Hi! We are Marina and Matija, a duo of Croatia wedding photographer & videographer. Nice to meet you 🙂
– Proizd islet, just off the island of Korčula
We want to talk a bit about weddings in Croatia and hopefully provide some useful information and inspiration. If you’re reading this, you may have picked your perfect wedding location, or you may still be undecided. It’s surely a difficult decision. Croatia may be small, but it’s incredibly diverse. We like to say that it’s a world shrunk down to the size of a country.
– session on a beach near Dubrovnik
And this isn’t far from the truth. We may not have jungles and deserts (okay, we have a tiny desert in Slavonija), but we do have snowy mountains, barren hills, temperate forests, pine woods, rivers and lakes, deltas and estuaries — and of course, the Adriatic sea and a 1000 islands!
Our national parks cover 10% of country’s area and each of our islands is a world unto its own. To say that Croatia is beautiful would be an understatement (and this is us trying to be humble!).
– island of Lokrum
If you’re still after your ideal venue, check out our article about Croatian wedding venues and locations. It’s brimming with photos that will catch your eye and inspire you to find something unique and worth all the travel!
Croatia wedding photographers travel. And boy do we travel a lot! Last year we didn’t shoot twice in the same town! (with one exception — Dubrovnik, and you’ll soon see why.)
That’s why we’ve established bases in three different parts of Croatia, so we’re able to quickly get where we need to, stay as long as necessary and offer very low T&A costs to our couples.
– Vela Stupa, between Pelješac peninsula and Korčula island
Travel in the wedding season is demanding, but also very rewarding. It’s so easy to get inspired when each week takes you to a new beautiful location just waiting to be explored. And yes, we’ve started to run out of locations to explore as Croatia wedding photographer, but each time we return to a place we’ve visited we still find new hidden alleys, terraces and vistas we’ve missed before.
Another thing that needs to be said about being a Croatia wedding photographer — we don’t have easy jobs! Adapting to work in all these kinds of environments is challenging but also incredibly fulfilling.
Take a look at our wardrobe and you’ll find fine wedding dress clothes ranging for temperatures from -15C (5F) to +40C (105F)! And our cameras are more expensive than our car, just so they can deal with everything we throw at them — from salt water to melting snow.
– Croatia wedding photographer on island of Lopud, Elafiti islands
Both Marina and Matija were born in different parts of Croatia and moved together to the north, in capital of Zagreb, so we have thoroughly experienced very diverse parts of Croatia. As we said, Croatia may be small, but due to its geography, people in different areas, towns and islands were historically isolated.
This means their culture is very different — even the dialects they speak vary incredibly from place to place. There are not so few parts of Croatia where even we, native born Croats who have criss-crossed the country with our travels, would have hard time understanding a single word from native locals.
It’s pretty mind-boggling when you think about it, in a country with total population half that of London!
– island of Hvar
Finally, let’s end this talk of Croatian wedding photographers with a few of our favorite towns to get married.
Dubrovnik holds a special place in our hearts. Matija was born here, but even if he wasn’t, Dubrovnik offers historical backdrop to your wedding par excellance.
Lokrum, an island very near Dubrovnik is another story — an uninhabited natural reserve of untouched nature with an amazing ceremony venue in the form of abandoned Dominican monastery.
Venturing up north, islands of Korčula, Hvar and Vis are not to be missed. Each has its own vibe and charm, but they all share hospitable people and amazing local food and wine.
– streets of Vis island
Vis is isolated in mid-Adriatic and less frequented by visitors, which gives it authenticity you feel the moment you step off the ferry. It’s able to accommodate a pretty big wedding party on it’s iconic Ft. George.
Korčula is close to mainland and very easily accessible, but still very much undiscovered. It’s perfect for small weddings with a lot of local, family run establishments. It also has a bunch of small islands around it with options to privatise a whole island for the day!
Hvar is very popular with younger crowds and mixes local tradition with a thriving club scene. Very interesting combination if you want to enjoy local history during the day, and party hard at night.
– inside a venue in Dubrovnik Old Town
Istria is a big peninsula at the north of Adriatic with a million agro-tourism establishments. If you have the budget for it, you can eat locally grown food and drink local wine (and when we say local, we literally mean ‘grown on that farm’!) while enjoying the peaceful inland Istria hills. It also has seaside gems like Rovinj and Pula if you want to enjoy a sea-view (albeit with proportionally more visitors around you).
Gorski Kotar is a huge mountainous forest area in mid-Croatia with venues perfect for a woods getaway, like Maple Valley for more a sophisticated experience or just random hidden forest clearings with small wooden huts and food prepared over camp fire.
– sailing towards island of Koločep, near Dubrovnik
The list wouldn’t be complete without mentioning the capital of Zagreb, where you can find some truly unique boho-chic (Kuglana, La Grma, Šumica), industrial (like Katran and Lauba) and rooftop wedding venues (like Lateral and Zagreb 360°) coupled with everything a city the size of Zagreb can offer, like high-end flowers, food and music.
We could go on, but you get the picture. Do get in touch if you’d like more info about Croatia or our wedding coverage!
– golden fields and oak tress south of Dubrovnik
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