Unfortunately, it is already over, but we look back on a wonderful wedding on ‘our’ island. Because how cool is it to get married on Karpathos in front of your best friends? 10 September 2022 was the big day & in this blog we tell you more about it.

What did our wedding day look like?

Flying over from the Netherlands came our best friends, Athina’s grandparents, and Vincent’s parents, brother and sister-in-law. Most arrived on Thursday before the wedding, which is why we did a pre-wedding lunch at Poseidon Blue in Afiartis on Friday. Before that, we did a toast at our home, so we could also show everyone our house right away, as not everyone had been here before.

We had arranged the big day so that everyone was free at the hottest part of the day. This way, everyone could choose whether to chill by the pool, do something more or refuel for a late night 😉

Vincent and I slept at Poseidon Blue the night before. In fact, we had eaten there the day before and so me and my girlfriends had a nice location to get ready the next day. Vincent left for our house in the morning to get changed and together with his parents and best man to shoot some photos.

I went into hair and makeup with my girlfriends in the meantime. We didn’t have a lot of time, we were getting married pretty early, but besides me, 2 girlfriends were able to get in makeup and 2 girlfriends also got their hair done. The rest were making themselves beautiful while we were all in the hotel room. Since the alcoholic drink Baileys is the trademark of me and my girlfriends, we all had a pre-shoot in the morning and the photographer was there for beautiful pictures. Then we drove to the Skala bar, where Vincent was already there with all our other guests and the day could really begin. Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

In a nutshell

Taking care of everything! How did we do that?

Initially, we wanted to do as much as possible ourselves and only outsource the decorating of our venues, but after talking to Maria Alexiades (wedding planner), we soon found out that she could really do EVERYTHING for us, which is really nice anyway. In Greece things are just a bit easier to arrange. No offense to all Greeks (we love you!), but unlike in Holland they have the mentality ‘yes that will come read: 30 minutes in advance you have to arrange things). And we would rather have a Greek go after it for us, than have to go after it in English. Anyway, at the last minute you don’t want to have to figure everything out yourself. And we didn’t really have a master of ceremonies, because it would also be just too difficult for him/her abroad otherwise.

Maria really helped us super well with everything! Whatever we wanted, we could ask her, nothing was too crazy. She also went with us a few times to the town hall to make sure we could really get married and that the papers for the Netherlands would be arranged: so nice!

Locations

Ceremony (the formal part)

We had already heard that a Greek ceremony is very different, they often do not marry on location as we are used to in the Netherlands. However, we wanted to have a short moment on location, where we would really say YES to each other and could officially sign for our marriage. Maria went to ask the town hall and although they normally never do this, she had found someone who was willing to come to Ammoopi to make this moment official for us.

They did become incredibly strict in recent years about getting married at a Greek chapel. This was no longer allowed in a lot of places. Previously the rule was that it was not allowed inside (logical), but outside on the grounds it was allowed. However, this was no longer allowed either. Both inside and outside the chapel it is only allowed if you are Greek Orthodox. We really wanted to get married at Amoopi though, because it is such a beautiful location and we had also already planned to drink ouzo milkshakes with everyone at Skala.

In the end, we chose to walk to the little church with our witnesses and the 2 men from the congregation for a beautiful and intimate moment. Vincent made another short speech to me and then we were able to say YES and sign. The men of the congregation first told everything in Greek and then in English.

All our guests were able to watch from a distance, namely in the Skala bar (see photo below). Then we too went to the Skala bar for a toast (with ouzo milkshakes) and it was time to cut the wedding cake.

We did a Photo Shoot with everyone downstairs next to the Skala bar which overlooks Votsalakia Beach and then our guests had free time for the rest of the day. We went to shoot with the photographer in Amoopi & Menetes. And also we had a moment of rest at home afterwards.

Diner

We had dinner at Kipos in the evening. Since everyone slept in Arkassa, this was also an easy option so everyone could walk to the restaurant. First it was time to throw the bouquet with all the bachelorette girls and then our witnesses gave a speech.

We had dinner at Kipos in the evening. Since everyone slept in Arkassa, this was also an easy option so everyone could walk to the restaurant. First it was time to throw the bouquet with all the bachelors Vincent and I had chosen a somewhat controversial setup in terms of tables: 2 long tables with the men and women separated. We had Manolis & Maria put all kinds of dishes on the table such as spanakopita, moussaka, fish, chicken & stifado. That way everyone could try Greek dishes.And afterwards our witnesses gave a speech.

We had another dessert (a cake pop in the shape of a magnum ice cream) for everyone. We had those made just like the cake at Sugar Boutique.

After dinner, everyone joined the bus. We rented a bus at the bus station in Pigadia that took everyone to our house after dinner and would also pick them up in the evening.

Party time!

The party was still a bit tricky to arrange! We actually wanted to do it at a bar or something. But apparently in Greece it is not very normal to rent something as we are used to in the Netherlands, we noticed. We finally decided to do it at our home. We have a big square in front of our house, so that was a good option. However, we were afraid of the wind possibly being too strong.

A few days before the big day, wind force 7 was predicted, so we panicked some more, because we didn’t really have any other choice either, but in the end it was going to be wind force 2-3 on Saturday, September 10: PERFECT!

Our wedding planner had decorated the square beautifully with garlands of lights and she had also arranged for a speaker (to which we simply plugged our laptop with Vincent’s mix). In addition, a large refrigerator had been arranged for all the chilled drinks and we had hired a waiter to serve the drinks.

We had no snacks really for the evening. Apparently you can easily arrange catering in Pigadia, but so to have someone pick that up in the evening (since they didn’t bring it to Afiartis), was not an option. Besides, everyone had eaten plenty at Kipos and we did have some snacks just in case. My (Athina’s) mom ended up being sweet enough to put some more snacks in the oven.

Oh and we opened the party with a 2-3 minute fireworks show while we had our opening dance. Really very cool! Again, the wedding planner had arranged this and the “fireworks man” came to set it off at just the right time.

At 2 o’clock the party was over and the bus driver was neatly waiting at the bottom of the road to take everyone back to Arkassa. By the way, most of them went into the Nu Stema bar for a while 😉

Paperwork to get married in Greece

We were officially married in Greece as well as in the Netherlands. We had of course already signed at the ceremony, but had to go to the municipality on Monday to sign the last things. At that time you also have to indicate – if you get children in the future – which last name your children will have. So we made a quick decision there haha.before getting married in Greece

The documents were prepared on the spot and we were given them. We then had these translated into Dutch by a sworn translator. And we could then deliver these Dutch documents to our municipality in the Netherlands.