Your wedding day will rank among the most important days of your life and it’s important to remember that while you can plan every detail to the last second but there will probably still be something that goes wrong. Talk to any married person and ask if anything went wrong on their wedding day and most will have something to say–cousin so-and-so dropped the cake or little Johnny the ring-bearer peed his pants during the ceremony–and a few will even have weird and wacky stories that will have you laughing out loud.

This Ultimate Guide to Getting Married in Costa Rica is to help you with tips and resources to make your wedding the magical event that you always dreamed it would be, but with the humble suggestion that if temperamental weather decides to rain on your perfectly planned day, be willing to count your blessings, dance in the rain, and have a funny story to tell your kids and grandkids.

Okay, now that we’ve taken the pressure off, let’s look at a few ways you can plan ahead to help avoid at least the major disasters and create the epic destination wedding of your dreams.