No onlookers. No other guests. A tropical hillside above Sámana Bay in the Dominican Republic, and only the people you really love celebrating with you.
Close your eyes and picture it. A tropical hillside overlooking the Caribbean. The jungle canopy beneath you, the birds singing, and the skies over the bay turning all shades of pink and purple as the sun is about to set. A table set under the open sky for everyone you love. No strangers in the background. No one you have to greet politely or acquaintances that you haven’t seen for many years. Just the people who would have crossed an ocean for you…which, as it turns out, they have.
This is the wedding most couples are picturing when they say they want something intimate. Not a smaller version of a big wedding. Something else entirely. Something you could not create in your homeland.
“Intimate Weddings” is a term that has become popular, but does not always meet the exact needs of the special couple and their loves ones. You can invite 24 people to a wedding built for 150, yet still spend the evening in a roped-off corner of someone else’s vacation. What makes a wedding feel intimate is not the guest count. It is knowing, with certainty, that the whole venue is yours, and that the entire experience has been co-created just for you.
Araya is available for intimate and personalized weddings, including a private buyout of the entire property. When you book your wedding with Araya, you can book the whole resort, including the villas, Luna Terraza, Las Estrellas Restaurant, the pool, the spa, and the gorgeous hillside with its stunning water views.
Why above the beach, rather than on it
Most Caribbean weddings take place on the sand. Araya is deliberately different.
The property sits high above Samaná Bay, and that elevation is the point of difference. A beach cannot give you privacy, or the tranquility that comes with it. There are no tourists wandering past your ceremony, no jet skis during the vows, and no music from the property next door. Just the jungle, the ocean view, and a stillness that settles into your being within minutes of arriving, then stays with you for the duration of your stay.
Araya photographs differently, too. Beach weddings in the Dominican Republic can be cookie-cutter style, but your wedding experience will be entirely unique.
What an intimate wedding actually means
An intimate wedding is not a smaller version of a large wedding. It is a different experience altogether.
You are not greeting strangers all day. This is the part couples feel most and say least. At a large wedding, you can spend hours being kind to people you barely know (if at all), and see the people you love in 10-minute fragments. At Araya, the guest list is only large enough for people you would genuinely have a close dinner with. Because there is no room for obligatory invitations, that decision gets made for you.
Nobody is seated out of earshot. Whether guests are seated at two tables or four, it stays one conversation. There’s no far corner, and no friends or family you barely get to speak to.
It is a vacation, not just a ceremony. Everyone stays in the same place, so the celebration stops having a start and end time. The wedding becomes a longer vacation that you can all enjoy as a group. The connection builds before the wedding, and continues after it is over. You can all swim, eat, and take fun excursions together. With the wedding and vacation folded into one amazing experience, it is easy to stay up late chatting and spending true quality time with loved ones.
Worth saying plainly: Araya Resort is not the venue for 150 guests. It is a venue deliberately designed for those very special, bespoke, and truly once-in-a-lifetime experiences. You will never forget your wedding at Araya, and neither will your guests.
Why 24 is the attraction, not the limitation
Araya can sleep a total of 24 guests within the resort itself, but up to 40 people can attend the wedding celebration and dinner.
A truly intimate group size makes for amazing food possibilities! The menu is custom-crafted for your friends and family, rather than making you choose from a pre-determined set of generic catering options. The staff at Araya will handle your culinary experience with the extraordinary care and attention that they approach every single detail at the resort.
A smaller group of people also fits in one photograph and one conversation. With everyone together on site, the weekend is one continuous journey, rather than a series of arrivals, departures, and people slipping away early for a shuttle.
Araya is for adults and young people ages 15 and over.
Unhurried is not the same as unplanned
While we want your wedding experience to feel relaxed, that does not mean things are not planned.
Well before your special day, we will plan, review, and agree on the wedding timeline and organisational details. By the time the ceremony begins, the finer details will have all been arranged, including when the light will be right for photographs, when dinner is served, and how the evening moves from the terrace to the restaurant. On your special day, our staff is carefully executing the plan behind the scenes, freeing you from having to watch the clock. If you prefer to involve your own wedding planner, our staff is happy to work with them as well.
A benefit of having the whole place to yourselves is that you get to organise the finer details of the whole experience. You will not have to rush to finish dinner in order to free up the room for another group. If dinner lingers on because the conversation is good, that is your decision, rather than a problem.
What exclusive use actually means
At Araya, exclusive use of the resort means that there will be no other guests anywhere on the property. There will not be another competing event that weekend, even in a separate space. No shared pool, restaurant or arrival. No noise curfew set by strangers in the next villa. Our team will be solely dedicated to working your wedding, rather than dividing attention between two weddings on the same night.
The practical details
Nine of our villas sleep two guests each; Aire, Agua, and Fuego, for a total of 18. Villa Tierra can sleep up to 6 guests. Both ceremony spaces can accommodate more guests than can be hosted on-site, so friends staying nearby can attend the ceremony and dinner. Neighbouring properties may be able to offer their accommodation for a larger party.
A full property buyout requires a minimum of 3 nights, perfect for an extended celebration with loved ones. There is also a minimum food and beverage spend, which varies depending on the dates.
What the weekend may look like
Friday. Guests arrive throughout the afternoon and locate their villas. Following check-in, guests are free to swim and catch up over cocktails by the pool. An elegant welcome dinner, as the sun starts to set over the bay, caps off the evening.
Saturday. Saturday begins with a slow morning and unhurried breakfast. The ceremony will get underway late in the afternoon on Luna Terraza, once the heat begins to subside. Your magical and intimate wedding unfolds above the jungle with a view of the Caribbean. The ceremony is followed by dinner at Las Estrellas Restaurant under a star-filled sky, where the evening carries on without anyone having to be quiet for a stranger.
Sunday. The weekend ends with a farewell breakfast. Nobody has to rush for a shuttle, because the shuttle leaves whenever you decide it does.
Wedding celebrations are not limited to weekends, and dates can be chosen by the couple in accordance with availability. 3 nights is the minimum for a full buy-out, but the happy couple and their invited guests can stay longer to extend the magic of their special once-in-a-lifetime vacation.
The name “Araya” speaks to new beginnings, the villas are named for the elements, and the ceremony terrace for the moon. The names we have chosen are all intentional, as is everything at Araya. All of these aspects are the reasons that this resort exists, and a wedding is one of our favorite new beginnings to host!
What to ask any venue promising something intimate
Take this list elsewhere. It is the fastest way to find out whether a venue is offering everything that you hope for in an intimate wedding.
- Will there be any other guests on the property on our dates?
- Is there another event booked that weekend, even in a separate space?
- What time does our dinner and music have to stop?
- Do our guests share the pool, the restaurant, or the arrival?
- Is the team working on anything else that night?
- Can the menu be built for us especially, or do we choose from set packages?
A venue that answers all six without hedging is offering a buyout. Most cannot.
The evening you were picturing
Imagine the tropical hillside, overlooking the Caribbean, under the sky slowly turning pinks and purples, surrounded by the people you love, and nobody else. For a truly intimate wedding, there can be no other guests, no competing event, no onlookers in the photographs, no plan someone else is holding, and no view that looks just like home.
If you are dreaming of a private and intimate Caribbean wedding, please reach out to our event planning team, and we will work with you to bring your vision to life here at Araya.