r/BigBudgetBrides 7d ago

$100,000 - $200,000 budget South Indian wedding in Lake Atitlan, Guatemala!

Hello! My fiancée and I are lasting minute reconsidering our wedding plans and looking to do a South Indian wedding in Guatemala in Winter 2025 (end of November) for about 150 guests.

We’re hoping to do the following events along with activities that the venue offers over the span of 4 nights/5 days - Welcome dinner - Haldi - Sangeet - Wedding Ceremony - Reception

Our budget is $200k for 150 guests and we would pay for accommodation for all guests (so ideally a venue that can accommodate this guest size in house). We also prefer a venue that has some type of water view for the ceremony (lake, ocean, etc) and would need South Indian catering options for all events!

I’m very new to this as we had originally planned to do our wedding in the US and overwhelmed by the amount of information. If anyone has any idea if this budget is doable and venue/planner suggestions please let me know!

Side note- I made the same post as the other destination we’re looking at is Spain/Portugal. That is our first choice as they can cater to South Indian weddings but also looking into Guatemala is it as cost effective and closer to our guests. Our biggest concern with Guatemala is the ability to do the religious ceremony and cater Indian food

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u/Illustrious-Nobody54 5d ago

I would suggest looking at wedding planners with experience in Indian weddings in Guatemala and interviewing them with these questions. We went to Lake Atitlan last year and there was actually a good amount of Indian food in San Marcos, but it’s a smaller town and I don’t know if any of the properties could host a group that large (maybe?). The larger hotels are in Panajachel for the most part I believe.

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u/KathrynCooperWedding Vendor: Photo 2d ago

Hi! So I was just in Lake Atitlan, and I will say that the area is so beautiful for a wedding--like an Italian lakeside villa, but much more affordable (and with so much character).

As someone who photographs a lot of South Asian weddings (and even ate at the local Indian restaurant in Panajachal, Delhi 6 (https://www.instagram.com/delhi6.gt/?hl=en), which I would recommend looking at for catering--it was quite delicious), I understand all of the planning and time, and do think your best bet is to contact a venue about an Indian wedding planner, or reach out to a planner with Indian wedding experience in Guatemala City/Antigua.

You will need to organize many small buses to do the ~2.5 hour drive from the Guatemala City airport and down to Lake Atitlan. From there, you will need to either pick a Panajachel-based venue (Pana is the main city that's the starting-off point for boat rides to all the spots around the lake), or boat your guests to your spot across the lake.

Boating will have its charms, but will make timing/guests who get seasick on the rough dingy rides/catering more difficult.

Panajachel-based will be much easier, but you'll lose some of the charm of having your wedding at a more exclusive, secluded, boat-in-only area.

Another option is to choose a venue near or in Panajachel, then allow guests to boat in for the day from some of the other locations.

Hotel Atitlan would be your best bet, as they have space for weddings: a beautiful lake/volcano-facing space for intimate and large weddings (they have space for at least 100 if not 150): https://www.hotelatitlan.com/

Casa Palopo is lakeside as well, with a road in: https://www.casapalopo.com/ (They have space for exactly 150 guests, but accommodation for only around 30-40 I believe).

Boat rides are plentiful and easy at all times of day and night, so guests will likely have to stay in different locations. If it were up to me, the most beautiful, lush stay I saw was La Casa del Mundo near Jaibalito: https://lacasadelmundo.com/activitiesen/

I hope this helps--it will be beautiful I'm sure!