Weddings are serious business. For most people, it’s a once-in-a-lifetime event where two families gather to unite in celebration, and you want your special day to be perfect. For a truly unforgettable celebration, many couples choose a destination wedding, often to a tropical paradise like the Bahamas.

Of course, planning a wedding is already a ton of work and a lot of stress, and it all compounds if you’re doing research and contacting businesses not just out of your city but out of your country. As fantastic as the Bahamas is as a destination, there are a lot of unique challenges when planning a wedding there.

Fortunately, it’s still entirely doable. Here’s our rundown!

Key Details for You (And Your Guests) to Know

The Bahamas may be close by, just off the coast of Florida, but that doesn’t mean it’s the most accessible archipelago in the world. There are some details you’ll want to know ahead of time and, more importantly, that your guests will need to know for their own travel plans. The last thing you want is someone held up at the airport on your special day, right?

Here are some details to take into consideration:

• The predominant language in the Bahamas is English. At least you won’t have to worry about a language barrier!
• Flights to the Bahamas take around 2-3 hours from the east coast and closer to six from the west coast. It’s often a good idea to plan to have people fly in the day before – or even two before – the actual date of your wedding.
• Speaking of flights, the Bahamas is a foreign country, so you and your guests will need valid passports to visit. Make sure everyone has their documents squared away!
• A honeymoon in the Bahamas can be great; since you’re already there, why not jet off from your wedding island to another for your couple’s adventure? Of course, that’s not mandatory to have a wedding in the Bahamas; it’s just convenient.
• You’ll want to get started with planning early. Venues and resorts fill up fast, especially for peak seasons, so the more time you allow for planning and travel arrangements, the better. Plan at least 12-18 months in advance.
• You don’t need to be a citizen of the Bahamas to get married there, which was a rumor going around for a while and occasionally still crops up. It definitely wouldn’t be that big of a destination wedding location if you did!
• What about the cost? The elephant in the room for any wedding is the price. To keep things realistic, set $10,000 as your minimum for your wedding when all is said and done. Most Bahamian destination weddings run $15,000 or more, and that can double if you’re going for high-end resorts during peak weeks.
• By using a travel-focused credit card, you can save money along the way. Put your wedding purchases on the card and rack up points, and you could very well end up with free flights or even some of your resort stay covered by the time the date arrives!

That’s it for the quick facts; now let’s get into more details.

The Wedding Permit

One important note is that, to be legally married in the Bahamas, there are a few requirements you need to meet.

One is that you need to have been in the Bahamas for at least 24 hours ahead of time to apply for a valid marriage license from the Bahamian government. You’ll need birth certificates and a notarized affidavit, and if either of you has been married before, you’ll need documents proving that the marriage is no longer valid.

In fact, the timeline is longer than you might think. You need 24 hours in the Bahamas before you can apply for a marriage license, and then it usually takes 2-3 days to process your request and issue you the license. Only then can you actually have the wedding officially. Most people plan a week in the Bahamas, with their wedding near the end of their trip, for this reason.

There’s a fee to get all of this done, which is part of the tourism income the Bahamas uses to sustain itself. It’s $120, so not too bad in the grand scheme of wedding planning, but it’s easy to overlook.

Note that this is all for an official, legally recognized marriage. Many people opt for a faster and less expensive symbolic wedding, where the ceremony itself isn’t legally binding, and you just get courthouse married back home before or after the event. This is fine if you want to avoid all of the paperwork.

There may also be a special permit required to get married directly on the beach, though this may vary depending on which island and which beach. The more popular and more crowded the beach, the more likely you’ll need a permit to reserve a section for your ceremony.

Solo Planning, a Wedding Planner, or a Wedding Package?

One of the big choices you’ll need to make early on in your planning is how you want to plan your wedding. You generally have three options.

Option 1: Doing it yourself. This gives you the most flexibility and customization of your wedding, but will be a lot more work. You’ll feel like you’ve spent half your lifetime on the phone to the Bahamas by the end of it, and it can really take some of the shine off of your special day.

Frankly, this option is really only good for the people who need the utmost control over their wedding. If someone else making a decision fills you with unease, go for it. That said, a destination wedding might not be for you if that’s the case.

There is one reason you might choose this option, which is that wedding anything is expensive. If you go to a caterer and say, “I need food for a group of 100”, your price will often be much lower than if you say, “I need food for a wedding of 100.” If you want to try to optimize your itemized costs along the way, hiding the fact that you’re planning a wedding might be beneficial.

Option 2: A wedding planner. Dedicated wedding planners are individuals or small teams who are very experienced in putting together weddings. They usually have interview processes, whole sets of surveys and Q&As to get the vibe of what you’re going for, and a back-and-forth process at each step of the way.

Wedding planners can be very beneficial because they can get you deals you couldn’t get on your own. But, they might also leave you without certain options, either because they tend to plan weddings a certain kind of way or because they won’t work with certain other businesses – or those businesses won’t work with them. Finding a wedding planner who does what you want is a godsend, but if no one quite fits the bill, it can feel insurmountable.

Option 3: A resort’s wedding package. The Bahamas is full of all-inclusive resorts more than happy to provide you with a wedding package. These packages can be somewhat customized to your needs, but a lot of what they offer will be somewhat fixed, including procedures, meal options, décor, and more. You get the least customization with this choice, but it’s definitely the easiest.

Note: many resorts have a minimum number of guests to book a wedding package. If you’re not able to fill a guest list of at least 50 or 100 people, you might not be able to buy the package.

There’s no wrong answer here. Go with the option that best suits your needs. For the purposes of the rest of this post, though, we’ll be assuming either option 1 or option 2, where you’re making choices and decisions for most details.

Picking the Date

When should you aim to plan your dream destination wedding in the Bahamas?

The best and most mild weather is some time between December and May. This is when the humidity is milder, and the rain holds off; in tropical terms, it’s the dry season. It’s also when tourism ramps up, so an order of magnitude more people will be visiting the Bahamas, and everything will be more expensive and/or booked up the later you look.

June through November are the hurricane season. The Bahamas aren’t usually in the path of hurricanes, but one even coming close can make your whole event a cloudy, dreary time. If one does hit the islands, all bets are off. Since you have to plan this wedding so far in advance, you’re really rolling the bones on your date here.

August through October is the worst season for any sort of outdoor event in the Bahamas. It’s the peak of rainfall, the peak of potential hurricanes, and the most humid and unpleasant of times. You could luck out with a date in this range, but more than likely, it’s just going to be unpleasant.

Picking an Island

The Bahamas are made up of over 700 different islands.

Which one should you pick?

• Nassau, the capital island. Easy to get to, full of modern amenities, a good nightlife, and even casinos if that’s your thing. It’s also one of the most crowded islands because of all of that.
• Paradise Island. Adjacent to Nassau, it’s a step away and is one of the most opulent and picturesque islands in the Bahamas. As you might expect, it will probably be one of the most expensive options.
• Eleuthera. A more tranquil island where you can have a more private ceremony, it’s not without its crowds, but it’s not the #1 most visited island for sure. The iconic pink sand beaches can be very vibrant, too.
• Exuma. The Exumas are a series of islands – over 360 of them – scattered and largely uninhabited. The one you’re more likely to set as your stage is Staniel Cay. There’s one quirk, though; it’s covered in pigs! While they’re generally friendly, they certainly aren’t going to stay out of your photoshoots, so keep that in mind.

There are plenty of others to choose from, so feel free to browse.

Don’t Forget The ___

Weddings have a lot going on, and a lot of little things can slip through the cracks, especially if you aren’t hiring a planner with a checklist to do it for you.

Don’t forget the:

• Photographer! A local Bahamas photographer will likely have some hot spots to bring you and your party for epic photos.
• Food and drinks! Catering is a world of its own, but it can really make or break the feel of a good wedding.
• Music! You don’t necessarily need to go all-in on island vibes, but bringing a Bahamian feel to your playlist is a great idea to make it all memorable.
• Activities! If you and your party are going to be in the Bahamas for more than a day or two, make the most of it. Go snorkeling, take a boat tour, visit a bunch of islands, and eat at the famous venues.
• Wedding Insurance! You never know what can happen, especially if you’re booking in a shoulder season or the off-season, so insurance is a must-have.
• Décor! Depending on where you’re having your wedding, you may need to arrange outside decorations and their setup.
• Tips! Many of your service providers will be very grateful if you have a bit of a cash tip to help make their day as memorable as your own.

We aren’t wedding planners, of course. There’s a lot that goes into a wedding that we did once and don’t plan to do again. Working with a good wedding planner can take a lot of stress out of arranging everything.

One thing we can say for certain is that a good, well-planned trip to the Bahamas is an unforgettable experience and something that far too many people never get the chance to experience. A wedding can be an excellent reason to make it happen, so why not go all out?