The island everyone has already seen.
Married on La Digue.
A complete legal wedding from €2,090 · ₹2,30,000 per couple, every government fee inside it.
Why couples pick La Digue.
La Digue is small, flat and almost carless. The boulders at Anse Source d'Argent are the ones on every postcard of these islands, and standing among them at low tide is the reason most couples pick this island in the first place.
It is also the most expensive of the three, and the most logistically honest about why: two crossings from Mahé, an island with no large hotel, and a beach that is inside a working estate with an entry fee and opening hours.
This island suits a small wedding. Two people, or two people and a dozen. A party of eighty is a Mahé wedding pretending to be a La Digue one, and we will say so.
Your day on La Digue, with the real numbers.
The builder starts on La Digue. Move the island if you want to compare.
Anse Source d'Argent, and the tide.
The famous beach is inside the L'Union Estate, which opens in the morning and closes in the late afternoon, and the boulders are only walkable at low tide. So a ceremony there is set by the tide table, not by preference. We check the tide for your date before anything else.
Grand Anse and Anse Cocos on the east side are wilder and emptier, and from roughly May to September they take the full weight of the trade winds.
Two boats, or a boat and a plane.
Mahé to Praslin by fast cat, then the fifteen-minute Inter Island ferry across to La Digue. Or fly Mahé to Praslin and take the same short ferry. Either way the island itself is bicycles and a handful of electric buggies.
We put the whole party on La Digue the night before. There is no version of this where guests arrive on the wedding morning.
Weddings we have actually shot here.
The questions that matter.
Is a Seychelles wedding legally valid in India?
Yes. A civil marriage registered in Seychelles is a marriage. You are given a marriage certificate, and the supplementary package adds a Supreme Court apostille to it, which is the form Indian offices ask for. India has been a party to the Hague Apostille Convention since 14 July 2005, so nothing further is needed after the apostille.
Can we have a mandap and pheras, or only a beach ceremony?
Both, and most of our couples do both. The civil ceremony is short and it is the one that makes you married. The Hindu ceremony is the one your family came for. Five properties on these islands set a mandap and cook Indian: Four Seasons, Kempinski, Anantara Maia, Raffles and Hilton Northolme.
Who conducts the religious ceremony?
Most families bring their own pandit, which is the arrangement we would suggest: the person who knows your family should be the person at the fire. If you would rather we asked locally, say so early and we will ask. We will tell you what we find, including if the answer is no.
Will there be Jain and vegetarian food?
Yes, and it does not need a fight. The hotels above cook to a brief when the kitchen is told in advance, and Mahé has real Indian kitchens outside the resorts. Jain requirements need notice rather than luck. Tell us at the enquiry and it is arranged before you land.
When should we get married here?
April to May and October to November. Those are the two windows when the trades have dropped and the water goes flat, so a beach ceremony is a beach ceremony rather than a wind report. If your muhurat falls elsewhere in the year, we move the coast rather than the date.
Send us the date.
Or the month. Meera writes back with what the tide, the wind and the calendar allow.