Six Senses Laamu is the only operating resort on Laamu Atoll, in the southern Maldives, and Mission Blue announced the atoll a Hope Spot in October 2021, citing the resort’s work on sustainable ecotourism. Weddings here can be held on a private sandbank or the beach, according to the resort, beside a working marine research programme that has run since the resort opened in 2011. Guests reach the island by a 65 minute seaplane flight from Malé.
An atoll that became a Hope Spot
Mission Blue, the ocean conservation organisation founded by the marine biologist Sylvia Earle, describes Laamu as an atoll of seagrass meadows, isolated inner reef formations and mangroves. It records a continuous reef of about 130 kilometres, 47 coral genera, more than 400 species of fish and four species of mangrove, and notes that only about a fifth of the atoll’s islands are inhabited. The resort has carried out scientific monitoring there since 2011, according to Mission Blue, and helped create the Maldives Underwater Initiative with the Manta Trust, Blue Marine Foundation and the Olive Ridley Project. The initiative works towards marine protected areas and a management plan for the atoll. A Hope Spot is a Mission Blue designation and not a legal protection, and when Mission Blue wrote in 2021 the new protected areas were still expected, although Six Senses now describes the resort as sitting among six. Mission Blue also records the pressure on the atoll: on the uninhabited island of Gaadhoo, 38 percent of green turtle nests were poached in the 2019 to 2020 season, and the Laamu Atoll Council pledged in 2018 to protect five ecologically significant areas.
The marine team on the island
The initiative is based at the resort’s Sea Hub of Environmental Learning in Laamu, known as SHELL, which Six Senses describes as a marine research and education centre with a laboratory, a cinema room and a gallery with an LED display floor of underwater scenes. The Manta Trust has studied the atoll’s manta rays with the resort since 2014, at Hithadhoo Corner, a ten minute boat ride away and 20 metres down. The Olive Ridley Project has worked on the atoll’s sea turtles since 2018, from nest monitoring to the collection of data on ghost nets. Six Senses says the SHELL laboratory can grow 10,000 baby corals at a time, and reports that almost four million coral larvae have been released onto its house reef.
Six Senses publishes its own totals for 2025, among them 579 manta ray sightings and about 385,000 square metres of seagrass around the resort, all of it protected from removal. Guided snorkels on the house reef with a resident marine biologist are complimentary, according to the resort.
The other islands of the atoll
The resort also funds work on land. Its Eku Eky programme, begun in 2016, brings together community leaders from all 11 inhabited islands of the atoll, home to about 13,000 people, with money from the resort’s Regenerative Impact Fund and help with grant writing and project design.
The sandbank, the beach and the cellar
Six Senses describes a ceremony held on a private sandbank, with the couple arriving by traditional sailing dhoni and bodu beru drummers playing as they walk to the aisle, and then a sunset toast with cake and a private beach dinner. Beyond that wedding, Six Senses offers a lobster barbecue on the sand, a sunset dolphin cruise by private dhoni and dinners in the Altitude cellar as ways to fill the evenings of a wedding week. The resort’s experiences team plans the ceremony, location and catering with each couple.
Two dinner settings stand apart. Altitude is a spun-glass wine cellar of more than 300 labels, where the resort serves a five course dinner with four wines and a sommelier explaining each. Leaf, an adults-only restaurant, looks over an organic garden that Six Senses says grows more than 40 micro herbs and greens and has a mushroom hut. The resort’s journal describes a Maldivian Blue Zone menu, a plant-leaning dinner served with a mocktail, and Six Senses offers a lobster barbecue on the beach grilled by a personal chef. The resort also has Zen for Japanese cooking, Kaji for teppanyaki, the open-air Longitude and the Chill Bar beside the house reef.
Staying on the island
The 94 villas stand either on stilts over the lagoon or behind the beach, from the 108 square metre Lagoon Water Villa to The Retreat, a three or four bedroom villa with a 20 metre lap pool. The spa has nine private treatment nests with Ayurvedic and locally inspired treatments, and guests who stay a few days also have a free-form pool of about 700 square metres, bicycles, diving, catamaran sailing, wakeboarding and a children’s club, the Den, that is complimentary. The Yin Yang surf break is a short boat ride away and runs from May to September at its peak, according to the resort, with Christmas and New Year its high season.
Planning your wedding
The seaplane flies in daylight only, so guests should reach Malé by 3 pm and leave on an international flight no earlier than 9:30 am. The round trip is USD 1,199 per adult and USD 700 per child aged 2 to 11, taxes included, with infants under two free. Luggage is limited to 20 kilograms checked and 5 kilograms by hand, and larger items are arranged through the reservations team. Customs rules do not allow alcohol or pork products into the Maldives.
Six Senses does not publish a wedding price or a guest capacity on its pages, so ask for both, and for the seated capacity of the sandbank, the beach and each restaurant. Couples who want a legally recognised marriage should also ask the resort how it is arranged.
The resort suits couples who want a remote wedding and are interested in the reef around it. Season and seaplane hours are the first things to settle. See the Six Senses Laamu profile for the villas and the gallery, browse weddings in the Maldives, or read the Edit on Waldorf Astoria Maldives Ithaafushi. Ready to plan? Check your date.
