Puerto Vallarta Wedding Resorts: My Week at Velas Resorts.

By Kelly Stroburg•Published On: October 17, 2026•

Two years ago I spent three days with Velas Resorts in Cabo, and I’ve been telling couples about it ever since. So when they invited me to Puerto Vallarta, I said yes before they finished the sentence.

I traveled with a small group of wedding and travel creators: Lauren Dickens (@elleaudreyevents), Carolyn Carver (@wedding_style), Hripsime Karmiryan (@hkeventsla), and Brooke Beise and Sydney Stevens of Iron Diamond Media / Minnesota Bride (@irondiamondweddings).

Over four days we stayed at two very different properties, ate our way through more restaurants than I can count, and saw up close what a destination wedding with Velas actually feels like for a couple and their guests.

Wedding creators group at Casa Velas Puerto Vallarta, with the resort’s arches, gardens and pool

With Lauren, Carolyn, Hripsime, Brooke and Sydney at Casa Velas

Where the Resorts Are

Both resorts sit just minutes from Puerto Vallarta’s international airport, so your guests aren’t spending half their trip in a van. Casa Velas and its family-friendly sister, Velas Vallarta, are both in Marina Vallarta, on the Puerto Vallarta side. Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit is about 20-30 minutes north in Nuevo Vallarta, on the Riviera Nayarit coast. Same bay, two completely different feelings, which is exactly why it’s worth seeing both.

Day One: Casa Velas, an Adults-Only Hacienda

We arrived Monday to a private check-in at Casa Velas: a cold towel, a neck massage and a drink in hand before anyone asked for a passport. After a full day of travel, it was exactly right. Waiting in our rooms were handmade Mexican clutches, bright and colorful, as a welcome gift, along with meringues spelling out “Welcome to Casa Velas.”

Casa Velas has 80 suites, and it feels more like a Mexican hacienda than a resort. It’s intimate, beautifully laid out and wrapped in trees, so from your own corner you can’t see anything but green. My suite had a king bed, a sitting area and a private terrace with its own plunge pool. Every suite here has one.

The pool has a swim-up bar, where I had what may be the best fish tacos of my life. That night Emiliano, the resort’s restaurant, served us a set-course dinner, with signature cocktails, as we got to know each other and the team.

For weddings: Casa Velas is adults-only, with 80 suites, and you can have the whole resort to yourselves by booking as few as 60 of them for at least three nights. Picture a whole hacienda, fully staffed, for just your wedding weekend. As of fall 2026, a 60-suite buyout starts at $13,800 a night for the rooms alone, or $37,920 a night all-inclusive. The wedding itself and any activities are planned and priced separately.

Day Two: Velas Vallarta, a Pool Day and Dinner at Táu Beach Club

Tuesday morning we toured the sister property next door, Velas Vallarta, and ended in the Presidential Suite with a brunch set just for our group. The terrace runs the full length of the suite, and we all spent far too long taking pictures out there. After brunch we made flower arrangements together and added them to the arch on the terrace, which was being set up for an event that night. Helping decorate for a real celebration made it feel like we were part of it.

Back at Casa Velas, we changed into our suits for a slow, lovely pool day: plates of snacks, mimosas, banana daiquiris and a lot of laughing.

That evening we were driven to Táu Beach Club, Velas’s own private beach club. Our table was set on a patio that opens onto a pool, and beyond that, straight onto the sand and into the ocean. We had a cocktail hour to wander the beach first, then a set dinner while a vocalist sang through the evening. It was one of those nights you want to bottle.

For weddings: the beach club is a private, oceanfront setting for a rehearsal dinner or welcome party that your guests won’t forget.

Day Three: Morning Yoga, Then Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit

Wednesday started with a private hour of yoga in front of Casa Velas’s greenhouse, a wide, open lawn ringed by trees. The only sounds were birds and the peacocks wandering past. It was the most peaceful hour of the whole trip.

After breakfast we packed up and were driven to Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit, in Nuevo Vallarta. It’s the only all-inclusive resort on Mexico’s Pacific coast awarded Five Diamonds by AAA, and you can see why it earned every one.

I haven’t said this yet, and I need to: the service at every Velas property was extraordinary. Doors opened before we reached them. Drinks appeared before we asked. Everyone in our group kept saying it.

We never saw the front desk. They took us straight into the Koi lounge for a private check-in, and our group photo from the night before was up on the screen to greet us. While a few of us checked in, the rest had chair massages. Then a member of the team led us through a tequila and chocolate pairing, explaining how each is made and why certain ones belong together. Even as someone who doesn’t love tequila, I loved it.

For weddings: your guests can get this same VIP arrival. Couples can arrange a private group check-in at the Koi Bar, so everyone starts the weekend with a drink in hand instead of waiting in line at the front desk. A tequila-and-chocolate pairing would also make a wonderful guest experience during the weekend.

The afternoon was for the pool, and what a pool. Three tiers, each an infinity edge spilling into the next, the last one so close to the ocean it looks like you’re standing in it. Daybeds with flowing white curtains line the edges, and someone is always passing with a drink. Grand Velas has 267 suites, yet it somehow feels intimate.

Dinner was ours to choose, so we started with appetizers at Piaf, the French restaurant, then moved to Frida for traditional Mexican, where the steak and chorizo tacos with all the fixings were the star.

Day Four: The Wedding Tour, the SE Spa and a Farewell Dinner

Thursday morning was the part I came for: a full tour of the suites, the ballrooms and every ceremony site, plus a walk through everything Grand Velas offers for weddings. For a large celebration, the Ocean Garden and the Grand Marissa Ballroom each hold up to 400 guests, and Gazebo Beach fits 300 for a ceremony right on the sand. For something smaller, the Gazebo Garden, the Gazebo Terrace, the Tamayo’s Ballroom and the Frida Terrace each hold up to 120. What struck me most was how different each space feels. You could plan two weddings here, and they’d look nothing alike.

Then came two hours at SE Spa, starting with the Water Journey: a cool shower under shifting lights, the sauna, a rub-down with ice and aloe vera, the steam room, a cold plunge, a room-temperature pool and finally the hot tub. After that, each of us went into our own treatment. Mine was a 50-minute massage, and it was magical. Like the yoga, it was one of those rare times I fully let go.

One of my favorite surprises of the week came Thursday, too: an Ojos de Dios workshop. We sat around a table full of bright yarn and wove our own God’s eyes, the traditional Mexican weavings, while the team walked us through their meaning. It was relaxed, colorful and completely Mexico, and it would make a lovely activity for wedding guests.

We spent the afternoon back at the pool, and I had lunch at Azul, right on the water.

Our farewell dinner was at Lucca, the Italian restaurant. The team made us custom cocktails and we ordered one of every appetizer and every entrée to share family-style, which is the best way to taste a menu. It was a long, lovely evening with women who had become real friends over four days.

On Friday we said goodbye to the staff we’d grown close to and were driven to the airport, each on our own schedule.

Weddings at Velas Resorts

I went to Puerto Vallarta as a guest, but I spent the whole week seeing everything through a couple’s eyes. What stays with me is how little a couple would have to carry here. Every resort has its own certified wedding planners and a list of trusted local vendors for flowers, music, photography and décor, so you aren’t trying to run a team from back home. The planning teams think of things before you do.

Your guests get the same care we did. At Grand Velas, wedding guests skip the front desk and check in privately in the Koi lounge, with chair massages while they wait. At Casa Velas, you can buy out the entire resort and have a whole hacienda, and its staff, to yourselves for the weekend. Right next door, Velas Vallarta gives you a beach wedding with room for the whole family, kids included, and the same Mexican warmth. And Táu Beach Club, Velas’s private, adults-only club in the Marina, is made for the welcome party on the sand or a rehearsal dinner by the water. Here’s how to choose:

If you want	Choose	Wedding venues
An intimate, adults-only hacienda weekend, or a full buyout for just your guests	Casa Velas	1 indoor, 4 outdoor
A relaxed beach wedding with family and kids, still boutique and still very Mexican, with more room than Casa Velas	Velas Vallarta	2 indoor, 6 outdoor
Five-diamond luxury for a big guest list, with every restaurant and amenity	Grand Velas Riviera Nayarit	2 indoor, 5 outdoor
A private beachfront welcome party or rehearsal dinner	Táu Beach Club	Beach and terrace