Getting married in Port Aransas and on Mustang Island

Port Aransas charges $50 for a beach wedding permit and it covers up to three hundred people. Corpus Christi, twenty minutes away, charges $100 and reserves nothing at all. That gap is the single most useful thing to know about getting married on this stretch of coast, and it is the reason to look at Mustang Island before you look at the city beaches.

What does a Port Aransas beach wedding permit cost?

$50, through a special events permit, and it covers attendance up to 300 people. All beach events including weddings need one.

One additional step people miss: if you are renting tents or using any vendor for an event on the beach inside city limits, you also need a small events permit from City Hall. So a bare-feet ceremony with an officiant is one piece of paper; a ceremony with a rented arch and a caterer is two.

The city's own wedding planning pages are genuinely good, which is not something I say about many tourism sites.

Where can you get married in Port Aransas?

Chapel on the Dunes

The one worth planning a whole day around. A tiny church built in the 1930s, overlooking the shores of Mustang Island, with the interior decorated in murals of Biblical scenes. There is nothing else like it on this coast. It suits very small guest lists, which is the point.

The beach itself

Miles of it, and you can drive on much of it, which changes what is possible: elderly guests do not have to walk half a mile through soft sand. That is a bigger deal than it sounds when you are planning for a real family.

Photo: dwh1974, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Mustang Island State Park

Five miles of shoreline under Texas Parks and Wildlife rather than the city, so the city permit does not apply and you deal with the park instead. There is a paddling trail through the back bays and camping directly on the sand.

Resorts and rentals

Palmilla Beach Resort and Golf Club is the polished option, with dune-side ceremony space and lodging attached, and the condominium towers along the seawall put a Gulf view and a roof in the same booking. If weather worries you, this is the category that solves it.

Getting there, and telling your guests how

Two routes, and this genuinely matters for a wedding.

The ferry from Aransas Pass is free and runs continuously, and in season it queues. Badly. A twenty-minute crossing can become an hour of sitting in a car in the sun in wedding clothes.

Highway 361 through Mustang Island is the long way round and it is the reliable way round.

Pick one, put it in writing to your guests, and add slack. More weddings on this island run late because of the ferry than because of anything the couple did.

When should you do it?

Winter, and it is not close

December through March: mild temperatures, the rainy season finished, hurricane season over, and beaches that are effectively yours. Every argument runs the same direction and almost nobody makes it, because the local wedding industry is quiet in winter too. There is a fuller version in why winter is the best time to get married on the Gulf coast.

Spring

Warm and lovely, and it fills up. Spring break turns this island into somewhere you do not want to be holding a ceremony.

Summer

Hot, humid, extremely busy, and inside hurricane season from June. Workable at sunrise, difficult otherwise.

Autumn

The crowds thin after school starts, but hurricane season runs to November and this island has been hit hard before. If you marry here in autumn, have a contingency and mean it.

What it costs, roughly

$50 for the beach permit. A Texas marriage licence, which is county-set and usually somewhere around $70 to $85, less $60 if you take the Twogether in Texas course. And critically, Texas imposes a 72-hour waiting period between the licence being issued and the ceremony, which catches travelling couples out constantly. The full explanation, including the four ways to skip it, is in how to get married in Texas.

Elopement photography starts at $2,500, travel included for dates inside my winter window.

When I am down there

My family lives on the Texas Gulf coast, so my calendar moves down here December through March and I take a limited number of dates with travel already included. Windows go out each September.

I am not a year-round Port Aransas photographer and will not pretend to be. I am a working wedding photographer, at it since 2018, who is reliably on this coast in the exact season that suits it best. The pricing page has the numbers and the Texas hub has current dates.

Neighbouring guides: Corpus Christi, Rockport and Fulton, and every beach permit jurisdiction on this coast in one place. When you have a date, send it over.

Common questions

Do you need a permit for a beach wedding in Port Aransas?

Yes. All beach events including weddings require a special events permit. It costs $50 and covers attendance up to 300 people. If you are renting tents or using any vendor on the beach inside city limits, you also need a small events permit from City Hall.

Is Port Aransas cheaper than Corpus Christi for a beach wedding?

For anything beyond a handful of people, yes, and by a wide margin. Port Aransas is $50 for up to 300 attendees. Corpus Christi city beaches carry a $100 non-refundable beach event fee that does not reserve the beach at all.

What is the Chapel on the Dunes?

A very small church built in the 1930s that overlooks the shores of Mustang Island, decorated inside with murals of Biblical scenes. It is one of the most distinctive small wedding venues anywhere on the Texas coast and it suits tiny guest lists.

How do you get to Port Aransas?

Either the free ferry from Aransas Pass, which runs continuously but queues in season, or the long way round on Highway 361 through Mustang Island. Tell guests which route you expect them to take, and build in more time than the map suggests if you are relying on the ferry.

When is the best time to get married in Port Aransas?

Winter. December through March the weather is mild, hurricane season is over, the rainy season has passed and the beaches are close to empty. Summer is hot, humid, crowded and inside hurricane season.