Athens Riviera Wedding Photographer

I am John Xenos, a wedding photographer based in Athens. The Athens Riviera — the coast that runs south from the city to Cape Sounion — is where most of the destination weddings I photograph in Athens happen.

Sea, cliffs, gardens and open sky, often a few minutes from each other. A Riviera wedding can move from a chapel above the water to a lawn under a cliff to a dance floor at night in a single evening. The photographs should carry all of it — without the day stopping for the camera.

The Athens Riviera, from Glyfada to Sounion

The Riviera is the stretch of coast south of Athens: Glyfada, Vouliagmeni, Varkiza, Lagonissi, Anavyssos, Sounion. Cape Sounion, at the far end, is about an hour’s drive from the centre of Athens.

For photographs, the Riviera has one big advantage. Further south the coast turns west, so at Lagonissi, Anavyssos and Sounion the last light falls on the ceremony instead of behind it.

Riviera weddings I have photographed

Lake Vouliagmeni

A thermal lake set inside a rock cliff at Vouliagmeni. At the wedding I photographed here, the ceremony was on the lakeside lawn with a mirror aisle lined with white flowers; then cocktails in the late sun, dinner beneath the floodlit cliff and the first dance at night under the lit rock. It ended up being one of my favourite weddings of the year. See the Lake Vouliagmeni wedding →

More on the place, the light and the timeline: Getting married at Lake Vouliagmeni.

Ktima 48, Anavyssos

An estate above the sea on the quieter end of the Riviera, with its own small chapel among tall palms. At the wedding I photographed here, the Greek Orthodox ceremony was at the chapel, with rows of white chairs on the lawn above the rocky coast, and the reception was under a clear marquee with the sea beyond. The coast turns west here, so the last light lands on the ceremony instead of behind it. See the Ktima 48 wedding →

Pyrgos Melissourgou

In southern Attica, near Lagonissi: a historic estate with a crenellated stone tower, an old stone chapel and gardens. At the wedding I photographed here there was a first look in the garden, an Orthodox ceremony at the stone chapel, and dinner on the lawn under string lights. See the Pyrgos Melissourgou wedding →

Island Art & Taste, Varkiza

Open-air and right on the water at Varkiza. I have photographed weddings at Island Art & Taste, where the Riviera and the evening light come straight into the photographs. It is the smaller sister venue of Island — more intimate, cleaner architecture, photographs that read more editorial.

Cape Sounion

The southernmost point of Attica: the Temple of Poseidon on the cliff and the sea on three sides. Couples marry at venues nearby and keep the temple for portraits at sunset. Nothing else near the city gives you this horizon. I use the landscape naturally, rather than turning the day into a series of tourist photographs.

The light on the Riviera

On the Riviera the place matters less than the hour. From June to September the hour before sunset is an actual hour — warm without being orange, soft without being flat. Sunset is around 8:50 in June and around 7:30 in September.

So we build the timeline backwards from that hour: the ceremony in the hour before sunset, twenty minutes after it for the two of you, then dinner as the lights come on — the floodlit cliff at Vouliagmeni, string lights over a lawn. The evening deserves the same care as the sunset.

When to marry, month by month: The best time to get married in Greece.

How I photograph a Riviera wedding

I stay close without constantly directing you. I photograph what actually happens — the people, the place and the light — and give a little direction only when it helps: a portrait of the two of you in the right light, a few minutes away from the guests. After the wedding I select and edit every photograph myself.

The pre-wedding session

The pre-wedding session is part of how I photograph every wedding. I’ll always propose it, and nearly every couple says yes — because it gives us something the wedding day cannot: time. Time to walk, to talk, to get used to being photographed together.

Before a Riviera wedding we can photograph it along the coast, in the old streets of Athens, near the Acropolis — or somewhere completely different. By the wedding day the camera is no longer unfamiliar, and I am not a stranger you hired.

Quick answers

Do you photograph weddings on the Athens Riviera?

Yes. Athens is my base, and I photograph weddings along the whole Riviera — Vouliagmeni, Varkiza, Lagonissi, Anavyssos and Sounion — as well as in the city and on the estates of Attica.

Which Riviera venues have the best light?

The ones where the coast faces west: Lagonissi, Anavyssos and Sounion get the sun on the ceremony instead of behind it. Island at Varkiza is the classic for a sunset ceremony.

Do you photograph destination weddings?

Yes. Most of the couples I photograph are international, and the whole process runs in English — from the first message to the final gallery.

Do you have packages?

No fixed packages, no price list. Tell me about your wedding — date, venue, what you have in mind — and I send one proposal built around your day.

Can you photograph our wedding at a venue that isn’t listed here?

Yes. Send me your venue and your date, and I’ll tell you how I would approach it.

Real Riviera weddings

→ Lake Vouliagmeni wedding→ Ktima 48 wedding→ Pyrgos Melissourgou wedding

Getting married on the Athens Riviera?

Tell me about your wedding. Send me your date and venue. A message is enough.

— John Xenos