Diary of a Greek Bride: The Wedding Part 2

The morning of the wedding was totally chilled: I had a swim, sunbathed and enjoyed lunch around the pool with a few friends and bridesmaids. I lost count of how many people told me "you're the most chilled out bride I've ever seen!" but I guess it's hard not to be when you're on an island as beautiful as Antiparos!

All images are by Magdalene Kourti

Meanwhile, Glenn and his brother and best man Paul were re-writing our translated ceremony. We had asked Paul to translate what the Mayor would say into English and to act as our "celebrant" . However when we read the translation it wasn't quite what we had in mind for our wedding ceremony... with statements like "I accept the burden and conflicts of marriage" included in there we felt it sounded more like a an agreement to go into battle than a declaration of love for one another! There wasn't any room for our own carefully considered vows we had written, our ring exchange or the 3 readings we'd spent months choosing. The guys did a great job in re-wording the translation to sound more romantic and to include readings, vows and the ring exchange. This said, it really wasn't something we should have been stressing about the morning of our wedding... again, a situation that could have been resolved if our planner had provided us with the translation days earlier as we had requested.

By 1pm I was showered and ready for the stylist to work her magic. I had had a trial with her a couple of days before so she had a good idea of what I wanted - hair up, not too structured and make-up soft and romantic. She did a fantastic job despite my initial reservations at the trial where her love of hairspray and corkscrew curls made me nervous! We decided to pin into my hair tiny little buds of white Greek roses to match mine and the bridesmaid's bouquets. I'd also bought a beautiful vintage style hair comb which finished the look perfectly.

We had asked all of our guests to convene at our apartments at 5.30 which is is where we were having the reception dinner. My friends gave out hand held paddle fans I had made to keep everyone cool while they waited and to line the long palm-fringed path down to the gates. At 5.45 I emerged with my 2 bridesmaids, one bridesman and my Dad we were led down the path by three musicians playing traditional Greek music. I can't tell you how emotional I felt at this point and as soon as I saw Glenn's smiling face I burst into tears! He looked so handsome standing there waiting for me and all the stresses of the days leading up to this point didn't matter. We kissed, wiped my tears away and linked arms to lead everyone through the village to walk to the spot where we would be married. The procession was so memorable with all the locals coming out to applaud us and wish us well and more in keeping with the Greek way of the Bride and Groom arriving at the ceremony together. I'll never forget it and so many of our guests have said how unique and fun it was to accompany the bride and groom in this way.

Once we reached the ruins of the old Kastro, we waited outside while all our guests took their places inside. The musicians led us into the Kastro and once we'd figured out where we were meant to stand (a tad embarrassing!) we were greeted by Eleni the deputy mayor of Antiparos who would marry us. We were both really nervous throughout the whole ceremony but we said our self-written vows and had the ring exchanges without any glitches so all went well. Our three readings were delivered beautifully - an extract from Captain Corelli's Mandolin, Kahlil Gibran's 'Love One Another' and the quirky "Lovely Love Story" by Edward Monkton which got a few laughs, not to mention a few puzzled looks!

Afterwards we had rice thrown at us and champagne was served in the ceremony location for half an hour. It was just enough time to be congratulated and to have a few snaps with guests before we slipped off to have our professional photos taken. Being able to slip away to the beach with Glenn for an hour was perfect. Our photographer Magdalene remained unobtrusive and captued images of us both trying to take it all in. Magdalene did such an amazing job with the photos. Looking at them now I can't believe how she managed to capture the whole intimacy and beauty of the day. She is one very talented photographer whose thoughtful and considered ways gave us photos that quite literally look like we were on a film set!

CC

Diary of a Greek Bride: The Wedding Part 1

The week leading up to our wedding on Antiparos was meant to be one of long lazy lunches with friends and family, swimming in the sea, working on my tan and generally chilling out before the Big Day. However in reality things turned out quite different! 

Before I go on to spill the beans I have to say that the week we got married really was the best of our lives. It wasn't just our wedding day alone but the days before and the days afterwards with all our closest friends and family really were incredible and will stay with us etched in our memories for ever. And many of our guests have said the same!

STRIKE HELL!

So, 3 days before the wedding the Greeks decide to hold a national strike which meant all transport throughout Greece and on the islands was suspended... so no planes, no ferries, no trains. Cue lots of frantic emails and texts sent back and forth between us and our guests some of who were now stranded in Athens and others who were on other islands holidaying before they got to us. What had we done?! Would we have any guests turn up? Arrrggghh!

PAPERWORK HELL!

I must mention the paperwork hell we went through. When we arrived on the island, our wedding planner, Magda, informed us that the local Mayor's office were not happy with our papers and that we had failed to get them stamped and authorised in Athens. We had NO IDEA that we were meant to do this despite calling the Greek embassy and visiting the consulate here in London and repeatedly checkign our paperwork was correct.Well it wasn't and at no point did anyone tell us this and our planner certainly wasn't aware of it. To say we felt utterly foolish is an under statement. Luckily Magda had some friends who were going back to Athens that night, the day before the pending strike, and they were going to give the papers to Magda's daughter who lived in Athens to take to the Australian and English Embassies on our behalf. Phew! the daughter returned to Antiparos on the Thursday with the papers all in order on the Thursday - she couldn't get the the island due to the strike on Wednesday! We got the OK to proceed with the marriage first thing Friday morning, ie, ONE DAY BEFORE we were due to have our civil wedding that 60 of our guests had flown from the UK and Australia to witness! Talk about living on the edge.

One thing I would say if you are not a Greek national and you want to get married in Greece, then check, double check and tripple check you have all your paperwork in order, not just with the Greek Embassy in London but with your country's embassy in Athens. God knows how this managed to slip beneath our radar but it did and we were very nearly having a sham wedding whereby we would have gone through with what looked like a legal ceremony but actually it wouldn't have been. Doesn't bare thinking about!

WEDDING PLANNER WARNING!

Anyway, what should have been carefree days of looking forward to our wedding turned into a stressful anxiety-ridden time spent constantly on the phone to the embassies trying to sort the mess out. While our planner was doing her best to help us resolve this issue, we felt she should have been more clued up on our paperwork which we had submitted to her the week before we left the UK. From her point of view, we were responsible for ensuring our consulates in Athens accepted the papaerwork we arrived in Greece with...There was no use in pinning blame on anyone, it was an oversight,  we dealt with it and luckily it all turned out ok in the end!

THE DAY BEFORE THE WEDDING

We had planned a boat trip around the island on the Thursday but because of the strikes lots of our guests were unable to make it in time so we made the decision to postpone the boat trip to Friday... and we were so glad we did as we had such a brilliant time and it meant loads more people were able to come on it, 43 of us in total! Captain Ben plied us all with ouzo and provided a tasty barbecued lunch on a deserted beach which was the perefct ice breaker for people to mingle and get to know one another. Success! I would definitely recommend organising some fun activity like this for everyone so they can get to see th elocal area and it gets everyone socialsiing right from the word go.

In the evening we had organised some sunset drinks at a gorgeous bar on the island. We told everyone to drop by for casual drinks between 7-9pm which again was a great way of spending time with our guests and gave us a chance to say more than just a quick "hello and thanks for coming to our wedding"  on the actual day itself. I can't tell you how beautiful it was to be stressfree at this point and sipping chilled wine with all our favourite people around us watching the most gloriouis of sunsets!