Can I bring my own photographer to Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen?

Outside photographers are permitted. The resort charges a USD 1,000 outside vendor fee for the photography team, paid by the couple to the resort. Day passes are not sold, so the fee is the route in rather than a pass.

When is the best time to get married at Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen?

November and February through April are the sweet spot for weather and light. December and January are gorgeous but the most expensive. May through October brings heat, sargassum and storm risk.

Venue Guide

Your Wedding at
Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen

Playa del Carmen

An adults-only, 485-suite resort just north of Playa del Carmen where you can marry ten floors up with the open Caribbean behind you, beside a man-made cenote ringed by stone and tall palms, or on the sand, all within one walkable property.

Check your date

We have photographed 2 weddings at Secrets Moxche Playa del Carmen.

The short answer

What couples ask first

Outside photographer

USD 1,000.

Outside photographers are permitted.

Capacity

From a 50-guest cenote ceremony up to a 300-guest ballroom reception, with 200 on the beach and 150 on the rooftop or the pool deck.

Wedding packages

USD 1,499 to 12,049 depending on package.

Published rate, confirm with the venue.

Best months

November and February through April are the sweet spot for weather and light.

From the airport

About 50 km from Cancun International Airport, roughly 45 to 60 minutes by road.

Why this venue

What couples choose it for

The Sky Rooftop Gazebo puts your ceremony on the tenth floor with nothing but open ocean behind you, and it seats up to 150 guests for both the ceremony and the cocktail hour that follows.
The Mystique Area is built around a man-made cenote with a stone wall and tall palms layered behind the gazebo, which is a genuinely different ceremony backdrop from the beach-and-gazebo look most of the coast offers.
The Pool Deck holds ceremony, cocktail hour and reception for up to 150 in one place, so your guests never have to be moved twice and you keep the time for photographs instead.
The grounds are planted heavily enough that narrow white-sand paths run between mature palms and fan palms, and those paths give you soft, dappled portrait light in the middle of the day without leaving the property.
Guest counts scale from a fifty-person cenote ceremony to a three-hundred-person ballroom reception, so the same property works for an elopement weekend and for a full family celebration.
Because the resort is adults-only, the whole weekend runs at an adult pace, which is part of why couples who want a grown-up destination wedding rather than a family resort keep choosing it.

The spaces

Where you would actually get married

Ceremony

Sky Rooftop Gazebo Rooftop gazebo on the tenth floor with an open ocean view behind you.
Mystique Area (cenote) The most distinctive ceremony site on the property, set beside a man-made cenote with a stone wall and tall palms behind.
Beach Soft white sand with a palapa structure for the ceremony and a larger palapa available as the weather backup.
Pool Deck Open deck beside the pools that takes a ceremony of up to 150 and then turns straight into cocktail hour and dinner in the same footprint.
Ballroom Indoor, air conditioned and the largest space on the property at up to 300 guests, which also makes it the dependable rain plan for a big guest list.

Reception

Pool Deck Reception for up to 150 with room for a dance floor, DJ, bar and buffet.
Sky Wedding Salon Air conditioned indoor room next to the rooftop gazebo, seating about 80.
Ballroom The largest reception option on the property at up to 300 guests, fully indoors and unaffected by wind, rain or the 10:00 pm outdoor music cutoff.
Seasoul Terrace Terrace space set up for cocktails for around 80 guests, useful as a second stop between a ceremony and dinner elsewhere on the property.

The honest case against

When another venue fits better

Every point below comes from the venue's own published terms and from documented weddings. None of it makes this a bad venue. It makes it the wrong one for some couples, and better to know now.

You want children in the wedding party.The resort is adults-only and the eighteen-plus rule applies to every guest, so children cannot attend even as part of the wedding party.
You were counting on local friends dropping in for the ceremony.Day passes are not sold. Guests who are not staying at the resort need one of a limited number of wedding passes at USD 150 each, valid only from thirty minutes before the ceremony.
You want guests free to book whatever room they can afford.The resort expects roughly ninety percent of your wedding guests to stay on property, and charges apply for guests who book elsewhere, which limits how much money guests can save by staying off site.
You want the party outdoors and late.Outdoor entertainment on the rooftop, pool deck and cenote ends at 10:00 pm, so a late party means moving indoors or planning an after-party at one of the resort bars.
You want the rooftop and a package price that covers it.The Sky Rooftop Gazebo carries its own venue rental fee on top of your wedding package. The only figure found is a single uncorroborated third-party number, so it has to be priced with the resort before you commit to the view.
Your date sits in summer and the beach look is not negotiable.Sargassum on the Riviera Maya is heaviest from roughly May through October, so a beach ceremony in those months benefits from a pool deck or cenote alternative you would be equally happy with.

Before you book

The honest considerations

The resort is adults-only (18+) for every guest, so children cannot attend even as part of the wedding party.
Day passes are not sold; non-staying guests need one of a limited number of USD 150 wedding passes, valid from 30 minutes before the ceremony.
The resort expects roughly 90% of wedding guests to stay on property, and charges apply for guests who book elsewhere.
Outdoor entertainment on the rooftop, pool deck and cenote ends at 10:00pm; a late party means moving indoors or to a resort bar.
The Sky Rooftop Gazebo carries its own venue rental fee on top of the wedding package; price it before falling for the view.
Sargassum on the Riviera Maya is heaviest roughly May through October; have a pool deck or cenote alternative you would equally love.

Getting here

Arrival, and where you get ready

Fly intoCancun International Airport. That is the airport the resort measures its distance from.
Then driveAbout 50 km, roughly 45 to 60 minutes by road.
Book the transferA private transfer or a chartered coach for the group. Uber cannot pick up at the airport.
Arriving atA single walkable property just north of Playa del Carmen, with the beach, the cenote and the rooftop all on it.
At the airportIgnore anyone offering a ride between the arrivals door and the curb, however official they look. Only pre-arranged and federally authorized transport may pick up at the terminal, and the walk-up offers are where the overcharge stories come from. Ride-hailing apps work for the trip back to the airport but are unreliable for arrivals, so do not plan a pickup around one.
Book the drive before you flyReserve a private transfer in advance: the driver meets you with a name sign, at a fixed price agreed up front, and tracks your flight if it runs late. We use Private Driver Cancun, WhatsApp +52 984 132 3989, mixofcultures.com. USA Transfers and eTransfers are two long-established operators for larger guest lists.

What to ask the wedding office

Send these verbatim. Each one is either unpublished, negotiable, or changes with your date.

What is our outside photographer fee, in writing: is USD 1,000 current, charged per vendor or per day, and waived if they book a room?
How many USD 150 wedding passes can we buy for non-staying guests, and how is the roughly 90% on-property expectation measured against our list?
What is the Sky Rooftop Gazebo rental fee for our date, on top of the package price?
Which indoor space is released to us once outdoor entertainment stops at 10pm, and does holding it cost anything?
What is our beach alternative if sargassum lands on our date, and can we hold both spaces?

Where you get ready

Details below come from planners and photographers who have worked the property, not from the venue's own material; confirm with the wedding office.

Bridal suiteFor the brideIn the resort spa.

From behind the camera

How the light works here

This is the east-facing Caribbean coast, so the sun rises over the water and sets behind the resort and the jungle rather than over the ocean. That geography is a gift for ceremonies: by late afternoon the beach and the lower terraces fall into open shade while the sky stays bright, so nobody squints through the vows and the sky over the water turns to soft pink and lavender instead of hard gold. The rooftop is the one place where timing is unforgiving, because it faces east and the setting sun sits behind your guests. After the sun drops behind the treeline the light goes fast, so couple portraits are planned tight and the palm-lined sand paths through the grounds are the fallback for anything we still want in soft cover.

The best time to start your ceremony

Arch's own rule for this coast is to begin the ceremony about 90 minutes before sunset, which leaves the vows in soft light and still keeps time for portraits. Start times are rounded to the half hour for these coordinates. Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo. UTC-5 all year: the state left daylight saving in 2015. Times are town level, so they run within a couple of minutes of the property.

Start around	Months	Sunset
4:30 pm	January, October, November, December	around 6:00 pm
5:00 pm	February, March, September	around 6:30 pm
5:30 pm	April, May, June, August	around 7:00 pm
6:00 pm	July	around 7:30 pm

Where each space sits

Sky Rooftop GazeboEast, open ocean behind you, ten floors upThe only space that sits above the treeline, so it holds bright sky after the ground-level spaces have gone flat. It is also the least forgiving: the sun sets behind your guests, and once it drops behind the trees the light goes fast, so portraits up here are planned tight rather than lingered over.
BeachEast, water in front, resort and jungle behindFalls into open shade late in the day while the sky stays bright, which is why nobody squints through the vows and the sky over the water goes soft pink and lavender instead of hard gold. It loses direct sun well before the rooftop does.
Mystique Area (cenote)Inland, stone wall and tall palms behind the coupleThe stone wall and tall palms enclose the site, so it reads as shaped, contained light rather than open sky and it shades earlier than the sand. Small and private, which suits a quiet, close-in way of working.
Pool DeckOpen sky, lower terrace level, no ocean horizonOne of the lower terraces that drops into open shade as the sun goes behind the resort, so a ceremony here is even and unsquinting but it does not hold the last of the sun. Because it turns straight into dinner in the same footprint, the party half runs on rigged light and the outdoor curfew.
BallroomIndoors, no skyFully indoor and air conditioned, so its light is built rather than found and it is unaffected by wind, rain or how quickly twilight arrives. The dependable answer for a big list when the sky will not cooperate.