The Location: Santorini, Greece
The Time: Shoulder Season – September 2016
The Reason? Weddings are STRESSFULL!
Mark proposed to me while we were in college, in October 2015. I was pumped to start using all of those Pinterest pins I had accumulated over the years, but we had to finish school first. We graduate that next May, and the time comes to start with the most basic of tasks, the guest list.
Y’all
This alone is the reason I didn’t want to have a traditional wedding. The politics of it all… who should I invite? Who do I have to invite even though I don’t want to? I knew I was going to hate the whole process and I probably wouldn’t enjoy my big day. Something about weddings seemed very staged to me. As if it was a big party instead of a celebration of love. That’s just how I felt about it, which is why we eloped. Plus, a lot of women I meet say they wish they eloped… and some of the ones that eloped say they wish they had a traditional wedding. I myself have confessed to wanting a traditional wedding before, but I don’t think I really meant it.
How do you plan a wedding in a different country?
It depends on if you want it to be legally binding or not. Technically we just had a ceremony in Santorini and then came home and went to the courthouse. It was going to cost a lot more for translation fees etc. since everything was going to be in Greek. Some countries require you to be there for -blank- amount of days before or after the wedding. I’m sure that is to get the most out of your trip, tourism, and feeding their economy. We stayed for 10 nights/11 days because it was also our honeymoon destination.
I asked Dr. Google where to get married in Santorini and he found me a few websites that had coordinators that help you find a venue, flowers, transportation, cake, and anything you might want on your big day. I loved all the pictures on all the websites and I was more and more inspired to get married there. I’m pretty sure it was THIS SITE. We did a “symbolic wedding”. After a few email correspondences I knew I found the right package at the right price. It was 375 euro ($426.39 USD) security deposit + 2000 (euro or dollars I don’t remember) + 24% VAT. That was for the venue, the flowers, the cake, the ceremony etc. Transportation with a private driver cost 150 euro (50 euro per transfer) from the hotel to the venue, from the venue to dinner, and from dinner back to the hotel.
Photography
The day before the ceremony we did our “first look” photos with the AMAZING photographer ANNA SULTE. These are the ones you’ll see all over my social media.
First of all, she is just a beautiful soul and super sweet. Secondly, and most importantly, she creates DROP DEAD GORGEOUS PHOTOS! When you look at her website it is clear that she is talented. For and added bonus she was more affordable compared to American photographers. I honestly can’t find my invoice from this but I feel like I have been telling everyone 350 euro for 3 hours. We ended up getting 70+ fully edited photos and they are all stunning.
Wedding Day
The day of the wedding we woke up, got ready in our suite at Zenith Blue Traditional Houses, ate some snacks on the deck, and got picked up by our wedding planner.
Our wedding planner was ALSO a sweet woman, but my flowers and cake were wrong. I wanted white roses or peonies with some olive branches (something super simple and a white/green theme)
Instead… I got PINK and red roses. Ya girl HATES pink roses. They seem so “young” and cheesy to me. I could have dealt if it was only red roses, but to top it off the freaking ribbons were pink too. haha. I wanted just plain white with greenery. SIMPLE. CLASSY…. not high school prom pink.
Anyway, I digress.
We got married at Santo Wines Winery at sunset and it was TO DIE FOR. I realize I am using a lot of capital letters but it’s because I get SO excited about how beautiful it was there. We have about 200 non-professional photos from the big day as well. Our wedding planner had a boyfriend with a very nice camera that took a bunch of pictures from beginning to end. The pictures were included in the package and I paid an extra 100 euro for a wedding video.
The entire vibe I got from all the Greeks was that they just loved that we were THERE… having our big day THERE. Even the restaurant we went to after our ceremony didn’t let us pay! They said, “No, it’s your big day, we want you to enjoy it, and also, here is some free alcohol!”. I love the Greeks! I’m pretty sure we had dinner at La Maison? I would say I feel guilty about not remembering, but I don’t! I was so happy I think I blacked out.
We just had our 8 year wedding anniversary this year! I wouldn’t have changed a thing! It just goes to show how your flowers can be “ruined” and your dress might fit a little too tight, but it doesn’t matter because you’re marrying the person you love the most. Cheers to many more years!
