I love this Blog!

I have just come across a blog that I love and wanted to share it with you all.  Although it is not a wedding blog it is Greek inspired and has an array of different posts that I found interesting and quite beautiful.  As you all will have gathered I am a bit of a feeder (to put it in the words of my friends and husband), so any blog that has awesome recipes is right up my alley.  This blog is one on them!

All images from seeminglygreek.blogspot.com

It is called seeminglygreek.blogspot.com and is full of informative posts as well as recipes for food, frappes, travel stories and beautiful photography.  It is definitely worth a look for inspiration for your Greek wedding.  Here is the link http://seeminglygreek.blogspot.com/  I really hope you enjoy it as much as I am!

NY

Visual Inspiration: Greek Mainland

So here is the last in my trilogy of inspiring location posts.  Obviously, as the title states these images are all of areas on the mainland.  The mainland is steeped in history with an array of historical sites of interest and gorgeous beaches.  

Mani

Image from en.wikepedia.com 

Messini

Image from wallpapers-free.co.uk

Methana

Image from mark twells @ flickr.com

Thessaloniki

Image from holidayrentalweb.com

When people think of a wedding in Greece they immediately think of the islands but the mainland is not to be overlooked.  There are some breath taking places on the mainland, not to mention, logistically it can be easier to access.

NY

Comment Response: Cake Thoughts

I am sorry this has taken four days to materialise and I hope the below ideas make it worth the wait!  On Friday Charlotteandglenn asked what our thoughts were on cake types to follow a meze styled dinner.  Now for me following that with a formal cake would not flow properly but there are so many different options out there nowadays to choose from, that you are not left without amazing options.  Here are a few of my choices:

The Cupcake Tower

Image from Manolobrides.com

As with all of my options it will be easy for your guests to grab one of these cakes and carry on mingling, not to mention very easy to eat.  Having the top tier as a normal sized cake of your choice will allow you to still be able to have the ceremonial cutting of the cake. 
If you are struggling to find a baker whose decorating skills are up to scratch the good thing about the cupcake tower is, you can always pack an array of decorations and set about designing them yourself (or delegate one of your bridesmaids to do the job!).  Don't forget there is also the option of decorating with real flowers.

The Ice Cream Cake

Images from caketodays.com & 123rf.com

Simple and yet striking. Again adapting the top layer to allow for the cutting of the cake but this time having individual wafer baskets filled with ice cream and fruit.  I personally love this but you will have to allow for the fact that the cake cannot be sitting out all night. As you can imagine it will not last very long in the warmth of the Greek evenings but would be a wonderful choice if you are looking to surprise your guests by bringing out the cake at the last minute.

The Dessert Tower

Image from sweetart.co.uk

Lastly, the dessert choice.  This was my personal choice for our wedding and worked perfectly.  I had a choice of 4 desserts (a mix of South African favorites and Greek) each, individually portioned in perspex pots.  On top was an ekmek kataifi for us to cut, although truth be told, we never got round to that part.  If you would like to see what our dessert tower looked like please click the following link http://littlewhiteagenda.blogspot.com/2010/06/nattys-catering-choices.html

I know that I have chosen 3 versions of towers but I think that this is going to be the most striking and perfect way to not only present your cake but also to serve it.  I hope this has been of some help to you and please let us know what cake you decide upon as we would love to see it!

NY

Visual Inspiration: The Greek Islands Part 2

Here is part 2 of the island inspiration images.  How stunning is the shot of Mykonos?  I am ashamed to admit it is one of the islands that I have not visited yet and am nudging it up the queue of 'places to go before I am too old and doddery to to it!'.

Ios IslandImage from njcharters.com 

Ithaca IslandImage from sailingissues.com

Lemnos IslandImage from greece-vacation.com

Mykonos IslandImage from lovepeachykeen.blogspot.com

Spetses IslandImage from njcharters.com

I have so many great memories from Spetses and Lemnos both from my childhood and my adult years.  I am thinking a revisit is in order!

NY

Visual Inspiration: The Greek Islands Part 1

Today I am going to post an array of beautiful images of a few of the Greek Islands for you to look at.  There are so many gorgeous islands and areas of the mainland that it makes it impossible to post them all but at least this is a start!  I already have to break them into 3 posts as I got a bit over excited when choosing the images so please enjoy Part 1!

Kastelorizo Island
Image from thanassis.com

Paros Island
Image from dogreece.com

Kefalonia Island
Image from ionianislandholidays.com

Patmos Island
Image from sailingissues.com

Skiathos Island
Image from starclippersblog.com

Skopelos Island
Image from mamma-mia-holidays.co.uk

Symi Island
Image from mythos-sailing.com

Tilos Islands
Image from tilos-park.typepad.com

Part 2 of Greek Island inspiration to come tomorrow.  Seriously, I cannot wait to get to Crete in 3 weeks time.  

NY

Menu Ideas for your Greek Wedding

Good afternoon all, today I thought we should talk about a really important element of any wedding reception around the globe and that is the food that will be served to your guests!

Of course when having a destination wedding in Greece the three important elements are going to be finding a beautiful outdoor venue, preferably with a sea view, great wine and of course some great Greek food.
Some of your guests may never have tasted the local cuisine so it is a chance to incorporate some local dishes and perhaps serve the meal "meze" style, with all being served to the centre of the table so everyone can try a little of each!

As it's really difficult to choose one "ideal" menu that will suit all tastes, I will just indicate what I think should definitely be included on a menu and how I would structure it ideally!

Meze or starters

Great selection of bread, ask for the village loaves, perhaps small ones on wooden cutting boards for guests to slice themselves!
A selection of dips which must include tzatziki, skordalia, taramosalata and olive oil flavoured with oregano!
A Greek salad (obviously, although you could embelish with Cretan rusks, they call it Dakos salad)
Fried vegetables, this is really tasty, especially combined with the skordalia as above
Fried cheese (called saganaki)
Roasted feta with spices, absolutely love this dish!

You would then go on to include either seafood like kalamari and grilled octopus or meat based dishes like bekri meze (pork cooked in wine, the exact translation is boozy starter)

Image from 123rf.com

Main Course

For main course again I would suggest keeping it simple with a large fish with olive and lemon dressing served with roast potatoes with oregano and lemon and some other vegetables of your choice.

Alternatively I would serve a fillet of meat that you prefer, again if cooked well this is tasty with just some freshly squeezed lemon on top, but you could also offer a choice of pepper sauce or hollandaise for those that want to add some interest to their main course!

Loukamades image from Tiny Bites flickr.com

Dessert

Dessert is really important to me, being a "sweet" loving girl, this is where my attention is focused, I think you must include a platter of Greek pastries i.e. baklava and kataifi, perhaps served with ice cream. Another vey Greek flavour is mastiha, do try before adding to your wedding menu, some love it  and other hate it (Natty being one!), I love it, so would serve mastiha flavoured ice cream.

Loukoumades are always a favourite as well, for those that are not certain what these are, dough balls with honey and cinnamon on top, served hot!

SP

The Striking Acropolis Museum

Today is International Museum Day and to celebrate the Acropolis Museum has opened it's doors to a day of free admission.  I have to admit this Museum is top of my list to see.  I cannot believe I have not been yet and am itching to go.

Image from e-architect.co.uk

Image from wallpaper.com

Image from theacropolismuseum.gr

It has had write ups all over the world and just from these images you can see how beautiful it looks.  Here is a little history:

The Acropolis Museum was first conceived by Constantinos Karamanlis in September 1976. He also selected the site, upon which the Museum was finally built, decades later. With his penetrating vision, C. Karamanlis defined the need and established the means for a new Museum equipped with all technical facilities for the conservation of the invaluable Greek artifacts, where eventually the Parthenon sculptures will be reunited.

For these reasons, architectural competitions were conducted in 1976 and 1979, but without success. In 1989, Melina Mercouri, who as Minister of Culture inextricably identified her policies with the claim for the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum, initiated an international architectural competition. The results of this competition were annulled following the discovery of a large urban settlement on the Makriyianni site dating from Archaic to Early Christian Athens. This discovery now needed to be integrated into the New Museum that was to be built on this site.

In the year 2000, the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum announced an invitation to a new tender, which was realized in accord with the Directives of the European Union. It is this Tender that has come to fruition with the awarding of the design tender to Bernard Tschumi with Michael Photiadis and their associates and the completion of construction in 2007.

Today, the new Acropolis Museum has a total area of 25,000 square meters, with exhibition space of over 14,000 square meters, ten times more than that of the old museum on the Hill of the Acropolis. The new Museum offers all the amenities expected in an international museum of the 21st century.

Image from nytimes.com

Image from nytimes.com

Image from nytimes.com

Image from european-destinations.blogspot.com

Image from amaliapolis.com

As you can see from the above images it is rich in cultural history and has such an abundance of ancient artifacts, that is is hard to know where to start.  I regularly visit the Acropolis when I am in Athens, my Aunt and I for years used to have a day visit and then, whilst supposedly taking the dog for a walk, would nip into town to see it lit at night.  I watched  the painstaking restoration of the Acropolis and it's freezes, all done by hand with what looked like a severly undersized paintbrushe for such a large task.  This building seems to do justice to all that hard work and it is a fitting rest place for all the gorgeous artifacts, freezes and statues that now reside there.

Please visit the official website of the museum for more information www.theacropolismuseum.gr

A worthy site of interest for all your guests and yourselves.

NY

Diary of a Greek Bride - Kitting out the Groomsmen

In theory, you would think getting the groom and groomsmen suited and booted but be easy… wrong!  We took a first tentative trip to Saville Row in London to get a few ideas. If we were millionaires then this would be the place to go. Sadly, we are both mere public servants planning our wedding on a budget so as nice as it was to go window shopping, we thought we better hit the high street.


When it comes to style we are both quite similar in that we love vintage. It is going to be hot in Greece but we couldn’t quite envisage saying our vows with Glenn dressed for the beach in flip flops and shorts. Preferring to be formally dressed for the occasion, Glenn was on the look out for a 3-piece vintage style suit, light in colour and made of light weight fabric. We scoured the high street and decided cream linen was not for him. Most wedding suits were either dark or light grey and we felt this was not the colour for our Greek Island wedding either.


Then a friend of ours who had got married 2 years ago suggested we pay a visit to these guys at Dress 2 Kill http://www.dress2kill.com/. Bespoke suits at very reasonable prices was just what we were looking for so booked our appointment. They were brilliant. We chose the fabric and matching lining for the jacket and waistcoat and a few weeks later, Glenn had his first fitting. Perfect! So perfect in fact that his best man and Father of the Bride decided to go for the same suit as well.

Image from moss.co.uk

So all we needed to do was sort out 3 groomsmen and a bridesman. The boys hit the high street and found that Moss had the most variety and decided to go for a smart beige  2-piece.  http://www.moss.co.uk/catalogue/963868905.html Luckily, all the boys loved it and the price wasn't too bad either.
So that's the boys sorted, my 2 bridesmaids and bridesman, Mother of the Bride and groom, Father of the bride and of course the bride and groom themselves!


CC

The Guide to a Catholic Wedding

Today we are going to discuss Catholic Ceremony options.  Although you are permitted to have Catholic ceremonies in Greece unfortunately not all islands will allow it.  The three islands that will not perform a Catholic ceremony are; Santorini, Crete and Naxos.  Now I know that Santorini being out of the picture is a huge blow for a lot of people but there are ways around this.  Having the ceremony in Athens is still allowed so an option would be to have the church ceremony there and then head down to the island for a small blessing and the reception.  

As with all weddings in Greece the paperwork is essential and is what is going to give you the most gip in the planning process.  Prepare yourselves, as CC is experiencing now the paperwork malarkey is a royal pain in the arse but very fulfilling when done!  Below is a list of paperwork requirements that need to be met:

1. A Baptism Certificate. This document should be requested and dated close to your wedding date.

2. A Confirmation Certificate.

3. A Freedom to Merry Certificate. This document is the assurance that you are free from any canonical impediment for marriage.

•  These certificates must be obtained from the parish priest where you were baptized and must be dated within 3 months of your marriage. 

• If the date of your confirmation is not written in the parish in which you were baptized, you should ask for it in the same parish in which you were confirmed.

• Take these certificates to your present parish priest who should make the prenuptial inquiries and catechetical instruction.

4. Written permission must be obtained from your Bishop to have your marriage performed out of your parish.  This is in accordance with Canon 1115 of the Codex Juris Canonici.

5. A Certificate stating you have completed the "PRE-CANA" instruction class, retreat or meetings.

6. A Single status letter/Letter of impediment.

All of the above have to be translated and apostilled before it is sent to the priest in Greece.  The respective Greek embassy will only accept a translation by one of their recognised translators. You should always check the embassy website for information on who they will accept as a translator otherwise you will have not only wasted your own time but also your money.  Once translated it is to be sent to the embassy for it's apostille, this is the legalisation of the document and is only valid for 3 months.

No document that has been legalised earlier than 3 months will be accepted by your priest, so please do not get over efficient and do it any earlier.

NY

Diary of a Greek Bride: Truly Cute Maps

We are so delighted with the amount of people that are coming to our wedding on Antiparos, 70 in total. Guests will be flying in from Australia (where Glenn is from) and from the UK (where we live), some of which have visited Greece before, some haven't. So we thought it would make a nice touch to leave a little map of the island for each guest upon arrival in their hotel room. I searched the internet for a map of Antiparos so we could print off and personalise but didn't really find anything that we could use. We wanted to have a map that featured a few points of interest on the island and customise it making it personal to us.

Image from cutemaps.com

After a long search we stumbled across http://www.cutemaps.co.uk/ , hand drawn maps by a lovely lady called Sheree. This is exactly the sort of whimsical map we were looking for! Not only would it be useful to our guests but we're hoping many will keep it as a little memento of our wedding day. I gave Sheree a list of everything we wanted to include on the map and we are now awaiting her final creation which I will post on here.

CC

Real Wedding Inspiration: Philio

Hi all,

I know I am ridiculously late in posting, I have been swamped over the past weeks and feeling uninspired at the moment, it seems the economic crisis is affecting my mood a little and I am finding it diffiicult to concentrate on details rather than this bigger picture that is, where will we be at this time next year, will we have a job, be able to eat, have a home? Unfortunately it is difficult living in the unknown, actually life is not that bad, it is harder for sure, but we are OK, it's the uncertainty and general bad mood that gets to you, I think this winter was the darkest I have lived through and really hope that by next winter we at least have an answer on where Greece is headed so we can all buckle down and live with it or make any other decisions that we deem necessary!

On the upside if you are reading from outside Greece, I reckon Greece is going to be a bargain next year and well worth visiting!!! So our tourism could boom as it did in Iceland after it's bankrupsy!

Anyway, enough with the doom and gloom, today I am showing a wedding by the fabulous Nikos Papadopoulos of a beautiful couple that held their wedding in the mountaineous area of Pilio, a go to area for the Athenians as it offers beautiful surroundings and ski slopes quite nearby.

All Images by Nikos Papadopoulos

SP

Perfect Print Gifts

Two of our great friends gave Jubbs and I one of these prints for our birthday.  I have since payed the pleasure forward to another friend of mine.  I think they would make a great gift for older bridesmaids or groomsmen.  It is a unique gift and a nice change from what people normally give for the thank you gifts.

They have an array of colours and also different types of maps, from the UK to the USA, to Australia.  This can then be a cool personal touch if adapted to the country that your bridesmaids or groomsmen come from.  I gave my friend one of Australia as she is married to an Aussi and has lived there for a number of years.  They both loved it and I must admit, I am pretty proud of myself! 

All images from boldandnoble.com

They are all priced at £43 unframed but are made to fit off the shelf frames.  Visit the website to see a larger range of their designs www.boldandnoble.com

I am a huge fan!

NY

A Stylish DIY Blog

I came across this blog today and am in love with it!  The mixture of personal posts with amazing DIY inspiration makes for such an interesting read.  Not only that, the array of vibrant photographs on the site are stunning!

There is also has a boutique shop, full of hand made produce to browse through on the site which is a new addition and certainly one worth a look.

All images from madefromscratch.co.nz

Check it out and see what you think madefromscratch.co.nz


NY