Where to get married in Argentina, Uruguay, Chile, Peru, Brazil, and the Galapagos[blankline]

We’re not recommending a Latin lover, necessarily. But we are saying that as Brazil prepares for the 2016 Olympics, and the world becomes more curious about all of our Southern neighbors, interest in destination weddings to South America will heat up. Here’s an early look at some of the top possibilities, offering just about every kind of destination wedding experience imaginable, from chic celebrations at the trendiest of beach resorts to sharing your venue with tuxedoed guests who might turn out to be penguins. A South American destination wedding is not without its challenges. There are the distances we North Americans have to travel. And the language. And the Latin American love of bureaucracy, insuring that most weddings will be purely symbolic. But wouldn’t it be fun, when somebody speaks of discovering Jose Ignacio, or Trancoso, to say, “Oh yes, we were married there.”

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Cavas Wine Lodge, Mendoza wine region, Argentina

Cavas Wine Lodge, Mendoza wine region, Argentina

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Sure, France has Provence, and there’s always Napa. But if you take special pleasure in raising a glass, why not set your destination wedding apart by celebrating it in the heart of Argentina’s wine country?  The Mendoza region, in the foothills of the Andes, has 900 vineyards, one of them home to the Cavas Wine Lodge, a perfect place, with its 14 rooms, all having views of the Andes, and a restaurant dedicated to showcasing the best of local fare, to take over for a small gathering of your closest family and friends  — especially if they are open to the possibilities of the deep purple Malbec grape, which plays a role even in the spa’s wine therapy treatments.

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Estancia Vik, Jose Ignacio, Uruguay

Estancia Vik, Jose Ignacio, Uruguay

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Some call it the St. Tropez of South America, and some (you can guess where they hail from), the Hamptons of the Southern Hemisphere.  But whatever name it goes by, Jose Ignacio, a former fishing village on the sandy Atlantic coast of Uruguay, and close enough to Buenos Aires to have the same kind of relationship with it that the tip of Long Island does with Manhattan, is as trendy a seaside enclave as you’ll find anywhere in the world.  Make yourselves distinctive even among that jet-setting crowd here by having your destination wedding just outside of town at the Estancia Vik (estancia means ranch in Spanish, and this is a big one), where polo is the favored game and art is part of the architecture. Even the outdoor chapel looks avant garde.  But if you are a beach lover, don’t worry, they share facilities with their sister property, Jose Ignacio’s Playa Vik.

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Hotel Antumalal, Lake Villarrica, Chile

Hotel Antumalal, Lake Villarrica, Chile.

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Let’s say his idea of the perfect destination wedding is at the traditional 1950’s summer-camp style place in the Poconos he remembers as a kid, while yours is at the ends of the earth, literally. An ideal compromise could be the Hotel Autumalal, perched on a wooded cliff-top overlooking Lake Villarrica, in southern Chile. Built in the middle of the last century from a design by a disciple of Frank Lloyd Wright, it is still owned by the original family, who have been wise enough to add touches like a spa while changing the wood, glass, and native stone decor hardly at all. To keep guests busy, activities here run the gamut from exploring local cuisine to volcano trekking. Just keep in mind that you are very far south, and June through September is winter, when the activities list expands to include dog sledding.

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Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, Peru

Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, Peru

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Yes, destination weddings are possible at that Machu Picchu. The Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge, which is only steps from the ancient Peruvian site, even has a wedding package that includes a symbolic ceremony conducted by an authentic shaman to a background of Andean music.  What makes marrying at the lodge even more special is that it’s the only accommodation nearby, which means early in the morning and late in the afternoon, times when the site is most mystical, most of the day guests are gone, and you have it more or less to yourselves.  Except of course, for the ghosts of the shaman’s forefathers.

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Beach at Villas de Trancoso, Trancoso, Brazil.

Villas de Trancoso, Trancoso, Brazil.

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You can’t really be among the first to discover Trancoso, another former sleepy fishing village – this one on Brazil’s northeast coast — now solidly on the map of the South American in-crowd and friends, including regulars such as Naomi Campbell, Diana von Furstenberg, and Gisele Bundchen.  But you can have a very trendy destination wedding here, organized with the help of such upscale staying places as the Villas de Trancoso, 11 villas and suites on the beach.  They can handle a guest list of up to 70 on their own, or recommend local providers for bigger affairs. You have to buy them out for a minimum of four days, but believe us, none of your guests will want to go home before that.

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Finch Bay Eco Hotel, Galapagos

Finch Bay Eco Hotel, Galapagos

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You might think that the Galapagos is too much of an adventure destination, too hard to get to, for people to contemplate having a wedding there. But you would be wrong.  Although not the most deluxe accommodation on our South America list, the Finch Bay Eco Hotel, no doubt because of its setting on the beach at Santa Catalina Island, within striking distance of just about everything in the Galapagos people come to see, it is one of the continent’s most popular, and has hosted many wedding, with some already booked for 2014. The weddings are only symbolic; to make them legal you have to go to Quito or Guayaquil. But in neither of those places is it possible to have a ceremony accompanied by a chorus of sea lions.

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Alvear Palace Hotel Lobby

Alvear Palace Hotel, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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So far, we’ve chosen the hotels on this list because they are the type that might appeal to a small destination wedding party. But if that’s not your style, or if you have deep roots in the region, we wanted to close with a place where you can pull out all the stops, and have as grand a wedding as you can imagine. You can find such places in all the big cities — Rio, Santiago, Quito – but one of our favorites, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, is the Alvear Palace, where even if your guest list runs to 800 there’ll be room for everyone. Since 1932, the Alvear Palace, with its mix of Louis XV and Empire style decor, has been one of the world’s great hotels, and would be perfectly at home in Paris, which is no doubt why it has one of the best French restaurants, La Bourgogne, in South America.  Just be prepared to dig deep, and, because every room has a private butler, tip big. But then if you are even contemplating a grand event here you already knew that. — Bob Payne

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Want to know more about planning destination wedding travel to South America? Our travel partners at Coastline Travel Advisors, a Virtuoso agency, are ready to help.

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