Journal · Planning
When to marry in Sicily: the light, month by month
For a film, the season is not only a question of weather. It decides when the sun sets, how long the golden hour lasts and how the whole day is timed. Here is how Sicilian light changes from April to October.
Why light comes first
Every wedding day has its fixed points: the ceremony, the dinner, the first dance. Light is the one you cannot move. The last stretch before sunset, the golden hour, is soft, warm and low, and it flatters everything: faces, stone, the sea. The hours around midday are the opposite: bright, hard and, in summer, very hot. A good timeline is built around the first and asks as little as possible of the second.
Sunset in Sicily, month by month
| Month | Sunset, Palermo | Golden hour begins, Palermo | Sunset, Taormina |
|---|---|---|---|
| April | 19:42 | 19:07 | 19:34 |
| May | 20:10 | 19:33 | 20:01 |
| June | 20:30 | 19:52 | 20:22 |
| July | 20:28 | 19:51 | 20:20 |
| August | 19:59 | 19:24 | 19:51 |
| September | 19:14 | 18:40 | 19:06 |
| October | 18:28 | 17:54 | 18:21 |
On the east coast, in Taormina and Syracuse, the sun sets seven to nine minutes earlier than in Palermo; in Trapani, in the far west, a few minutes later. Golden hour here means the sun between 6° above and 4° below the horizon.
Spring: April and May
Long, mild days and a landscape that is still green. Sunset moves from around 19:40 to after 20:00, so an afternoon ceremony leaves plenty of time for portraits before dinner.
Summer: June to August
The longest days of the year: in June the sun sets around 20:30 in Palermo. Ceremonies can begin late in the afternoon, once the heat has eased, and the golden hour falls naturally between the aperitivo and dinner. Midday light is harsh and the heat is real, so it is worth keeping the most important moments away from it.
Enrico & Claudia married at the Scopello Tower at the end of August, when sunset on the Trapani coast still comes close to 19:40.
Early autumn: September and October
The sea is still warm and the light grows lower and more golden through the afternoon. The days shorten quickly: sunset moves from around 19:15 in mid-September to about 18:30 in mid-October. On the last Sunday of October the clocks go back, and sunset jumps to around 17:15.
Three of our films come from this season: Lisa & Adam in the Syracuse countryside on 1 September, and Christian & Lynn and Heather & Mark in the third week of October.
A simple rule for your timeline
Work backwards from sunset. Keep the half hour or so before it free for portraits, and let the ceremony end comfortably before that. In October this usually means an early-afternoon ceremony; in June you can begin much later. If your venue faces east, the sea will hold the warm light while the sun sets behind you, which can be just as beautiful.