The main wedding season in the Douro valley is May to September, when of course you get the most reliable weather (the sun barely stops shining) and the valley is at its most beautiful. We do plan a number of weddings in the Autumn, which is still generally an incredible time to be in the Douro, but there is one thing you really need to be aware of, which is the harvest.

The Douro valley is of course famous for being the home of Port wine (and latterly for normal wine production also) and the vineyards are at the heart of what makes the Douro such a distinctive location – all along the Douro you will see the narrow terraces that have been painstakingly cut into the steep valley sides to give it the uniquely contour lines for which it is so famous.

Much of the attraction of the Douro valley as a wedding location is the fact that many of the vineyards have been repurposed to function as wedding venue location, sometimes using existing buildings, others with brand new banquet halls and some with temporary structures. So, there is no doubt that the vineyards provide wedding planners like us with an enviable catalogue of venues to show to our clients!

The one issue is that the Douro valley is not just on show for tourists, it is very much a working, wine-producing region and in the Autumn is when it kicks into full speed with the grape harvest (the “vindima”). This time of the year can present to problems for those wishing to schedule their wedding for then: first is that the vineyards themselves are super busy, with agricultural vehicles going back and forth and an influx of seasonal workers; second is the fact that the harvest attracts more tourists than normal who come to the Douro valley precisely to see the harvest taking place, which means hotels tend to be get very booked up.

We do not discourage our clients from planning their wedding in the Autumn because it is such a magical time, but of course we like to advise them of the issues they may face and we also suggest that you will need to book very well in advance! If you are looking for an Autumn wedding in northern Portugal and don’t fancy the hurly-burly of the Douro valley at this time of year, then we are very happy to suggest some alternative areas of northern Portugal, that can be just as beautiful an alluring in slightly different ways. Indeed our sister company, Porto Weddings, specializes in planning weddings all around northern Portugal (as well as in Porto itself).