How much does a wedding at Cortal Gran cost?

Two hire prices and one calendar

The published figure for Cortal Gran is €3,000, and the venue's own note on that number is unusually precise about when it applies. It is the hire for weekdays and for some Saturdays across the season from April to November. The top of the range is €6,500, charged for Saturdays in June, July and September. Between those two points the castle does not publish a sliding scale, so if you want a Saturday in May or October the only way to learn the figure is to ask for the date.

What the hire buys is the whole estate to yourselves. The record lists full exclusivity, and the spaces it names are the walled courtyard, the arches hall, the great porch, the historic main arch and a private forest beyond the gardens. A sound system, a licensed bar and car parking are on the features list, as is the fact that the castle is child friendly. The building itself was raised by the Caramany family in the 15th century and restored by its present owner in 1999, and the orchards around it mean there is no neighbour to hear the music.

The food and the bar, by the head

Cortal Gran caters in-house from €105 per person, and it also lists recommended outside caterers, so there is a choice to make. Drinks are published separately at €21 per person, one of the lower per-head drinks figures among the Catalan venues that publish one. Neither number is inside the hire. Put the two together and a guest costs the castle roughly the same whether they come on a Tuesday in April or a Saturday in July; what changes with the date is only the hire.

Because the hire is small and the per-head figures are not, the shape of the bill is the reverse of the big Catalan estates. At a house that publishes a hire of €28,000 with three nights inside it, the venue fee dwarfs the food. Here the food and drink overtake the hire somewhere below 30 guests, and from then on the castle is in effect priced per plate.

Adding it up for 100, 200 and 300 guests

The rows below take the published €3,000 hire and add the in-house catering and the drinks at the venue's own per-head rates. They assume the off-peak hire; for a June, July or September Saturday swap in the €6,500 figure. Flowers, photography, music, transport and the beds in the village are all outside these numbers.

Read across the rows and the lesson is plain: the venue's share barely moves, the catering line does all the work. That makes Cortal Gran a venue where cutting the guest list saves real money, and where filling the castle to its 300 ceiling costs very little more in hire than a wedding for 100. The budget calculator lets you add suppliers and transport to a row like these at your own guest count.

Nobody sleeps at the castle

There is no accommodation at Cortal Gran, and the venue says so plainly rather than hiding it. The record states that hotels, rural houses and campsites sit less than 1km away, and the venue's own summary of who it suits is larger castle weddings with everyone sleeping in the village. That has two consequences for the budget. The first is that the hire carries no nights, which is why it can start at €3,000 when houses with beds in the price start several times higher. The second is that every guest's bed is a separate booking, made by them or by you, and for a list of 300 that is a block-booking exercise worth starting early.

If what you want is a house where the party and the beds are one figure, this is not it, and the guide to Spanish venues with accommodation lists the estates that work that way. If you would rather spend the hire on the castle and let guests choose their own bed and their own price in the village, the arithmetic here is hard to beat.

Three places for the vows

The record names three ceremony settings. The first is the iron greenhouse in the gardens, which the venue calls its iron structure temple: a glasshouse frame used for outdoor ceremonies with the orchards around it. The second is the courtyard, walled in medieval stone and the most enclosed of the three. The third is the private forest on the far side of the gardens, for vows among the trees. All three are on the estate, so the ceremony and the reception never need a car between them.

Cortal Gran is listed as licensed for marriage. In Spain that is less of a shortcut than it sounds: the licence attaches to the venue, and most couples who are not resident in Spain cannot hold the legally binding civil ceremony here. Nearly everyone who flies in holds a symbolic ceremony at the castle and completes the paperwork at home. Our guide on how to get married in Spain sets out which route applies to you.

Girona at 20km

The venue puts Girona Airport at 20km, which for a Costa Brava estate is close. Barcelona's airport is the bigger hub and the one most long-haul guests will land at, and from there the drive north on the motorway is straightforward. Sant Pere Pescador is a small town on the bay of Roses, so guests who stay the week have the beaches and the Empordà villages to fill the days before and after. Car parking is on the castle's features list, which matters for a wedding where every guest is driving in from a bed somewhere else.

Other Catalan venues that hire first and feed second

Cortal Gran is one of a handful of venues in the region whose published figure is a hire with the food added by the head. The four below price the same way, and a glance at the rows shows how much the per-head rate, not the hire, decides the final bill.

• Capellades · Barcelona

  Masia Font de la Reina

  up to 300 guests · sleeps 25 · 2-night minimum · from €3,000 · catering €122 a head

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• Tarragona · Barcelona

  Masia Colina

  up to 300 guests · sleeps 2 · 1-night minimum · from €3,400 · catering €145 a head

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• Enfesta · Barcelona

  Castle of Enfesta | Castell d’Enfesta

  up to 250 guests · sleeps 2 · from €4,500 · catering €119 a head

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• Pontós · Barcelona

  Mas Terrats

  up to 100 guests · sleeps 21 · 2-night minimum · from €5,200

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Masia Font de la Reina matches the €3,000 figure exactly but includes two nights for 25 guests inside it, with catering at €122 a head and the same 300 ceiling, so the hire there buys beds that Cortal Gran does not have. Masia Colina, outside Tarragona, is a €3,400 day hire for up to 300 with catering from €145, so a more expensive plate for a similar hire. Castell d'Enfesta is the other castle on the list, at €4,500 for up to 250 with catering at €119, and its price includes a night for the couple. Mas Terrats, also in the Empordà at Pontós, starts at €5,200 in low season for up to 100 guests and sleeps 21, with food quoted on enquiry.

The Barcelona wedding cost guide compares all of these alongside the estates priced with the nights in, and venues by budget sorts the whole Spanish collection into price bands. For a wedding at or above the 100 mark, the guide to venues for 100 guests is the shorter read.

Who Cortal Gran is for

Book Cortal Gran if you want a castle with history to it, a guest list that may run well past 200, and a bill that rises and falls with the number of plates rather than with the building. It is a strong fit for a couple with family in Catalonia or a list that is happy to sort its own beds, and for anyone whose date can move to a weekday or an off-peak Saturday to hold the hire at €3,000. It is a poorer fit for a long weekend with everyone under one roof, because there is no roof to put them under. Compare it with the rest of the venue collection, and when you are ready, an enquiry through us asks the venue for your date and nothing more.