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

What did our wedding day look like?

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

We had planned the big day in such a way that everyone was free during the heat of the day. This way everyone could choose whether to chill at the pool, do something or refuel for a late night ????

Vincent and I slept at Poseidon Blue the night before. We had eaten there the day before and so I had a nice location with my friends the next day to get ready. Vincent left for our house in the morning to change clothes and together with his parents and witness to take some pictures.

I went with my girlfriends in hair and makeup. We didn't have a lot of time, we got married quite early, but apart from me, 2 girlfriends could also put in the make-up and 2 girlfriends also had their hair done. The rest were making themselves beautiful while we were all in the hotel room. Because the alcoholic drink Baileys is the trademark of me and my friends, we all shot in the morning and the photographer was there for beautiful photos. Then we drove to the Skala bar, where Vincent was already with all our other guests and the day could really start.

In a nutshell

arrange everything! How did we do that?

At first we wanted to do as much as possible ourselves and only outsource the decoration of our locations, but after a conversation with Maria Alexiades (wedding planner) we soon found out that she could really do EVERYTHING for us and that is really nice. It is then just a bit easier to arrange in Greece. No offense to all Greeks (we love you!), but unlike the Netherlands they have the mentality here 'yes that will come read: 30 minutes in advance you still have to arrange things). And we would rather have a Greek go after us than have us go after it in English. In any case, you don't want to have to go after everything yourself at the last minute. And we didn't really have a master of ceremonies, because it would just be too difficult for him/her abroad.

Oh nice, Maria really helped us with everything! We could ask her whatever we wanted, nothing was too crazy. She also went to the town hall a few times to ensure that 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, so they often do not get married on location as we are used to in the Netherlands. However, we wanted to have a short moment on location, where we really said YES to each other and preferably could officially sign for our marriage. Maria went to inquire about this at the town hall and although they normally never do this, she had found someone who would otherwise be willing to come to Ammoopi for us to make this moment official for us.

In recent years, they have become very strict with getting married at a Greek chapel. This was no longer allowed in many places. Previously, the rule was that it was not allowed inside (logically), but outside on the site it was. However, this was no longer allowed. Both inside and outside the chapel it is only allowed if you are Greek Orthodox. We really wanted to get married at Amoopi, because it is such a beautiful location and we had already planned to drink ouzo milkshakes with everyone at Skala.

In the end we chose to walk to the church together with our witnesses and the 2 men of the congregation for a beautiful and intimate moment. Vincent gave a short speech to me and then we could say YES and sign. The men of the congregation first told everything in Greek and then in English.

All our guests could watch from a distance, namely in the Skala bar (see photo below). Then we also 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 overlooking Votsalakia Beach and then our guests had free time for the rest of the day. We are still shooting with the photographer in Amoopi & Menetes. And we also had a moment of rest at home afterwards.

Diner

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

Vincent and I had opted for a somewhat controversial arrangement in terms of tables: 2 long tables with the men and women separately. We had Manolis & Maria put all kinds of dishes on the table such as spanakopita, moussaka, fish, chicken & stifado. So everyone could try Greek dishes.

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

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

The party

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

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

Our wedding planner had decorated the square nicely with garlands of lights and she had also provided a speaker (to which we had just connected our laptop with Vincent's mix). Furthermore, a large fridge was arranged for all chilled drinks and we had hired a waiter who could serve the drinks.

We didn't have any bites really for the evening. You can apparently easily arrange catering in Pigadia, but to have someone pick it up in the evening (because they did not bring to Afiartis), was not an option. In addition, everyone had eaten at Kipos and we still had some snacks just in case. My (Athina's) mother was so sweet to put some snacks in the oven.

Oh yes! And we opened the party with a fireworks show of 2-3 minutes while we had our opening dance. Really cool! The wedding planner had also arranged this and the 'fireworks man' came to set this off at the right time.

At 2 o'clock the party was over and the bus driver was waiting neatly at the bottom of the road to take everyone back to Arkassa. Most of them went into the Nu Stema bar for a while ????

Paperwork for getting married in Greece

We are officially married in Greece and in the Netherlands. Of course we had already signed at the ceremony, but had to visit the municipality that Monday to sign the last things. For example, at that moment you also have to indicate – if you have children in the future – which surname you will have children. So we had decided that quickly haha.

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