I planned my own wedding in Chania, Crete, from the Netherlands, after firing the planner we hired, and I kept every invoice. Our totals here are what we actually paid. The vendor ranges come from quotes I collected myself. The paperwork and tax lines are official fees, which nobody quotes and I don’t set. And where I don’t have a real number, I leave the gap rather than fill it with a guess.
Cost figures current as of August 2026. Last updated: 4 August 2026.
We budgeted €20,000 for our wedding in Crete. We spent €37,933.
I have spent the two years since that invoice landed making sure nobody plans a Greek wedding on the number we started with. So here’s the whole picture: what a wedding in Greece costs in 2026, by category, with the ranges I collected and the receipt I actually paid.
Table of Contents
Quick Answer: What a Wedding in Greece Costs in 2026
A wedding in Greece costs roughly €20,000 to €40,000 for 100 guests on Crete or the mainland in 2026, and €40,000 to €70,000 for the same wedding on Santorini. Our own 100-guest Crete wedding came to €26,400 for the wedding itself, which works out at €264 a guest, and €37,933 once we had upgraded the lighting and bought rooms for our guests. Those last two were choices we made, not costs the wedding demanded, so I keep them separate rather than blending them into one number nobody can unpick.
Smaller is dramatically cheaper. Around 20 guests lands between €8,000 and €18,000. Venue hire alone runs €3,500 to €14,000 depending on the island, catering runs €40 to €150 a head, and bar service adds another €20 to €50 a head.
Three things move that total more than anything else: the island you pick, the number of people you feed, and the 24% VAT that plenty of Greek quotes leave out until the final invoice. Everything below is the breakdown, category by category.
Work Out Your Own Number
I built a free calculator using real vendor quotes from across Greece. Enter your guest count and preferences and it builds a full estimate, VAT included.
What a Greek wedding costs by guest count
All in, on Crete or the mainland, in 2026:
- About 20 guests: €8,000 to €18,000
- About 75 to 80 guests: around €24,000
- About 100 guests: €20,000 to €40,000
Our 100 guests came to €26,400 for everything on the list above, which is €264 a guest and sits comfortably inside that band. We then spent €11,533 more, on lighting we upgraded and on rooms we bought for our guests, which is how what we actually paid reached €37,933. Both numbers are real. Only the first one is what a Crete wedding costs.
The catch in that ladder? A 50-guest wedding isn’t half the price of a 100-guest one. Your photographer, your lighting, your venue hire and your planner cost the same whether 40 people watch or 140 do. Guest count moves the food and the drink. It barely touches the rest.
What Our €37,933 Actually Bought
We married at Metohi Istoria, a restored estate outside Chania, on 18 May 2024. A hundred guests came, from six continents. The part that mattered wasn’t the geography, it was that almost everyone we most wanted there actually came.
That €37,933 covered the venue, the catering, the bar, the photography, the flowers, the lighting, the music and the transport home at 2:30am.
It also covered something that was never in our budget: €7,432 of accommodation for close friends and family flying in. We chose to cover it. We knew it would stretch us, and we decided it was the fair thing to do, because we were the reason all those people were getting on planes. It was by far the biggest expense we had not planned for, and we were comfortable with the decision. I’d make it again.
That’s the honest shape of a Greek wedding budget, and it’s why I publish ranges rather than one tidy number. Not a disaster, and not a hundred tiny leaks. One large decision you make with your eyes open, and a handful of smaller ones that follow it.
Total Wedding Cost in Greece by Category, 2026
These are the ranges I work from. They come from the venue and vendor quotes I collected for 100-guest celebrations across Crete, Santorini and the Greek mainland, repriced for 2026. My free calculator is built on the same quotes, and it applies them to your own guest count.
| Category | Typical 2026 range |
|---|---|
| Venue hire, 100 guests | €3,500 to €14,000, depending on island |
| Catering, per person | €40 to €150 |
| Bar and drinks, per person | €20 to €50 |
| Photography, full day | €600 to €2,200, high end from €7,000 |
| Flowers and decor | €700 to €3,000 |
| Lighting | €1,000 to €2,000 |
| Music, DJ or live band | €500 to €1,500 |
| Planner or coordinator | €1,200 to €2,500 |
| Chairs, tables and furniture | From €9 a chair and €200 a table |
| Guest transport and shuttles | €500 to €2,000 |
| Legal paperwork, translations and fees | €800 to €1,500 in total |
| Your own accommodation, 4 nights | €600 to €3,000, depending on island |
One line from our own invoice, so you can see how far a range can stretch: our lighting came to €4,092. Double the top of the range above. It was the single biggest surprise on the whole wedding, and I still think it was worth it, because the estate at night was the thing guests talked about for a year afterwards.
The Three Multipliers Every Quote Leaves Out
Add these to any Greek vendor quote before you decide you can afford it.
VAT. The standard Greek rate is 24%. Food served by a caterer sits at a reduced 13%, but drinks are taxed at 24% whether or not there’s alcohol in the glass (PwC Worldwide Tax Summaries, Greece, current August 2026). That’s why one wedding invoice can carry two rates: €6,000 of food quoted without VAT is really €6,780, while €2,000 of bar becomes €2,480.
Service charge. Expect 10 to 20% on food and beverage totals, separate from VAT. On a €5,000 catering bill that’s another €500 to €1,000 that was never in the quote.
Contingency. I budget 15%, and I’d budget it again. On a €25,000 wedding that’s €3,750 sitting in reserve for the thing you haven’t thought of yet.
One correction worth making, because I’ve seen it repeated on wedding blogs including, until today, this one. Greece does apply a 30% VAT reduction on some islands, taking 24% down to 17%, but it covers small islands in the North Aegean and the Dodecanese with populations under 20,000, per Ministerial Circular E.2113/2025. Crete, Santorini, Mykonos and Corfu are not on that list. If you’re marrying on a popular wedding island, budget the full 24%.
The fix, and it takes one sentence: ask every vendor, in writing, whether the price includes VAT and service. Get the answer in writing too. And before the first quote arrives, build yourself a baseline with my free calculator, so you have an honest number to hold every quote against.
Venue Rental by Region
Venue hire is usually the first number a couple sees and the one that anchors everything after it. These are the averages I collected for 100-guest celebrations, and they are rental only.
| Region | Average Venue Rental (2026) | Typical Inclusions |
|---|---|---|
| Crete | €5,500 – €8,000 | Space rental, basic décor, some sea/garden views |
| Santorini | €12,000 – €14,000 | Venue exclusivity, sunset/caldera views, minimal décor |
| Mainland | €3,500 – €7,000 | Larger spaces, often gardens/estates, basic décor |
Catering, entertainment, and premium décor are typically extra.
So venue hire is somewhere between a tenth and a third of what you’ll actually spend. That’s the trap in every “from €3,500” headline you’ll read, including the ones we’ve written. The venue is the deposit on the day, not the day.
How I Got These Numbers
For months before our wedding I priced venues across Santorini, Crete and the mainland, because I could not find a single honest number online and I was planning from Amsterdam. When I launched Big Fat Greek Day I went back to those venues, repriced everything I could, and ended up with direct quotes from 11 venues for 100-guest celebrations.
I don’t name which 11, and I want to be straight about why. Several gave me a real internal number on the understanding that it was for research, not for publication next to their name. I would rather keep the number honest than trade it for a name-drop. What I will do is point you at the venues themselves, further down, so you can ask them directly.
All of it was repriced for 2026 rather than rolled forward from an older post. The venue and vendor ranges are 2026 quotes, the tax rates were checked against the current Greek schedule, and the whole page was reviewed on 4 August 2026. Where a figure is set by a government rather than quoted by a vendor, I say so on the line.
No venue in this article paid to be here. We take no commission from anyone, which is the whole reason I can publish a range a venue would rather I rounded up.
What “all in” means on this page
One list, used for every figure on this page, so the same two words mean the same thing on every row and you can hold our numbers against a quote you have been sent.
- Counted: venue hire, catering, bar, photography, flowers and decor, standard lighting, music, your planner or coordinator, furniture, guest transport on the day, and the legal paperwork including translations and fees.
- Not counted: anything your guests would normally buy for themselves, meaning their flights and their hotel rooms, and anything that is not the wedding itself, meaning rings, attire and the honeymoon.
- Priced separately, never folded in: upgraded lighting, rooms bought for guests, a welcome dinner, a day after brunch, and multi day celebrations. Each of these lifts the total and the per guest figure at the same time, which is exactly how a luxury number ends up being quoted as a typical one.
What a Wedding Costs on Five Greek Islands
Same 100 guests on every row, and the same list of what is counted. Four of these price a complete wedding with nothing upgraded, so they can be held against each other honestly. Mykonos cannot, and the last column says so rather than quietly filling the gap with a number we cannot stand behind.
| Island | 100 guests | Per guest | What that figure is, and what drives it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Crete | €20,000 to €40,000 | €200 to €400 | A complete wedding, nothing upgraded. Biggest spread of venues, two airports, food costs less |
| Athens Riviera | €25,000 to €45,000 | €250 to €450 | A complete wedding, nothing upgraded. The guest access pick. Year round direct flights, no ferry, no island surcharge |
| Corfu | €25,000 to €44,000 | €250 to €440 | A complete wedding, nothing upgraded. Our Corfu guide prices a luxury estate wedding far higher, at €50,000 to €100,000. Cheapest flights from the UK by a distance |
| Santorini | €40,000 to €70,000 | €400 to €700 | A complete wedding, nothing upgraded. Our Santorini guide prices a luxury 100 guest wedding at €50,000 to €80,000. Caldera venues, tiny sites, everything arrives by boat |
| Mykonos | €60,000 to €150,000 | not yet published | The luxury tier, and the one row here that is not a like for like. We do not yet have a figure we trust for a complete Mykonos wedding at 100 guests, so we are not printing one. Our Mykonos guide prices 50 to 80 guests at €30,000 to €70,000. Catering runs €110 to €265 a head, the highest in Greece |
A note on that Santorini row, because it’s the one couples ask about most. Caldera venue hire tops out around €14,000, so the venue is never what pushes a Santorini wedding into six figures. Plan for €40,000 to €70,000 for a complete wedding, and €50,000 to €80,000 if you want the luxury tier our Santorini guide prices. Expect the difference against Crete to land in catering, in transport, and in the plain fact that almost everything on that island arrives by boat.
The pattern underneath all five rows? You are not paying for a better wedding on Santorini. You are paying for a harder logistics problem with a better view.
Six Greek Venues Worth Asking for a Quote
Rather than tell you what a venue costs, here are real ones from our directory, with the details that decide whether they’re worth an email. Every listing has a contact form that goes to the venue, and we take no cut of anything that follows.
| Venue | Island and style | Size |
|---|---|---|
| Metohi Istoria | Crete, restored estate and farm | Up to 120 |
| Agreco Farm | Crete, working hilltop farm | Up to 200 |
| Venetsanos Winery | Santorini, cliffside winery | Up to 120 |
| Cycladic Gem Luxury Villa | Ios, private villa | Up to 100 |
| Danilia Village | Corfu, restored village | Up to 200 |
| Island Residence | Athens Riviera, seafront estate | Up to 650 |
I’m not publishing a price against each name, and that’s deliberate rather than coy. Greek venues quote by date, by guest count and by what you want on the night, so a single figure next to a name would be wrong for almost everyone reading it. Use the regional ranges above to plan, then ask the venue for your date.
Ask two more things while you have them on email. Does the quote include VAT and service? And does the venue’s own music license cover your event? A licensed venue or hotel normally holds one already, so it rarely lands on you, but if you’re marrying in a private villa or a public space it’s worth asking who is responsible. There are 61 venues in the directory if none of these six fits.
Still not sure what to actually book first?
In one hour on a call, I’ll help you map what to book and in what order, with no vendor commissions. You keep the whole plan in writing.
Founding rate, 15% off. Full refund if the hour doesn’t give you a clear way forward.
Getting Everyone There, and Home Again
Greek geography is not optional, and it is not free.
- Flights: €100 to €300 a person, depending on where your people are coming from
- Ferries: €35 to €85 a person each way, Athens to the islands
- Private transfers: €80 to €150 a van, airport to venue
- Remote venue access fees: €200 to €500 where the road is steep or narrow
- Realistic total for transport logistics: €1,000 to €2,500
We paid for shuttles so that parents could drink at their own children’s wedding and be driven back, running every 30 minutes from 9pm until 2:30am. Best money we spent all week!
And here’s the one I’d undo. We also booked buses to the church through a hotel, and at 3am, when the last guests were waiting outside, they never came. Nobody answered a phone. I learned that night that a booking in Greece is a relationship, not a confirmation email, and that you confirm again 48 hours before.
Guest Accommodation, the Silent Budget Killer
Nobody puts this in the wedding budget, because technically your guests pay it. Technically.
Fifty guests sharing 25 double rooms for three nights costs them about €5,250 at €70 a night, and about €11,250 at €150 a night. Add flights at €100 to €300 a head and your guest list is spending somewhere between €10,000 and €26,000 to watch you get married.
And your venue choice sets their bill, not just yours. The gap between a €70 room and a €150 room, across 25 rooms and three nights, is €6,000. That €6,000 is what decides whether four of your friends can say yes.
That’s not an accounting detail. That’s who can afford to come to your wedding, and it’s the single most under-discussed number in destination wedding planning. Nobody tells you that picking a venue is also picking a guest list.
What worked for us: we put everyone in two hotels a short seaside walk apart, in one quiet spot near Chania. Guests started bumping into each other on the Thursday, so the mingling began days before we did anything formal. We also called both hotels directly, in shoulder season, when occupancy was low, and negotiated better rates than anything online. Just ask for the group rate! It’s usually 10 to 15%, and it’s usually there for the asking.
The Paperwork, and the Six Month Clock
If you want a legally binding Greek wedding rather than a symbolic one, budget €800 to €1,500 in total, depending on how many documents each of you needs.
One thing to know before the list, because it catches people out. Most of this is charged by your own country, not by Greece. The figures below are the British ones, so if you’re American, Australian or elsewhere in Europe the shape is the same but the amounts won’t be. Check your own registrar before you budget.
Charged by your own country:
- Certificate of No Impediment: ~€50 each through your own register office, and it varies, because every council sets its own fee. Through a consulate instead it’s ~€115 each. Either route charges each of you. Almost everyone budgets it once and pays it twice.
- Apostille stamps: ~€50 a document direct, or ~€100 through an agency, which is the route most couples end up taking.
Charged in Greece:
- Official Greek translations: ~€80 to €150 a document
- Translator at the ceremony: ~€150 to €300
- Registry office fees at the Ληξιαρχείο, the local registry: ~€50 to €150, and it varies by municipality, so ask yours rather than trusting my range
The money is the easy part. The clock is not. Our apostilled documents were valid for six months, and one certificate we needed arrived with a week to spare. One week! I still think about it.
We were so nervous about the Greek paperwork that we nearly held a separate, real civil wedding in Amsterdam first, as insurance. We didn’t, and it was fine, and I would still tell you to start the documents earlier than anyone tells you to. Start them the day you set the date.
Where We Overspent and Where We Saved
Four real decisions from our own wedding, in both directions.
The lighting, €4,092. Twice what I now publish as the top of the range. I said yes in a meeting, in the moment, without a written quote in front of me. The result was beautiful. The process was terrible.
The tasting that was really €50. Our first planner told us a catering tasting cost €150 a head, €300 for the two of us. So we called the caterer ourselves. It was €50 a head! That one phone call is why this website exists, and it’s why I fired her.
The €500 furniture transport we refused. Barely any Greek vendor rents wedding furniture locally, so it comes from another city, and the delivery charge alone was €500. Our caterer already owned tables and chairs we liked. We used those and paid nothing.
Shoulder season. We married in May, and every single conversation with a hotel and a venue went better because of it. Across Greece, shoulder season runs 20 to 30% below peak. If your date can move two months, that is the biggest saving available to you and it costs you nothing!
One Last Thing
The number that matters most in this article is not €37,933, and it isn’t a number at all. It’s that the people we most wanted with us got on planes from six continents and were still dancing at 2am. We spent almost twice what we planned, and the reason I can write about it calmly is that we spent it on the right things: getting those people there, feeding them properly, and giving them somewhere beautiful to stand.
Work out your own number, then decide which parts of it are worth going over for. That decision is yours, and it’s a much better one than the spreadsheet makes it look.
Frequently Asked Questions About Greek Wedding Costs
How much does a wedding in Greece cost?
A wedding in Greece costs about €20,000 to €40,000 for 100 guests on Crete or the mainland in 2026, and €40,000 to €70,000 on Santorini. Around 20 guests costs far less, roughly €8,000 to €18,000.
What is a realistic budget for a 100-person wedding in Greece?
Budget €20,000 to €40,000 for 100 guests on Crete or the mainland, including VAT, service charges and a 15% contingency. That band contains our own wedding at €26,400, which is why I use it. We paid €37,933 in the end, but €11,533 of that was upgraded lighting and rooms for guests, which is a choice rather than a cost of getting married. Corfu runs a little above Crete at €25,000 to €44,000, the Athens Riviera at €25,000 to €45,000, and Santorini higher again at €40,000 to €70,000. Go luxury on any of them and the ceiling roughly doubles. My free calculator builds that estimate for your own guest count.
Is Crete cheaper than Santorini for a wedding?
Yes, substantially. Crete runs €200 to €400 a guest against Santorini’s €400 to €700, both for a complete wedding with nothing upgraded, and venue hire is €5,500 to €8,000 against €12,000 to €14,000. Your guests feel it too: hotel rooms, ferries and food all cost less, so the collective bill for your guest list can differ by €15,000 or more. Santorini earns its price when the view is genuinely non-negotiable and the guest list is small.
Do Greek wedding quotes include VAT?
Often not, and this is where budgets break. Greek VAT is 24% as standard, with a reduced 13% on food served by a caterer. Drinks stay at 24% whether or not they contain alcohol, so one wedding invoice carries both rates: €6,000 of food becomes €6,780, while €2,000 of bar becomes €2,480. Ask every vendor in writing whether the quote includes VAT and the 10 to 20% service charge, and keep the answer.
What is the cheapest place to get married in Greece?
The mainland, where venue hire starts around €3,500, and Crete for a full celebration at €20,000 to €40,000 for 100 guests. Among the islands, Crete gives you the most wedding for the money at scale, and the Athens Riviera is close behind at €25,000 to €45,000. Cost is not the only axis though: the Athens Riviera wins on guest access because it has year round direct flights and no ferry leg for anyone.
How much does a small wedding in Greece cost?
Around €8,000 to €18,000 for about 20 guests, all in. Do not assume it scales down neatly, though. Photography, lighting, venue hire and a planner cost roughly the same for 20 people as for 120, so per guest a small wedding often looks expensive even while the total looks wonderful.
More Reading on Greek Wedding Costs
- Planning a Wedding in Crete: Complete Guide with Real Costs
- What a Santorini Wedding Actually Costs in 2026
- Corfu Wedding Costs: What You’ll Actually Pay in 2026, Line by Line
- Getting Married in Mykonos: Venues, Real Costs and What No One Tells You
- Crete vs Santorini Weddings: Real 2026 Costs Compared, Per Guest
- Best Time to Get Married in Greece: A Month-by-Month Honest Guide
- Wedding Venues in Greece: the full directory
- Greece Wedding Cost Calculator: build your own estimate
