Destination wedding photographer in San Sebastián

The wedding calendar here is set by two things that have nothing to do with photography. Mid-August, Semana Grande fills every bed in the province, and September, the best month of the season, brings the film festival; either way guests need their rooms booked long before the flights. The condition that can undo an outdoor plan is the galerna, a north-westerly squall that arrives in twenty minutes from a clear sky, mostly in late summer. So an outdoor ceremony here comes with a covered alternative agreed in advance, and the group portraits are done early enough that a squall does not have the last word. At the end of June the sun sets almost at ten, and the Peine del Viento is the one place in the city that faces it.

When to book in San Sebastián

Plan the date around the guests’ travel before anything else. Mid-August means Semana Grande and a city with no spare beds; the second half of September means the film festival and much the same. June and the first half of September are the sweet spots, with long evenings and a warm sea, and they fill early for that reason. Guests usually fly into the small airport at Hondarribia, into Biarritz across the border, or into Bilbao to the west, so the Friday has people arriving at different times and the welcome evening starts late. The light is generous on both days, soft from morning on, with a sunset close to ten at the end of June. Late summer brings the risk of a galerna, which is why the outdoor parts of the Saturday always have a covered alternative. From October the season turns mild and wet.