Portugal, Italy, Spain, Greece or France? Choosing the country for a destination wedding

Lens & Vows started in Portugal, so weigh this page with that in mind — which is why almost every comparison here is an official figure you can check: the countries’ own civil-registry rules, Eurostat’s price and tourism statistics, sunset times from the US Naval Observatory and the permit pages of the monuments themselves. Where something can’t be measured fairly, such as which coast is prettiest, we leave it to you.

Each country has many regions, and a wedding in Sicily has little in common with one on Lake Como. Treat the national figures as the starting point and then look at the region.

Can you marry legally there without living there?

Portugal. The civil process is opened at any civil registry in the country — in person or through someone with a power of attorney, since online filing is only for Portuguese citizens (and Brazilians with equality status) — and a foreign citizen brings a birth certificate and a certificate of legal capacity to marry issued by their own country less than six months earlier. Once the marriage is authorised you have up to six months to marry, and the process and registration cost €120 (IRN, October 2026). The ceremony itself is in Portuguese, with an interpreter if one of you doesn’t speak it. Getting legally married in Portugal goes through it step by step.

Italy. Foreign citizens can marry in a civil ceremony in Italy. The key document is the nulla osta under article 116 of the Italian Civil Code — a declaration from your own country’s authority that nothing prevents the marriage — translated and legalised. A couple not resident in Italy signs a declaration at the comune instead of publishing banns, and if either of you doesn’t speak Italian an interpreter is compulsory, for the declaration and the ceremony. Fees and the places a comune will marry you differ from town to town.

Spain. Spain’s Civil Registry Law (Ley 20/2011, article 58) gives the marriage file to the notary of the place where either of you is domiciled, or to the civil registry of the domicile of one of you. Without a home in Spain there is nowhere to open it, so most couples from abroad marry legally at home and hold a symbolic ceremony in Spain.

Greece. “You need not reside in Greece to marry in Greece,” says the U.S. Embassy’s guidance. You hand in your documents — apostilled and officially translated — in person at the town hall (Demarchio) where you will marry; the licence is generally issued eight days later, and the embassy warns that the whole process can take several weeks. Greece legalised same-sex civil marriage on 15 February 2024.

France. A marriage is celebrated in a commune with which one of you has a lasting link: your home, or a residence of at least one month’s continuous stay on the day the banns are published — or the home or residence of one of your parents. The banns are posted for 10 days before the wedding. For a couple living abroad that usually means a legal marriage at home and a symbolic ceremony in France.

What it costs: official price levels

Nobody publishes a fair average price of a wedding by country, and venue prices vary far more within a country than between them. What can be compared is the general price level. Eurostat measures it each year across the EU, with the EU average set at 100; its 2025 figures were released in July 2026.

For a wedding, the first column is the closer guide: catering, venues that are hotels or restaurants, and your guests’ rooms all sit in it. Portugal is the least expensive of the five there, about a quarter below the EU average and more than a third below France. Two cautions: these are national averages — Lisbon in June or the Amalfi coast in July sits well above its country’s line — and they say nothing about photographers, who each set their own prices (what a wedding photographer costs in Portugal).

When to go, and how crowded it will be

In all five countries the classic wedding months are late spring and early autumn, when it is warm but not at its hottest. July and August bring the heat and the holiday crowds. How much of the year’s tourism lands in those two months differs a great deal, and Eurostat’s monthly figures for nights spent in tourist accommodation show it:

The more concentrated the season, the more a July or August date competes with holidaymakers for rooms, ferries, restaurants and quiet spots for portraits — and the more the shoulder months are worth. In Italy, 15 August (Ferragosto) is a public holiday in the middle of the summer break. In the Aegean, the dry north summer wind, the meltemi, blows roughly from mid-May to mid-September and can be strong on exposed island clifftops. On Portugal’s west coast a north wind, the nortada, often picks up on summer afternoons. For month-by-month detail in Portugal, see the best months, region by region.

Light, and how late the evening runs

Golden hour decides the portraits, and the clock decides when it falls. Spain keeps Central European Time although it lies as far west as Portugal, so its sunsets come later by the clock; Greece is an hour ahead of Italy and France but further east, so its sun sets earlier in local time. Times below are local clock time, for 2027; they move by only a minute or two from year to year.

A late sunset pushes the portraits — and often dinner — later; an early one gives you golden-hour photos before the meal. Either works if the day is built around it: see a wedding-day timeline built around the light.

Photographs at famous places need permission everywhere

Each country protects its monuments, and a professional photographer at one usually needs a permit or a ticket of its own. One example from each, from the sites’ own pages as of October 2026:

Rules for beaches, parks and town squares are set locally in every country. A photographer who works in the area usually knows what applies — see a local photographer or one you fly in.

Getting there

• Portugal: Lisbon, Porto and Faro on the mainland; Madeira and Ponta Delgada (Azores) for the islands — all run by ANA, which operates ten airports in the country.
• Italy: Rome Fiumicino and Milan Malpensa as the main gateways, plus Venice, Florence, Pisa, Naples, Bari and the Sicilian airports for the regions.
• Spain: Madrid and Barcelona, plus Málaga and Seville for Andalusia and Palma and Ibiza for the Balearics.
• Greece: Athens, then a short flight or a ferry to the islands; some islands also have direct international flights.
• France: Paris, plus Nice and Marseille for the Riviera and Provence, and Bordeaux, Toulouse and Lyon for the south-west and the Rhône.

Where people marry

• Portugal: wine estates (quintas) in the Douro and around Lisbon, palaces and gardens in Sintra, country estates in the Alentejo, clifftops and beaches in the Algarve and on the islands — see choosing a venue.
• Italy: villas and castles, Tuscan farmhouses and hill towns, masserie in Puglia, lakeside and coastal hotels.
• Spain: fincas and Andalusian cortijos, Catalan masías, beach venues and island villas.
• Greece: whitewashed clifftops in the Cyclades, small chapels, beaches and island hotels.
• France: châteaux, vineyard domaines, Provençal mas and Riviera villas.

So which country?

• You want the legal wedding where you celebrate, and neither of you lives there: Portugal, Italy or Greece.
• Budget matters most: Portugal has the lowest price level for restaurants and accommodation of the five, with Spain and Greece next.
• You want to avoid summer crowds: Portugal and Spain spread their visitors most evenly through the year; Greece concentrates them most in July and August.
• You love long, late evenings: Spain’s sunsets come latest by the clock.
• You are a same-sex couple who want to marry, not register a union: Portugal, Spain, France or Greece.

If Portugal is on your list, Portugal’s regions compared puts Lisbon, Porto, the Algarve, the Alentejo and the islands side by side, and you can tell us about your day to see which photographers are free.