Wedding photographer Greece: bringing me with you from Stockholm

A wedding photographer in Greece does not have to be Greek: many Nordic couples bring their photographer from Stockholm so that the person who has followed the planning since the first meeting is the one photographing the day on the island. That is how I ended up on Zakynthos in September 2025 and on Kefalonia in September 2021, and it is the kind of wedding this page is about.

Greece has hundreds of good local wedding photographers, and if you are getting married there without any connection to Sweden, one of them is probably the right choice. This page is for the other group: couples living in Stockholm or elsewhere in the Nordics who are planning a wedding on a Greek island and want to know what it means to take their photographer with them. What changes in the light, in the timeline and in the budget, and what stays exactly the same.

I am Karin Lundin. I photograph 10 to 15 weddings a year, most of them in and around Stockholm, some abroad. Further down you will find my own notes from the two Greek weddings, and if you are planning one, get in touch early. Greek dates in September go quickly.

Why couples bring a wedding photographer to Greece from home

The practical reason is simple. A destination wedding is planned from home, over a year or more, and the photographer is one of the few suppliers you meet before the day. When I am booked for a Greek wedding, the process is the same as for a wedding in Stockholm: a message through the contact form, a short online meeting, a quote and a contract, a booking invoice, and the date is yours. In spring we have a longer meeting about the details and expectations. By the time we land in Greece we know each other, and I know who in the family matters most to you.

The second reason is language and reference points. A Swedish couple and a Swedish wedding photographer in Greece share a picture of what the day should look like, from the speeches to the way the guests behave at dinner. That shared frame of reference is hard to explain to someone you have met on a video call the week before.

The third reason is continuity. Couples who book me for Greece usually want the same style in their album as in the images they have seen from my Swedish weddings: documentary, mostly natural light, and a lot of what actually happened. If you like that way of working, it travels. The light does not change how I photograph, only when.

Two Greek weddings: Zakynthos and Kefalonia

Lesante Cape, Zakynthos, September 2025

Mirjam and Dennis married at Lesante Cape on the Akrotiri peninsula on 8 September 2025. The resort has its own chapel for around 60 guests and reception space for up to 150, so the whole wedding, from getting ready to the last dance, happened on one property above the sea. Zakynthos is greener and calmer than the Cyclades, with turquoise water and cliffs on the west coast, and in September the heat has eased without the light losing anything. I wrote a separate guide to weddings at Lesante Cape with the venue details.

Millstone Villa, Kefalonia, September 2021

Rochelle and Dan married at Millstone Villa on Kefalonia on 4 September 2021. The villa sits near Trapezaki beach on the south coast, on the historic Migliaressis Estate, surrounded by a 600 year old olive grove with views over olive groves, vineyards and the Ionian sea, and it sleeps ten guests in five bedrooms (villa listing). The ceremony took place on a round stone terrace edged with cypresses, with a half circle of pink, yellow and white flowers and cushions laid out on the ground for the guests.

The portraits were made by the water: a couple on a rock in the shallows with the mountains behind them, a small beach under a sandstone cliff, and the two of them barefoot on the rocks with a bougainvillea bouquet. Later the whole party gathered on the villa steps for one group picture, arms in the air. Kefalonia is in the Ionian islands, like Zakynthos, and the two share the same green landscape and softer winds compared with Santorini or Mykonos.

The light in Greece compared with a Swedish summer

The biggest difference between photographing a wedding in Greece and in Sweden is not the sun during the day. It is the evening. A Swedish summer evening stays light for hours after dinner. On a Greek island the sun goes down and it is dark shortly after. Everything else people mention, the light, the heat, the colours, follows from that.

The sun tables make it concrete. On 4 September, the day of the Kefalonia wedding, the sun set just after eight in the evening and it was dark half an hour later. In Stockholm on the same date the sun set twenty minutes earlier but the dusk lasted over forty minutes. At midsummer the gap is much bigger: on Zakynthos the sun sets around nine and it is dark by half past, while in Stockholm the sun sets after ten and the sky never fully darkens.

For a wedding photographer in Greece this means one thing: the portraits in soft light have to happen before dinner, not after. At a Swedish castle wedding I can take the couple out after the main course and still have an hour of golden light. In Greece that hour is over by the time dessert arrives. So I plan a Greek wedding day with the ceremony in the late afternoon, portraits straight after while the guests have their first drink, and dinner starting as the sun goes down. The middle of the day, when the light is hard and the heat is at its highest, is for getting ready and for details in the shade.

The colours are the other visible difference. The Ionian sea in the pictures from Kefalonia is a pale turquoise near the shore and a deep blue further out, the rock is pale sandstone, and against that a white dress and a magenta bouquet carry the whole frame. A Swedish wedding in July is green and grey, soft and cool. Both are good. They just do not look alike, and the album from Greece will not look like the album from a manor in Sörmland even though the same person made it.

How a Greek wedding weekend is planned from Stockholm

Most couples who marry in Greece turn the wedding into a long weekend. Guests fly in on Thursday or Friday, there is a welcome dinner the evening before, the wedding on Saturday, and a slow day by the sea on Sunday. Direct flights from Stockholm to the Greek islands are seasonal and take about four hours, so the whole party arrives tired and hot and needs an evening to land.

I arrive the evening before, as I do when a venue is far from Stockholm. Most couples add two or three hours of coverage that evening so the welcome dinner is in the album too. For me as a photographer, that evening is the best chance to start getting to know family and friends and to see who you are closest to, so that on the wedding day I already know which faces matter. I usually take a few portraits of the two of you in the evening light as well, which takes the pressure off the wedding day.

Book a local planner. Greek venues, suppliers, paperwork and municipal timelines are hard to coordinate from Sweden without someone who lives the system every week, and the planner is also the person who registers the marriage after you have flown home. If you want a Stockholm based planner who works abroad, my guide to wedding planners in Stockholm lists those who do. Swedish citizens marrying abroad also have a few steps at home first, which I cover in getting married abroad as a Swedish citizen.

What it costs to bring a wedding photographer from Stockholm to Greece

My full day coverage starts at 55 000 SEK, about 5 000 EUR, including VAT, the same starting point as for a wedding in Sweden. On top of that come travel and accommodation for the days I am on the island, and often the extra hours the evening before. Tell me which island and which dates and I will send a quote that includes all of it, so there is one figure to compare with a local photographer.

For the rest of the budget, the figures below are what I see from the planners I work with. Santorini sits at the top of the range. Kefalonia, Zakynthos and the mainland cost noticeably less without losing the Mediterranean setting. Weddings in late April, May or October usually save 20 to 30 percent on venue fees compared with the July to September peak, and a weekday saves another 10 to 20 percent.

Which Greek island suits which wedding?

Greece is several wedding destinations rather than one. The two islands I have worked on are both in the Ionian sea, which is the green, calmer side of Greece. Santorini and Mykonos in the Cyclades are drier, windier and busier, with the white architecture most people picture first. Crete and the Peloponnese offer estates and olive groves with room for large parties. The table is a starting point; the venue matters more than the island.

Legal requirements for a wedding in Greece, in brief

Many couples marry legally at home and hold the ceremony in Greece as a symbolic one. It changes nothing about the day or the pictures, and it removes most of the paperwork. If you want the legal marriage to happen in Greece, this is the outline. Each of you needs a Certificate of No Impediment, a document confirming you are free to marry. For Swedish couples that is the Äktenskapscertifikat (Certificate of Marriage Capacity) from Skatteverket, the Swedish Tax Agency, issued after hindersprövning, the check that nothing prevents the marriage. Most Greek municipalities want it issued within the last three to six months.

Every foreign document needs an apostille and a certified Greek translation. The municipality then posts a wedding notice for eight days before the licence is issued, and after the ceremony the marriage must be registered at the Lixiarcheio, the civil registry, within 40 days. If you have flown home by then, a power of attorney lets your planner register it for you. Count on 8 to 12 weeks for the whole process and ask your planner for a written timeline with the last safe start date.

Gallery from Kefalonia

How I photograph a wedding in Greece

My name is Karin Lundin and I am a wedding photographer based in Stockholm. My approach is documentary: I look for the moments between the programme items, the gestures that tell the story of the day. In Greece that approach works exactly as it does at home. What changes is the clock, because the evening is short, and the temperature, because a September afternoon on Kefalonia is warmer than any Swedish wedding day.

The two Greek weddings I have photographed were both in the first week of September, and I would recommend that window to anyone planning one. The heat has eased, the sea is warm, the light in the late afternoon is soft, and the islands are quieter than in July. On Zakynthos the whole day stayed on the resort. On Kefalonia the ceremony was at the villa and the portraits by the sea, so the schedule needed margin for the drive and for the light.

Want the day on film as well? I often work alongside Nordvér Films, and we plan positions together so that neither of us is in the way of the other or of the ceremony. You can read more about my background on my bio and CV page, and about my way of working in Sweden under fine art wedding photography in Sweden.

If Greece is one of several places you are considering, my Italy wedding photography guide covers Tuscany and the Amalfi Coast, and the European venue guide ties the destinations together.

Key takeaways

• I have photographed two weddings in Greece: Lesante Cape on Zakynthos in September 2025 and Millstone Villa on Kefalonia in September 2021, both in the Ionian islands.
• The main difference from a Swedish wedding is the evening: on a Greek island it is dark within about half an hour of sunset, so the portraits happen before dinner.
• Full day coverage starts at 55 000 SEK, about 5 000 EUR, including VAT, plus travel and accommodation. Ask for one quote that includes everything.
• I arrive the evening before, and most couples add two or three hours so the welcome dinner is covered too.
• Budget 300 to 500 EUR per guest for a mid range Greek wedding, 700 to 1 200 EUR or more at the high end. Zakynthos and Kefalonia cost less than Santorini.
• A legal Greek marriage takes 8 to 12 weeks of paperwork; a symbolic ceremony after marrying at home removes most of it and changes nothing in the pictures.

Frequently asked questions about a wedding photographer in Greece

Do you travel to Greece for weddings?

Yes. I have photographed weddings on Zakynthos and Kefalonia and I am happy to travel to any Greek island or to the mainland. I take 10 to 15 weddings a year in total, so ask early for a September date.

What does it cost to bring a photographer from Stockholm to Greece?

Full day coverage with me as your wedding photographer in Greece starts at 55 000 SEK, about 5 000 EUR, including VAT, the same as in Sweden. Travel and accommodation for the days on the island come on top, and I send one quote that includes everything so you can compare it with a local photographer.

When is the best time for a wedding in Greece?

May, June, September and early October. Both my Greek weddings were in the first week of September: the heat has eased, the sea is warm and the islands are quieter than in July and August. The Cyclades, including Santorini and Mykonos, are windy in high summer.

How is the timeline different from a Swedish wedding?

The evening is short. On a Greek island it is dark about half an hour after sunset, while a Swedish midsummer evening never fully darkens. Ceremony in the late afternoon, portraits straight after, dinner as the sun goes down. The portraits cannot wait until after the main course as they can in Sweden.

Do you photograph the evening before as well?

Usually, yes. I arrive the evening before, and most couples add two or three hours so the welcome dinner is in the album. It is also when I get to know your family and friends before the wedding day.

Do we need a wedding planner in Greece?

For a destination wedding, yes. The paperwork, the suppliers and the municipal timeline are hard to handle from Sweden, and the planner is the person who registers the marriage at the Lixiarcheio after you have flown home.

When do we get the pictures?

A sneak peek within a week of the wedding, and the full edited gallery of 600 to 800 images within 8 to 12 weeks.

Planning a wedding in Greece and want to talk it through? Check my availability and tell me the island and the dates.