Ever wonder what is it like to have a wedding in Greece? Oh…just imagine the serene and beautiful setting of natural landscape with breathtaking views from the island cliffs, overlooking the turquoise Aegean Sea. How romantic is that? All I can say that it is just THE PICTURE PERFECT place for you to have your wedding photography! Talking about pictures, here is a real wedding couple – Caroline and Manny – that had a blast celebrating their perfect union at the sublime surroundings of Santorini. A big thank you to Ben and Erin (Ben Chrisman Photography) for sharing these marvelous photos with us!
OUR COUPLE
Caroline is from Hong Kong and grew up in Sydney, Australia, while Manny is Greek-American who grew up in Massachusetts. They met at Harvard as freshmen but did not start dating until four years later.
THE PROPOSAL
“One night, he called for me from the study, where he had the ring on the desk and this stricken look on his face. And that was it!” said Caroline.
THE WEDDING VENUE
The wonderful couple chose to get married in Santorini, Greece. Because their families are so far apart, they did not want only one side to be well-represented and decided to have a beautiful destination wedding where their friends and families would really enjoy. The reason they chose Santorini was because of its postcard-beauty and because the island had a bit of experience handling weddings, which made it easier for them to plan from abroad.
AMBIENCE
“It was sunny and hot in June, and the white of the houses in Oia made the island bright and beautiful during the day and glowed in the evening. The sunsets are incredible: you get a clear view of the horizon and the sun simply burns its way as it sinks into the water.
We didn’t really have a theme, but settle in orange and yellow as our colours, which we thought would be pretty against the blue and the white that dominate the island’s own colours. Nothing can beat the natural setting of the island. Everything was simple, simple, simple, so the natural beauty of our surroundings could come through.”
THE WEDDING
“We started the day with the traditional Chinese tea ceremony to symbolize the bride bidding farewell to her parents and thanking them for raising her to see her wedding day, and to pay respects to her new family and new parents. We both knelt and thanked Caroline’s parents in accordance with the ceremonial tradition before doing the same for Manny’s parents.”
“The Greek Orthodox wedding ceremony is different in many ways from a Roman-Catholic or Protestant ceremony, and is incredibly rich in symbolism and tradition. We walked down the aisle together, leading the wedding party into the church.
We do not speak through the ceremony because the wedding is less about the vows and more about the blessing of the church on our union. The priest blesses us and our rings before blessing stefana, which are white crowns used in Greek wedding ceremonies to symbolize the positions of king and queen that the groom and bride now assume in their new household. We used Manny’s parent’s stefana, which was a lovely bit of tradition. We were then crowned, and Billy, our best man, exchanged the position of the crowns three times to symbolize the Trinity.
In the final act of the ceremony, we are led by the priest around the altar three times, again symbolizing the Trinity. The only words said were the priest and the only music was the priest’s chanting. It was a beautiful ceremony, and we did our best to describe it in our programme so our guests could follow (it was conducted entirely in Greek!). We especially loved that the church was very small, so our small wedding party packed the space and it felt intimate and warm.”
THE INSIDE STORY
“Our biggest piece of advice is to think of the big picture instead of being fixated on the details: figure out what you want your wedding day to be, as opposed to what it will look like. Also, just relax and don’t let the little things get to you – guests won’t know what they’re missing but they will notice a stressed-out couple!”
DREAM TEAM
Wedding Planner – Shirley Chiarolanzio
Photography – Ben Chrisman and Erin Reed
Invitations – Bella Figura Letterpress
