Diary of a Greek Bride: The Wedding Part 3

After the photographs, we made our way back to the reception venue where it was time for our grand entrance. Only 2 people knew the song we were coming in to - Johnny our good friend and MC for the day and my sister Nina who was to give Johnny the thumbs up for when we arrived! So we came in to 'Feeling Good' - now I love the Nina Simone version but we decided to use the Muse version and I'm so glad we did. It was a big statement song with a great rock sound to it and worked perfectly! Mr and Mrs Harley were indeed feeling good!

We had informal platters of food served at each table - barbecued fish, meat and chicken with Greek salad, roast oregano potatoes and a whole lot more. There was so much food we ended up serving the left overs the following day for lunch! 

The time whizzed by and we made sure we took a moment to take in everything. One of my most memorable moments of the day was sitting on our table next to Glenn and looking at everyone enjoying the food against the stunning backdrop and just thinking " Wow, this is just how I imaged it to be!" Magda and Markos had done a brilliant job of decorating the place with twinkly little lights, lanterns and beautiful white roses everywhere… it was the romantic, soft elegance we were hoping to achieve. Our photographer got some brilliant shots of the reflections of the lights in the pool - very artistic!

We finally got around to doing the speeches - my best friend Win began was first up and she generally gushed about the two of us, having known both of us before we got together and so many lovely things about each of us. It was an honour to have her make the first speech. More traditionally we had father of the bride, father of the groom, best man then it was my turn. I had decided to make a speech - after all, when do we ever get to hear from the bride? I had put a lot of thought into what I wanted to say and tried to say something personal about each of my bridesmaids/brides man and what their friendship meant to me. I then went on to thank each set of parents before declaring my undying love for my beloved new husband! I was a bag of nerves to begin with and after fluffing my first few sentences I found my pace and managed to get to the end without breaking down or dropping the mic.

Just as Glenn was about to start his speech we got a bit of a surprise… fireworks! It was rather an untimely surprise as Glenn had began said a few words before they started going off and quite literally stole the show! We later found out that my mum had arranged for this to happen at the end of the speeches, however, because we were behind time so to speak, the man setting them off was going to miss the last ferry back to Paros, so he needed to get them lit so he could scarper! What a hard act to follow! Glenn's speech was lovely though - it short and sweet and really heartfelt.

Now we hadn't planned to have a first dance as such. What was supposed to happen after the speeches, as discussed and agreed with our wedding planner was this: we were going to ask everyone to gather round as we cut the cake, then we'd walk over to the dance floor as though we were going to have a first dance but in actual fact we were going to get everyone to join in and dance to Zorbas dance! Sadly this did not happen. The speeches finished, there was no cake in sight and the DJ had disappeared. Of course nobody else noticed this except us… so we carried on mingling with guests while giving each other puzzled looks as to why there was no cake, no Greek dancing, no wedding planner and no music. After about 5 mins the DJ emerged from wherever he'd been (Scoffing food? Sleeping? Toilet?) and decided to put on The Proclaimers "500 miles" - a song from the 80s by a Scottish band. We weren't impressed! Anyway, regardless of this we headed over to the dance floor and started to boogie to the Ting Tings 'Shut Up and Let Me Go' and after a few minutes everyone had made a huge ring around us thinking this was our "first dance"!! Well… we couldn't have chosen a more inappropriate song title to dance our first dance to as a newly married couple! At least we can laugh about it now….

To be fair to him, the DJ was brilliant, he played most of our playlist and threw a few of his own tracks in there and everyone seemed to have a good old boogie. There was impromptu drunken swimming in the pool (in pants!) and my only complaint was he didn't have Beyonce's "All the single ladies" for me to throw my bouquet to…. But then I hadn't told him I was going to do this. So I'll let him off!

Out of nowhere, Magda came and grabbed us from the dance floor and insisted we cut the cake - oh really….? Like she'd just remembered! It was a pretty lame cake-cutting to be honest. Most people were either drunk or on the dance floor by now (or both) and didn't realise we were cutting the cake… so we had about 6 people watch us 'cut the cake'. By this time our photographer had left as she had to go at midnight and it was probably 1am by now now…so although disappointing, at least we still managed to do it. Most people had filled up on delicious desert by then and couldn't stomach wedding cake anyway… it remained untouched the whole night which was kind of sad.

Despite the few hiccups I've spoken about, it really was a great night and nobody else noticed these things or if they did, they were kind enough not to say anything. I'm only writing about it to really drive home the fact that things will not go to plan on your wedding day! No matter how much planning and preparation you do, sometimes it's just not enough but things will have a way of working out. You rely on other people so much on your wedding it's no wonder the term Bridezilla gets banded about so much - you are literally putting your whole wedding in other people's hands and sometimes, it's understandable and perfectly normal to get upset when something goes wrong. Perhaps we should have been a bit more Bridezilla and less laid back, but it's just not our style!

All images by Magdalene Kourti

That said, we really did have the most truly amazing, unique, memorable wedding day. It wasn't just the best day of our lives, it was the best WEEK of our lives!

CC

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

Real Wedding in Chania, Crete

So as you all know Sara and I headed back to Crete last week to set up a wedding she had been planning for the gorgeous Nancy!  It was awesome to be back at Metohi Kindelis again and I must say, Manoli the owner, has made it even more beautiful!  Seeing it at a different time of year also bought a whole new aspect to the venue for me, as different plants were in full bloom and obviously the light was different as the sun set later.  The bride was amazing.  So chilled and generally a very kind soul to work with.  Her ideas were beautiful and due to the fact she works in the design industry her eye for detail was striking.  The menus, invitations, escort cards and place names were printed on hand painted card which resembled the colourings of a rose petal.  They were honestly breath taking and my photos do not do them justice! 

So to break down the different areas for the wedding. The main courtyard was were the cocktail hour was held.  Champagne and strawberries with an array of meze.  Through to the rear garden, the dining area was set up around the pool with the live Greek band situated in front of all the tables.  Lastly, the party area.  This was in the second pool area of the property (there are 3 private gardens with pools at the venue) with bare bulb lights and pom poms not forgetting the bar and the DJ.

What I love about Greece and it is something that any bride getting married in Greece needs to accept, is that the Greeks go at their own pace.  This can sometimes be alarming, for example when you are heading to Church for the service and the tables are only just getting set.  Don't fret.  It amazes you when on return and hour or so later the whole venue has been transformed!  The heat has a lot to do with it.  We were working in mid thirty degrees, it was hot to say the least!  So the later you can leave it the better.

The suppliers that were used were the same we had sourced for my wedding and I must say they never cease to amaze me.  The food was divine, the flowers gorgeous and as always the sound and lighting were spot on.  It was also really cool to be on the other side of the procedure.  Am not sure that I didn't enjoy it even more this time!

I will showcase the wedding over the next couple of posts. It really was gorgeous!

NY

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