Planning a wedding in Bilbao
Spain only marries a couple civilly if one of them lives in the country or holds Spanish nationality, so at nearly every venue here the ceremony is symbolic and the legal signing has already happened at home. Rooms across the city disappear during Aste Nagusia, the nine-day fiesta that begins on the first Saturday after 15 August — 22 to 30 August in 2026 — which makes a late-August date a room-block problem before it is a venue problem. And because the sea is 16 km downstream, a coastal wedding means Getxo or Areeta rather than Bilbao proper: the metro runs there directly, but getting 150 guests back into town at the end of the night is a line item, not an afterthought.
- When to marry — June to mid-September is the workable window, with July the driest month and summer highs around 25°C, though Bilbao has no true dry season and takes roughly 1,150 mm of rain a year, so covered space matters in every month.
- What it costs — Banquet menus quoted around Bizkaia generally open between roughly €100 and €130 a head — the Guggenheim's Bistró from about €100, Palacio San Joseren from €120, the Carlton from around €130 — but those are starting prices for the food alone, before drinks, marquee hire, flowers and the late-night recena a Basque wedding is expected to serve.
Once the venue is settled, the next thing most couples deal with is telling everyone. A digital wedding invitation carries the address, a map, your timings and a live RSVP on one link — which matters more than usual when guests are travelling to Bilbao and need directions, and plenty of notice.
