Portuguese wedding traditions: what a wedding in Portugal is like

If you are marrying in Portugal with Portuguese guests — or you simply want to know what a wedding here usually looks like — this is the shape of the day: a ceremony, a shower of rice and petals, and then a long, generous meal that turns into a party. Below are the numbers behind it, the customs you are likely to meet, a few regional ones, and what each means for the way the day is photographed.

Who marries in Portugal, and how?

INE, the national statistics office, counted 37,714 weddings in 2025, 1,081 more than in 2024 (+3.0%). Of these, 36,651 were between people of the opposite sex and 1,063 between people of the same sex. The count includes residents of other countries who married in Portugal.

Most Portuguese weddings are now civil. Of the opposite-sex weddings in 2025, 81.1% (29,728) were civil only and 18.6% (6,809) were Catholic — a Catholic share 16.7 percentage points lower than in 2016. People also marry later: the average age at a first marriage was 36.1 for men and 34.6 for women.

These are INE’s preliminary monthly figures, rounded; ten years of them are in weddings in Portugal in numbers. For the weather and light behind those months, see the best months to marry, region by region.

What is a copo de água?

Ask a Portuguese guest where the party is and they will say the copo de água (also written copo-d’água) — literally a “glass of water”. The Priberam dictionary gives two meanings: a spread of sweets and liqueurs offered to the guests of a solemn occasion, and, today, simply “the party or meal with which a wedding is celebrated”. In other words, everything after the ceremony: the welcome, the meal, the cake and the dancing.

It is usually served at round tables, and the menu follows the region: in the Bairrada it is common to serve leitão (roast suckling pig); in the south, more seafood (Casamentos.pt). The first slice of the wedding cake is always shared by the couple.

How a Portuguese wedding day unfolds

1. 1The ceremony. The religious ceremony is still the one Casamentos.pt calls the most traditional, but as INE’s numbers show, most couples now marry civilly — at a Conservatória, or with a registrar at the venue.
2. 2Rice and petals. As the couple come out, guests throw rice and rose petals “to wish them a full life” (Casamentos.pt). Some churches want this done outside: the Diocese of the Algarve asks for the final celebrations, “rice and petals”, to happen entirely outside the church.
3. 3The copo de água. The long meal at round tables, course after course, with time to talk in between.
4. 4The cake, its first slice shared by the couple.
5. 5The dancing, usually opened by the couple’s waltz, then popular music and one or more comboios — conga lines that snake through the room.

What time does it start?

It depends on the season. Casamentos.pt suggests starting around 18:00 at the height of summer, in July or August, when the afternoon heat is at its worst; daytime weddings in winter around 12:00; and, for a daytime wedding, the copo de água starting by 15:00 at the latest. A late summer start puts the portraits right in the soft light before sunset — the wedding-day timeline has sunset times by month.

Customs you are likely to meet

• The couple’s waltz opens the dancing.
• Comboios. Popular music and conga lines are, in Casamentos.pt’s words, always part of the typical Portuguese wedding.
• The garter auction (o leilão da liga). The bride slowly raises the hem of her dress until the garter shows, while guests make offers; the highest bid wins it — though, as Casamentos.pt notes, “it is always the groom who ends up with the garter”. It calls it a “tradition” in quotation marks, very common today; some couples keep it symbolic or give the money to charity.
• Round tables and a long meal. Several courses, plenty of time between them, and the party growing out of the table rather than replacing it.
• Regional food. Leitão in the Bairrada, seafood in the south — ask your caterer what their region does best.

Traditions by region

The Santo António weddings are a city event, not a venue you can book: couples apply months ahead (the 2026 deadline was 20 March), and Visit Lisboa describes the tradition as a way of giving couples who could not otherwise afford it the chance to marry. If your date falls around 12–13 June in Lisbon, expect the city in full festival mode — and plan travel and photo locations with that in mind.

What foreign couples can borrow

You don’t need Portuguese guests to bring some of this into your day. A few ideas that travel well:

• A long table meal instead of a quick dinner and an early party — the Portuguese rhythm suits a destination wedding where guests have travelled far to be together.
• The rice-and-petals exit, if your church or venue allows it — ask where it can happen, and whether they prefer petals only.
• A regional menu: leitão in the centre, seafood on the coast, the local wine of wherever you are.
• A lenço de namorados embroidered with your names or date — as a gift between you, wrapped around the bouquet stems, or framed afterwards. Vila Verde’s embroiderers still make them.
• A late summer ceremony, around 18:00, for the heat and for the light.

What it means for the photographs

• The day is long. A Portuguese-style copo de água runs from the afternoon into the night. Decide which parts you want photographed — the waltz and the first comboios happen early in the dancing — and book the hours to match. The wedding-day timeline shows how coverage hours map onto the day.
• Tell guests about the exit. For the rice and petals, the photographer needs to be outside first, facing the door; a quick word from whoever leads the ceremony gets guests ready on both sides.
• Round tables make table-by-table group photos easy to plan, if you want them — say so in advance and agree when.
• The garter auction is loud, funny and very Portuguese; if you would rather not have it in your gallery, tell your photographer.
• A summer 18:00 ceremony gives you portraits in the warm light straight afterwards, before the meal — the best of both.

Looking for someone who knows how a Portuguese wedding flows? Browse photographers by region, read what a destination wedding in Portugal costs, or tell us about your day and see who is free.