A Bahamas wedding can cost $2,575 for a garden ceremony and reception, or start at a $25,000 food and drink minimum, and Nassau publishes more of its prices than most islands.
This is what the published numbers say for Nassau and Paradise Island, where most Bahamas weddings happen: the Atlantis packages and their reception minimum, the per-person floor at Baha Mar, the Sandals tiers and the conditions on its free wedding, the cheapest legal venue on New Providence, the marriage licence, and the resort fees, day passes and taxi fares your guests will pay. Every capacity, price and rule below was checked against the venue's own published terms, or against the Bahamas government's own pages, in October 2026.
How Much Does a Bahamas Wedding Cost?
For a wedding with a reception, the published floor in Nassau runs from $2,575 for up to 100 guests at a national-trust garden to $350 per guest, or $25,000, whichever is greater at Rosewood Baha Mar. Atlantis ceremony packages run $2,400 to $28,900 and none includes the reception. Add 10% VAT, a resort's service charge, and a $100 to $120 marriage licence.
The spread is not about quality so much as structure. Some venues price the ceremony, some price the plate, and some price the rooms your guests book. Compare them on the same footing and the numbers stop looking random.
What Atlantis Paradise Island Wedding Packages Cost
Atlantis Paradise Island publishes seven packages on its own site1, and the price lists are unusually honest: package prices are inclusive of current VAT. Renewed Love is $2,400, Simply Love $3,750, Intimate Love $5,650, Shared Love $8,975, Regal Love $10,900, Celebrate Love $15,300 and Love Your Life $28,900. From Intimate Love upward the package includes three nights for the couple (five at the top tier), which is where most of the price difference goes.
Read what they are, though. Every one is a ceremony package. None states a guest count, and none includes dinner. The reception is priced separately, and the brochure states the rule plainly2: a private reception at a standard venue needs a minimum of 15 adult guests and a minimum spend of $180 per person, excluding 15% gratuity and current Value Added Tax. Once those land, $180 is about $225 a head. Premium venues carry their own minimums, which Atlantis does not publish.
Two more published numbers are worth knowing. A custom wedding, outside the packages, starts with a ceremony site fee of $3,950. And the Dolphin Cay lawn, the most distinctive space on the property, is dinner only, 7:30 to 10:30 p.m., with a $1,000 site fee Monday to Thursday and $2,000 Friday to Sunday, and a minimum of 50 guests or $9,000 in food and beverage if you are fewer.
The days matter as much as the dollars. Simply Love is not available on Saturday; Intimate Love runs only 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Fridays and Saturdays; Renewed Love is Monday to Thursday only. If your date is a Saturday, half the menu is gone before you choose.
Baha Mar and Cable Beach: Priced by the Plate
Across the island on Cable Beach, Rosewood Baha Mar publishes no packages but a clear floor in its 2026 wedding brochure3: a food and beverage minimum of $350 per person or $25,000, whichever is greater, with a typical spend of $350 to $400 per guest before taxes and fees, and venue fees on top. The arithmetic is the useful part. Below 72 guests the $25,000 is what you pay, so a 50-guest dinner costs the same as a 71-guest one. Rosewood says it will discuss smaller weddings, which is worth asking about directly.
Rosewood also publishes the rules that shape the rest of the budget: it requires 50% of your guests to book their rooms there and holds you responsible for the room block; it asks you to hire a professional planner or month-of coordinator for weddings over 50 guests; outdoor events follow a 10:00 p.m. noise rule; and guests staying at other hotels cannot use its pool or beach. Its largest reception space, the Grand Salon, holds 250 seated.
The neighbouring Grand Hyatt Baha Mar did not let us read its wedding pages or brochure this month, so we have no verified figure for it. Baha Mar's shared site lists more than 40 event spaces across three hotels and none of their prices4. Ask each one for its per-person minimum first.
Sandals Royal Bahamian, a little further west, prices by guest count and publishes every tier5. Sweetheart is $1,000 for up to 10 guests; Bliss is $2,500, $3,400 and $3,850 for up to 20, 40 and 50; Epic is $7,600, $10,120 and $13,900 for up to 70, 98 and 140. A Friday or Saturday adds $250, a 5 p.m. twilight ceremony adds $600, and a gazebo $450. The free wedding is real and narrow: the Sweetheart package only, with a 7-night stay in a Club or Butler room, on a Monday to Thursday between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.
Two Sandals rules matter more than the prices. Guests who are not staying at the resort can buy a wedding pass, but passes are limited to a maximum of 20% of the total guest count, so a 50-guest wedding can have at most ten guests staying elsewhere. And third-party vendors are not allowed for anything Sandals offers itself.
Read the Nassau and Paradise Island guide
The Cheapest Way to Get Married in Nassau
The best-value published venue on the island belongs to the Bahamas National Trust, the country's national parks body. Its Retreat Gardens publish a full rate card, every package for up to 100 people6: a ceremony is $1,325, a reception $2,075, and the ceremony and reception together $2,575. That total includes a $500 refundable deposit and a $75 security fee, so the hire itself is $2,000. Wedding photos on the grounds, without an event, are $300 for up to two hours.
That is a venue, not a package. Catering, rentals and the officiant are yours to arrange, and the Trust publishes no end time or alcohol rule, so ask for both. But it is roughly what a single Atlantis Dolphin Cay weekend site fee costs, for a whole garden.
Downtown, the historic venues are quote-only. Graycliff Hotel seats over 300 across its dining rooms and terraces and 18 in its wine cellar, and asks couples to email for pricing7. British Colonial Nassau is open and taking bookings, with a ballroom for 330 at banquet, and publishes no prices either8. John Watling’s Distillery is available for exclusive rentals from 6 p.m. to 1 a.m., priced through its preferred vendors9.
Pearl Island, a private island a 25-minute ferry ride out, hosts up to 450 guests and quotes weddings individually10. It is the one venue here that says outright that the party does not have to stop at 10: "the only curfew out here is sunrise." Ask for the ferry to be priced per guest, because it is not on the site.
The Bahamas Marriage License: $120, Two Business Days, Before Sunset
The legal part is cheap and quick, with two rules that shape the timetable. The Ministry of Tourism lists the fee as $120, inclusive of one certified copy of a marriage certificate, with extra copies at $2011; the government's own service page lists $10012. Neither page explains the difference, so budget the higher one. You may apply a day after you arrive, both of you in person, at the Registrar General in Nassau, by appointment, Monday to Friday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. It takes two business days. No blood test; passports, birth certificates and two witnesses over 18.
The first rule: the Ministry says to apply on the Thursday or Friday before a weekend wedding. In practice that means landing by Wednesday for a Saturday ceremony.
The second rule: weddings must be performed between sunrise and sunset, by a local officiant. That is why Atlantis packages read 10 a.m. to sunset and why Sandals sells a 5 p.m. twilight slot as a $600 premium. The reception can run late. The vows cannot.
Resorts charge more for handling the paperwork, and it pays to ask what for. Sandals' own pages give three different figures for its Bahamas licence and administration fee: $310 in one part of its wedding terms, $600 in another, and $555 in its FAQ513. Against a government fee of $100 to $120, ask for the fee as its own line, in writing.
What Your Guests Pay: Resort Fees, Day Passes and the Taxi
The Bahamas charges 10% VAT at the standard rate on hotel rooms, on wedding facilities and on the food and drink served at them14. The resorts add their own charges on top, and your guests pay most of them.
At Atlantis, every room adds a resort fee of $77 a night at The Coral and The Royal, plus mandatory gratuities of up to $14 per person per night15. Three nights for a couple adds about $315 before the room rate. Margaritaville Beach Resort downtown lists a $68 daily resort fee plus VAT, a 5% mandatory service charge and an 11% levy16. Warwick Paradise Island, adults only, charges $30 per person per night, now built into rates booked since August 2025, and sells a day pass for $130 and a night pass for $1501718.
Some resorts set rules about where guests sleep. RIU Palace Paradise Island requires 80% of your guests to stay at the resort, charges about $100 per person for a day pass (its last published price, for 2023 to 2024), holds beach weddings for up to 45, and charges $250 per outside vendor, or $500 for a photographer or videographer19. Rosewood's 50% room block and Sandals' 20% pass cap work the same way: the venue decides how much of your guest list must stay on site.
Getting there is the cheap part. The airport operator lists taxi fares from Lynden Pindling International of $29 to Cable Beach and $45 to Paradise Island, plus a $2 bridge toll, for two passengers, with $5 for each extra passenger20.
| What you pay | The published number | Who publishes it |
|---|---|---|
| Garden ceremony and reception, up to 100 guests | $2,575, including a $500 refundable deposit | Bahamas National Trust, The Retreat |
| Ceremony packages, VAT included | $2,400 to $28,900, no reception | Atlantis Paradise Island |
| Private reception at a standard venue | $180 per person, 15 adults minimum, plus 15% gratuity and VAT | Atlantis Paradise Island |
| Custom ceremony site fee | $3,950 | Atlantis Paradise Island |
| Food and beverage minimum | $350 per person or $25,000, whichever is greater | Rosewood Baha Mar |
| Wedding packages by guest count | $1,000 for 10 guests to $13,900 for 140 | Sandals Royal Bahamian |
| Free wedding | Sweetheart package, 7 nights, Monday to Thursday, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. | Sandals Royal Bahamian |
| Marriage licence | $120 with one certified copy, or $100 | Ministry of Tourism, Bahamas government |
| Resort fee per room per night | $77 plus up to $14 per person in gratuities | Atlantis Paradise Island |
| Outside vendor fee | $250 per vendor, $500 for photo or video | RIU Palace Paradise Island |
| Taxi from the airport to Paradise Island | $45 plus $2 toll, for two passengers | Lynden Pindling International Airport |
How to Price a Bahamas Wedding Yourself
1. Price the reception, not the package. Ask every venue for its per-person food and beverage minimum and its guest minimum. At Atlantis it is $180 and 15 adults; at Rosewood $350 or $25,000. A ceremony package without one is half a price.
2. Ask what is added, as percentages. VAT is 10% everywhere. The rest varies: a 15% gratuity at Atlantis receptions, a 5% service charge and an 11% levy at Margaritaville, resort fees per room per night. Get them in writing before you compare two quotes.
3. Ask how many guests must stay on site. Rosewood requires 50%, RIU 80%, and Sandals limits outside guests to 20% of the list. If your family wants a cheaper hotel down the road, this rule decides the venue.
4. Price the day pass per non-staying guest. Warwick publishes $130; RIU about $100; Atlantis and Sandals say it varies. Multiply by the number of guests sleeping elsewhere.
5. Book the ceremony by the clock. Vows must be said before sunset, you wait a day before applying, and the Ministry advises applying on the Thursday or Friday before a weekend wedding. Fly in by Wednesday for a Saturday, and pick a ceremony time the venue sells without a premium.
When a Bahamas Wedding Is Not the Bargain It Looks
The weather sets the calendar. The Atlantic hurricane season runs June 1 to November 30, with most activity from mid-August to mid-October21, and the Ministry of Tourism notes that May and June are usually the wettest months. December to April is the dry season and the busy one, so the cheapest dates are the riskiest ones. If you book in the autumn, read the resort's hurricane policy before the deposit.
The other exception is size. A 20-guest wedding fits most budgets here, and a 150-guest one is fine at a resort that wants the room block. The squeeze is in between: 50 guests at a venue with a $25,000 floor costs as much as 70.
If the Bahamas Prices Out
The questions travel. Every Caribbean island taxes rooms and events, most resorts add a service charge, and many decide how much of your guest list has to stay on site. Turks and Caicos adds as much as 34% to its published prices, and almost every resort above runs on a food and beverage minimum.
Turks and Caicos wedding costs, line by line
How a wedding food and beverage minimum works
How many guests actually come to a destination wedding
If these numbers do not work, browse all 141 destinations and run the same five questions somewhere else.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much does a wedding in the Bahamas cost?
From about $2,575 for a ceremony and reception venue to well over $25,000, depending mostly on how the venue prices the reception. The Bahamas National Trust's Retreat Gardens hire for $2,575 for up to 100 guests, Atlantis ceremony packages run $2,400 to $28,900 without a reception, and Rosewood Baha Mar sets a minimum of $350 per guest or $25,000. Add 10% VAT, service charges and a $100 to $120 marriage licence.
How much does an Atlantis Bahamas wedding cost?
Atlantis Paradise Island ceremony packages cost $2,400 to $28,900, VAT included, and none includes a reception. A private reception at a standard venue needs at least 15 adults and $180 per person, plus a 15% gratuity and VAT. A custom ceremony outside the packages starts with a $3,950 site fee.
How much is a Sandals Bahamas wedding?
Sandals' packages run from $1,000 for up to 10 guests to $13,900 for up to 140, with $250 extra on a Friday or Saturday and $600 for a 5 p.m. twilight ceremony. The Sweetheart package is free with a 7-night stay in a Club or Butler room on a weekday morning. A separate licence and administration fee applies; Sandals' own pages give it as $310, $555 and $600.
How much is a marriage license in the Bahamas?
$120, including one certified copy of the marriage certificate, according to the Ministry of Tourism; the government service page lists $100. Extra certificates are $20 each. You apply in person at the Registrar General in Nassau, at least one day after arriving, and the licence takes two business days.
Can you get married at sunset in the Bahamas?
Only just: the Ministry of Tourism states that weddings must be performed between sunrise and sunset. A ceremony timed to end as the sun goes down is fine; one after dark is not. The reception afterwards can run late.
How many days do you need to be in the Bahamas to get married?
One full day before you can apply, then two business days for the licence. For a Saturday wedding, the Ministry of Tourism advises applying on the Thursday or Friday, so arrive by Wednesday.
What is the cheapest place to get married in Nassau?
The Bahamas National Trust's Retreat Gardens publish the lowest full venue price we found: $1,325 for a ceremony, or $2,575 for ceremony and reception, for up to 100 people. That is venue hire only; catering and the officiant are separate.
Do wedding guests have to stay at the resort in the Bahamas?
Often, yes, at least in part. Rosewood Baha Mar requires 50% of guests to book there, RIU Palace Paradise Island requires 80%, and Sandals limits guests staying elsewhere to 20% of the list. Guests who do stay elsewhere usually need a day pass: Warwick Paradise Island charges $130, RIU about $100.
Venue details reflect published information as of October 2026. Confirm current pricing, capacity and rules directly with each venue before booking.