Here’s the thing most couples realize too late: your wedding is one afternoon, but your guests are in Costa Rica for five days. That gap is where destination weddings are won or lost. Get it right and people talk about your wedding for a decade. Leave it unplanned and your guests spend the week wandering Jaco wondering what they’re supposed to be doing.
This is a day-by-day framework for the whole week, built around a Friday wedding, and easily stretched or compressed to fit your plans.
Before anyone gets on a plane
The week runs smoothly when your guests arrive already knowing what’s happening. A few weeks out, send a simple itinerary: what’s scheduled, what’s optional, what to pack, and what each event costs (be explicit about anything guests pay for themselves). A group chat is the single most useful tool here, since flight delays and last-minute changes sort themselves out without a dozen phone calls.
Two decisions worth making early: which events are for everyone versus the wedding party only, and how much unscheduled time to leave. Most couples over-program. Your guests are on vacation, and they’ll want an afternoon to nap by the pool.
Day 1: Arrival and welcome dinner
Guests will land on different flights across the day, which is entirely normal and easily handled: arrange shared transfers from San José (about 1.5 hours out to Jaco) so nobody is negotiating a taxi after a long travel day. Our concierge handles this routinely, coordinating pickups across multiple arrival times.
Keep the first evening low-key. People are tired and slightly sunburnt from the drive. A relaxed welcome dinner works better than a party: everyone meets, the two families collide for the first time, and the tone gets set. Our on-site Mahi Mahi beachfront restaurant is ideal for exactly this, since nobody has to travel anywhere and the sunset does the heavy lifting.
Day 2: The big group adventure
This is the day that turns a guest list into a group. One shared outing, everyone invited, ideally something that puts people on a boat or in a harness together where they can’t help but talk.
The Tortuga Island catamaran is the reliable crowd-pleaser, but ziplining, an ATV run, and a waterfall trip all work. Rather than list every option here, our guide to the top activities and attractions near Jaco Beach covers the full menu in detail. Pick one, book it for the whole party, and let your concierge handle the logistics.
One practical note: schedule this early in the week, not the day before the wedding. Sunburn and sore legs are not a good look in photographs.
Day 3: Downtime and the rehearsal dinner
Leave the daytime open. Genuinely open. Some guests will surf, some will shop in town, some will not move from the pool, and all three are fine. This is also the natural slot for the bachelor or bachelorette celebration if you haven’t done it at home, and our parties page covers what we can arrange on-site.
The rehearsal dinner comes in the evening, traditionally for the wedding party and close family. Costa Rica gives you an easy upgrade here: a private chef at the villa turns it into something far more intimate than a restaurant booking, and it keeps the group together the night before. If you’d rather go out, our guide to where to dine in Jaco covers the best options in town.
Day 4: The wedding day
Protect the morning. Getting-ready time expands to fill whatever space you give it, so give it plenty, and keep the schedule loose until the afternoon.
Time the ceremony to the sunset. Costa Rica sits near the equator, so the sun drops around 5:20 to 5:50 PM year-round, remarkably consistent. A ceremony an hour or so beforehand puts your vows in golden light and rolls the reception straight into a Pacific sunset, and it lands in the coolest part of the day. Our guide to the best time to get married in Costa Rica covers seasonal timing in more detail.
Then the celebration runs as long as you want it to, which is the quiet advantage of a private villa over a venue that bills by the hour.
Day 5: The day-after brunch
The most underrated event of the week, and the one couples most often skip. A slow, late, unstructured brunch is where the wedding actually gets processed: people swap photos, tell the stories from the night before, and say proper goodbyes instead of texting them from an airport queue. It costs almost nothing to arrange and it’s frequently what guests remember most fondly.
Keep it optional and keep it late. Nobody is at their best the morning after.
Departure and the extended stay
Guests will trickle out over a day or two, so stagger transfers rather than herding everyone into one bus. Plenty of couples stay on afterward for a few quiet days once the crowd thins, which is a considerably better honeymoon opening than a 6 AM flight.
Planning for a guest list that isn’t all the same
Your group is not one audience. You’ll have grandparents, small children, and a contingent who want to zipline at dawn, and the trick is running parallel tracks rather than forcing consensus. Offer one adventurous option and one gentle option on the same day, and let people self-select. Nobody should feel obliged to hike, and nobody should feel there’s nothing to do.
A private villa helps more than people expect here. With the group staying on-site, guests who skip an outing aren’t stranded in a hotel room; they’re by the pool with the people who also opted out. You can see the layouts on our villas page.
The rain plan
If you’re marrying in the green season (May to November), have a covered backup for every outdoor event, not just the ceremony. Rain here tends to arrive as a short afternoon burst rather than an all-day washout, so the usual fix is simply moving a start time by an hour. For the days it does settle in, our guide to enjoying Jaco on rainy days covers indoor options worth having in your back pocket.
Who actually books all this
You don’t have to. Coordinating transfers, excursions, chefs, and vendors across a week and forty-plus people is precisely what an on-site team is for, and our concierge services exist to keep it off your plate. It’s also worth seeing how it comes together in practice: our real weddings, including Anya and Aaron and Kat and Alex, show the full week rather than just the ceremony.
Frequently asked questions
How many days should a destination wedding be?
Four to five days is the sweet spot. It gives guests time to arrive, share at least one group outing, celebrate the wedding, and say goodbye properly, without asking them to burn two full weeks of vacation. Anything shorter tends to feel rushed.
What events should you plan around a destination wedding?
At minimum a welcome dinner on arrival day, one group activity, the rehearsal dinner, the wedding itself, and a day-after brunch. Leave genuine free time between them, since over-programming is the most common mistake.
Do you have to pay for your guests’ activities at a destination wedding?
No, and most couples don’t. The usual convention is that you host the welcome dinner, rehearsal dinner, wedding, and brunch, while guests cover their own flights, excursions, and free time. The important part is being clear about it upfront so nobody is surprised.
What time should a Costa Rica wedding ceremony start?
Late afternoon, roughly an hour before sunset. With the sun setting around 5:20 to 5:50 PM year-round, a ceremony around 4:00 to 4:30 PM gives you golden-hour light, a sunset backdrop for the reception, and the most comfortable temperature of the day.
How do guests get from the airport to Jaco?
Jaco is about 1.5 hours from San José international airport (SJO). The simplest approach is arranging shared transfers timed to your guests’ arrivals, which our concierge coordinates across multiple flights so nobody has to organize their own ride.
Let us build your week
A great destination wedding is really a well-designed week with a wedding in the middle of it. If you’re still mapping out the fundamentals, start with our complete guide on how to plan a Costa Rica destination wedding. When you’re ready to shape the actual days, get in touch with our team and we’ll build the itinerary around you at Casa Rio Mar.
