Crete was not the location anyone expected us to choose for our destination wedding. Neither of us is Greek and islands come with their own logistical challenges. We’d initially investigated options across Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Croatia before admitting that Crete checked all the right boxes.
October Weather Was A Concern
During the planning process, I tried focusing on items within my control. The last thing I wanted to do was drag my friends and family halfway across the world to obsessively check weather forecasts. Instead, we compared average mid-October temperatures and rainfall across all the destinations on our list. As promised, Crete delivered warm sunny days and swimmable ocean water.
Price-Point
Back in 2024, we found that our money went considerably further in Crete than it did in many other destinations we researched. We did not want to plan a bargain-basement destination wedding, but we also didn’t want to spend a fortune to host 40 people in Europe. Crete gave us the best bang for our buck.
Food
Our entire group loves to eat, so food was absolutely factored into our destination decision. Italy was tempting, but I wasn’t about to feed 40 people pizza and pasta for five straight days. Portugal’s pescatarian preferences weren’t going to fly as half our guests are fish-free. Crete offered more variety for our carnivores, vegetarians, and gluten-free guests.
Getting there mattered, too.
Crete has two airports with connections to plenty of European destinations. It’s also the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean. That meant our guests could turn the wedding into a longer European trip, spending a few days before or after the wedding exploring somewhere new. And most of them did.
Ultimately…
We wanted to go somewhere new, relatively uncrowded, and affordable. We didn’t want to get married in the most obvious destination. In fact, avoiding the obvious choices was part of the appeal.
Once we put everything together, Crete was the clear winner. It wasn’t necessarily the destination we started out looking for. It was the one that made the most sense.
