Alma Consort · Destinations

Two Mexicos: the beach at sunset and the colonial church.

Alma Consort travels from London to sing at beach, jungle and church ceremonies in the Riviera Maya, Tulum and Cancún.

Enquire about your wedding

What kind of ceremony are you having?

Nearly every couple we are asked about in Mexico is travelling from Britain, Ireland or the United States, and nearly every one is having a symbolic ceremony rather than a Mexican legal one.

Mexican civil marriage involves residency, translated documents and local medical requirements that most visiting couples decide are not worth the trouble, so they marry legally at home and have the ceremony that matters in Mexico. That ceremony is then open: humanist, non-denominational, celebrant-led or spiritual, on a beach, in a jungle clearing or beside a cenote, shaped however you want it.

A Catholic nuptial Mass is available in the colonial churches for couples who want one, and those are the best buildings in the country to sing in. Some couples add a Mayan blessing, which has its own form and its own performers and sits alongside rather than inside the ceremony we sing at.

Across a Riviera Maya weekend

Mexican destination weddings are resort takeovers: guests stay on site for three or four nights, and the celebrations spread across a welcome party, the wedding day and often a beach brunch to close.

Everybody being in one place for days is the argument for using a consort more than once. The transatlantic flights are the expensive part of bringing us and they are already spent, so a welcome party on the Thursday and the ceremony on the Saturday cost far less together than they would apart.

Worth thinking about where each moment happens. If the resort has a cenote, a chapel or any enclosed space, put one of the performances there rather than putting everything on the beach. The contrast is what your guests will remember.

Where the music sits, and the buildings worth seeking out

Without a liturgy to sit inside, the music does the structural work: the processional, a piece at the exchange of vows, the recessional, and a set during the cocktail hour, which in Mexico is a well-established part of the day.

If your wedding includes a church ceremony as well as a beach celebration, the church is where a consort earns its journey. Mexico’s colonial churches, particularly inland and in the older towns, are magnificent buildings and the best acoustics in the country, and we would build the programme around one.

A cenote ceremony — in or beside one of the limestone sinkholes of the Yucatán — is a case worth mentioning on its own. Enclosed rock returns sound the way a chapel does, and a consort singing in one is unlike anything else we do. If your venue offers it, ask us about it.

What tropical heat does to a choir

This deserves a section rather than a footnote, because it affects the result more than the repertoire does.

Singing is physical work, and doing it in thirty-plus degrees with high humidity, after a ten-hour flight and a six-hour time change, is a different proposition from doing it in a cool English church. Voices tire faster, the group needs water and shade arranged rather than assumed, and heavy formal dress in direct sun is not workable.

None of this is a reason not to do it. It is a reason to plan the ceremony for late afternoon or early evening rather than the middle of the day, to arrange shade for the singers as a matter of course, and to arrive two days ahead rather than one. We raise this at the quote stage because it is easier to build into a running order than to fix on the day.

Sand, jungle, limestone and stone

A beach ceremony is the driest acoustic there is: open sky, open water, sound going out and never coming back, and often a breeze off the sea. Twelve voices is the minimum we would recommend, placed close to the guests and upwind where there is a choice.

Jungle and garden ceremonies are marginally better because of the surrounding vegetation, though still dry. Cenotes and colonial churches are the two settings in Mexico with real acoustics, and both flatter a consort.

Getting a consort to Mexico

Cancún is served directly from London and is the arrival point for the whole Riviera Maya, with transfers of up to two hours to the southern resorts and Tulum. The flight is around ten hours with a six-hour time change, so we travel two days ahead rather than one, and that second night is in the quote.

Mexico has its own requirements for foreign performers working for a fee, and we handle that ourselves as part of arranging the engagement. As with everywhere on this list, the position can change; we confirm the current requirement when we quote rather than relying on what was true last year.

Where in Mexico

The Riviera Maya

The main resort corridor south of Cancún, and the largest concentration of destination weddings in Mexico. Beach and garden ceremonies at large resorts, professionally run, with the standard dry outdoor acoustic. Transfers from the airport can be long, which matters when scheduling a rehearsal the day before.

Tulum

Jungle and beach venues at the more design-led end of the market, and the best place in Mexico to find a cenote ceremony. Acoustically the most interesting option in the country: enclosed limestone behaves like a chapel, and a consort in one sounds like nothing else on this list.

Cancún

Large hotel and resort weddings with the shortest transfers, since this is where you land. The venues are used to elaborate events and to visiting suppliers, which makes the logistics straightforward even where the acoustics are not.

Questions about singing in Mexico

Can you sing at a beach wedding?

Yes, and it is most of what we do in Mexico. The thing to plan for is that a beach has no acoustic at all: sound goes out and nothing returns. We would recommend twelve voices rather than eight, placed closer to the guests than instinct suggests, and a programme of pieces with body rather than the most delicate ones in the repertoire.

What about a cenote ceremony?

Musically, the best thing available in Mexico. Enclosed limestone returns sound the way a chapel does, so a consort sounds full and resonant rather than thin. If your venue offers a cenote and you are choosing between that and a beach on musical grounds, take the cenote.

Is the heat a problem for the singers?

It is a real factor and we would rather discuss it than pretend otherwise. Singing is physical work, and doing it in tropical heat and humidity after a long flight is demanding. We plan around it: a late-afternoon or evening ceremony, shade arranged in advance, water on hand, and arriving two days early rather than one.

How does the cost compare with Europe?

Higher, and it is worth being clear about why. Transatlantic flights for the whole consort, two nights rather than one because of the flight and the time change, and the local permissions for foreign performers all add to the figure. We quote the whole engagement itemised before you commit to anything.

Travel and permit information on this page last checked 29 August 2026. Requirements change and vary by venue, diocese and celebrant; confirm the current position with us before you fix a date. Other country guides.

Enquire

Tell us where in Mexico you are marrying and when. If the date is free, Luca Wetherall will come back with what the music could be and what the whole engagement would cost, travel included.

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