tropical Air. A little nerve racking for the first-time travelers/fliers but a fun experience!
We jumped in our taxi and headed to our new home for the week. We rented a beautiful house on the beach with a pool, it had 5 bedrooms and a guest house with 3 additional rooms. It didn’t quite accommodate all 25 people, but it worked out perfect that a super cute boutique hotel was right next door to us called Tropical Latino where the rest of the guests were able to stay! The house did not disappoint, it was absolutely gorgeous!
To kick off the week we had a welcome dinner for the entire group at Brisas Del Mar which was a restaurant that we had went to during our first trip to Costa Rica. It sits up high on the jungle side and overlooks the ocean with absolutely stunning views! The food was great, and we wanted to share this experience with everyone and thank them for traveling so far to celebrate our wedding and joining us on one of our adventures!
The beaches are wonderful! No hotels or buildings in site, just pure green lush beachfront you can walk for miles. Listen up for the Howler Monkeys, you probably won’t see much of them, but you will definitely hear them. I think it’s one of my favorite sounds to listen to on vacation! Make sure to visit the beach in the evenings too and catch a pretty sunset.
If you are wondering what there is to do, then let me tell you the options are endless. From surfing to yoga, horseback riding, zip lining, fishing and so much more there was something for everyone! The first full day we were there the guys charted a fishing boat. It was so successful that we were able to host dinner two nights in a row for 25 people! Fresh fish tacos were a hit with everyone!
On our previous trip we went on an excursion to a neighboring town called Montezuma and went on a pretty awesome hike! I wanted to plan a group activity for everyone to do together that would exciting, a little adventurous and to share with our friends and family the type of things that we like to do when we travel! There really isn’t a need to rent cars in town, you can walk to most places and if you want to go a little further then all you need is an ATV! The trip to Montezuma is about 45 minutes, it’s a bit of a bumpy ride but worth the day trip.
The hike is pretty neat and has a couple layers to it. The first part of the hike brings you to the base of a waterfall and swimming hole! For those that are a bit more adventurous and want to continue hiking just a bit further and little steep incline will bring you to the top of the waterfall. There are actually two tiers to the waterfall. If you make it all the way to the top it’s a great spot to do some cliff jumping!
The morning of the big day Casey headed out to do some spear fishing and I attempted to do some surfing and went for a swim before it was time to start getting ready. While everyone was off finding their own adventure for the day the wedding fairies were working their magic preparing for the big night.
The ceremony took place shortly before sunset on the beach. A beautiful bamboo alter with gorgeous tropical flowers waited for us with our friends and family as we walked down the coconut lined aisle together! The ceremony was short and sweet and everything we asked for. We still talk about what an incredibly perfect day it was!
After the ceremony we stayed on the beach to watch the sunset, enjoy happy hour with wonderfully delicious hors d’oeuvres and a signature passionfruit margarita cocktail! We took this time to get photos with all of the guests as well, which turned out to be a great idea for thank you cards later on.
The sun finally set and the walking trail back to the house was lit by candles. Half way back to the house was a small yoga platform that was set up for our dinner. It was beautifully decorated, and the food was great!
After dinner we made our way back to the house for some live entertainment with a local band and open bar. Cake, toasts, flower tossing, and dancing were all had! We ended the night back on the beach with a bonfire and home-made s’mores. We released wishing lanterns into the sky which made for some pretty awesome pictures!
We didn’t do any first look wedding photos, so we used the next day as a chance to get some pretty unique photos. We rented a taxi and headed back over to Montezuma and stopped at several places along the way for any photo-op we could take advantage of!
And that just about wraps up our wedding week in Costa Rica, but our Costa Rica adventure wasn’t over! As we departed Santa Teresa we piled into two large taxi vans’. Half of the group is headed back home, and the other half is sticking around for another week. This time we took the ferry back to spend just a little bit longer together and have a nice scenic afternoon on the water!
After the ferry ride our group headed to La Fortuna near the Arenal Volcano. We had rented a home that I found online and if the weather had cooperated would have had some amazing views of the volcano. Unfortunately, when we were there it was a bit cloudy and we got quite a bit of rain. We made the best of our time and even found a pretty cool spa and waterfall to fill our time. After a few days here, a couple people from the group headed home and a few more us continued on. We had no plan at all and had no idea where we would go next, but we packed our bags and hoped into the next taxi!
We found ourselves in Manuel Antonio and lucked out with our last-minute rental. Turned out that a luxury rental was vacant, and we just so happened to get a steal on the rate! A private residence with a pool overlooking the water set up high in the jungle was more then we could ask for! This place was amazing! My favorite part had to be the ropes they had set up that would go from house top to house top and throughout the trees. I think the purpose of this was to help the animals cross the streets or keep them from getting electrocuted on the utility poles. Such a great concept! However, this did help those monkeys steal all our groceries one day from the kitchen when we forgot to lock up! It made for some good entertainment though when we walked into a house full of monkeys! Manuel Antonio was a great town to visit. A little bit busier and more built up then Santa Teresa but still the way we like it, no big hotels lining the beach front and a beautiful National Park with a lot of adventure waiting to be had!
And that was the end of our wedding adventure in Costa Rica. Since then we’ve been trying to fill our passports with as many new places as we can! We can’t wait to return to where it all started, hopefully sometime soon!
