An Array of Lambades

Today I thought that some beautiful lambades images were in order.  It has been a while since we showed you some inspiring images of these important details to a Greek wedding.   You can have the large freestanding candles or opt for the smaller candle, that will sit in candle sticks on the alter.  I have sourced an array of lambades images from florists in Athens that are of the former variety, large and freestanding.

Image from studio-ionnidis.gr

Image from valentineflowers.gr

Image from valentineflowers.gr

Image from mariabogri.gr

Image from valentineflowers.gr

For a little background on the tradition of lambades......

“The traditional lambades adorn each side of the table with the crown tray. The candles are symbolic of the couples’ belief that Jesus is ”the light of the world and whoever believes in him shall never walk in darkness but have eternal life” (Gestathi).

You can opt for the candles to be adorned with big bows also, personally this does not interest me at all but as they say 'each to their own'.  For more images click on the links below the images.  Maria Bogri has some more gorgeous designs on her website as does Valentine Flowers.

NY

Amazing Floating Flower Balls

This wedding by Alison Events (www.alisonevents.com) blew me away.  The striking colours of the roses and the use of flower ball is beautiful.  The wedding was in Mexico and the theme was a black tie beach wedding.  I think it is amazing and the couple also included tequila shots as part of their ceremony for the toasts, which is ingenious!  The arch for the ceremony is made up of bunched of roses that are stunning against the blue of the sea and the details of the floating roses and orchids in a vase of water on the tiled steps is lovely.

Images by Anna Kuperberg

I am not going to lie, my favorite detail of this is the floating flower balls.  I just adore them! They tie in the reception decor perfectly and quite frankly I just want some. They are awesome!

Images by Anna Kuperberg

You could easily adapt the idea to Greece!  The flowers are a great choice for a hot climate as they will hold their own and instead of tequila you can oopa with some ouzo or raki!

 Bravo Alison Events. You rock!

NY

Time to lay the Table

I thought I would share my choices and experience of the table settings.  As Kindelis was such a beautifully rustic venue, it made sense for the tables to compliment rather than fight the surroundings.  I love flowers and try to always have some in my house but we had decided that we did not want large floral centerpieces in Greece rather simpler potted herbs and terracotta tea light holders.  The advantage of having potted plants also meant that the plants would not wilt under the heat of the day.

Images by Cristina Olive, Marthasterwart.com & Pixi

 We met three florists in Chania, one point blank refused to put ‘earth’ on a table (a little strange) and to be honest he was rather insulting to both Sara and Me.  It takes a lot to annoy Sara and she was fuming by the time we left, so he was canned. The second was great.  Not only did she know her stuff and have a very open mind about what I wanted, she also kept a constant supply of Greek coffee coming my way.  The problem, as is everywhere in the world was her prices as soon as wedding was mentioned.  She even tried to charge me E1000 just for earth, I think not.  Then we found the amazing Birgitte.  She was wonderful and actually more than fair.  She not only potted up the herbs in really cute terracotta pots but also sourced the terracotta tea lights, which I adored.

The table numbers were put onto the wine bottles to help save space on the tables as I had got a little over excited with the amount of food we were going to have.  I noticed after the wedding that the caterers had put table numbers on the table with their logo on them, which did not amuse me.

The escort cards had been made by my wonderful printer and kept the vintage travel theme going.  These were tied around the napkins with raffia, whilst the seating plan was brown labels tied onto a fishing net, which we draped over an up-lit bush in the courtyard.  It looked beautiful when all lit up at night.

Images from Annie Angelopoulou & Cristina Oliver

On the morning of the wedding it became apparent that the tables for 10 were actually tables for 8. Disaster!  I had to rearrange all the table plans at 4 pm with my hair in rollers on the back terrace.  A headache I could have done without.  It got done and there were a few cock-ups but what could be done.

All in all thought it looked good and it made me laugh that by the time we had all the plants and tea lights on the table there was not much room for the empty food plates…. They ended up in piles on top of the wine coolers and on the floor.  I wanted rustic and I certainly got it!

NY

Sometimes DIY is Best

….  It really is!  With the previously stated problems with hiring, DIYing some aspects of your Greek wedding is really the easiest way to handle the problem.   Now I am not going to say it is all a bundle of fun, because some of it isn’t but the end rewards make up for it!  I found it very hard to stomach that 200 tea light holders were going to set me back at least £400 and that was without any candles in them. So I decided to make my own! It may have taken a little longer than expected but I got them done!  I found an online site where I could buy 200 small Jam jars for £60…perfect. Next I bought some fine wire from Homebase and some raffia!  After getting comfortable on my sitting room floor in front of a good movie I set about constructing the rustic tea light holders.  It took me about 2 weeks (don’t worry, I wasn’t sitting there solidly, only 1-2 hours an night) and too be honest they were perfect for what I needed).

The other detail that gave me a lot of jip (and Sara will definitely agree as I dragged her halfway round Athens looking for them) was the Bombonieres.  My god!  It was so painful.  I looked everywhere, changed my mind about 100 times and still wasn’t happy.  I have drawers of these things from all my family’s weddings and for me it was important not to waste a lot of my budget on something that I did not deem as hugely important.  In the end I put my mother and 2 family friends to work and made up some cute little packages with an evil eye and the Koufetta inside.  There was also an explanation of what the Koufetta stood for inside, for all the non Greeks.  My father did have some issues with this area as it is traditional to have something made of silver, for the family at least but in the end he caved and for me it was the best decision.  Most of the young (or not so young) were just happy taking away the hats and wigs.

NY

Some Moodboards for Inspiration

GORGEOUS BEACH

Images from (clockwise from top left)  Images.leonardo.com, theweddingdecorator.blogspot, milk-and-honey.co.uk, outdoorweddingideasblog.com, sjengravings at Etsy.com, aprilhilerdesigns at Etsy.com.

LEMON WITH A TWIST

Images from (clockwise from top left) Meg Smith, Urban Sweets Bakery, aliceqfoodie.blogspoy, Courtney deJauregui & James Erin, Lemonsandlaundry.blogspot, Meg Smith

Jam Jar Heaven

OK so I have mentioned I used Jam Jars for tea lights at my wedding and I thought I would share some inspiration ideas I found whilst scouring the net.   I loved these ideas below.  Jam Jars can look amazing and so handy for a wedding in Greece as they are easy to find and all you have to do is recycle them on your way out.   

Photos from pastthemoon.com 

My Favorite ideas are the light bulb and using jam jars for drinks, I think they look great.  I can’t believe I didn’t think to use them to serve the Pimms out of at mine.  Damn it!  The light bulb, quite frankly is just cool and I am thinking I deserve some for my back yard.  Now what are your thoughts on using these really cute jam jars as place settings?  They would be so easy to make; all you need is jam jars and a pot of blackboard paint.  They could double up as either their water glasses or they could be favours with the koufetta in them.

Photos from epting events & Etsy.com

Photos from Etsy.com & Crazyagnus

I love the flowers and candles hanging in them.  It looks wonderful and also very practical with the temperatures in Greece to enable the flowers to have water.  They would look great in a beach wedding as well as a more traditional venue, modern or rustic theme.  Loving the jam jars!

NY

Lighting Your Stage

A subject we haven't discussed yet is lighting, which is key to setting the atmosphere for you wedding.  It is vital you put some thought in how you want your venue lit and by what form of lighting.  I was working with a beautifully rustic canvas and had split it into 4 areas.  The courtyard was the reception area, the raised patio was the chill out area, the back lawn was the dining area and lastly, the orchard pool area was the party zone.  I therefore needed lighting to depict the usage.  I obviously had some help!  I used a company from Heraklion called Sound design.  Not only did they provide all the Greek dancers and band but they also did all the lighting and DJ-ing, Manoli was fabulous.  He came to meet us in the February and we walked around the grounds picking out which trees to accent with up lighters (common areas also need addressing in certain cases) and his vision was also on the same page as mine.  Some venues will direct you in what needs to be done whilst others will use some imagination, it really depends on what type of venue you have chosen.  Kindelis, which was my reception venue was so beautiful in its own right that very little dramatic lighting was needed.  Only really in the party zone where I used pink lighting instead of normal which looked great against the turquoise of the lit pool!  Uplifting was really all we did with the rest of the venue.  We up lit key trees and the the house so it stood out a little more and also we lit a couple of the pots as accents around the courtyard.  The photos are below so decide for yourselves what you think.  I loved it!

Photos by Annie Angelopoulou and friends

Once you have decided on your larger lighting then the fun part comes with the smaller details.  I wanted to have a lot of candles in the venue and also to have the Chinese lanterns which I adore.  Although, in relation to the Chinese lanterns, it was not exactly what I was wanting I had to compromise.  I had envisioned a sea of large and small globes but due to the vastness of the back lawn it was impossible.  They would have sagged too low and we were unable to put in supports as it would have been a) messy b) too much of a liability for the guests.  So in the end I had to make do with 2 strings of large white Chinese lanterns in the dining area coupled with very simple candles on terracotta dishes dotted about.  On the tables I used beautiful terracotta tea light holders which were made locally and I rented off the florist. Now I know I said hiring is hard but we found a wonderful florist who bought them all and charged me a smaller rate as she was going to re sell them in her shop.  I would like to add she was so kind she gave me about 20 of them to bring home and if I say so myself, they look gorgeous on my garden table.

Leading to the party zone from the dining area was a beautiful walkway covered with bougainvillea and roses.  This needed to be lit as at night it was very dark with little lanterns hanging from the pergola and larger ones on the floor, it was so romantic as well as guiding people to the next step in the wedding.  I  used the tea lights that I made all down the driveway as well.  It was magical to look down and just have candles twinkling in the trees.

In the party zone I had fuchsia Chinese lanterns to accent the up lit trees and back lit wall.  It just gave the area the added light that it needed and made it stand out from the rest of the venue.

photos by Annie Angelopoulou

My advice to you all is take some time to think about what you want from your wedding, what atmosphere and address the lighting accordingly.  It is well worth the time and trouble and can completely change a venue from beautiful to magical.

NY

Sara elaborating on her wedding theme

Natalia: What theme, if any, do you have for your wedding?

Sara: Well it is a blue, white and a little bit yellow, which is quite nautical, although I am not having any specifically nautical references except stripes. So it's a stripy wedding really!

Natalia: Was this always what you wanted or has this theme evolved from another?

Sara: It has evolved, after visiting the island, choosing the church and reception venue I realised that it was pointless trying to introduce new colours, themes that are just not suited to the venue. It was either a cream or white with blue as that is what surrounds you the entire time! I love stripes and dots, so I decided to go for a stripy theme with a little yellow added into the mix. It’s fresh which is what I wanted, to accentuate what is already in place

Natalia: How are you manifesting this theme? What details and touches are you incorporating into the decor?

Sara: This is a funny question for me today, as I am trying to find reasonably priced navy tablecloths, which is not easy! In an ideal world, I would have navy tablecloths, yellow napkins, stripy linen favours, and stripy ribbon on the invites. My centrepieces are small olive trees in buckets with lemons around the base. The bouquets will be tied with blue and white ribbon and some of my friends will wear sashes that are blue and white. I am looking at getting Niko and the best man stripy linen handkerchiefs as well.

Natalia: Will the friends be just part of the congregation or are they your bridesmaids?

Sara: Well, the best man's wife and close friend of ours will wear one, as will the young bridesmaids. Lot's of my girlfriends are choosing blue for their dresses, which I am encouraging! My sister who is the chief bridesmaid hasn't chosen a dress yet, so we are uncertain if she will wear a sash. We have only been shopping in Rhodes, which is not what you would call a fashion capital.


Natalia: Are you finding it difficult to find what you need in the whole of Greece or Just on Rhodes? The table clothes and napkins for example.

Sara: It is difficult. Not just in Rhodes but in the whole of Greece. I have found a blue fabric, but it's very bright and I am uncertain if it will look like a child's party. It is a common problem and renting in this country is a bit of a nightmare. I have tried several places today, but it will be cheaper to buy the fabric and have them sewn up than rent them. They don't seem to have understood the concept very well over here, it's almost as expensive as buying if not more. I mean who needs 20 round tablecloths after the wedding!

Natalia: Tell me more about your theme details. I love the idea of the olive trees with the lemons on the base.

Sara: Well the decor is going to be based on ambient lighting meaning many lanterns, candles and I am having tiny fairy lights in the olive trees. Actually after visiting the hotel this weekend, I really don't think it needs a lot of decorating.

Natalia: That is a very good point t make. Some venues really only need and accent rather than a full make over.

Sara: Yes, you work with what you choose. If it's a banquet hall, then more attention is needed. If it's a gorgeous garden, seaside venue then less is often more. My venue is quite large, so you either have to go ridiculous or accent it. So I am accenting. I am also creating a lounge area. This will be white outdoor sofas with a pale grey cover and stripy cushions. I will have more candles on the tables and the bar will be set up in the area

Natalia: A more chilled area to relax and chat?

Sara: Actually I want most people to move to this area after dinner. So we can continue in a more party like atmosphere. I didn't actually want a sit down meal at all, but have been coaxed into it by pure and simple logic; Guests cannot stand all afternoon and evening
We are going to cut the "cake" and have our first dance and we are giving everyone sparklers to hold for this. The dessert will be set up behind the lounge area, so in order to see the cake and eat dessert you have to get up and hopefully people will stay on the lounge side.

SP & NY