Romantic Costa Rican Seaside Wedding

We’re heading to the luxe Costa Rican seaside with today’s wedding by Chloe Murdoch Photography and it is certifiably what we would want our Costa Rican destination wedding to look like, hands down. Tropical Occasions took Gillian and Anthony’s wedding vision and made it come to life in this glorious tropical setting. Stylos y Flores was inspired by the warm weather and the pretty colors to be found everywhere, and this translated into the bouquets and the colorful rose centerpieces. After checking this wedding out, let’s all head to Costa Rica!

From the bride, Gillian: I wanted the wedding to be beachy elegant with a Costa Rican flair. I’m a huge beach, warm weather person so I always wanted a beach wedding where it stays warm all night, is all outdoors and there isn’t a time or noise limit on when it had to end. And for Anthony, he wanted there to be an amazing dance party dj’d by our good friend who came all the way from Berlin with delicious drinks flowing! We are also both huge foodies so we wanted delicious, fresh Costa Rican cuisine as well! Costa Rica is a really special place to us. My family has a home there and Anthony and I have vacationed there together a lot. It truly feels like a home away from home and a culture we love so much. When Anthony proposed, we immediately knew we wanted to get married at the Reserva Conchal beach club and didn’t look at any other venues!

Any advice for couples planning their weddings now? Destination weddings are an amazing way to elongate your wedding! Instead of 1 night or a weekend with our guests, we were able to spend a full week with most guests! For a destination wedding – hire a great wedding planner who you trust understands your style. Having a language barrier and working with vendors who don’t have good websites or portfolios was stressful. I really had to trust that if my planner recommended them then they would be good. We showed up not knowing exactly what to expect and she truly made our vision come to life! There were definitely some details that were slightly off and a few things that didn’t go exactly as planned but I was really the only one to notice. Don’t sweat the small stuff, mistakes will happen but don’t let it ruin the night!!

View all images from this wedding in the gallery
Wedding Music:
Processional: Perfidia (we wanted some Spanish flair!)
Recessional: “Here Comes the Sun,” The Beatles
First Dance: “You Are the Best Thing,” Ray LaMontagne
Mariachi: We had mariachis lead the way from the ceremony to the cocktail hour and played for about 10 minutes there before the classical group started back up and finished out that hour.

Dance party music: Upbeat mix of old school, the classics and present day hits designed to keep the party going until the last note. We never wanted people to feel like they could leave the dance floor without missing one of their favorite songs. Let’s just say our dance floor was packed all night long! Our first song after our first dance, the father/daughter and the mother/son dance included a riff from Lil Wayne’s remix of the Black Eyed Peas single, “I Gotta Feeling,” which started with Lil Wayne saying “Party on the beach…” repeatedly. 🙂