Guides › Nassau / Paradise Island

Wedding Guide · Bahamas

Nassau and Paradise Island Wedding Guide: Ocean Club Gardens, Resort Weekends, Costs, Seasons, and Planning Tips

By Emily Carter

Emily Carter

Editorial Director · WeddingUFO

Emily Carter is Editorial Director at WeddingUFO. Previously a senior editor at The Knot, she now leads WeddingUFO’s editorial mission: helping couples discover the wedding destination that fits them best.

July 16, 2026

Nassau is the wedding destination that fixes the two problems every other international choice carries, the flight and the paperwork.

From most of the eastern United States the plane ride is under three hours, and U.S. customs preclearance in Nassau means the trip home lands like a domestic flight. More surprising, the Bahamas is one of the few destinations where a real legal wedding is easy. One day of residency on the island, a visit to the Registrar General with passports and about a hundred fifty dollars, and the marriage is legal at home with no symbolic asterisk. Around that convenience sits a genuinely beautiful setting, water in shades that look edited, colonial pastels downtown, Junkanoo drums in the streets, and across the bridge on Paradise Island, resort glamour at full volume. What the postcard hides is hurricane season from June through November with its peak in September, island pricing on everything that arrives by boat, and two mega resorts so complete that some weddings never see the real Nassau at all.

Nassau rewards couples with mixed generation guest lists who want turquoise water without the travel friction, and who book the dry season without negotiating with September.

Quick Answer: Is Nassau Good for a Wedding?

Yes, especially for big mixed guest lists. Nassau and Paradise Island offer the shortest flights and simplest legal path of any international wedding destination, thousands of rooms at every price, and venues from storied gardens to private islands. The tradeoffs are island pricing and a real hurricane season, so the calendar does the heavy lifting.

Destination · Bahamas

Nassau / Paradise Island

The wedding capital of the Bahamas, where water the color of a filter meets colonial pastels in town and resort glamour across the bridge. Nassau pairs the storied garden…

View Nassau / Paradise Island spotlight

A smaller Nassau wedding with 30 to 60 guests often lands around $18,000 to $40,000 all in. A full resort weekend with 80 to 150 guests commonly runs $40,000 to $100,000. Ocean Club garden weddings and private island buyouts push well past that, and the mega resorts can quote almost any number in either direction.

Choose the Setting Before the Venue

A Paradise Island wedding lives across the bridge among the resorts, the Ocean Club gardens at the elegant end and Atlantis at the everything end.

A Cable Beach wedding at the Baha Mar strip is the modern resort play, three hotels, a casino, and a long white beach ten minutes from the airport.

A downtown Nassau wedding trades beach for history, a 1740s mansion, a rum distillery estate, and the colonial waterfront, with Junkanoo a phone call away.

A private island wedding puts every guest on a boat and the ceremony on its own sandbar, the full castaway fantasy twenty minutes from the harbor.

Best Time of Year

Late November through May is the season, dry, breezy, and warm without the summer steam. December through April carries peak resort rates. June through November is hurricane season, and while most weeks pass without incident, September and early October carry the real risk, thin crowds, and the best prices. Couples who book the shoulder months should buy weather insurance and read the resort\u2019s hurricane policy before signing anything.

My pick: late April or early May, after the winter high season pricing eases and well before the peak of hurricane exposure in late summer. December is lovely too, but you are competing with holiday travel for both flights and rooms, and your guests will feel it.

How Much Does a Nassau or Paradise Island Wedding Cost?

The Bahamas prices like an island. Imported flowers, food, and drink cost more than mainland Mexico, and there are fewer budget tiers between the resorts and the guesthouses. The savings hide in travel, short cheap flights, no visas, and preclearance, and in the legal wedding itself, which spares the cost of a second ceremony at home.

Getting Legally Married in the Bahamas

This is one of the easiest legal weddings in this library, and the reason so many couples make the Bahamas ceremony the real one.

You must be in the Bahamas for at least 24 hours before you can apply. After that, you apply for the licence at the Registrar General's office in Nassau with your passports and proof of arrival — the immigration card works — and the Registrar General's office lists the fee at $120, which includes one certified copy of the marriage certificate.

The sequence is quick. Couples typically apply the day after arriving and can marry once the approved licence comes through, usually the following day. There are no blood tests, no apostilles and no translations, and the certificate is recognised at home.

Two witnesses are required at the ceremony. If either of you has been married before, bring the original divorce decree or death certificate. Most resorts and planners here handle the Registrar appointment as part of the wedding package, which is worth taking them up on — it is the one errand you do not want to run yourself on your second morning in the country.

Practically, build a three-night minimum into the trip: arrive, apply, marry. Confirm current fees and requirements with the Registrar General before you finalise travel.

Best Venue Styles

Storied Luxury

Best for 100 to 200 guests and the most recognizable setting in the Bahamas

The Ocean Club, A Four Seasons Resort holds the Versailles-inspired gardens and cloisters above a private beach on Paradise Island. It is the address, and it prices accordingly.

Resort Scale

Best for 250 to 500 guests and guest lists that need hundreds of rooms

Atlantis Paradise Island across the bridge has ballrooms, beaches and enough inventory to absorb any wedding, and Grand Hyatt Baha Mar brings convention-grade rooms and a casino on Cable Beach.

Quiet Luxury

Best for 150 to 250 guests wanting Baha Mar without the volume

Rosewood Baha Mar sits in the calm corner of the strip with villas and gardens, and Sandals Royal Bahamian runs an adults-only all-inclusive with its own offshore cay.

Historic Nassau

Best for 100 to 300 guests and a wedding that feels like the country rather than the resort

Graycliff Hotel is a 1740s mansion with a legendary wine cellar, British Colonial Nassau is the restored 1920s grand dame on the downtown waterfront, and John Watling's Distillery pours rum on the verandas of the 1789 Buena Vista Estate.

Island and Beach Settings

Best for 60 to 200 guests and a ceremony reached by boat

Pearl Island with its lighthouse and sandbar is a short crossing from downtown, and Compass Point Beach Resort offers the candy-colored huts at Love Beach. Margaritaville Beach Resort covers the bright, easy end of the market.

Getting There, and What the Journey Costs Your Guest List

Nassau is one of the easiest international destinations on this list to reach from the US East Coast. Lynden Pindling International runs frequent direct service from Florida, the Northeast and the Midwest, and flights from Miami or Fort Lauderdale are barely an hour.

That short hop is the Bahamas' real advantage over Mexico or the wider Caribbean. Guests can leave home in the morning and be on a beach by lunchtime, which meaningfully raises acceptance rates.

The airport sits about 20 to 30 minutes from Cable Beach and 30 to 40 from Paradise Island, with taxi fares set by zone rather than meter. Confirm the rate before you get in, and arrange group transfers where you can.

On the ground, the Paradise Island bridge is the one chokepoint worth planning around. It is short and it backs up. If your guests are split across Cable Beach and Paradise Island, add real padding to every transfer, and consider putting everyone on one side of it instead.

What the Weekend Will Actually Cost Your Guests to Attend

The Bahamas asks less of your guests financially than most destination weddings, particularly for an East Coast guest list.

A typical guest spends roughly $250 to $500 on flights from the eastern US, plus three to four nights of resort rates that vary enormously by property, plus transfers. A thousand to $1,800 per person is realistic at a mid-tier resort, considerably more at the Ocean Club end.

Nassau's spread of properties is genuinely useful here. Atlantis alone spans a wide price range under one roof, which lets guests choose their own level without leaving the wedding. Name two or three price tiers in the invitation and let people self-select.

Remember the residency rule affects guests too if they are part of the legal ceremony as witnesses. Give a year of notice, book the block early, and expect the standard 30 to 40 percent decline rate on a destination wedding when you set your venue minimum.

Where Guests Should Stay

• Keep guests on the same side of the bridge as the wedding. Paradise Island and Cable Beach are a short drive apart and a genuine hassle to shuttle between at scale.
• Stay on Paradise Island for an Ocean Club or Atlantis wedding. Atlantis alone can absorb almost any guest list.
• Stay on Cable Beach for a Baha Mar wedding, where the resorts sit side by side and guests can walk between them.
• Use a downtown property for a historic Nassau wedding. Graycliff and British Colonial put guests within walking distance of the old town.
• Book a three-night minimum so the 24-hour residency rule and the licence processing both clear before the ceremony.

Logistics Couples Miss

• The 24-hour residency rule shapes your travel. Arrive, wait a day, apply, marry. Three nights is the practical minimum.
• Imported everything costs more. Flowers, food and drink all arrive by boat or plane, and there are few budget tiers between the resorts and the guesthouses.
• Cruise ship days change downtown. Nassau's old town fills when several ships are in. It affects portraits and restaurant availability.
• The Paradise Island bridge is a chokepoint. It is short and it backs up, so pad transfers between the island and Cable Beach.
• Hurricane season runs June through November. Late August through October carries the real risk.
• Resorts usually handle the Registrar appointment. Take them up on it rather than running the errand yourself.

Final Planning Advice

Let the calendar make the first decision, late November through May, and let the guest list make the second, mega resort for volume, garden or estate for elegance, private island for the story. Do the legal ceremony while you are there, it is the best paperwork deal in destination weddings. Then hand the details to a planner who has done this every weekend for years, because in Nassau, someone has.

Compare it with Montego Bay and Negril →

Or read the Turks and Caicos guide →

Estimate your real headcount before you tour venues →

Frequently Asked Questions

Can we get legally married in the Bahamas?

Yes, and easily. One day of residency, a Registrar General appointment with passports and proof of arrival, and a modest fee. The marriage is fully recognized at home, no symbolic ceremony required.

When is hurricane season a real problem?

The season runs June through November, but the meaningful risk concentrates in September and early October. Late November through May is effectively storm free and is the season for a reason.

Atlantis or Baha Mar?

Atlantis for spectacle, water parks, and a guest list heavy on kids and cousins. Baha Mar for newer rooms, a calmer beach, and a luxury tier at Rosewood. Both sleep everyone and neither runs out of restaurants.

How long do we have to be in the Bahamas before getting married?

At least 24 hours before you can apply for the licence. Most couples apply the day after arriving and marry once the approved licence comes through, usually the following day, so build in a three-night minimum.

How much is a Bahamas marriage licence?

Currently $120, which includes one certified copy of the marriage certificate. There are no blood tests, apostilles or translations required.

What do we need to bring to apply?

Passports and proof of your arrival date, such as the immigration card, plus original divorce decrees or death certificates if either of you was married before. Two witnesses are required at the ceremony.

How much does a Nassau wedding cost?

A 30 to 60 guest wedding typically lands around $18,000 to $40,000 all in. A full resort weekend with 80 to 150 guests commonly runs $40,000 to $100,000. Ocean Club garden weddings and private island buyouts push past $100,000.

Is the Bahamas cheaper than Turks and Caicos?

Generally yes, and the legal process is both faster and considerably cheaper: 24 hours of residency and a $120 licence against 48 hours and $250 in Turks and Caicos.

How many nights should guests plan for a Nassau wedding?

Three at minimum if you are marrying legally, because the 24-hour residency rule plus licence processing needs that runway. Four is more comfortable, and many guests extend either side since flights from Florida are barely an hour and the Bahamas rewards a longer stay.

Atlantis or Baha Mar for a large guest list?

Atlantis absorbs almost any number under one roof and spans a wide price range, which lets guests self-select their level. Baha Mar is newer, quieter and splits across three distinct hotels, which suits a guest list that wants variety without leaving the strip.

When is hurricane season a real problem in the Bahamas?

The season runs June through November, with the genuine exposure concentrated from late August through October. Weddings in that window need event cancellation coverage discussed in month one rather than as an afterthought, and a venue with a real indoor alternative.