A beach wedding in santorini happens on the black sand of the south and east coasts – Perissa, Perivolos, Vlychada, Kamari and the coves near Akrotiri – because the caldera side has cliffs rather than beaches. It is the cheaper and more relaxed half of the island wedding industry, at roughly 4,000 to 9,000 euros all in for twenty to thirty guests against 8,000 and upwards for a caldera terrace.
Beach wedding in Santorini
The sea breeze, the smell of salt in the sea, the sound of soft waves on the beaches of Santorini. Is there anybody who can admit that he does not like all these little summer pleasures? We respond categorically, no!
So, because we are lovers of the sea and we love the summer and the Greek beaches, today we, the people of Santorini Tours, suggest something different: Marriage on the beach!
Why you should organize a beach wedding in Santorini
If the marriage of your dreams is small, simple, beautiful and relevant to nature, then the beach is the perfect solution for you! If you want your wedding to be unforgettable in the memory of your friends, or to be the occasion for a historic meeting of your friends, is there a more appropriate place for such a gathering other than a magnificent beach?
Do not think twice and triple: Difficulties may occur (as in everything else), however, everything can be addressed and solved by looking at some key points: Read below, a few steps to keep in mind about organizing the most impressive, seaside wedding!
Which beach should I choose?
You can choose a beach with a chapel, so you can easily combine the ceremony with the wedding party! You can also choose a beach-bar with available facilities, such as shade, toilet, bar and kitchen, in order to keep the organizing of the event as simple as possible. Finally, a public, secluded beach, which has a special place in your heart, can be a more difficult option, but it will definitely make a difference.
Facilitate your guests
Select the location based on your guests. Consider how many of them will eventually access the beach, but also by what means they can come. Older people, in fear of suffering, may eventually choose not to attend your party. But if you offer them comfort and convenience, they might reconsider it! Just make sure everyone feels comfortable.
The wedding ceremony in Santorini can be combined with vacations. There are a lot of things to see and do in this Greek island.
You can book now some special private guided tours in Santorini for you and your guests and you are going to have very special moments. Bellow there is a list with our suggestions:
- Santorini full day private tour
- Santorini impressive Caldera private tour
- Santorini sunset and wine testing tour
- Santorini exclusive shore private tour
Beyond the tours you can also offer your guests Santorini private transfers on luxury Santorini mini buses.
If you have already made your decision, one of your first moves will be to find the perfect rooms in the hotels in Santorini. Margarenia hotel is located in Perissa village which is only a few minutes away from the Black Sand Beach, one of the most famous beaches in Santorini.
See more about Santorini island:
- Spring destinations: Why Santorini is at the top of the list?
- Orthodox Easter in Santorini
- Holidays in Santorini: Summer vacations 2018
- Wedding proposals in Santorini
Beach Wedding in Santorini: The Short Answer
A beach wedding in santorini happens on the black sand of the south and east coasts — Perissa, Perivolos, Vlychada, Kamari and the coves near Akrotiri — because the caldera side has cliffs rather than beaches. It is the cheaper, quieter and more relaxed half of the island’s wedding industry, and it is where you get sand under your feet instead of a queue behind you.
Budget roughly 3,000 to 8,000 euros for a small ceremony with a venue, a celebrant, flowers, a photographer and dinner for twenty. A caldera-view wedding for the same number starts at about twice that.
Legally it is straightforward. A civil ceremony at the municipality of Thira needs documents lodged in advance; anything on the sand itself is usually a symbolic ceremony with the legal paperwork done at home or in Fira.
Which Beach for a Beach Wedding in Santorini
Perivolos, the default beach wedding in santorini venue. The longest stretch of black sand, with beach bars that host receptions, staff who have done this hundreds of times, and space to put forty chairs without anybody noticing.
Perissa. The same bay on the other side of Mesa Vouno, cheaper, younger, and with the rock as a backdrop rather than the open sea.
Vlychada. The most photogenic beach wedding in santorini backdrop: white carved cliffs, a marina and the strangest landscape on the island. The choice for photographs rather than for guest comfort.
Kamari. More organised, a promenade, easier for older guests, and the only one of the four with a proper paved approach.
Mesa Pigadia and the southern coves. Small, secluded and reached by a dirt track. Beautiful and difficult, which is the trade-off.
Exo Gialos and Baxedes. The northern beaches, almost empty, and the option for a beach wedding in santorini with no audience at all.
Not the caldera. There is no beach on that side. Ammoudi and the old port are quays, not sand.
What a Beach Wedding in Santorini Costs
Symbolic beach wedding in santorini on the sand. 800 to 2,000 euros for a celebrant, an arch, chairs, sound and a rehearsal.
Beach bar reception. 60 to 120 euros a head for food and drinks, with a minimum spend rather than a venue fee at most places.
Photographer. 900 to 2,500 for the day at a beach wedding in santorini, and the single line on the budget nobody regrets.
Flowers and styling. 500 to 2,500, depending entirely on whether you want an arch.
Hair and makeup. 250 to 600 for the bride, more for a party.
Civil ceremony fee and paperwork. A few hundred euros including translations, certified copies and the municipal fee.
Transfers. 300 to 900 for the guests at a beach wedding in santorini, because the beaches are twenty-five minutes from where everybody is staying.
The realistic total. Most of the beach wedding in santorini bookings we drive for land between 4,000 and 9,000 euros all in for twenty to thirty guests.
Beach Wedding in Santorini: The Legal Part, Plainly
There are two entirely different things people mean by a beach wedding in santorini, and confusing them is the commonest planning mistake. A civil marriage is a legal act performed by the municipality of Thira; a symbolic ceremony is a celebrant, an arch and your own vows, with no legal effect whatsoever. Almost every ceremony you see photographed on the sand here is the second kind, with the legal marriage done separately.
If you want a legal beach wedding in santorini, the paperwork is filed with the municipality in Fira in advance. Foreign nationals typically need birth certificates, valid passports, a certificate of no impediment from their own country, and official translations of all of it into Greek, usually apostilled. Documents are lodged a minimum of eight working days before the ceremony and in practice most couples send them two to three months ahead through a local planner. Civil ceremonies take place at the town hall or at an approved outdoor location, not on any beach you choose.
If you want the symbolic one, there is no paperwork at all. You marry legally at home before or after, and on the day you have exactly the ceremony you want, in the place you want, with whatever words you like. That is why the vast majority of beach ceremonies on this island are symbolic, and it is why the industry here is as flexible as it is.
One further point that catches people. Greek beaches are public land. You can hold a ceremony on one, and you cannot fence it off, close it, or stop somebody walking through the shot in swimming trunks. What you can do is hire a beach bar’s own frontage, which is licensed and controllable, or choose one of the quieter coves where the audience is a matter of luck rather than certainty.
The Hours That Matter for a Beach Wedding in Santorini
No beach wedding in santorini at midday. Thirty-two degrees, overhead sun, black sand that reaches fifty degrees, and every guest in the photographs squinting.
The right slot. Ninety minutes before sunset. Warm light, the sand has cooled, and dinner follows naturally.
Sunrise. Underrated for a beach wedding in santorini: the beaches are empty at seven in the morning and the light is as good as the evening.
Sunset times move. Around 20:50 in late June, 19:20 in early September and 18:20 in late October. Fix the ceremony time to the sunset, not to a clock.
Allow for the drive. Every guest is twenty-five to thirty-five minutes away from the beach, and Santorini’s roads in August are slower than that.
Dinner at nine. The Greek hour, and the one the beach bars are set up for.
The photographs afterwards. Blue hour, the twenty minutes after sunset, is when the best pictures of the evening are taken.
The Wind, and Planning a Beach Wedding in Santorini Around It
The meltemi is the one thing that reshapes a beach wedding here and the one thing nobody mentions in the brochures. It is a strong northerly that blows through July and August in bursts of two to four days, and on an exposed beach it takes hats, veils, flower arrangements, table settings, the sound system and every word the celebrant says.
The practical beach wedding in santorini defences are simple and they work. Choose the south coast — Perissa, Perivolos and Vlychada are sheltered by the bulk of the island from a northerly, and they stay usable on days when the north beaches do not. Hire a venue with a built structure rather than a free-standing arch on open sand. Use weighted arrangements and skip anything tall. Pin the veil rather than letting it fly, unless the photographer specifically wants it flying, in which case the wind is a feature.
Above all, have a plan B on paper before the week starts. Every serious venue on this island keeps an indoor or covered alternative and will move the ceremony with an hour’s notice; the couples who suffer are the ones who never asked. Ask what the alternative is, look at it, and decide in advance who makes the call and when.
June and September are the calmest months of the season and the two best months for a beach wedding in santorini for exactly that reason. May and October are calmer still and cooler, with a sea nobody is going to swim in and light that is arguably the best of the year.
Looking After the Guests at a Beach Wedding in Santorini
Everybody at a beach wedding in santorini is staying on the rim. Fira, Firostefani, Imerovigli and Oia are twenty-five to thirty-five minutes from the south coast beaches. Nobody should be finding their own way.
Transport is the wedding gift. A minibus each way removes taxis that do not exist, parking that is full, and a guest arriving at the ceremony forty minutes late.
Shoes. Tell people in the invitation. Heels and black sand do not work, and half your guests will otherwise be barefoot in the photographs by choice rather than design.
Shade and water. Umbrellas at the seating, water on every table, and somewhere for the older guests to sit down before the ceremony rather than during it.
Older relatives. Kamari has the flattest, most paved approach of the beach options and is the kind choice if mobility is a factor.
Children. A beach wedding in santorini is the easiest kind for families, because the ceremony is short and the sea is right there afterwards.
The night before and the day after. A welcome dinner inland and a boat trip the following afternoon turn a ceremony into a weekend.
Beach Wedding in Santorini or Caldera Terrace?
The honest comparison, because most couples arrive assuming they want the caldera. A caldera ceremony is a terrace in Imerovigli or Oia at sunset with a three-hundred-metre drop behind you and the most photographed view in the Aegean. It costs from about 8,000 euros for twenty people and rises steeply, the venues are booked eighteen months ahead in high season, and the space is tight — many rim terraces cap at thirty or forty guests because that is physically all that fits.
A beach wedding in santorini is the opposite in every respect. Half the price or less, space for a hundred people if you want them, availability at three months’ notice outside July and August, sand and open sea instead of a cliff, and a reception that can run to two in the morning without a neighbour complaining. What you give up is the postcard.
There is a third option to a beach wedding in santorini that very few couples consider and that we drive more of every year: an inland venue at Megalochori, Emporio or Pyrgos, in a courtyard or a canava with vines around it, which is cheaper than the caldera, calmer than the beach, entirely sheltered from the wind, and ten minutes from everywhere. It photographs beautifully and it looks like Greece rather than like a brochure.
The best beach wedding in santorini answer for a lot of people is to combine them: the ceremony on the sand at seven, the photographs at a caldera viewpoint at blue hour, and dinner inland at nine. That takes a driver and forty minutes of planning, and it gets you all three.
Beach Wedding in Santorini: Frequently Asked Questions
Where can you have a beach wedding in santorini? On the black sand of the south and east coasts: Perissa, Perivolos, Vlychada, Kamari and the southern coves. The caldera side has cliffs, not beaches.
What does it cost? Roughly 4,000 to 9,000 euros all in for twenty to thirty guests, against 8,000 and upwards for a caldera venue.
Is it legally binding? Only if it is a civil ceremony filed with the municipality of Thira. Most beach ceremonies here are symbolic, with the legal marriage done at home.
What paperwork does a civil marriage need? Passports, birth certificates, a certificate of no impediment and apostilled Greek translations, lodged at least eight working days in advance.
Can you close a beach for a wedding? No. Greek beaches are public. You can hire a beach bar’s own frontage, which is licensed and controllable.
What time should a beach wedding in santorini be? Ninety minutes before sunset, or at sunrise. Never at midday on black sand.
Which month is best? June and September for calm weather, May and October for cooler air and the best light.
What happens if the wind blows? The south coast beaches stay usable in a northerly, and every serious venue has a covered alternative. Agree it in advance.
How many guests fit? A beach takes as many as you like. A caldera terrace usually caps at thirty or forty.
How far ahead should you book a beach wedding in santorini? Six to twelve months for July and August, three months for the shoulder season.
Can guests get there easily? Only with transport arranged. The beaches are twenty-five to thirty-five minutes from the caldera villages and taxis are effectively unobtainable.
Is a beach wedding in santorini suitable for older guests? Yes at Kamari, which has the flattest approach. Less so at the coves reached by dirt tracks.
Can you combine beach and caldera? Yes: ceremony on the sand, photographs at a rim viewpoint at blue hour, dinner inland.
Beach Wedding in Santorini: We Will Move Everybody, All Day
We are a local operator running private tours and transfers in our own vehicles, and the part of a beach wedding in santorini that goes wrong is never the ceremony. It is thirty guests spread across four villages on the caldera rim, one taxi on the whole island, and a bride whose photographer is stuck behind a coach on the Akrotiri road.
Tell us the date and the beach and we will handle the movement: guests collected from their hotels and delivered together, the wedding party on its own schedule, the photographer moved between locations at blue hour, and everybody back to Fira at two in the morning.
Prices are per vehicle rather than per person, hotel pickup anywhere on the island is included, we guide in twelve languages, and an 80 EUR deposit confirms a date.
See the private transfers, the personalised tour, or contact us.
Every Village and Site on the Island
Any of these can be built into a private day. Each has its own page with what to see and how long to allow.
Caldera villages: Fira · Firostefani · Imerovigli · Oia · Finikia · Baxedes
Inland villages: Pyrgos · Megalochori · Emporio · Mesaria · Karterados · Vothonas · Vourvoulos · Exo Gonia · Mesa Gonia · Pigadia
Beaches: Perissa · Perivolos · Kamari · Vlychada · Monolithos · Red Beach · White Beach · Agios Georgios · Agia Paraskevi
Sites and landmarks: Akrotiri · Ancient Thira · Akrotiri Lighthouse · Nea Kameni · Palia Kameni · Thirasia · Athinios Port
All our tours: All Santorini tours · Full day tour · Sightseeing tour · Personalised tour · North part tour · Horse riding · South part tour · Sunset tour · Shore excursion · Caldera tour · Food experience · Wine tour · Historical tour · Small group tour
Planning and services: Famous sights tour · Private transfers · Transfers to Oia and Finikia · Transfers to other villages · Villages of Santorini · History of Santorini · Tours near you · Languages we guide in · Food and fun tours · Gay friendly tours · Our tour buses · Daily tours · Day tours · FAQ · Gallery · Tour photo gallery · About us · Contact · Blog
