The best time to get married in Cyprus, month by month
6 min read
Cyprus has one of the longest wedding seasons in Europe, from April to the end of October and, for a small wedding, beyond. What changes through it is the heat, the light and the calendar: the island's holidays and the church year decide some dates for you.
Month by month
| Month | Paphos, low and high | Rain in the month | For a wedding |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 9 to 18°C | about 90 mm | Green and quiet; plan for rain, indoors |
| April | 13 to 22°C | about 17 mm | Fresh and green, cool evenings; Easter falls here some years |
| May | 16 to 25°C | about 6 mm | One of the best: warm days, mild nights, wildflowers |
| June | 19 to 28°C | almost none | Warm and long: sunset around eight |
| July | 22 to 31°C | none | Hot: ceremony late, party after dark, or go to the mountains |
| August | 22 to 31°C | none | The hottest, and the island's holiday month |
| September | 20 to 29°C | about 6 mm | A warm sea, softer light, a favourite month |
| October | 18 to 27°C | about 21 mm | Still warm, the first rain late in the month |
| December | 11 to 20°C | about 87 mm | Mild by day, cool at night, the rainiest stretch |
Averages at Paphos airport from Cyprus Meteorology, 2002 to 2011. Inland and in Nicosia it is hotter in summer; in the Troodos it is much cooler all year.
May, June, September, October
These four months give warm afternoons without the worst of the heat, evenings you can sit out in, and a sea you can swim in. May has the green of spring still on the hills. September has the sea still at its warmest and a softer, lower light. They are also the months venues book first, often more than a year ahead.
July and August
High summer is hot all day: the average high on the Paphos coast is about 31°C, more inland, with no rain at all. A wedding works if it is built around the heat: the ceremony an hour or so before sunset, shade and water for guests, and the party after dark by the sea. Or go up: in the Troodos villages, at Prodromos, the average high in August is about 29°C and the nights are cool.
Winter
From December to February the island gets most of its rain, and the Troodos peaks see snow. Days on the coast are mild, often 17 to 20°C, and a small wedding in a stone village with a fire, or a long lunch on a winter-bright day, can be lovely. Plan indoors and enjoy it if the sun comes out.
Set the time by the sunset
In Cyprus the light, not the clock, sets the day. The sun sets at about eight in the evening in June and July, around twenty past seven at the start of September and about twenty to seven at its end, a few minutes earlier on the east coast than in Paphos. Start the ceremony about ninety minutes before sunset and the photographs after it fall in the golden hour.
Dates to plan around
- Orthodox Easter: 2 May 2027 and 16 April 2028. Families are at home, churches are busy with the services, and Good Friday and Easter Monday are public holidays.
- Lent, from Green Monday (15 March 2027, 28 February 2028) to Easter: Orthodox churches do not marry couples.
- Kataklysmos, the festival of the flood at Pentecost: 21 June 2027 and 5 June 2028, a holiday with fairs along the seafronts, Larnaca's above all.
- 1 to 15 August: the fast before the feast of the Dormition, when churches do not marry; 15 August itself is a public holiday.
- 1 October and 28 October: national holidays, when town halls are closed.
Town halls also close on public holidays and marry mostly on weekdays, so a civil wedding on a holiday weekend needs checking twice. Ask the parish about any other days the church keeps.
Collect the answers while you are at it
MyEventOS turns the invitation, the RSVP and the guest list into one link, and counts the replies as they land. Free to design, free to send, and the first ten replies are included.
Start creating free
