Last updated: 27 October 2026.
How I know this: I planned our own Greek Orthodox wedding in Chania, Crete, in May 2024, from abroad, for 96 guests from six continents. Now I help couples plan theirs through Big Fat Greek Day, which is on track for around 45,000 visits a year.
A Greece destination wedding checklist runs in seven stages, from the big decisions 18 to 12 months out to declaring your marriage within 40 days after it. Each stage below is a short list of what to do, in order.
I’m Greek, my husband isn’t, and we planned the whole thing while living in the Netherlands. This is the list I wish I’d had taped to the fridge.
The why behind each stage, from booking windows to the 2027 church calendar, is in the 2027 article, so here I keep to what you actually tick.
If you do one thing today, send your inquiries. Vendors here spend the summer at other people’s weddings, so their inboxes go quiet until autumn, and the 2027 article tells the story.
To find your stage, count back from your date. Most venues take June, July and August dates 12 to 18 months out, and May, September and October dates 10 to 14 months out. If your wedding is less than 10 months away (for 2027, anything from May to August), you’re already past the usual booking window: start with the venue now, and offer a few possible weekends rather than one.
Table of Contents
What do you decide 18 to 12 months before the wedding?
Eighteen to 12 months out, you settle the four things everything else hangs on, in this order: how many guests, how much money, which weekends, and where. Once the date and venue are fixed, the save-the-dates go out.
- Your guest count, first. Every guest you add changes the budget, so start with the list. The destination wedding attendance rate article and the free Guest Attendance Calculator help you estimate how many of yours will come.
- Your budget, and where you’ll stretch it. Pick one or two things worth spending more on, and keep everything else to the plan. We set €20,000. The wedding itself came to €26,400, and €37,933 all in, mainly because we chose a lighting upgrade and rooms for certain close friends and family. The real numbers are in what a wedding in Greece really costs.
- Two or three weekends, not one date. For a church wedding, check the church calendar before anything else: Greek Orthodox Easter falls on 2 May 2027, and the 2027 article lists the dates churches don’t hold weddings.
- The area, then the venue. Choose the region, then ask each venue which of your weekends it still has. Our venue directory sorts them by island.
- Save-the-dates. For a wedding abroad, send them a year or more ahead if you can. Ours went out 15 months ahead. The free Invitation Timeline Calculator works out the rest of your invitation dates.
If you possibly can, visit before you sign. The venue we’d “chosen” online was wrong in ways no photo showed: a busy road out front and construction next door. We walked away and found ours through a local tip.
What do you book 12 to 9 months out?
Twelve to nine months out, you decide how much help you want, then book the people: photographer, caterer, everyone else, and a block of hotel rooms.
- How much help you want. Decide this first, since it changes who books everything below: a full planner, your venue’s team with a day-of coordinator, or your own vendors with a day-of coordinator. The 2027 article weighs up all three.
- Your photographer. Book early. The good ones work dozens of weddings each season. The first five vendors to book has the full order.
- Your caterer, then everyone else. Start with your venue: ask which caterers and florists it trusts, and notice when two people who’ve never met recommend the same name. My husband calls that network the Greegle, and how the Greegle works shows you how to use it.
- A hotel block. Guaranteeing a block of rooms for our May wedding got us around 15% off the room rate. Who covers which rooms is in who pays for guest accommodation at a wedding abroad.
What do your guests need from you 9 to 6 months out?
Nine to six months out, your guests need the details: a wedding website with everything they need to book, and transport arranged for the weekend.
- The wedding website. Put flights, hotels, what to wear and the plan for each day in one place. Here’s why we created ours.
- The weekend, and how everyone gets around it. Guests usually stay around four nights, so plan more than the day itself, and book guest transport now: airport transfers, and getting people to the venue and back. Our wedding weekend itinerary shows ours, day by day.
- Their travel. Send your guests our guide to traveling to a wedding in Greece. It explains flights, the new EU border checks and the hotel tax they’ll pay at checkout.
When do you start the wedding paperwork for Greece?
Start finding out nine months out, and start collecting papers around six months out. By nine months out you should know which documents you need, how long each one stays valid, what fees you’ll pay, and whether your town hall or church needs a wedding announcement in a local newspaper (it depends on where each of you lives). Then ask your town hall or priest what date they’ll review your papers. Your window for collecting them is set by that date, not by the wedding.
- Get the review date, and how fresh each document must be on it. For our May wedding, the priest checked ours in late January.
- Count back from it. Many documents, church papers especially, stay valid for only 3 to 6 months after they’re issued. What starts the clock is the issue date, not your request, so asking early does no harm as long as the issue date falls inside the window on review day.
- Build in time for the post. We sent one certificate by “priority” mail, not realizing priority can take four or five weeks. It arrived with one week to spare before the priest checked our papers.
- Your legal steps, by country. Start with how to get married in Greece, then the articles for the UK, the US and Australia.
Is only one of you Orthodox? You can still marry in an Orthodox church, as long as the other partner is a Christian baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity. There’s no church wedding with a non-Christian partner. Our story is in can a Catholic marry in a Greek Orthodox church.
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.
What’s left to do 3 months to 1 month out?
Three months to one month out, you lock in the details: vendors confirmed in writing, transport confirmed, one group chat for guests, and a hotel manager who knows your name.
- Confirm every vendor in writing, with the final price and whether it includes VAT.
- Confirm guest transport, including the last ride home. Our shuttle ran every 30 minutes until about 2:30am, but the party went on until 4am, and the bus we’d booked for the last guests never showed up. Save local taxi numbers and put them on the schedule for the people who stay until the very end.
- Start a WhatsApp group just for announcements and arrival tips.
- Get to know your hotel manager now, before you need them. It’s the relationship that saves you when something goes sideways on a Thursday night.
What’s on the checklist for the last month?
In the last month, it comes down to final numbers, transport and a schedule your guests can hold in their hands.
- Final numbers to your caterer and venue
- Transport confirmed, with a plan B for the last ride home
- A printed copy of the weekend schedule in each guest’s room
- A decision on who will declare your marriage after the wedding (the next section)
The plan B is the one I’d underline. At the end of our night, the bus we’d booked to bring the rest of the party back after the last shuttle never came. It worked out, but it wasn’t seamlessly planned.
What do you have to do after the wedding in Greece?
Within 40 days of the wedding, your marriage must be declared at the Lixiarcheio, the municipal civil registry office. It’s the step that’s easy to miss, because by then you’re home and the party is over.
The declaration is made by one of you, or by someone you’ve given a notarial power of attorney, so decide before the wedding who it will be. A late one is still accepted, first with a fee and later with a fine, but don’t plan on that. Your town hall or priest can tell you what the registry will need.
What should you ask a day-of coordinator before you book one?
Ask four things before you book a day-of coordinator: what they handle on the day, who vendors call when something runs late, whether they know your venue, and what happens if a vendor doesn’t show.
Managing your own vendors is very doable from abroad. But if you’re managing the vendors yourself, please don’t also run the day yourself. Book a day-of coordinator. Their job is to hold the timeline, so the band, the caterer and the shuttle driver call them, not you.
The shuttles were never part of our arrangement with our coordinator, and I found our shuttle myself at the last minute. That’s exactly why I’d now ask any coordinator, before booking:
- What exactly do you handle on the day, and what don’t you?
- Who do vendors call if something runs late?
- Have you worked at our venue before?
- What’s the plan if a vendor doesn’t show?
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.
Frequently Asked Questions About the Greece Wedding Checklist
Couples mostly ask me whether they need a planner, and what happens if the registry deadline slips.
Do you need a wedding planner to follow this checklist?
No. The list works whether you hire a full planner, lean on your venue’s team or manage the vendors yourself. What changes is who ticks each line.
What happens if you miss the 40-day deadline to declare your marriage?
Your marriage can still be declared, with a fee. On the Municipality of Central Corfu’s registry page, that’s €30 after 40 days and a €60 fine after 90 days (checked October 2026). Ask your own town hall, and name your person before you fly home.
Where do you go from here?
You don’t have to do all of this today. Find your stage, do that part, and let the rest come in its own time.
If you’d like every tick on one page, the full 18-month planning timeline is in chapter 8 of our Complete Guide, the guide we sell. This list is enough to get you started, and the guide is there if you want the long version.
If you’d like a second pair of eyes on your shortlist, that’s what An Hour with Christina is for: one call, and a written shortlist of vendors and venues afterward, with warm introductions where I have them.
More to read:
- Getting married in Greece in 2027: the dates, deadlines and changes
- What a wedding in Greece really costs
- How to get married in Greece: the legal steps
- How the Greegle works
- Wedding planners in Greece
Sources
- 40-day declaration, who makes it, and late fees: Municipality of Central Corfu, declaring a marriage at the registry (40 calendar days from the wedding; made by one of the spouses or by someone with a notarial power of attorney; €30 fee after 40 days, €60 fine after 90, under article 33 of Law 4674/2020), read 27 October 2026. The Municipality of Almyros registry notice of 2 June 2025 gives the same fees.
- Length of stay: Focus Bari, “Saying Yes to Greece”, Destination Weddings Tourism Forum, Athens, April 2026, a survey of 40 planners and 50 vendors. Guests stay around four nights.
- Orthodox Easter 2027 (Sunday 2 May): calculated with the Orthodox (Julian) Easter rule.
- Our own wedding: Chania, Crete, May 2024: €20,000 budget, €26,400 for the wedding itself, €37,933 all in, 96 guests, around 15% off a hotel room block.
