Indian destination wedding: Europe or Marrakech? Italy, Portugal and Spain compared

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Most UK families planning an Indian destination wedding end up with the same shortlist. Italy, for the villas and the lakes. Portugal, for Sintra and the coast. Spain, for the sun. And Marrakech.

All four can host a beautiful wedding. The differences show once you have three hundred guests, four days, a sacred fire in the mandap and a Baraat that needs a road to arrive on. Below, the four are set side by side on flight times, passports, venues, scale, season, sound and the legal paperwork.

We plan Indian weddings in Marrakech and nothing else. For Europe we use figures from airports, governments and national weather services, plus the questions you should put to a European venue yourself. If Marrakech is already on your list, you can book a 30-minute introduction call now and bring your guest list.

Start with the guest list

The right destination is the one most of your guests can reach easily. Where the couple lives matters less than it seems.

Write the list out by city before anyone opens a venue brochure, then put the flight times next to it. The London times below are direct flights as published by London Luton Airport. The Gulf and India figures for Marrakech come from our flight-time paper.

For the UK side of the list, every European option is shorter than Marrakech, by between 45 minutes (Faro) and 1 hour 40 (Milan). All of them, Marrakech included, fit a long weekend. A twelve-hour connection is a different matter, because it costs a guest two days of annual leave, one at each end.

For a UK family, then, the flight table rarely settles the choice. Passports usually do.

Passports: the question that splits the guest list

Many Indian families in the UK have two kinds of passport on the guest list, and the comparison looks different for each.

British passports

British citizens can travel without a visa to the Schengen area, which includes Italy, Spain and Portugal, for up to 90 days in any 180-day period. Days spent in other Schengen countries in the previous 180 days count towards the 90. The passport must have been issued less than ten years before arrival and must expire at least three months after the day you plan to leave. The EU's Entry/Exit System (EES) is being rolled out across the Schengen area, so guests may have fingerprints and a photograph taken at the border, which can add time.

British citizens can also visit Morocco without a visa for up to 90 days for tourism, with a passport that expires at least three months after the date of arrival. Most EU passport holders can generally enter Morocco visa-free for short stays too, though each nationality should be checked.

For this side of the family, there is little to choose between the four.

Indian passports

India is on the EU list of countries whose citizens need a visa to travel to the Schengen area. For a wedding in Italy, Spain or Portugal, every guest on an Indian passport applies for a Schengen short-stay visa:

• You can apply no earlier than six months before travel, and at least 15 days before.
• Normal processing is 15 days. It can be extended to 45 days if the consulate needs a closer look or more documents.
• The standard fee is €90 for adults and €45 for children aged 6 to 12.
• You apply to the consulate of the country where you will spend the most time.

Morocco also requires a visa for Indian passport holders, and there is no visa on arrival. In our experience, most guests use the electronic visa, which usually comes back within one to three working days. An invitation letter from the organiser supports the application. We issue one per guest, with the venue confirmation attached. The visa follows the passport, whatever the country of residence, so a UAE resident on an Indian passport still needs one. The detail is in Morocco visas for Indian passport holders.

Visa rules change. Check each guest's passport against the current official rules at the save-the-date stage, and remind them again at three months.

The venue: six questions to ask in any country

A villa on Lake Como and a palace outside Marrakech look nothing alike, yet the same questions decide whether either can hold an Indian wedding. Ask them of every venue on your list, in Italy, Portugal, Spain or Morocco, and have the answers written into the contract:

1. Can we light a sacred fire in the mandap, outdoors, and will you put that in the contract?
2. How many covers have you actually served at one sitting, and on what date?
3. What time does music have to stop, and is that a local rule or a house rule?
4. Can we have the site overnight to build?
5. Are we the only wedding on the property that week?
6. Will you hold the date against a muhurat that has not been set yet?

If a venue hesitates on the first question, it cannot host the Pheras, however good the view.

In Marrakech we work in private palaces and estates. A multi-day wedding needs grounds for several hundred people and two or three separate spaces, so a Mehndi can run while the Sangeet stage goes up. It also needs a kitchen that can feed everyone, vehicle access for the Baraat and overnight access to build the mandap. We ask for exclusive use, because sharing the property with another party in the middle of a build causes trouble. More on how we choose them in Venues.

Scale: what each guest count needs

Parents usually ask first whether the place can cope with their numbers. Here is how it works at the private estates we use in Marrakech, which commonly hold 150 to 800 guests.

Above roughly four hundred guests, the kitchen and the power supply set the limit. Take the same table to European venues and ask for the largest seated dinner they have served, and when.

If you would rather go through your own numbers with us, book a call and tell us the guest count and the cities. Planners working for a family can see how we work with planners. The client relationship stays yours.

Season: when each option works

The four destinations are at their best in different months. The table gives the average daily high in °C for one wedding region in each European country, from each national weather service.

Florence is Aeronautica Militare data for 1991 to 2020, published by LaMMA Toscana. Lisbon is IPMA for 1991 to 2020. Seville is AEMET for 1981 to 2010.

Seville and inland Andalusia average 36°C in July and 35.5°C in August, close to the Marrakech summer problem. May, late September and October are the comfortable months there.

Florence and Tuscany reach about 32°C in July and August, with nights around 18°C. June and September sit near 27 to 29°C.

Lisbon has the mildest summer of the three, at 28 to 29°C, and it is dry then: July averages 0.4 days of rain. October is wetter, with 8.3 rain days on average, so an October wedding near Lisbon needs a covered plan.

Marrakech runs the other way round. Nearly every Indian wedding here falls in one of two windows, March to May or September to November. October is close to perfect. April and May bring warm days and cool evenings, which suits guests in heavy outfits. July and August regularly pass 40°C, too hot for a multi-day outdoor programme, especially with grandparents. In winter the days are clear and pleasant, but nights drop to single figures in December and January and evening events need heating.

Europe is most comfortable from late spring to early autumn, and Marrakech's two windows sit either side of that summer. The most sought-after Marrakech venues for April, May or October often book about eighteen months ahead. More in When to marry in Marrakech.

Sound, and the last hour of the Sangeet

Every destination has noise limits. Find out what your venue allows, and whether the rule belongs to the house or the town.

At Marrakech venues, outdoor amplified sound usually has to be down by midnight or one, depending on the property and its neighbours. Some private estates outside the city allow later. Venues in or near the medina are stricter. The usual answer is to move the last hour indoors, where the limit does not apply. A house rule can sometimes be extended with a late licence. A municipal curfew cannot.

Put the same question to a European venue early. If the Sangeet has to end at eleven, you want to know before the choreographer is booked.

The legal marriage happens at home

This holds whether you choose Europe or Marrakech. Almost every couple who marries in Marrakech signs the legal paperwork at home: a short civil registration with two witnesses, in the weeks before or after the trip. For the families, the Pheras or the Anand Karaj abroad are the wedding.

A Hindu or Sikh ceremony held abroad is not automatically a legal marriage in the country you live in. A certificate issued abroad often has to be translated and legalised before institutions at home will accept it, and that takes months. Foreign nationals can in principle marry legally in Morocco, but the requirements are involved. We plan weddings and do not give legal advice, so if you want to go that way, start with your own embassy and a notary. See the legal bit.

Cost: what moves the number

We do not publish a price list, because no honest number comes off one. Three things move the budget wherever you marry: how many people sit down to dinner, how many days the programme runs, and how much of the week has to be flown in.

Venue hire is rarely the biggest line. Food and production are, and both grow with headcount. A quote written for a wedding at home usually leaves out what a destination adds: imported staff, temporary kitchens above about four hundred covers, and transfers between events. Compare European and Moroccan quotes line by line. Our view of the Marrakech side is in What it costs to marry here.

So which should you choose?

Three patterns come up again and again.

If most guests live in the UK and Europe, few hold Indian passports and the numbers are modest, Italy, Portugal or Spain are a real option, and the flights are shorter. Pick the region by month from the table above, ask the six questions, and see which venues say yes to the fire and the build.

If the list mixes UK, Gulf and Indian guests and runs to two hundred or more, Marrakech deserves a serious look. Guests on Indian passports can use the Moroccan e-visa, which usually takes one to three working days, with an invitation letter from us for each guest; the Schengen route takes 15 to 45 days. The private estates we use commonly hold 150 to 800 guests, and we take them on exclusive use, so no other party shares the property during your build. The UK side pays for this with roughly an hour more in the air than a European flight. Gulf guests have a direct flight to Marrakech on some days, at about seven and a half hours.

If most guests live in India, Europe and Marrakech both mean a long journey with a connection, and Rajasthan is usually the better answer. We set out that test in Marrakech or Rajasthan, with a worked example of a 200-guest UK and Gulf list and 40 guests from India.

In the photographs, Marrakech brings its own architecture: arches, courtyards, water and carved plaster. It looks different from a Tuscan villa or a Rajasthani palace, and we plan it that way.

Questions families ask

Is Marrakech further than Italy, Spain or Portugal from London?
Yes. London Luton Airport lists Marrakech at 3 hours 40 direct, against 2 hours to 2 hours 55 for Milan, Barcelona, Pisa, Rome, Seville, Lisbon, Malaga and Faro.

Do British guests need a visa for an Indian wedding in Italy, Spain, Portugal or Morocco?
Not for a short stay. British citizens can visit the Schengen area without a visa for up to 90 days in any 180-day period, and Morocco for up to 90 days for tourism. Check passport validity: at least three months beyond the planned departure for Schengen, and three months beyond arrival for Morocco.

How long does a Schengen visa take for guests on Indian passports?
Normal processing is 15 days, extendable to 45. Applications open six months before travel and must be in at least 15 days before. Tell guests at the save-the-date stage.

Which European region is coolest for a summer wedding?
Of the three in our table, Lisbon. Its average high is 28.3°C in July and 29.0°C in August, against about 32°C in Florence and 36°C in Seville.

Can we have the sacred fire at a European venue?
That depends on the venue. Ask whether you can light a fire in an outdoor mandap, and ask for it in the contract. The same applies in Marrakech.

Is a wedding in Marrakech legally valid in the UK?
The ceremony is not automatically a legal marriage at home. Most couples register the marriage in the UK in the weeks before or after the trip.

Tell us your dates

If Marrakech is on your shortlist, send us your dates, an approximate guest count and the cities your guests are flying from. We will tell you plainly whether it works, and which estates could hold your week. Book a 30-minute introduction call, or write to us.

For the detail, read what four days looks like and flights from Mumbai, Delhi, Dubai and London.