Anantara Maia, long known simply as Maia, curls around Anse Louis on the quieter south-west coast of Mahe, and its whole character is privacy. It is an all-villa resort with a personal host for each villa and a secluded bay that rarely feels shared, which makes it a natural home for an intimate wedding or an elopement. We filmed what we can only call a fairytale day here, and the film is on this page.
Watch the real wedding film we shot here
The setting
Maia is small, hidden and green, a hillside of private villas dropping to a soft crescent of beach at Anse Louis, framed by granite and forest. For a wedding it offers something the big resorts cannot, the feeling that the place is yours. The bay is calm and sheltered, the light in the late afternoon is gentle, and the sense of seclusion is total, which is exactly what couples who choose Maia are usually looking for.
Marrying here
A wedding at Maia is a legal Seychelles ceremony performed by the registrar on the beach or in the villa grounds, with the paperwork arranged so it is valid at home. Because Maia is so private and villa-based, it suits just the two of you or a very small group beautifully, and if you elope we provide the legal witnesses. The resort can arrange the setup, and we come as photographers and filmmakers, or we plan the whole intimate day with SeyBooking.com.
How we work with the resort
A place this private rewards a filmmaker who stays out of the way, and that is precisely how we work, letting a quiet day stay quiet while we capture it. We know how Anse Louis holds the golden hour, and we plan around it. Watch the real Maia wedding on this page, then tell us whether it is just the two of you or a small circle, and we will shape a day as private as the resort itself.
The beach here, and when it is at its best
Seychelles has two seasons blowing from opposite directions, and that is what decides whether a beach is calm or blown on your date. From roughly May to September the south east trades run dry and steady, pushing chop and drifting seaweed onto anything facing south or south east. From roughly November to March the north west monsoon takes over, wetter and lighter on wind, and the exposure flips. April and October are the changeovers, when it goes quiet on every coast.
Anse Louis faces west, which puts it at its calmest from May to September. It is a small west facing cove, which makes it one of the calmer places on Mahe in the windy months and unusually private for its size.
We will still confirm the exact spot and the exact hour for your date before you commit to it, because the sea has moods and a beach is not one single place.
The paperwork, and what the government charges here
The legal side is lighter than most couples expect. As two foreign nationals you need a valid passport and an apostilled birth certificate each, plus a divorce certificate if either of you has been married before or a death certificate if widowed. The banns are published for eleven days before the ceremony. Two witnesses must be present, and if you are marrying as just the two of you we provide them.
The government marriage fee here is SCR 3,000. That is the Civil Status Office rate for two foreigners marrying on Mahe, Praslin or La Digue.
One detail that catches people out. The Civil Status Office expects to register the marriage at its own office, so if the registration is to happen anywhere else, which is exactly what a ceremony at the resort means, it asks to be told at least a week beforehand. That is our job, not yours, but it is worth knowing the week exists.