There is no getting away from it, but September is a magical month in the Douro Valley – the more intense heat of the Summer is beginning to dissipate, but it is still mostly blue skies and beautifully warm even in the evenings. There is a buzz around the valley as the grape harvest will be starting and all feels right with the world. So, should you be planning your wedding in the Douro for September?

Well, there are a lot of good reasons for choosing September for your wedding date, but perhaps too many good reasons, because September is really peak season for Douro Valley weddings, which means the most popular venues get booked up a long time in advance (particularly for weekends of course) and even if you manage to bag a venue, many of the vendors will be booked up also. And thing about the poor wedding planners! We are worked off our feet in September and so it can be very difficult for us to find a day when one of our planners is available to run a wedding for you. Finally, you have the issue that a lot of tourists come to the Douro Valley to witness the harvest and the fun events that coincide with it, so a lot of accommodation is sold out and whole area is generally busy.

This means whilst there is so much to love about September, it can be a victim of its own success – as an alternative, you may want to consider April, May or June, which enjoy many of the benefits of September (not least the weather), but are not quite so popular either for weddings or tourists. This means you do not have to book so far in advance and you will generally have more options available for all the things you may want to include with your destination wedding.

One final thing you may want to consider if you are committed to a September wedding, is to think about holding it outside of the Douro Valley itself – northern Portugal is blessed with a number of absolutely stunning areas of natural beauty with equally stunning venues to hold a wedding. Typically, these locations are far less well known than the Douro so availability is better and to crown it all you generally get better value for money.

Nobody knows weddings in the Douro and northern Portugal better than us, so if you want the best possible guide to your options (in September or any other time of year), please get in touch!