The traveller returns.

Sorry for my elusiveness these past two weeks I have been enjoying some quality time with the boy in the sunshine!  The holiday started off with the wedding of two of our closest friends.  If you remember a while back I mentioned this wedding as they were using hops for decoration.  I am going to say it looked awesome.  Hen is one of the most proactive people that I know.  She designed and decorated the entire marquee herself and it truly was breath taking.  I am hoping she will share some photos with us when they have arrived so I can show you what some elbow grease and imagination can produce.  So after enjoying an amazing evening at their wedding we all set off to SA for some buddy mooning and quality time with our other close friends who live over there.  If I had had my way I would have been sunbathing and blogging at the same time but understandably I have been banned from doing such things.  I must admit is was great to be able to chill out by the pool with my best friends two Great Danes (one who is the largest puppy you will ever clap eyes on) and a book! 

Kinga the largest puppy you will meet!

Ah the joys of having your some of your nearest and dearest mates being South Africans!  

I always find SA an inspiring place to be.  Their grasp of all things creative is quite spectacular and Lili is no exception.  It is design heaven out there and generally, visually inspiring. Not only that but nature herself seems bigger and bolder in Africa.  Watching an electrical storm over the sea is really quite something and reminds you how tiny you really are in what is a vast world!

Mother Nature at her best

So I am back refreshed, energised and raring to go.  I am kicking off tomorrow with Charlottes next entry into her diary, enjoy!

NY

Parental Control!

Keeping everyone happy when planning a wedding takes no less than well honed mediation skills!  This doubles when you are mixing nationalities and thus different wedding traditions.  I have a very good friend who has just got engaged to an awesome Aussie and she herself is half English, Half Greek ( are you seeing a pattern to my friendship group!!).  As you all know I married a South African and trying to blend tree types of traditions as well as our parents expectations is a nightmare.  So I am going to give my advice on how I felt the best way to deal with the situation was.

Call a meeting early on in the planning proceedings.  In my opinion, over a nice supper with a reasonable to endless supply of wine is the best way to start this procedure off!  Now before we go on it is important to mention that you and your betrothed should have already had one of these little get together by yourselves to work out what it is you, as a couple, are looking for in your wedding.  Your expectations settled, you can go into the lions den as a united front and prepared to haggle over what the parents want. We are raised to believe that our wedding day is one of the most monumental experiences of our lives but what is failed to be mentioned is that it seems to also be monumental for the parents, more specifically, the mothers.  They need to be asked what they want and I found that if something meant a lot to my parents and I was not fazed either way, I agreed to it.   I know it sounds like a very basic piece of advice, it is also a key part in the planning running smoothly and reducing the stress levels.  If you have to have bicker the entire way through the process (don't forget you are doing all of this from a distance), it becomes very tiring and depressing.  So get all the debating out of the way early.  

Image from Annie Angelopoulou

Obviously, there are still hurdles to be crossed, things never run that smoothly.  For example, I made it very clear that being announced into the reception as Mr and Mrs or the bride and groom was a no go area for me.  My mother on the other hand had different ideas and went ahead anyway.  As you can see by the above photo, I was less than impressed!

So my advice in a nutshell. If it does not bother you either way but you parents feel very strongly about it, let them have it.  It will give you a bargaining chip when you are arguing about something that you do feel deeply about and it keeps them happy at the same time.

NY

Diary of a Greek Bride - My Moodboard to Date

So far, our planner has been great in coming up with suggestions and working with us to develop our vision of what we would like the wedding to be. Ok, she might have taken 3 weeks to reply to my latest email but I guess I just have to accept how laid back Greeks are in comparison to a couple of London city dwellers like us who are used to being in the fast lane in life!  Plus, most places are closed in the Winter months in the islands so it’s not always easy for her to get quotes immediately. Patience is most definitely a virtue here!

While we haven't got a colour scheme as such we have decided to have the olive tree as our wedding "emblem" to represent peace and love and thought it would tie in nicely with our wedding on the island with it being native to Greece. We're hoping to have olive coloured ties for the boys and my bouquet of Greek white roses will have olive leaf foliage in it. We’ll sail all our guests around the island the day before the wedding which we hope will be loads of fun and encourage pre-wedding mingling.  Our civil ceremony will take place outdoors in the ruins of an ancient castle next to the cutest most quintessentially Greek chapel you have ever seen (neither of us are Greek Orthodox so can’t marry in a Greek church). For favours, our guests will each receive a mini bottle of local olive oil made on the island to take away as a memento of our wedding. We’ll have a processional walk back to the reception venue accompanied by traditional bazouki/violin players and it’s these touches which people have oooh’d and aaaahhh’d at that keep us sane in the knowledge we have made the right decision to marry abroad.

Images from (clockwise from top left)
sugarpluminvitations.blogspot.com, stylemepretty.com,
rockmywedding.co.uk, Soros Beach Taverna, & myrecipes.com

My 2 lovely bridesmaids will wear these beautiful dresses from Two Birds http://www.twobirdsbridesmaid.co.uk/ - they're perfect for a Greek island wedding being light weight, versatile and allows each bridesmaid to choose a style suited to their shape.

I've attached my mood board (the dress isn't on there as I will not be giving that away until after the wedding!) to give you an idea of the style of our wedding which will have vintage elements with a rustic feel. I hope you feel inspired by it all!

Next on our list is the invitations .....more to follow!

CC