# Wedding photographers in Crete > Greece’s largest island: a Venetian harbour in Chania, turquoise lagoons, gorges and mountain villages, and warm days into late October. - URL: https://lensandvows.com/greece/crete - Greece: https://lensandvows.com/greece (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/greece.md) - Português: https://lensandvows.com/pt/greece/crete.md - Español: https://lensandvows.com/es/greece/crete.md - Italiano: https://lensandvows.com/it/greece/crete.md - Deutsch: https://lensandvows.com/de/greece/crete.md - Français: https://lensandvows.com/fr/greece/crete.md - Lens & Vows: https://lensandvows.com/ Crete runs long and mountainous between the Aegean and the Libyan Sea. In the west, Chania’s Venetian harbour curves round to its old lighthouse, and the far coast has the turquoise lagoon of Balos and the pink-tinged sand of Elafonisi; gorges cut through the White Mountains to the south coast. Heraklion, the capital, lies by the Minoan palace of Knossos, listed by UNESCO with the island’s other Minoan palaces, and to the east Elounda looks out over the Gulf of Mirabello. Weddings range from resorts with their own beach around Elounda to stone villas among the olive groves near Chania, a whitewashed chapel by the sea, or a long dinner in a mountain village, with Cretan lyra and raki. ## When to marry in Crete - **Best:** May, June, September, October - **Good with planning:** April, July, August May, June, September and October are warm and bright, and the sea stays warm into October. July and August are the hottest and busiest months; the meltemi, the dry north wind of the Aegean summer, cools the north coast but can blow hard in the afternoon. The first autumn rain comes in October, more in the west, and from November many seaside hotels close. - **Spring:** Wild flowers and herbs on green hillsides, snow on the high peaks and Easter, the great feast of the Greek year, in the villages; the sea stays cool until June. - **Summer:** Long, hot, cloudless days and warm nights for dinner outside, with village festivals around 15 August. Shade and an evening ceremony matter most. - **Autumn:** The sea still warm from summer, fewer visitors and a softer, golden light; by late October the first rains begin to turn the hills green again. ## In numbers - **Hottest month, average high:** July · 31.4°C — HNMS: https://www.emy.gr/en/climatic-data - **Average high in the best months:** May 24.7°C · Jun 29.2°C · Sep 28.0°C · Oct 24.0°C — HNMS: https://www.emy.gr/en/climatic-data - **Days with 0.1 mm of rain or more, best months:** May 3.9 · Jun 1.4 · Sep 2.6 · Oct 9.8 — HNMS (Wikipedia): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chania#Climate - **Sunset on 21 June:** 20:42 (Chania) — NOAA: https://gml.noaa.gov/grad/solcalc/ - **UNESCO World Heritage:** [Minoan Palatial Centres](https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1733) (2025) Temperatures: Souda, normals 1991–2020 · Rain: Souda, normals 1971–2000 · Checked 15 October 2026 ## Where couples marry here The kinds of places — ask your photographer which ones they know well. - **Resorts on the Gulf of Mirabello:** Hotels around Elounda with their own coves, lawns and terraces over the water: the ceremony, the dinner and the guests’ rooms in one place. - **Villas among the olive groves:** Stone houses with a pool and a view in the hills behind Chania and Rethymno — a weekend for everyone, with a long table under the trees. - **Chania’s old harbour:** The Venetian quays, the lighthouse and the lanes of the old town behind them — for portraits at golden hour and dinner by the water. - **Lagoons, gorges and the south coast:** Balos and Elafonisi in the far west, best early or late in the day, without the crowds; on the south coast, where the gorges meet the sea, white villages in quiet coves. ## Towns and places in Crete - [Chania](https://lensandvows.com/greece/crete/chania): Crete’s old Venetian port, where the town marries couples on the harbour quays on summer evenings, with the White Mountains rising behind. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/greece/crete/chania.md) ## How the light falls Crete’s light is clear and strong, hard at midday on white walls and turquoise water. The west coast faces the sunset — at Balos and Elafonisi the sun goes down into the sea — while Elounda’s bay looks east, towards the morning sun. At midsummer the sun sets at about twenty to nine; the hour before belongs to portraits. ## Getting there Fly into Chania for the west or Heraklion for the centre and east: direct flights from much of Europe in season, and flights and overnight ferries from Athens all year. Elounda is about an hour’s drive from Heraklion. The island is long, so choose one end for the wedding and arrange transport for the guests. ## Photographers in Crete They shoot here and know the light. Their whole weddings are on their pages. - [Denys F.](https://lensandvows.com/photographers/denys-fionov) — Based in: Rethymno · Shoots in: Crete · from €500 · Speaks: English, Greek, Ukrainian, Russian · Style: Documentary · Verified (We’ve verified their identity) (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/photographers/denys-fionov.md) https://lensandvows.com/photographers?region=crete https://lensandvows.com/photographers?region=crete&sort=rating (Highest rated) ## Read before you plan - [What a wedding photographer costs in Greece, from Athens to the islands](https://lensandvows.com/journal/wedding-photographer-cost-greece): Published prices for a wedding photographer in Greece run from €500 for two hours to €9,000 for a full day. The figures with sources and dates, by length of day and island by island, what moves the price — ferries, the meltemi, ΦΠΑ — and how paying works on Lens & Vows. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/wedding-photographer-cost-greece.md) - [Getting married in Greece as foreigners: civil, Orthodox or symbolic](https://lensandvows.com/journal/getting-married-in-greece): How couples who don’t live in Greece marry there legally: documents and licence, Santorini, Mykonos and Crete, Orthodox and same-sex weddings, symbolic ceremonies and the photographer. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/getting-married-in-greece.md) - [The best time to get married in Greece: month by month, region by region](https://lensandvows.com/journal/best-time-to-marry-in-greece): Official climate normals, the meltemi, the dates Orthodox churches hold no weddings in 2027, the public holidays, and 2027’s sunset and golden hour from Corfu to Rhodes. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/best-time-to-marry-in-greece.md) - [How to choose a wedding photographer: the steps, and the questions to ask](https://lensandvows.com/journal/how-to-choose-a-wedding-photographer): The decision in order — whole weddings, style, availability, the package, the contract and deposit, cancellation, delivery and a conversation — then a checklist of questions, with why each one matters. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/how-to-choose-a-wedding-photographer.md) - [Where to elope in Greece: 13 places, from Santorini’s caldera to the Mani](https://lensandvows.com/journal/where-to-elope-in-greece): Thirteen named places across the Cyclades, Athens, Crete, the Ionian, Rhodes and the Peloponnese — what each looks like, how you reach it, when the light is right, and which tickets, permits, protected-beach rules and winds to plan around. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/where-to-elope-in-greece.md) - [Wedding venues in Greece: caldera terraces, chapels, beach clubs and olive estates](https://lensandvows.com/journal/wedding-venues-greece): What couples marry in across Greece — cliff-top terraces and wineries, whitewashed chapels, beach clubs, olive estates, island villas, resorts and old towns — with seventeen places that say on their own sites they host weddings, which of them can hold the legal ceremony, and the rules for chapels, beaches and ancient sites. (Markdown: https://lensandvows.com/journal/wedding-venues-greece.md)