The Best Time of Year to Get Married in Careyes, México
One of the first questions every couple asks us is about the weather.
It is a reasonable question. You are planning one of the most important days of your life in a place you may have never visited, on a coastline most of your guests have never heard of. You want to know what to expect.
Here is the honest answer.
Careyes has two seasons. Both are extraordinary. They are not the same.
The Dry Season — November through May
The dry season is the most popular time to get married in Careyes — and for obvious reasons.
From November through May, Careyes delivers warm days, cool evenings, zero rain and skies that turn colors at sunset that no photographer can fully prepare for. The Pacific is calm. The jungle is golden. The casitas glow in the afternoon light like something from a dream you had once and can't quite remember.
This is Careyes at its most accessible and its most cinematic. It is also the season when humpback whales arrive offshore — from December through March, it is common to see whales breaching during wedding ceremonies. We have seen it happen. We never get tired of it.
The dry season is right for couples who want predictability — clear skies, reliable temperatures and the confidence that the weather will not become part of the story in any unexpected way.
The Wet Season — June through October
The wet season is Careyes at its most alive.
From June through October, the jungle surrounding Careyes transforms — from golden to an almost impossible shade of green, lush and dramatic in a way that the dry season simply cannot replicate. The waterfalls run. The rivers fill. The landscape looks like something that should not exist this close to the ocean.
The rain comes in the afternoons — usually between 3pm and 6pm — and then clears. By sunset, the sky does things that dry season sunsets can only approximate. The colors are more saturated. The light is more dramatic. The air smells like the earth has just remembered what it is.
Weddings in the wet season require more logistical preparation — covered spaces, contingency plans, flexible timing. They also produce some of the most beautiful photographs we have ever seen from a Careyes event.
The wet season is right for couples who are not afraid of a little weather — who understand that the most extraordinary things are rarely the most predictable ones.
The transition months — October and November
October and November deserve a special mention. These are the months when the wet season gives way to the dry — when the jungle is still green but the rain is beginning to ease, when the days are warm and the evenings are cool and Careyes is at its most quietly beautiful.
October and November weddings are, in our experience, some of the most extraordinary we produce. The landscape has the lushness of the wet season and the reliability of the dry. The crowds — such as they are in a place this exclusive — have not yet arrived. The Pacific is at its most expressive.
If you have flexibility in your dates, October and November are worth serious consideration.
What about hurricanes?
The Pacific hurricane season runs from June through November. Careyes is located in a zone that receives significantly less hurricane activity than the Caribbean or the Gulf of Mexico — but the risk is not zero.
We monitor weather patterns carefully during the wet season and build contingency plans into every event we produce during these months. In our years of producing events in Careyes, we have never had a wedding significantly disrupted by weather. We also believe in being honest about the conditions we work in.
Choosing your date
Our recommendation is simple: choose the season that matches the kind of wedding you want, not the season that matches what other people expect.
If you want reliability and the most popular dates — November through April. Book as early as possible. These months fill up first.
If you want drama, lushness and the feeling that the whole natural world is participating in your celebration — June through October. Embrace the season. It will reward you.
If you want the best of both — October or November. You will not regret it.
We take on 4 to 6 events per year at Mr & Mrs Soul. Whatever season you choose, the earlier you reach out, the better your options.
Mr & Mrs Soul is the only full-service wedding and event agency based in Careyes, Costalegre, México.
What It's Really Like to Plan a Wedding in a Natural Reserve
Most couples planning a destination wedding think about the venue, the catering, the flowers and the photographer. Very few think about the ecosystem.
In Careyes, the ecosystem is part of the wedding.
Careyes is located within one of Mexico's most protected stretches of Pacific coastline — a natural reserve that is home to humpback whales, sea turtles, manta rays, jaguars, iguanas and more than 270 species of birds. It is one of the most biodiverse coastlines in the country. It is also, somehow, one of the most beautiful places to get married.
Here is what planning a wedding in a natural reserve actually looks like — and why every couple who has done it with us has told us it was the best decision they ever made.
The wildlife shows up uninvited. We consider this a feature.
We have had humpback whales breach offshore during wedding ceremonies. We have had sea turtles arrive on the beach during reception dinners. We have had jaguars spotted on the hills behind the venue the morning of the wedding.
None of this is staged. None of it can be planned. All of it is unforgettable.
When you get married in Careyes, the natural world is a guest at your wedding. It does not ask for a plus one. It does not follow the itinerary. It simply arrives, does something extraordinary and leaves your guests with a story they will tell for the rest of their lives.
Working with the environment, not against it
Planning a wedding in a natural reserve requires a different kind of discipline than planning in a hotel ballroom.
Every decision we make — flowers, lighting, waste management, transportation, timing — is made with the land in mind. We work with local suppliers who understand this coast. We use flowers that belong to this climate. We design lighting that does not disrupt the sea turtles nesting on the beach below.
This is not a constraint. It is a creative challenge that makes every event we produce better than it would be otherwise.
The sounds of Careyes
One of the things couples notice immediately when they arrive in Careyes is the sound — or rather, the absence of the sounds they are used to. No traffic. No construction. No city noise.
What they hear instead is the Pacific. The jungle. The birds. The wind moving through the palms.
We have learned to build our events around these sounds. We choose music that complements them rather than drowning them out. We time the ceremony to coincide with the moments when the ocean is at its most eloquent. We design the dinner so that when the music stops between courses, what fills the silence is the sound of Careyes itself.
No sound system in the world can replicate that.
The responsibility
When you choose to get married in Careyes, you are choosing to celebrate in a place that has been protected — sometimes against significant economic pressure — because the people who love it believe it deserves to exist exactly as it is.
We take that seriously. Our team comes from the surrounding communities. We train them, we pay them fairly and we invest in the local economy in ways that go beyond the event itself. Every wedding we produce is also, in a small way, an argument for why this place is worth protecting.
When you leave Careyes after your wedding, you leave as one of its guardians. That is not something we say to make you feel good. It is simply what happens to everyone who spends real time here.
Is a natural reserve wedding right for you?
If you want a predictable, fully controlled environment where every variable has been accounted for — Careyes may not be your place.
If you want a wedding that feels alive — where the Pacific is a participant, where the jungle has an opinion and where something unexpected and extraordinary is not just possible but likely — then Careyes is exactly your place.
We have never had a couple regret it.
Mr & Mrs Soul is the only full-service wedding and event agency based in Careyes, Costalegre, México. We take on 4 to 6 events per year.
Careyes vs Punta Mita: Which is Better for Your Destination Wedding?
Every year, couples planning a luxury destination wedding in Mexico land on the same shortlist: Los Cabos, the Riviera Maya, Punta Mita — and increasingly, Careyes.
Punta Mita and Careyes are the two that generate the most questions. They are both on the Pacific coast. They are both exclusive. They are both extraordinary.
But they are not the same place. And they are not right for the same couple.
Here is an honest comparison.
Punta Mita
Punta Mita is a private peninsula located 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta in the state of Nayarit. It is home to two Four Seasons hotels, a St. Regis, dozens of private villas and one of the most established luxury wedding industries in Mexico.
It is polished, accessible and exceptionally well organized. The vendors know exactly what they are doing. The infrastructure is flawless. The beaches are beautiful.
It is also busy. On any given weekend in high season, there are multiple weddings happening simultaneously across the peninsula. The experience is extraordinary — but it is a shared one.
Careyes
Careyes is located two hours south of Puerto Vallarta on the Costalegre coast of Jalisco. It is a protected natural reserve. There are no chain hotels, no shopping centers, no traffic. The architecture — painted in fuchsia, terracota, cobalt and yellow — was designed by Italian architect Gianfranco Brignone to be unlike anywhere else on earth.
He succeeded.
Careyes receives a fraction of the visitors that Punta Mita does. The wedding industry here is intentionally small. There is one full-service event agency physically based in Careyes: Mr & Mrs Soul. We take on 4 to 6 events per year.
When you get married in Careyes, you are not one of several weddings happening that weekend. You are the event. The whole place knows it. The whole place prepares for it.
The key differences
Accessibility: Punta Mita wins. It is 45 minutes from Puerto Vallarta airport. Careyes is two hours from Puerto Vallarta or three hours from Guadalajara. The drive is one of the most beautiful coastlines in Mexico — but it requires commitment from your guests.
Exclusivity: Careyes wins. There is simply no comparison. Punta Mita is exclusive within the context of Mexican tourism. Careyes is exclusive in an absolute sense — it receives fewer visitors in a year than Punta Mita receives in a weekend.
Venues: Different. Punta Mita offers world-class hotel venues with full service infrastructure. Careyes offers private properties — casitas, villas and ocean castles — where your guests don't stay near your wedding. They stay inside it.
Nature: Careyes wins. As a protected natural reserve, Careyes is home to humpback whales, sea turtles, manta rays and jaguars. Your ceremony backdrop is not a manicured hotel garden — it is one of the most biodiverse coastlines in the country.
Vendor ecosystem: Punta Mita wins on volume. There are dozens of established wedding vendors with years of experience. In Careyes, the vendor ecosystem is smaller and more carefully curated — which means less choice but more quality control.
Photography: Both are extraordinary. Punta Mita offers iconic ocean views and perfect golden hour light. Careyes offers all of that plus the most dramatic and colorful architecture in Mexico — and almost no other weddings competing for the same shots.
Which is right for you?
Choose Punta Mita if you want a seamlessly organized luxury wedding with full hotel infrastructure, easy access for international guests and a well-established vendor ecosystem.
Choose Careyes if you want your wedding to feel like the only wedding in the world — in a place so extraordinary that your guests will spend the rest of their lives trying to explain it to people who weren't there.
Both are the right answer. Just not for the same couple.
Mr & Mrs Soul is the only full-service wedding and event agency based in Careyes, Costalegre, México. We take on 4 to 6 events per year.
