Couples tend to assume a bigger wedding needs a bigger resort, and on this coast that assumption falls apart immediately. The largest wedding venue in Riviera Nayarit, a hall licensed for 1,500 guests, belongs to a medium-sized property. So do the two biggest beaches, at 650 apiece.
Property size and wedding size are separate questions here, and understanding that saves a lot of wasted comparison. Eighteen of the coast’s twenty-three wedding resorts are medium-sized, which means almost every serious contender sits in this category, and several of them hold more guests than the four large resorts do.
What medium actually buys you is the ratio: enough property to run a real wedding operation, not so much that your group disappears into it. Below are six of the strongest, and our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists can tell you how much of each one your group would occupy for a destination wedding.
Best Medium Destination Wedding Venues at Top Riviera Nayarit Resorts
Six medium-sized wedding resorts spanning Nuevo Vallarta, the Punta de Mita peninsula, and the coast toward Sayulita.
1. Hard Rock Hotel Vallarta
Hard Rock Hotel Vallarta is the clearest proof that medium doesn’t mean small. Nine wedding venues sit on this property, including the 1,500-guest Sanctuary Ballroom, the 400-guest Nayarit Ballroom, and two beaches at 650 each.
No other resort on the coast comes close on capacity, and it manages that on a medium footprint, which means a group of sixty is still a visible presence at breakfast rather than a rounding error. It’s 4.5-star and family-friendly in Nuevo Vallarta, handling Jewish and South Asian ceremonies.
Learn more about Hard Rock Hotel Vallarta and get a free quote today >>
2. Dreams Bahia Mita Surf & Spa Resort
Dreams Bahia Mita Surf & Spa Resort has seven venues on a medium footprint, all of them outdoors, running from a 400-guest garden down to a 50-guest beach terrace.
Seven settings at one property is the kind of range that usually requires a much larger resort, and it means a wedding weekend can give each event its own character without anyone getting into a vehicle. The property sits up the coast toward Sayulita where the surf is part of the appeal, and it’s 4.5-star and family-friendly.
Learn more about Dreams Bahia Mita Surf & Spa Resort and get a free quote today >>
3. Armony Marival Resort & Spa Punta de Mita – MGallery Collection
Armony Marival Resort & Spa Punta de Mita – MGallery Collection packs eight venues onto a medium property: the clifftop Vent for 140, a ballroom for 200, La Brise for 200, Essence for 150, and smaller rooms down to 60.
That spread is ideal for a multi-day celebration that wants a different room each night, and it handles Jewish, South Asian, civil, and symbolic ceremonies. It’s 4.5-star and family-friendly on the peninsula, which buys seclusion at the cost of roughly an hour from the airport.
Learn more about Armony Marival Resort & Spa Punta de Mita – MGallery Collection and get a free quote today >>
4. Secrets Bahia Mita Surf & Spa Resort
Secrets Bahia Mita Surf & Spa Resort is the 4.5-star adults-only property on the Bahia Mita grounds, sharing its neighbour’s seven outdoor venues.
Medium and adults-only together produce a particular atmosphere: quiet without feeling empty, sociable without being loud. For a wedding party of adults spending five days together, the scale does most of the work. The pairing with the family-friendly side next door also lets a group split by preference rather than compromising on one or the other.
Learn more about Secrets Bahia Mita Surf & Spa Resort and get a free quote today >>
5. Iberostar Selection Playa Mita
Iberostar Selection Playa Mita takes the opposite approach to the resorts above: three venues rather than eight, all open air, all within a few steps of each other.
The White Stone Gazebo holds 100, the Sunset Terrace 120, and the Poolside Terrace 100. For a wedding of around a hundred, having the ceremony, cocktails, and dinner that close together makes the day genuinely easy to run and easy for guests to follow. It’s 4.5-star and family-friendly on the peninsula.
Learn more about Iberostar Selection Playa Mita and get a free quote today >>
6. Villa La Estancia Beach Resort & Spa Riviera Nayarit
Villa La Estancia Beach Resort & Spa Riviera Nayarit is a 4.5-star, family-friendly property in Nuevo Vallarta built around suites rather than standard rooms.
That layout changes what medium means in practice. Suites with kitchens and separate living space hold more people per unit, so a given guest list takes up fewer rooms, and families travelling together get somewhere to retreat to between events. For a week-long destination wedding with several households in attendance, it works better than a conventional room count suggests.
Learn more about Villa La Estancia Beach Resort & Spa Riviera Nayarit and get a free quote today >>
Most of the coast falls into this bracket, including UNICO 20°105° Hotel Riviera Nayarit, Marival Emotions Resort & Suites Riviera Nayarit, Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit, and Four Seasons Resort Punta Mita.
More Information for Planning Your Medium Destination Wedding in Riviera Nayarit
Resort size shapes the week more than the wedding day. Here’s how our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists think about it.
Medium Destination Wedding Venues Appeal
A medium wedding resort gets the ratio right. Your group is large enough relative to the property that people keep running into each other, which is most of what makes a wedding week feel like one, and the resort is large enough to hold everyone without a buyout.
Operationally, it’s the sweet spot too. Medium properties carry a full-time wedding coordinator, several restaurants for a rehearsal dinner or welcome party, and enough staff to run a large reception without borrowing people from other departments. Smaller hotels often can’t, and a wedding at one becomes a project you manage rather than attend.
The one thing to check separately is venue capacity, because on this coast it genuinely does not track property size. A medium resort here might hold 1,500 indoors or 100 outdoors. Ask for the specific venue numbers rather than inferring them from how big the hotel looks.
Riviera Nayarit Destination Wedding Cost
The average cost of a destination wedding in Riviera Nayarit is $10,215 all-in for the couple, covering the wedding package, accommodations, airfare, and add-ons. Hotel costs average roughly $299 per person per night over a typical five-night stay, with airfare from $200 to $800 per couple. Couples marrying here average 45 guests.
These averages reflect real spend data from couples who booked their destination wedding with our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists.
Because medium wedding resorts make up most of the coast’s inventory, that average is effectively the medium-resort average, which makes it a fair number to plan against. What moves it is the star rating and the season rather than the size of the property.
Riviera Nayarit Destination Wedding Packages
Complimentary and deposit-only wedding packages are widely available with a qualifying room block, running roughly $1,350 to $5,000 at entry tier, $5,500 to $7,000 mid-tier, and $7,500 to $14,000 and beyond for full productions.
Medium resorts are where room blocks have the most leverage. Ten to fifteen rooms is a meaningful share of a medium property’s inventory, which gives you a real negotiating position, whereas the same block at a very large resort barely registers. Ask what each threshold unlocks, since the jump between tiers is often worth more than haggling over the package.
Riviera Nayarit Destination Wedding Travel Information
Licenciado Gustavo Diaz Ordaz International Airport serves the coast with direct flights from most major US and Canadian cities. Nuevo Vallarta is 25 to 40 minutes away, Punta de Mita about an hour, and the Bahia Mita resorts further north toward Sayulita.
Where on the coast you land shapes the week as much as the resort does. Nuevo Vallarta keeps transfers short and puts the marina and its restaurants within reach. The peninsula and the northern coast are quieter and more scenic, and they cost every guest an extra hour in each direction. The November to April dry season books out first.
Riviera Nayarit Medium Destination Wedding Venue FAQs
What counts as a medium-sized resort?
A property in the middle band by room count, substantial enough to run a full wedding operation without the scale of a mega-resort. Eighteen of the twenty-three wedding resorts in Riviera Nayarit fall into this category, with four large and one small.
Can a medium resort host a large wedding?
On this coast, yes, and more easily than the large ones. The 1,500-guest Sanctuary Ballroom and two 650-guest beaches all belong to a medium property. What usually limits a big wedding here is room block availability rather than event space, so raise your guest count at the first conversation.
Will we be the only wedding that weekend?
Often, though not guaranteed. Medium resorts typically run one or two weddings a day at most, and many will confirm exclusivity for your date if you ask early. It’s a fair question to put to the coordinator before you sign.
Get Ready to Plan a Medium Destination Wedding in Riviera Nayarit
Most of this coast is medium-sized, and that turns out to be an advantage rather than a limitation. Enough infrastructure to run the day properly, enough restraint that your people don’t get swallowed, and venue capacity that runs far beyond what the property size suggests.
Fill out our online wedding planning form, and one of our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists will match property size and venue capacity to your guest list.
About the Author
Maggie Sabin
Maggie started as the SEO Manager at DestinationWeddings.com in 2024, where she works to drive organic traffic and conversions while creating meaningful, SEO-optimized content for the website. Previously, Maggie's career spanned from Human Resources & Recruitment to teaching at international schools for almost 10 years. Maggie spends her free time traveling, learning new languages, reading non-fiction books, working out, going to the beach and spending time cuddling her dog, Lola!
