Most beach weddings ask you to borrow a stretch of public sand and share the view with everyone else on it. Chabil Mar refuses the compromise. A boutique resort on the Placencia Peninsula on the Caribbean coast of Belize, it has 400ft of its own private beach, a pier reaching out over the turquoise sea, and just 19 villas, which turns out to be exactly what makes it so good for a wedding: intimate, barefoot, and entirely yours.
There is no grand ballroom and no crowd here, just the sand, the palms and the pier, two infinity pools set among tropical gardens, and the Caribbean in every direction. Couples marry barefoot on the beach with a floral arch and the sea behind, or out on the pier over the water, and a dedicated planner arranges every detail, from the ceremony decor and the marriage licence to a private dinner for two beneath the stars.
Chabil Mar is small on purpose, “The Guest Exclusive Resort of Placencia”, and it means it: with just 19 villas the whole resort can be taken exclusively, so a wedding is never squeezed between other guests. The party has the beach, the pools, the gardens and the beach bar to themselves, on their own schedule rather than one shared with other guests.
The kitchen leans into the coast’s great advantage: the seafood, fresh off the day’s boats, cooked into Caribbean and Belizean menus and served al fresco under the palms, on the sand and along the pier. A roaming butler service keeps glasses full, wedding dinners are set beneath the stars, and the celebration carries on at the Kaleidoscope beach bar, unfussy, generous and warm.
And because there are 19 sea-facing villas, each with a veranda and a hammock, the wedding is never just a day. Couples take the resort exclusively, guests stay on the beachfront, and the celebration spreads either side, a swim in the pools, a hammock in the gardens, breakfast on the pier at sunrise, a barefoot wedding that runs on island time.
A private beach on the Caribbean coast of Belize, a pier over the turquoise sea and 19 villas to yourselves: an intimate, barefoot destination wedding to remember.
Chabil Mar Villas
A Wedding at Chabil Mar
For a couple who wants the Caribbean, a private beach to be married on, and an intimate wedding the whole party can share without a crowd, Chabil Mar has 400ft of private sand and just 19 villas to make it possible. Barefoot vows on the sand, a dinner for two on the pier, a feast under the palms, the pools and the gardens and the sea, and 19 villas to fall into: quietly luxurious and thoroughly relaxed, a beach wedding that is genuinely your own.
- Venue: Chabil Mar Villas, Placencia Peninsula, Stann Creek, Belize
- Images: Courtesy of Chabil Mar Villas
