Every single resort we work with in Punta Cana offers symbolic ceremonies. A handful offer nothing else, and those teams have spent years getting one kind of ceremony exactly right. So the question here isn’t whether you can have a symbolic destination wedding. It’s what you do with the freedom it gives you.
The freedom that gets overlooked is the clock. A legal ceremony needs an officiant, and an officiant has a calendar and office hours. A symbolic ceremony needs neither, which means the hours everyone else can’t book are open to you.
Below are six wedding resorts where that flexibility actually goes somewhere. Our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists can walk you through how the paperwork works when you marry at home first.
Best Symbolic Destination Wedding Venues at Top Punta Cana Resorts
These six wedding resorts handle symbolic ceremonies well, and between them they cover every size and style on the coast.
1. TRS Turquesa Hotel
TRS Turquesa Hotel is a five-star adults-only property whose wedding team does symbolic ceremonies and has built everything around them.
That specialization shows up in small ways that matter. The coordinators aren’t working around a judge’s availability when they build your timeline, so the schedule gets set by what looks best rather than what’s left. Readings, vows, and ritual elements get treated as the main event instead of something added onto a legal script, and nobody suggests trimming them for time.
Learn more about TRS Turquesa Hotel and get a free quote today >>
2. Breathless Punta Cana Resort & Spa
Breathless Punta Cana Resort & Spa is a large adults-only resort with beach venues and a rooftop Sky Bar.
This is the property for couples who want the ceremony late and the night long. The energy here runs toward evening anyway, with a pool scene that carries into the dark and a rooftop that comes into its own after sunset. A symbolic ceremony at eight o’clock under lights, straight into a reception already underway, is a timeline that just isn’t available with an officiant on the clock.
Learn more about Breathless Punta Cana Resort & Spa and get a free quote today >>
3. Zoetry Agua Punta Cana
Zoetry Agua Punta Cana is one of only three small properties on the coast, five-star and designed around quiet.
Small changes can make a ceremony. With a short guest list and a resort that isn’t running three other weddings that week, a sunrise ceremony on the sand becomes genuinely workable rather than a logistical fight. Punta Cana faces the open Atlantic, so first light here is over water, and almost nobody books it because they assume the hour isn’t available.
Learn more about Zoetry Agua Punta Cana and get a free quote today >>
4. Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana
Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana is a large five-star adults-only resort with a fountain venue alongside its beach and garden spaces.
The fountain is the one worth asking about. Water as a backdrop gives you sound and movement that a beach doesn’t, and it photographs well at hours when open sand is washed out or dark. It’s also hard ground with defined edges, so the setup is predictable. South Asian ceremonies are supported here too.
Learn more about Secrets Royal Beach Punta Cana and get a free quote today >>
5. Lopesan Costa Bavaro Resort, Spa & Casino
Lopesan Costa Bavaro Resort, Spa & Casino is a large five-star family-friendly property with garden venues and considerable indoor capacity.
Scale is the asset here. A big resort can absorb a big guest list without the wedding swallowing the property, and the garden spaces give you an alternative to sand for couples who want greenery and shade. With a symbolic ceremony, you also get to set the hour around the heat rather than around an office, which in a garden matters more than it does on an open beach.
Learn more about Lopesan Costa Bavaro Resort, Spa & Casino and get a free quote today >>
6. Majestic Mirage Punta Cana
Majestic Mirage Punta Cana is a large family-friendly resort that handles Catholic, Jewish, and South Asian ceremonies alongside symbolic ones.
That range is unusual, and it’s useful even if you’re going symbolic. A team used to running ceremonies with genuine religious structure understands processionals, canopies, extended rituals, and the fact that not every wedding is twenty minutes of readings. If your symbolic ceremony borrows from a tradition, this is a staff that has done the real version.
Learn more about Majestic Mirage Punta Cana and get a free quote today >>
More Information for Planning Your Symbolic Destination Wedding in Punta Cana
Here’s what our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists go over with couples choosing a symbolic ceremony.
Symbolic Destination Wedding Venues Appeal
A symbolic ceremony means you’ve handled the legal marriage at home, usually at a courthouse weeks beforehand, and the wedding in Punta Cana is the one with your people in it. Nothing about it is less real. The paperwork simply happened somewhere less photogenic.
What you get back is control. No translation of documents, no apostilles, no blood tests, no residency window, no scheduling around a judge. The hour is yours, the script is yours, and anyone you want can officiate, which for most couples means a parent, a sibling, or a close friend rather than a stranger.
The one thing to think through is how you tell people. Some couples announce the courthouse date openly; others keep it quiet so the day in Punta Cana stands alone. Decide early, because it shapes how the ceremony is written and whether anyone says the word “legally” out loud.
Punta Cana Destination Wedding Cost
The average couple marrying in Punta Cana spends around $10,768 in total, which covers the wedding package, accommodations, airfare, and extras. Rooms run roughly $390 per person per night over a typical four-night stay, with airfare between $200 and $1,000 per couple. The average guest count here is 38.
These averages reflect real spend data from couples who booked their destination wedding with our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists.
Symbolic is the cheaper route on paper, since you skip the legal officiant fee and the document costs. Just remember the courthouse ceremony at home has its own small price, and budget for it rather than being surprised by it.
Punta Cana Destination Wedding Packages
Resorts here offer complimentary and deposit-only wedding packages when you book a qualifying room block. Entry tiers run about $800 to $3,500, mid tiers $4,000 to $8,000, and the largest productions $9,000 to $17,000 and up.
The free and near-free packages are almost always written for symbolic ceremonies, which is why they can be free. If a resort quotes you a complimentary wedding, that’s the ceremony type it assumes, and upgrading to legal adds a line item.
Punta Cana Destination Wedding Travel Information
Punta Cana International is the Caribbean’s busiest airport, with direct service from most major North American cities and good connections from Europe. Transfers to the Bavaro resorts take 20 to 30 minutes.
Because you’re not tied to an officiant’s calendar, you can build the trip around flight prices and arrival times instead of around ceremony availability. Couples who want an unusual hour should raise it at booking rather than on arrival, since staffing a 6:30 a.m. ceremony is easy to arrange in advance and impossible to arrange the night before.
Punta Cana Symbolic Destination Wedding FAQs
What is a symbolic wedding ceremony?
A symbolic ceremony is a full wedding with no legal component. The couple handles the legal marriage separately, usually at a courthouse at home, then holds the ceremony they actually want in front of their guests. The vows, the readings, and the celebration are all genuine. Only the paperwork happens elsewhere.
Can you have a sunrise wedding ceremony in Punta Cana?
Yes, and a symbolic ceremony is what makes it practical, since there’s no officiant schedule to work around. Punta Cana faces the open Atlantic, so the sun rises over the water in front of the resorts. Arrange an early ceremony at the time of booking rather than after you arrive.
Who can officiate a symbolic wedding in Punta Cana?
Anyone you choose. Because the ceremony carries no legal weight, there’s no licensing requirement, so a parent, sibling, or close friend can lead it. Most wedding resorts will also provide an officiant if you’d rather not ask someone to take it on.
Get Ready to Plan a Symbolic Destination Wedding in Punta Cana
Handle the legal part at home, and the day on this coast belongs entirely to you. Your hour, your words, your person at the front, with the Atlantic doing what it does best behind you.
Fill out our online wedding planning form, and one of our Certified Destination Wedding Specialists will help you match a resort to the ceremony you have in mind.
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!
