Before you pick a destination wedding venue, it helps to answer a bigger question first: what kind of backdrop do you actually want in your photos and memories? A turquoise coastline reads completely differently than a historic city square or a mountain range at sunset, and each comes with its own planning considerations. Here's how to think through beach, city, and mountain settings, along with eight standout properties from Marriott's luxury portfolio across Latin America and the Caribbean to consider for each.
Start with the landscape, not the location
Most couples start destination wedding planning by picking a country. A more useful starting point is picking a landscape, since it shapes everything from your guest list logistics to your dress code to what kind of photos you'll end up with. Beach settings tend to mean more relaxed, resort-based itineraries. City settings mean easier guest travel and a built-in backdrop of culture and architecture. Mountain settings mean something more dramatic and adventurous, with a few extra logistics to plan around.
Beach weddings: tropical backdrops & turquoise water
A beach wedding is still the most requested destination wedding style, and for good reason. It comes with a built-in color palette, warm weather nearly guaranteed in the right season, and a resort setting that can host the ceremony, reception, and welcome events without guests ever needing a rental car.
Nekajui Peninsula Papagayo, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, sits on the Pacific coast of Guanacaste, Costa Rica, with private residences available for couples who want extended family staying together under one roof. Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve, in Puerto Rico, offers the same residence-style option along with easy, no-passport-needed travel for U.S. guests. The St. Regis Cap Cana Resort in the Dominican Republic brings villa accommodations and the timeless elegance synonymous with St. Regis to one of the Caribbean's most established resort destinations. Salterra, a Luxury Collection Resort & Spa, South Caicos, in the Turks and Caicos Islands, is known for some of the clearest water in the Caribbean and a more secluded and authentic island experience. The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman pairs residence-style stays with a compact island that's easy for guests to navigate. And The St. Regis Costa Mujeres Resort, a newer property on Mexico's Caribbean coast near Cancún, offers couples a sophisticated and contemporary beach setting with convenient international flight connectivity for guests.
For larger families or wedding parties, the residence and villa options at several of these properties are worth a close look. Booking a multi-bedroom residence means the wedding party can actually stay together, share meals, and get ready in one place instead of coordinating across separate hotel rooms.
City weddings: culture, convenience, & architecture
A city wedding trades the beach for something else entirely: walkable culture, a built-in food and nightlife scene, and often much easier guest travel since major cities tend to have more direct flights than resort towns.
The St. Regis Mexico City, which was recently remodeled, sits in the heart of one of Latin America's most vibrant capitals, giving couples access to world-class dining, historic architecture, and an easy add-on itinerary for guests who want to explore before or after the wedding. A city wedding here means your welcome dinner, ceremony, and reception can all have distinct, dramatically different backdrops, allowing guests to experience multiple facets of the destination throughout the celebration.
City weddings also come with a few different considerations than beach ones. Noise ordinances and event curfews are more common in urban settings, so confirm timing restrictions with your venue early. Transportation between venues matters more too, since guests may need organized transfers rather than a short walk across resort grounds.
Mountain weddings: elevation, scenery, & a different kind of adventure
A mountain wedding is the least common of the three, which is exactly why it stands out. It trades turquoise water for dramatic elevation and a sense of adventure that beach and city settings can't replicate.
JW Marriott El Convento Cusco, set in Peru's historic Andean city at roughly 11,000 feet, offers one of the most distinctive backdrops on this list: colonial architecture set against mountain scenery, with convenient access to the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu for couples who want to build a longer trip around the wedding itself.
Altitude is the biggest planning factor here. Guests arriving from sea level often need a day or two to acclimate before any physical activity, so build a buffer day into the itinerary before your welcome events. It's also worth having your venue coordinate with local doctors or pharmacies in case anyone needs altitude sickness medication on arrival.
A few universal planning tips
Wherever you land, a few planning basics apply across all three settings. Book your venue at least ten to twelve months out for a popular date, since destination properties tend to fill faster than local ones. Confirm legal marriage requirements early, since paperwork, blood tests, and residency rules vary significantly by country, and many couples opt for a symbolic ceremony on-site paired with a legal ceremony at home. And build at least one buffer day into your own travel schedule before the wedding, whatever the backdrop, so you're not managing jet lag or altitude on the same day as your rehearsal dinner.
Which backdrop fits you?
If you want built-in beauty and a resort that handles nearly everything, a beach setting like Nekajui, Dorado Beach, The St. Regis Cap Cana, Salterra, The Ritz-Carlton, Grand Cayman, or The St. Regis Costa Mujeres delivers. If you want culture, convenience, and an easy add-on trip for guests, The St. Regis Mexico City is worth a serious look. And if you want your wedding to feel like the start of a real adventure, JW Marriott El Convento Cusco offers a backdrop nothing else on this list can match.
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