Taormina publishes two tariff sheets for civil ceremonies, one for Italian couples and one for everyone else, and the foreign figure has been sitting somewhere near 1,600 euros since the town council doubled its non-resident rates. Under two hours down the same coast, about 120 kilometers, the Comune di Siracusa will marry you in the Salone Paolo Borsellino inside Palazzo Vermexio, on Piazza Duomo in Ortigia, from 150 euros paid to the municipal treasury. Same island, same documents, same sea. One line item, ten times apart.
That gap is most of what couples get wrong about eloping in Sicily. The largest number on the page is usually the predictable one. It is the small ones that arrive late: the comune room, the cable car ticket, the guide who comes with the high ground on Etna, the hydrofoil that only runs twice a day in April.
There are eight of us, four photographers and four filmmakers, and we plan Sicily in hours and kilometers rather than in adjectives. What follows is the ledger. What our fee covers, what the island bills you for directly, and how a 2027 date actually gets built.
The two figures, and the euros around them
We photograph, film and plan Sicilian elopements as one team, anywhere on the island. One full day with a dedicated photographer or filmmaker starts at $4,900. A photographer and filmmaker working together starts at $7,900. Team travel is included. Sicily then adds its own euros: comune fees, park tickets, cable cars, hydrofoils.
Fifteen hours of June light, and how we spend them
On 21 June 2027 the sun clears the Ionian at Taormina at 5:36 and does not set until 20:24. Civil light opens the day around 5:05 and holds until roughly 20:55. That is close to sixteen hours in which a camera is useful, and it is the single fact that decides what a June elopement here costs you in energy.
| Date in 2027 | Sunrise | Sunset | Sun above the horizon |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 May | 05:46 | 20:05 | 14 hr 19 min |
| 21 June | 05:36 | 20:24 | 14 hr 48 min |
| 15 September | 06:39 | 19:08 | 12 hr 29 min |
| 10 October | 07:01 | 18:30 | 11 hr 29 min |
Times are for Taormina. The west of the island, Erice and Trapani and the salt pans, runs about ten minutes later at both ends of the day.
A June day based on the east coast usually goes like this. Coffee in the room at 4:15 and dressing by lamplight, because the drive matters more than the extra half hour of sleep. Etna has two road heads, Rifugio Sapienza above Nicolosi on the south side and Piano Provenzana above Linguaglossa on the north, and from Taormina the north side is the shorter run. We want you standing on black ground before 5:05, when the ash goes from grey to violet and Etna’s east flank starts to take the sun while the coast below is still asleep.
First light on lava is short. Twenty minutes of raking sun, then the shadows shorten and the whole field flattens into grey. We shoot that window hard, then stop. By 7:30 you are back in the car with the heater on, and by 8:15 you are eating in Linguaglossa or Zafferana with volcanic dust on your shoes.
Ceremonies sit mid-morning, because that is when the municipal rooms are open and the Baroque towns are still cool. In Ortigia the light does something specific: at 9:30 the limestone of Piazza Duomo is a soft bowl of reflected white, and the side alleys off Via Roma are still holding blue shade. By noon that same square is a glare with nowhere to stand. This is why we do not plan portraits in the middle of a Sicilian day in summer, and why the schedule has a hole in it from roughly 12:00 to 16:30. You sleep, swim, eat too much bread. Nobody looks like themselves at 34 degrees Celsius with the sun straight overhead.
The day restarts around 17:00 and does not stop for four hours. That is the stretch where Sicily earns its reputation. Sea cliffs at Taormina with the water going metallic, or the white marl at Scala dei Turchi seen from the beach below rather than from up on the cliff, or the Ortigia seafront below Castello Maniace with fishing boats coming in. Sunset at 20:24, then thirty minutes of blue hour that most couples do not expect to be the best light of the whole day. Dinner at 21:00, which in Sicily is early.
There is an honest argument for October instead. Eleven and a half hours of sun means first light and last light on the same day without a sixteen-hour build, the sea is still warm enough to swim in, and Taormina’s Corso Umberto belongs to the people who live there again. The Teatro Antico is the most photographed structure in Sicily and by mid-morning in July it is a queue with a view, so we build the day around the hours nobody else wants and leave the famous terrace for a coffee afterwards.
If you already have a week in mind for 2027, tell us the dates and the region and we will send back the light times and the shape we would build. Check Your Date.
What a filmmaker changes on lava and in a Baroque courtyard
The reason we send a photographer and a filmmaker who work in the same team, rather than two people who introduce themselves in a hotel lobby at 4am, is not philosophical. It is that Sicily gives you very short windows and very awkward acoustics, and the negotiation between two cameras has to already be settled.
On Etna, above 1,800 meters, there is almost always wind. Wind decides three things at once: whether the drone goes up, whether the vows are recordable, and whether a moving shot is possible on ground made of loose lapilli. So we scout the level shelves near the road head in advance, we put the vows in the lee of a lava wall rather than on the open shelf, and the filmmaker knows before sunrise which direction they will be walking. The photographer is not standing around waiting for a slider to reset while the twenty good minutes tick away.
In Ortigia the problem inverts. There is no wind in the alleys, but stone bounces everything. A courtyard off Via Maestranza at 7:30 has church bells, scooters and the delivery vans that supply a pedestrian center before the day starts. Audio for the vows is part of the Expedition where conditions allow, so we place that moment early and inside a courtyard with its own walls, and we know which of the two of us is holding the wide frame while the other moves in for the hands.
Aerials run on a registration and a zone check, not on hope. Italy sits under the European rules that ENAC administers nationally, camera drones need the operator registered on the D-Flight portal, and the flight ceiling in the open category is 120 meters with the aircraft in sight at all times. We check the specific coordinates on the zone map before we promise you an aerial. Where the map says no, the film gets its wide language from a boat off the Isola Bella side, or from the road above Castelmola looking down the coast, and you never see the difference in the edit.
How that actually looks matters more than how it reads. Sicily photographs unlike anywhere else in Italy because the ground is black and the towns are bone white, and the way we expose for that contrast is visible in the galleries and films we have published. Look at the volcanic frames next to the limestone ones. That is the same island on the same morning.
Inside our fee, and what Sicily invoices separately
What the fee covers
- Destination and location design for your dates, not a template.
- A custom timeline built around real light times and real driving distances on Sicilian roads.
- Permit research and logistics guidance, including which comune and which room.
- Weather alternatives and backup planning, held ready rather than improvised.
- Drone footage where it is legal, safe and appropriate.
- Professional audio for vows and meaningful moments on the Expedition, where conditions allow.
- Team travel worldwide: flights, accommodation and ordinary travel for the assigned team, with no long-haul surcharge for Sicily.
- Highlights delivered in 5 days. The full gallery or film in 3 weeks.
Your guest count does not change the fee. Two of you or twenty, the number is the number. Guests change access, permits, transport and the timeline, which is a planning conversation and not a price one.
Paid in euros, on the island
| Third-party cost | Where it shows up | What it depends on |
|---|---|---|
| Comune ceremony fee | From 150 euros for a municipal room in Siracusa; Taormina’s non-resident tariff has been running near 1,600 euros | Which town, which room, which day of the week |
| Consular documents | Atto Notorio at an Italian consulate in the United States, then the sworn declaration in front of a US consular officer in Italy | Each document carries its own fee |
| Etna access | Cable car from Piazzale Funivia near Rifugio Sapienza, around 1,900 meters, up to about 2,500 meters, plus 4×4 transport and an authorized guide for the high ground | How high you want to stand |
| Archaeological parks | Entry tickets at the Valle dei Templi, Segesta, Selinunte, the Neapolis park in Siracusa | Professional filming is arranged with the park in advance |
| Hydrofoils and boats | Liberty Lines sailings from Milazzo to Lipari, Salina, Panarea and Stromboli, or a private boat off Taormina | Per person, and thinner sailing schedules outside summer |
| A driver | Taormina’s historic center is pedestrian and the parking is on the edge of town | How many locations the day has |
| Your own vendors | Accommodation, celebrant for a symbolic ceremony, flowers, hair and makeup, dinner | Entirely your choice, and we will suggest people we rate |
| IVA | Italian invoices carry value added tax at the standard 22 per cent | Whether a Sicilian quote you receive is gross or net |
Two to seven days across one or several destinations is the Odyssey, which we quote as a custom proposal because a Palermo-to-Aeolians week and a three-day Val di Noto week are not the same job. Everything on our side of the ledger, including the coverage that starts the two figures above, is set out on the pricing page.
The paperwork worry, and what it actually involves
The most common thing American couples write to us about Sicily is not money. It is the fear that an Italian legal marriage means arriving ten days early, sitting in offices, and losing half the trip to a bureaucracy conducted in a language they do not speak.
Here is the shape of it. Before you leave the United States you request an Atto Notorio from the Italian consulate for your area, which is a form, three proposed dates and an appointment with the notarial office. In Italy you sign a sworn declaration in front of a US consular officer stating there is no impediment to the marriage. Then the comune takes over. Foreign citizens who are not resident in the municipality are generally released from the eight days of marriage publications that Italian residents must post, and Siracusa’s own civil status office states plainly that in that case the registrar draws up a record from your documents and the marriage is immediately effective.
So the answer to the objection is a timeline, not reassurance. We research the requirements for your specific comune, tell you which document has to be signed where and in what order, and build the ceremony into an hour of the day that suits the light rather than an hour that suits an office. If the sequence still feels like too much of your holiday, the other route is a symbolic ceremony in Sicily with the legal side handled at home, which also frees you from the list of rooms a comune is willing to marry you in. Both routes are normal, and the fundamentals are laid out in our guide to planning an elopement.
Six steps from your first message to a planned date
- Send the inquiry form with your dates, the part of Sicily you are drawn to, and whether you want photography, film or both.
- We reply within 24 hours with an initial brochure.
- We send a tailored proposal: which of the eight of us is assigned, which coverage fits, and the shape the day would take.
- You sign the contract and pay a 30 per cent retainer. The rest of the schedule is written into the proposal.
- Planning begins in earnest. Locations, the light-based timeline, permit research, transport, and the weather alternative for every outdoor hour.
- After the day, highlights reach you in 5 days and the full gallery or film in 3 weeks.
Who Sicily fits, and the month we might move you to
This island rewards couples who are genuinely willing to be up at four in the morning, twice if the week allows it. It rewards people who are steady on uneven ground, because lava is rubble, Ortigia is worn basalt, and the good coastal frames are usually a few meters below a road. And it rewards couples who can let a plan move on the morning, since a hydrofoil timetable and a wind direction both have opinions.
If a 4am start sounds like the opposite of a celebration, say so in your first message. There is a gentler version of a Sicilian day that begins at eight, uses the shoulder months when sunrise is closer to seven, and puts the effort into the long golden evening instead. If you want the volcano but not the altitude, the lava flows on the lower slopes and the vineyards on Etna’s northern side give you black earth without the guided summit chain. If August is the only month you can travel, we will tell you honestly that we would rather build you an early October day, and why, and then we will build whichever one you choose properly. Our destination guides are the place to start comparing regions.
Common questions
Do we have to arrive in Sicily days early for the paperwork?
Usually not. Foreign citizens who are not resident in the municipality are generally exempt from the eight days of marriage publications required of Italian residents, and the registrar can record the marriage from your documents. We confirm the sequence for your specific comune before you book flights.
How much does a Sicilian town hall actually charge?
It varies more than anything else on the island. Siracusa lists municipal rooms from 150 euros paid to the town treasury, and one room in its civil status office at no charge, while Taormina applies a separate non-resident tariff that has been running near 1,600 euros. The room you choose sets the figure.
Can we have a symbolic ceremony and do the legal part at home?
Yes, and plenty of couples do. It removes the comune from the equation entirely, which means the ceremony can happen on a lava field at 5:30 in the morning or on a boat off Ortigia rather than in an approved municipal room. You would hire a celebrant separately.
Is October too late in the year for Sicily?
It is one of the best months. On 10 October the sun is up from 7:01 to 18:30, so first light and last light fit into one civilized day, the sea is still swimmable, and the Baroque towns have handed themselves back to the people who live in them.
Can you fly a drone over Etna and Ortigia?
Where the zone map allows it. Camera drones are registered with the operator on Italy’s D-Flight portal, the open-category ceiling is 120 meters, and the aircraft stays in sight. We check the exact coordinates during planning and, where aerials are not permitted, we plan the wide shots from a boat or a high road instead.
Does the price change if we bring our parents and a few friends?
No. The fee is the same for two people or twenty. Guests change access, permits, transport and how the timeline is sequenced, so tell us the number early, but they do not change what you pay us.
Are your flights and hotels added to our invoice?
No. Team travel is included worldwide, Sicily included, with no European or long-haul distinction. Flights, accommodation and ordinary travel for the assigned team sit on our side of the ledger, so a Palermo week and a Taormina week cost you the same in that respect.
How soon do we see the photographs and the film?
Highlights arrive within 5 days, which is usually while you are still in Italy. The full gallery or the finished film follows within 3 weeks. Details of what you receive and what the coverage includes are set out on the pricing page.
Building a 2027 date in Sicily
We are currently taking Sicily elopement bookings for 2027 through 2029, and Sicily in 2028 is still an open map. From the first reply onward, the whole process stays in writing, in your own time, so you can plan a 5:36 sunrise on Etna from a kitchen table eight time zones away without ever having to be awake at the same moment we are. Send us the dates you are holding and the version of the island you keep coming back to, and we will reply with the light times, the honest costs and the shape of the day. Tell Us Your Story.