Why Couples Are Choosing Spain in 2028
If you’re reading this in 2026 with 2028 in mind, you’re doing it right. The couples who get the venue they actually want are the ones looking eighteen months to two years out, and for a peak Saturday in Spain that’s now the norm rather than the cautious option.
Here’s what’s driving the shift, where couples are choosing, what it costs, and what to do first.
Why so many British couples are marrying abroad
The numbers have moved a long way in a decade. Around one in four British couples now marries overseas, and among 18 to 34 year olds, 44% say they’d prefer a destination wedding to one at home.
The reason isn’t romance, or not only. It’s arithmetic.
A UK wedding with 101 or more guests now averages around £35,591, with venue hire alone taking roughly 38 to 40% of the budget. The average cost per guest reached £272 in 2026 and is still climbing. Against that, the average overseas wedding comes in around £17,572, saving couples roughly £3,000 against a comparable celebration at home, and that’s before you consider what you actually get for it.
Spain sits at the value end of the European market. Costs here run 30 to 40% below Italy and France for a comparable wedding, and Spain has the widest price range of any Mediterranean destination: a rural Andalusian finca and a Mallorcan estate are two entirely different propositions with two entirely different budgets.
There’s a generational shift underneath it too. Gen Z is expected to become the dominant marrying generation by 2028, and their priorities are different: fewer guests, more spent on each one, and a preference for an experience over a formal occasion. A three-day celebration in Spain fits that far better than an afternoon in a marquee at home.
Why Spain specifically
Plenty of countries offer sunshine. Spain’s advantages are more practical than that.
It’s close. Two and a half hours from most UK airports to Málaga, and the flights run year-round rather than seasonally. That matters more than couples expect, because it determines who can actually come. A wedding that requires two flights and an overnight will thin your guest list regardless of how beautiful the venue is.
The infrastructure is mature. Spain hosts around 15,000 destination weddings a year and the industry has grown roughly 20% over five years. That means experienced venues, suppliers who’ve worked with international couples hundreds of times, and English spoken as a matter of course along the Costa del Sol and in the islands. You are not anybody’s first foreign wedding.
The weather is reliable rather than merely good. May through September is dependable across most of the country, and the shoulder months of April and October are considerably better than their UK equivalents. In the Canaries it’s genuinely year-round.
And the food is a reason in itself. Spanish wedding catering is built around long, generous eating: a canapé reception that runs ninety minutes and is closer to a first course than a bowl of olives, then dinner that starts at nine and doesn’t rush. Guests remember it.
The variety is the underrated part. Beach clubs on the Mediterranean, Atlantic coastline in Cádiz, Moorish castles inland, sherry bodegas in Jerez, olive-grove fincas in Mallorca, masies outside Barcelona, volcanic landscapes in Tenerife. Very few countries offer that range within a two-hour flight.
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Getting your guests there
This is the decision that shapes your guest list, so it’s worth settling early.
From the UK, typical flight times:
| Airport | Flight time | Serves |
|---|---|---|
| Málaga | 2h 45m | Costa del Sol, Marbella, Ronda, inland Andalucía |
| Alicante | 2h 30m | Costa Blanca |
| Barcelona | 2h 10m | Barcelona and Catalonia, Costa Brava, the Penedès |
| Palma | 2h 20m | Mallorca |
| Ibiza | 2h 30m | Ibiza and Formentera |
| Menorca | 2h 25m | Menorca |
| Jerez | 2h 40m | Cádiz province |
| Gibraltar | 2h 50m | Sotogrande, Manilva, western Costa del Sol |
| Tenerife South | 4h 15m | Tenerife and the Canaries |
Málaga is the workhorse. It’s the fourth busiest airport in Spain, flies direct from nearly every UK city, and runs year-round. For a mixed guest list arriving over several days, it’s almost always the right answer.
Some regions are further from an airport than the map suggests. Ronda is an hour and forty from Málaga on mountain roads. Cádiz province has no major airport of its own. Those aren’t reasons to rule a region out, but they are reasons to budget for coaches and to tell guests before they book flights.
Best time for a Wedding
May, June and September, with early October close behind. That’s true almost everywhere in Spain, and it’s why those months book first.
September is the one most planners would pick. The sea is at its warmest after the summer, the Spanish holidays end in the third week of August so accommodation prices drop, the light has softened, and the crowds have gone. If your date is flexible, that’s where to start looking.
The figure nobody publishes is the evening temperature, and it’s the one that matters, because it’s what your guests are sitting in during the speeches. A May afternoon on the Costa del Sol reads as 23°C and feels like 14°C by ten o’clock. Only June to September let you comfortably eat outside all evening.
It depends more on where than when
| Region | Best months | The catch |
|---|---|---|
| Costa del Sol | May, June, September | July and August are hot and busy |
| Inland Andalucía | April to June, September, October | Seville and Córdoba pass 40°C in summer |
| Ronda and the mountains | May, June, September | At 750m the evenings are colder than you’d expect |
| Cádiz and the Atlantic | May, June, September | Cooler than the Med, but the levante wind |
| Balearics | May, June, September | Short season, everything books early |
| Catalonia | May, June, September | September brings the heaviest rain |
| Tenerife and the Canaries | Almost any month | The one place where year-round is genuine |
The months in detail
April and May are green and quiet, with the countryside in bloom and the coast still empty. Beautiful by day, and cold enough after dark that you’ll want heaters or an indoor option after dinner. Good value, and availability is far better than in peak.
June is arguably the best all-round month. Warm days, warm evenings, long light, and the summer crowds haven’t arrived. It’s also the last comfortable month inland before the heat sets in.
July and August divide sharply by region. On the coast they’re perfectly workable with a late ceremony and a sea breeze. Inland they’re hard: Seville regularly passes 40°C and a midday ceremony is genuinely uncomfortable. Everything costs more too, because you’re competing with the holiday season for accommodation.
September is the sweet spot, for all the reasons above.
October is underrated. Warm days, cool nights, low prices and excellent availability. The light is exceptional, and the vendimia, the wine harvest, gives the inland regions something going on.
November to March is better than its reputation. Days stay mild at 16 to 17°C on the coast, availability is excellent and prices are lowest of the year. What you lose is the evening, since it’s dark by six. A winter wedding here works as an early afternoon ceremony with dinner indoors, which is a perfectly good day rather than a compromised one. In the Canaries it barely changes anything at all.
Dates to avoid
Semana Santa, the week before Easter, when processions fill every Andalusian town and accommodation books out completely.
Mid-August. The 15th is a national holiday and the surrounding fortnight is the busiest of the Spanish year.
And the local ferias, which vary town by town and catch people out because they don’t appear on any national calendar. Seville’s is in April, Jerez’s Feria del Caballo in May, Málaga’s in August, and Ronda’s in early September. Each fills its town entirely for a week.
The practical advice: pick your region, then your month, then check it against the local feria calendar before you commit. Doing it the other way round is how couples end up with a beautiful venue on the one week their guests can’t find a hotel room.
What Time of Day Should You Marry?
Work backwards from sunset. The hour before it is when your photographs happen, and it’s the reason people choose Spain.
Ninety minutes before sunset is the mark. That gives you the ceremony, then drinks and canapés as the light goes, then dinner as it cools.
| Month | Sunset | Ceremony |
|---|---|---|
| April | 21:00 | 17:30 |
| May | 21:20 | 18:00 |
| June | 21:40 | 18:30 |
| July | 21:30 | 18:30 |
| August | 21:00 | 18:00 |
| September | 20:30 | 17:30 |
| October | 19:30 | 16:30 |
Costa del Sol times. Add ten to fifteen minutes further west, subtract further east.
In July and August, later is better. A three o’clock ceremony in full sun is uncomfortable for everyone and genuinely risky for older guests. Push it back and you go into dinner as the temperature drops.
Then the Spanish rhythm takes over, and it’s later than British and Irish guests expect. Canapés and drinks for ninety minutes, dinner around nine, dancing from eleven. That canapé reception is substantial, closer to a first course than a bowl of olives, and it’s worth warning people so they don’t arrive expecting a 6pm sit-down.
And check the curfew before you fix the time. This shapes the evening more than anything else. A seven o’clock ceremony at a beach club with a midnight cut-off gives you four hours of party. The same ceremony at a rural finca with no fixed limit gives you as long as you want.
One thing worth being sceptical about. “No curfew” on a venue’s website can mean they hold a licence permitting late music, or it can mean nobody has complained yet. Those are very different, and the second ends with police at the gate. Get the position in writing before you pay a deposit.
Where couples are choosing
The Costa del Sol remains the most popular region for British couples, and for good reason: Málaga airport, the deepest supplier network in Spain, and venues at every price point from Marbella‘s beach clubs to inland fincas at half the cost. Marbella and Sotogrande sit at the premium end; Estepona, Fuengirola and Mijas offer the same coastline for considerably less.
Inland Andalucía is where the value is. Ronda, ninety minutes from the coast, gives you a gorge, a bridge and working fincas among vineyards, at roughly €10,000 less than the equivalent in Marbella. Curfews inland are relaxed in a way coastal venues can’t match.
Cádiz is the region most couples overlook and the one we’d point people towards if the Costa del Sol feels too developed. Atlantic beaches that are genuinely empty, the finest white villages in Spain at Vejer and Arcos, sherry bodegas in Jerez, and Tarifa at the southern tip of Europe. Cooler in summer than inland Andalucía, and meaningfully cheaper than the Mediterranean side.
The Balearics run premium. Mallorca offers stone fincas among olive groves and the widest island choice; Ibiza has the strongest villa scene and the highest prices; Menorca is the quiet one, a UNESCO biosphere reserve with more beaches than the other two combined and the best value of the three.
Catalonia suits couples who care about food. Masies inland from Barcelona, cava estates in the Penedès, and the Costa Brava north. Worth knowing that many Catalan venues work with an exclusive caterer, so your supplier choice may be narrower than elsewhere.
The Canaries are the year-round option. Tenerife holds around 21°C in January, which makes a February wedding genuinely viable, and the islands sit outside the EU VAT area, charging IGIC at 7% rather than IVA at 21%. On a €40,000 wedding that’s roughly €5,600 saved.
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Ten venues worth knowing
A cross-section rather than a ranking, chosen to show the range. You can browse them all on our wedding venues page.
Castillo de Monda, Marbella. A 15th-century Moorish castle in the hills, with thirty-five bedrooms sleeping 72 on site and no music curfew. Exclusive use, thirty minutes from Málaga airport, and the answer for couples who want the wedding to become a weekend.
Casa de la Era, Marbella. A restored country estate built around a traditional threshing floor. Dry hire, so you bring your own suppliers, with no fixed music curfew and covered space for 100 if the weather turns.
El Molino del Duque, Manilva. An 18th-century flour mill in three hectares of tropical gardens on the western Costa del Sol. Takes up to 350 on exclusive use, with music until 4am and a villa on site.
Castell de Sant Marçal, Barcelona. A 13th-century castle held by the same family for over 700 years, thirty minutes from the city. Seats 500 or 800 standing, with music permitted until 5am, an unusual combination of genuine heritage and real capacity.
Las Sirenas, Sotogrande. A private estate near Sotogrande Port, exclusive use only, taking up to 150. Whitewashed walls, mature gardens and a Grand Hall that gives you a proper indoor option rather than a compromise.
Finca La Donaira, Ronda. A working estate in the Serranía, genuinely rural, with accommodation and the mountains of the Sierra de Grazalema behind.
El Castillo de Los Realejos, Tenerife. A 19th-century castle in the green north of the island, taking up to 250, five minutes from La Orotava’s old town and forty-five from Teide.
Finca Son Termes, Mallorca. A traditional finca in the countryside outside Palma, taking 250 or more.
Can Frare, Ibiza. A rustic finca for smaller celebrations of 40 to 90, sleeping 12, in the island’s quieter interior.
Finca Monasterio, Cádiz. A country estate in the province most couples never look at, taking 90 to 150 with rooms for eight.
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What it costs in 2028
Costs have risen steadily and the honest expectation is that they’ll keep rising, though Spain remains among the best value in western Europe.
Realistic ranges for 100 guests, all in:
| Region | Typical total |
|---|---|
| Jerez and inland Cádiz | €18,000 – €30,000 |
| Fuengirola, Benalmádena, Mijas | €20,000 – €32,000 |
| Ronda and inland Andalucía | €22,000 – €35,000 |
| Cádiz coast, Vejer, Tarifa | €22,000 – €38,000 |
| Málaga and Estepona | €25,000 – €40,000 |
| Menorca | €25,000 – €35,000 |
| Tenerife | €30,000 – €50,000 |
| Marbella and Sotogrande | €35,000 – €55,000 |
| Barcelona and Catalonia | €35,000 – €60,000 |
| Mallorca | €35,000 – €55,000 |
| Ibiza | €40,000 – €70,000 |
Where the money goes. Venue hire typically accounts for around 40% of the total. Catering is the next largest at €65 to €150 per person depending on region and format, with drinks usually quoted separately. Photography runs €1,200 to €2,500, videography €1,200 to €4,000, and flowers anywhere from €2,000 to €6,000.
And IVA sits on top of most of it, at 21%. Some suppliers quote inclusive and some don’t, and the quote rarely makes it obvious which. On a €30,000 wedding that’s a further €6,300, so it belongs in the budget from the start rather than turning up at invoice stage. Ask every supplier, in writing, and ask before you start comparing quotes — two figures €5,000 apart can turn out to be the same price.
Wedding Suppliers
Spain’s wedding supplier market is mature and the standard is high, but it’s regional rather than national. A Marbella florist won’t be travelling to Menorca, and each island effectively operates its own economy.
What that means practically. Book earlier in the islands and in thinly served regions like Cádiz, where specialists travel in from Seville or Málaga. On the Costa del Sol, where the supplier pool is deepest, you have genuine choice at every price point and shorter lead times.
The suppliers that book out first are photographers, celebrants and bands or DJs. The good ones are frequently gone twelve months ahead in this region, which means securing the venue is the start of your timeline rather than the end of it.
One relatively new addition worth considering: content creators. Someone shooting your wedding on a phone and delivering edited clips within 48 hours, while your photographs are still three months away. It costs a fraction of photography and it’s become standard at destination weddings, largely because the wait for everything else is so long.
What your guests will actually do
This matters more for a destination wedding than a domestic one, because you’re asking people to take a week off rather than an afternoon.
On the Costa del Sol, guests get beaches, Marbella‘s old town, golf across the whole coast, and Málaga forty minutes away for the Picasso Museum and a genuinely good restaurant scene. Ronda and the white villages make an easy day trip.
In Cádiz, whale and dolphin watching from Tarifa in one of the best stretches of water in Europe, sherry bodega tours in Jerez, and Morocco thirty-five minutes by ferry, a day trip no other Spanish wedding destination can offer.
In the Balearics, coves reachable only on foot, boat trips along the coast, and in Menorca the Camí de Cavalls, a 185km path circling the whole island.
In Catalonia, Barcelona itself, the Penedès cava estates, and the Costa Brava.
In Tenerife, Teide National Park and the cable car, whale watching with resident pilot whales year-round, and the UNESCO old town at La Laguna.
The pattern most couples now follow is three days rather than one: a welcome dinner or pamper day before, the wedding itself, and a pool party or long lunch the day after. Where a venue has accommodation, the days either side cost surprisingly little, and they’re frequently the parts guests remember most.
The legal side, briefly
This catches nearly every couple out, so it’s worth being clear.
A civil wedding in Spain is not realistically available to non-residents. It runs through the Registro Civil, which expects at least one of you registered on the local padrón, and that requirement is not something most international couples can satisfy.
What almost everyone does instead is marry legally at home first, a ten-minute registry appointment with two witnesses, then hold the ceremony they’ve actually been planning in Spain, led by a celebrant. Nothing about the day changes and nobody attending can tell.
Gibraltar is the other route, and it’s genuinely convenient from the western Costa del Sol: no residency requirement, English as the official language, UK documents accepted as they are, and twenty minutes from Sotogrande.
A Catholic ceremony is the exception, legally recognised in Spain without the residency problem, though it requires baptism and confirmation certificates and a pre-nuptial file from your home parish. Allow a year.
This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Requirements vary by municipality and change, so confirm your position before fixing a date.
The legal side, briefly
This catches nearly every couple out, so it’s worth being clear.
A civil wedding in Spain is not realistically available to non-residents. It runs through the Registro Civil, which expects at least one of you registered on the local padrón, and that requirement is not something most international couples can satisfy.
What almost everyone does instead is marry legally at home first, a ten-minute registry appointment with two witnesses, then hold the ceremony they’ve actually been planning in Spain, led by a celebrant. Nothing about the day changes and nobody attending can tell.
Gibraltar is the other route, and it’s genuinely convenient from the western Costa del Sol: no residency requirement, English as the official language, UK documents accepted as they are, and twenty minutes from Sotogrande.
A Catholic ceremony is the exception, legally recognised in Spain without the residency problem, though it requires baptism and confirmation certificates and a pre-nuptial file from your home parish. Allow a year.
This is general guidance rather than legal advice. Requirements vary by municipality and change, so confirm your position before fixing a date.
Talk to Us About 2028 Wedding in Spain
If you’re planning one of the many weddings in Spain taking place in 2028, now is exactly the right time to be looking. The venues worth having go twelve to eighteen months out, and longer in the islands.
Where to start depends on where you are.
Still deciding on a region? That’s the conversation we’re most useful for. Tell us your rough guest numbers, your budget and what you want the day to feel like, and we’ll tell you which two or three parts of Spain genuinely fit. Sometimes that’s the region you had in mind. Often it isn’t.
Found a venue and want to know it’s free? We run availability checks from €75. We contact the venue in Spanish, confirm your date, and tell you exactly what it takes to hold it, usually within a couple of days.
Ready to shortlist properly? Venue sourcing starts at €180, and tours are €100 per visit whether we walk them with you or film them for you. Most couples have us see two or three on their behalf first, then come out once to visit a shortlist that’s already been filtered.
Want the whole thing handled? Full wedding planning takes it from the beginning: venues, budget, suppliers, contracts and the timeline. You make the decisions; we do the chasing, the translating and the paperwork.
Organised it yourself and want someone running the day? On-the-day coordination starts four to six weeks out and puts us on site from set-up to the last dance.
One honest thing. We’re a small team based in Marbella, and we’d rather tell you a region isn’t right for you than sell you a wedding somewhere that doesn’t suit. If your guest list won’t travel two hours from an airport, we’ll say so. If the month you’ve picked is wrong for the venue you’ve fallen for, we’ll say that too.
We’ve spent years planning weddings in Spain across Andalucía, the Balearics, the Canaries and Catalonia, and the thing that makes the difference is rarely the venue. It’s knowing which suppliers turn up, which quotes are missing something, and which questions to ask before you pay a deposit.
Get in touch and tell us what you’re picturing. There’s no charge for the conversation and no obligation afterwards.