Casa da PadernaSintra · Portugal
Intimate weddings in Sintra, Portugal
The garden holds thirty-five. The house sleeps fourteen. The whole property is yours, forty minutes from Lisbon, with the Arraçário Valley falling away green beneath all of it.
Only the people who matter
Europe without the mega-wedding
Casa da Paderna is an intimate wedding venue in Sintra Old Town, Portugal: a 19th-century family house whose garden takes up to thirty-five guests and whose six bedrooms sleep fourteen. There is no ballroom, no second wedding running in the next field and no hundred-cover minimum. You take the whole property — house, gardens, terraces and studio — and it is yours for as long as you are here.
Couples who fly in to marry — from the United States, from London, from anywhere that is not Sintra — usually want the romance without the production. Sintra is a UNESCO World Heritage landscape of palaces, mist and green hills, and Lisbon Airport is about forty minutes away by car when the road is kind. Guests land, and a driver we arrange — dedicated vans, straight from the airport to the house — brings them to the door. You get the Europe you pictured; they get a trip worth the flight rather than a weekend lost to logistics.
- Garden
- Up to 35
- Sleeping here
- 14 guests
- The property
- Yours alone
- Lisbon Airport
- ~40 min
- Old Town
- 10 min walk
- Hosting since
- 1996
The garden
What a wedding day here looks like
-
Morning
You wake up in the house. Breakfast goes out onto the terrace and nobody has to drive anywhere.
-
Ceremony
Outside in the garden, with the terraced hillside behind you instead of a backdrop.
-
The reception
Lunch or dinner in the garden, looking over the valley — catered, by a catering service or a dedicated chef.
-
Evening
Music and dancing in the garden as the evening comes down over the valley.
The garden is where the day happens: long tables, a marquee when you want shade or evening cover, and the hillside dropping into seventy shades of green.
Thirty-five, at the most
Small on purpose, not by accident
Thirty-five people at most, the two of you included. That is a micro-wedding by any planner's definition, and it is deliberate. Thirty-five is the number at which you will have actually spoken to every person who came.
What is here: the garden and the marquee, six bedrooms over three floors, a studio standing on its own, free parking along the lane, gigabit wifi, and a family who has kept the house since 1996 and hands you the keys in person.
What we arrange: we can arrange your catering — a catering service or a dedicated chef — and, if you ask, the rest of the day: flowers, photography, a celebrant, a planner. Tell us what you need.
Every wedding is quoted as a package. Write with your dates and what you have in mind, and we will send you a price.
For couples travelling from abroad
Why couples fly in to marry in Portugal
Lisbon is one of the easiest arrivals in Europe. It is roughly six to seven hours nonstop from New York, Newark or Boston; about two and a half from London or Dublin; under three from most of Western Europe. And Sintra is not a second flight — it is forty minutes by road, and we can arrange a driver with dedicated vans to bring you and your guests straight from the airport to the house. Americans, Britons and Canadians need no visa for a short stay. Everyone at the house speaks English. We have been hosting since 1996, and the guest books are in a good many languages.
Most couples who marry here are not staging a five-hundred-person resort weekend. They want what planners call a micro-wedding, an elopement, a small destination wedding: the people who matter, one beautiful place, and a few days either side so the trip is a holiday as well as a ceremony. That is the size this property was built for. American couples in particular tend to find us that way — wanting the romantic Europe they had pictured, at the scale of a family dinner.
On the legal side, a civil marriage in Portugal has its own paperwork and its own timetable. Most couples either handle it with a Portuguese registrar through a local planner, or marry legally at home before they fly and hold a symbolic or religious ceremony in the garden. We are happy to tell you what other couples have arranged — write early and ask.
Leave a few days either side. Sintra is the place people mean when they say fairytale: Quinta da Regaleira is a short walk from Palace Square, Pena Palace and the Moorish Castle sit on the ridge above the town, the Atlantic is twenty minutes west at Cabo da Roca and Praia da Adraga, and Lisbon is forty minutes east. Getting here has the walk up from Palace Square and everything else on the doorstep.
Thirty years of guest books
What people write on the way out
We have kept every guest book since 1996 — a shelf of them, handwritten. These three are from couples who married here this year.
Our stay here was truly magical! We hosted our wedding of 30 guests in their beautiful gardens and 13 of us stayed at the property. It is such a charming and gorgeous historical home with INCREDIBLE views. It's a perfect space for events with an excellent set up. The hosts were very responsive, welcoming, and friendly. They were incredibly helpful with all my questions as I was planning a destination wedding to a country I'd never been to before. Thank you so much Joanna and Claudia for sharing your home and making our wedding so much more magical than we could have ever imagined!!Jaime — Denver, Colorado, USAMay 2026
We had the most incredible stay and wedding here. Cláudia met us and gave us a tour at check-in and couldn't have been nicer and more communicative throughout our stay. The estate is perfect for hosting a large group and having an event. The area is picturesque, quiet, and comfortable. Highly recommended.Matt — Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USAJuly 2026
We rented the place to celebrate our daughter's wedding, and it gave the perfect setting for a lovely occasion. A beautiful garden with every possibility for laying fine tables in the tent, so you are sheltered from sun and rain alike. The host was helpful and easy to talk to. If you are a group wanting to gather for a celebration — a wedding or a big birthday — I can recommend Casa da Paderna.Åse — Førde, NorwayJune 2026 · translated from the Norwegian
Before you write
Questions couples ask
How many guests can we have?
Thirty-five people at most, the two of you included. Small by design — not a hundred-guest affair. If you are looking for a micro-wedding in Portugal, this is that scale.
Who stays overnight?
Fourteen guests across six rooms, plus three babies or small children. The whole house is yours: three floors, a studio in the garden, every room facing the valley.
Is this a wedding venue or a holiday house?
Both. Most of the year it is a family house for reunions and holidays. For celebrations it is an intimate wedding venue in Sintra Old Town — same roof, same garden.
How far is it from Lisbon Airport?
Roughly forty minutes by car when traffic is kind — and we can arrange a driver with dedicated vans to bring you and your guests straight from the airport to the house. Getting here has the detail.
Can we hold a legal wedding here?
The garden is a wonderful place for a ceremony. Legal civil marriage in Portugal has its own rules and paperwork, so many couples hold a symbolic or religious blessing here and complete the civil formalities separately, at home or in Lisbon. We can share what other couples have arranged — write to us early.
What does a wedding here cost?
Every wedding is quoted as a package built around your stay. Email us with your dates and what you have in mind, and we will send you a price.
Do you provide catering, flowers and planning?
Yes. Every wedding here is catered — a catering service or a dedicated chef — and flowers, photography, a celebrant or a planner can all be arranged. Tell us what you need and we will take care of it.
What happens if it rains?
The marquee. Sintra sits under its own weather — that is why the hills are this green — so a cover over the long table is worth having whatever the forecast says. Failing that, there are three floors of house.
When is the best time of year to marry in Sintra?
May and June, or September into early October: long days, warm evenings and the garden at its best. July and August are bright and busy. Sintra runs cooler, mistier and greener than Lisbon at any time of year, which is either the whole charm or something to plan around.
Is there a minimum number of guests?
No. The house is let whole, so a wedding for six is as welcome as one for thirty-five, and an elopement — the two of you, a pair of witnesses, the garden to yourselves — is as welcome as either. Tell us what you have in mind.
Where do the guests who aren't staying here sleep?
Sintra Old Town has hotels and guesthouses within walking distance of the house, and Lisbon is forty minutes away with everything else. Nobody is ever far, and there is no shuttle to schedule.
We are marrying elsewhere in Sintra — can we book the house for our guests?
Yes. Couples marrying at Monserrate, Penha Longa or another venue nearby often take the house as the base for the wedding party: fourteen under one roof, ten minutes below the Old Town, with a driver to and from the ceremony arranged if you want one. It books like any other stay.
When should we book?
As early as you can, especially for spring and early autumn — the best months go first, and a wedding wants time to plan around it.
Enquiries
Tell us the date and the headcount
Write to us and tell us what you have in mind, and we will send you a price. We answer our own email — no form, no enquiry portal, no sales team.
Stay seven nights and the eighth is on us — worth knowing when people have flown a long way to be here.
