Alma Consort · Destinations

Greece needs a straight answer about the Orthodox service.

Alma Consort travels from London to sing at clifftop and resort ceremonies in Santorini, Mykonos, Crete, Rhodes and Zakynthos.

Enquire about your wedding

What kind of ceremony are you having?

Worth clearing up first, because it is the assumption most often made about Greece: you do not have to have an Orthodox wedding, and the great majority of couples we sing for there do not.

A symbolic, humanist or celebrant-led ceremony at a hotel, villa or clifftop terrace is far and away the most common choice, with the legal marriage done at home beforehand. There is no liturgy, no repertoire restriction and no language barrier, so the music is yours. A Church of England service is available through the Anglican chaplaincies in Athens and on Corfu. A Greek Orthodox wedding is the route for couples where one partner is Greek or Orthodox, and some couples have an Orthodox blessing for the family alongside a ceremony of their own.

Only the last of those has a fixed sung tradition of its own, and we cover what that means below. For everything else, you are choosing the shape of your own day.

Across an island weekend

A Greek island wedding is a three- or four-day event by necessity: guests fly in, there is nowhere else for them to be, and the celebrations spread across a welcome dinner, the wedding day and a long lunch afterwards. Everyone is in the same handful of hotels in the same town.

That concentration is an opportunity. The ceremony itself may use twenty minutes of a consort that has flown from London; the rest of the weekend has room for a good deal more. Singing at the welcome dinner on a terrace, or indoors somewhere with stone around it, gives your guests the version of the group that the clifftop ceremony acoustically cannot.

Worth planning deliberately in Greece: the best-sounding moment of the weekend is often not the ceremony. Ask us where on the island the singing will land best and we will tell you. And size the two differently: the clifftop ceremony is quiet, the taverna dinner is not, and voices have to clear the noise of however many people are talking through it.

If you are having an Orthodox service

This is the most important thing on the page, and it is better said plainly than discovered late. A Greek Orthodox wedding is not structured like a Western one. It has no congregational hymns, no sung ordinary in the Latin sense, and no natural gaps for a visiting choir. The service is chanted by a cantor or a small Byzantine ensemble in a tradition with its own repertoire, its own scale system and its own performers, and the crowning and the procession around the table are sung as part of that tradition rather than accompanied by outside music.

The rite is therefore complete without us, and we leave it to itself. What the consort does is sing everywhere else in the day, and at a Greek wedding that is a great deal: as your guests gather and are seated beforehand, at the drinks that follow, through the wedding breakfast, and at a welcome dinner the evening before. Couples who have had both tell us the contrast works in their favour. The chanting belongs to the rite, and the consort belongs to the celebration around it.

Many couples in this position have both — an Orthodox service for the family and a ceremony of their own, humanist or celebrant-led, at the venue — and we sing at the second from beginning to end.

What we do at a Greek destination wedding

For a symbolic or civil ceremony, we would usually suggest three or four pieces rather than a long programme. Something as the guests are seated and the bride arrives; something in the still moment before or after the vows; something as you leave. A consort singing unaccompanied on a terrace above the caldera is a striking thing, and it works better as a few deliberate moments than as continuous background.

A second set during the drinks that follow is worth considering. The singers have already flown out, the ceremony itself uses perhaps twenty minutes of them, and an hour of part-songs and arrangements during the aperitif is the least expensive way to get more from the booking.

Terraces, caldera edges and the wind

Greece is acoustically the hardest place we sing. Almost every ceremony is outdoors, in the late afternoon, on a hard terrace with the sea below and open sky above, and open air returns nothing. On top of that, the islands are windy in a way photographs never convey. The meltemi in the Cyclades can take a quiet piece away from the guests.

What follows is practical. Twelve voices rather than eight for an outdoor island ceremony; the singers positioned upwind of the guests rather than beside them; and a programme weighted towards pieces with weight and momentum rather than the most delicate thing in the repertoire. Where a venue has a chapel or a vaulted room, it is worth considering for the ceremony itself even if the terrace is the better photograph.

Getting a consort to the Greek islands

Direct summer flights from London to Santorini, Mykonos, Crete, Rhodes and Zakynthos are frequent, though island connections are more fragile than mainland ones and a missed link is harder to recover from with a group of twelve. We build in the margin rather than cutting it fine, which usually means arriving two days before rather than one for the smaller islands.

Accommodation on Santorini and Mykonos in high season is the real constraint, and it is expensive for a group of this size. This belongs in the conversation early, because it is a material part of the quote rather than a rounding error. We travel as British musicians into the Schengen area and handle the associated paperwork ourselves.

Where in Greece

Santorini

Caldera-edge terraces, late afternoon light, and the most photographed ceremony setting in Europe. Also small venues, long stair approaches, high wind and no acoustic whatsoever. Twelve voices, placed close and upwind. Accommodation in season is the largest single variable in the cost.

Mykonos

Similar conditions to Santorini with more wind and a later schedule. Ceremonies here often run towards sunset, which is beautiful and means the singers are working at the end of a hot day; water and shade beforehand are not a courtesy but a requirement for a group that has to sing.

Crete

Larger, greener and easier logistically than the Cyclades, with more venues that have an indoor option and better flight resilience. If you are choosing between islands and want the music to be at its best, Crete gives you more to work with.

Rhodes

The medieval old town has stone buildings and courtyards that behave acoustically, which is rare in Greece and worth seeking out. Resort ceremonies on the coast are the more common format and are the standard outdoor case.

Zakynthos

Resort, hotel and villa weddings on a green and unexpectedly dramatic island, with direct summer flights from London. Ceremonies are outdoors and the standard island conditions apply. Zakynthos is a good candidate for singing across the whole day rather than the ceremony alone: the venues tend to keep guests in one place from the vows through to dinner, so a consort that has flown out can sing at the ceremony, again over drinks, and once more before the meal.

Questions about singing in Greece

Where do you sing at a Greek wedding?

Everywhere except inside the Orthodox rite itself, which is chanted by a cantor in its own tradition and is complete as it stands. Around it there is a great deal: as your guests gather and are seated, at the drinks afterwards, through the wedding breakfast, and at a welcome dinner the evening before. And if you are having a symbolic ceremony as well, as most British couples in Greece are, we sing at that from start to finish.

What if our ceremony is symbolic rather than religious?

Then the music is open, and most British couples marrying in Greece are in exactly this position. With no liturgy to work around, we would suggest three or four deliberate moments rather than a continuous programme, and repertoire chosen purely because you like it.

Will the wind be a problem on a clifftop?

It can be, and it is the thing couples underestimate most about the Cyclades. We plan around it: more voices than the same ceremony would need in a church, the consort positioned upwind of you, and a programme that favours pieces with body over the most delicate ones. Tell us where the ceremony will be and we will tell you what we would do.

How much of the cost is accommodation?

On Santorini and Mykonos in July and August, more than most couples expect. Enough that it is worth discussing before you settle the date. Rooms for twelve to twenty-four people on those islands in high season are a material part of the quote. Crete and Rhodes cost less on that front.

Travel and permit information on this page last checked 29 August 2026. Requirements change and vary by venue, diocese and celebrant; confirm the current position with us before you fix a date. Other country guides.

Enquire

Tell us where in Greece you are marrying and when. If the date is free, Luca Wetherall will come back with what the music could be and what the whole engagement would cost, travel included.

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