A Gorgeous Greek Wedding Six Years in the Making

Villa Galini White and Gold Greek Wedding – Soo Events 38

Villa Galini White and Gold Greek Wedding – Soo Events 17

We’re all doing our best to practice our patience right now with delayed weddings & travel and it’s stories like these that remind us to stay the course…

Susana & Asterios dated long-distance across-the-pond for a year, got engaged & married at Chicago City Hall in a span of 48 hours and married in a church in Greece six years later with their little daughter present.

And while the wait may seem long for many, the day was absolutely worth it. Marrying in a traditional Greek chapel & celebrating poolside on the cliffs of Halkidiki, this wedding scene is about as dreamy as Greek weddings can be!

Our Love Story

I had just moved to London after finishing my studies. My husband (Greek), was on his way back to the USA from Greece and did an overnight layover in London. He stayed with a mutual friend. We all went for dinner (December 4th, 2010) and we had an undeniable spark. We added each other on Facebook the following day and talked every day since. We started our love story when living in 2 different countries.

I went to visit him in Miami for Valentine’s day. We shared our first kiss when we saw each other at Miami International Airport. He came to visit me in London for Easter, and I moved to Miami in the summer. Because of visa issues, I had to go back to Europe 1 year later. We did 1 year of a long-distance relationship, seeing each other every 3 months.

One year later, my husband moved to Chicago. When I went to Chicago to see him for the first time since he moved, he took me around to see the city. We walked to the Ferris Wheel at the Navy Pier. At the top of the wheel, he popped the question! And that was not all. Once we left the Ferris Wheel, he said: “Let’s keep walking, I want to tell you something. We will get married tomorrow, so you can finally move permanently to the USA”. So my engagement lasted 1 day! We got married at the City Hall, had our daughter 5 years later and got remarried in a church 6 years later.

The Destination

The summer after getting married at the City Hall, we went venue hunting in Greece. We visited Santorini and Halkidiki. I fell in love with Villa Galini. The views were breathtaking. I started imagining my wedding. Simple, elegant, and let the view of Vila Galini take care of the rest.

That’s what I discussed with Konstantina of Soo Events, my wedding planner when we talked the first time. I wanted an elegant wedding with unique all-white details to contrast with the blue ocean view. I wanted a Saxophonist and a Pianist at the reception. And, most importantly, I wanted my friends to have a good time. We started off the festivities with a boat trip on Thursday, dinner on Friday, and the wedding on Saturday. It was the most beautiful 3 days with our friends and family.

The Planning & Design

We envisioned our wedding design to blend with the Villa and its elegance, so Konstantina created a mood board for us, with all-white and golden details, with refined and timeless designs that gave away a sense of luxury.

We started implementing all those details on our wedding invitation suite, which turned out to be spectacular. Our graphic designers created white cards with gold letter-pressed foil, an almond colored envelope and a gold wax seal stamp with our tailor-made logo. They also designed and created beautiful matching welcome boxes with our logo on the cover, which included traditional Greek treats, such as mastiha liquor, sesame deserts and honey for all of our guests that traveled from abroad.

Favorite Moments

I love to create memorable moments for my guests, and ensure they are having as much of a good time me. My wedding was elegant and romantic. Our closest friends were there to celebrate our special day, and I couldn’t have hopped for a more beautiful wedding. I think the best part of my wedding was our first dace. I wanted it to be magical and memorable. I chose “There for me” – Sarah Bightman ft Jose Curra. At minute 2.42mn at the crescendo chorus, we had flares going off in the background.

The Flowers

For the flowers, we decided to choose white peonies for my wedding bouquet and an assortment of white flowers for the flower arrangements, such as roses, hydrangeas, orchids, lysianthus and others. After the ceremonies, our guests arrived at the villa and were welcomed by our welcome sign, our seating chart and a dessert table full of delicious treats.

We chose round tables with off-white damask linens, white tiffany chairs and gold metallic stands with white flower arrangements for our guest tables. We wanted our family table to stand out, so our wedding planner suggested a long white table with a wooden frame filled with flowers on top. Our tableware was all white with a gold rim and our flatware was vintage and gold.

The Photography & Videography

The wedding day will go by really fast. I wanted a photographer and videographer to capture our special moments to eternity. My wedding planner gave me a list of photographers she had worked with in the past and me and my husband had a look at their portfolios. I knew I wanted my photos bright, elegant, and with attention to detail. When I saw Paul’s work and the attention to detail he had, I knew I wanted to have him as my photographer. In hindsight, I wish I had been more specific about what pictures I would have loved to have captured.

Same goes for the video. We looked at various videographer work. Yanni Hood’s videos were timeless and that’s what I was looking for in a videographer.

Advice to Other Couples

Our best advice for a destination wedding is to start planning EARLY. Book your date, wedding planner, venue, photographer & videographer as soon as possible. Our busy schedule only allowed us to start planning our wedding less than 6 months before the wedding day. A few of our very good friends had already planned & booked their summer vacations, so they were not able to attend our wedding.

Additionally, if you have any issues with any of the vendors you will have time to change or negotiate details. Thankfully, our wedding planner took care of every single detail, from logistic issues to creative ones and made sure we had the wedding of our dreams.

The day will go by so fast, it will be finished before you know it. Having a timeline of the day was very helpful for us, even though we were not able to stick to it completely, and I was late to the wedding ceremony – the typical bride. If you are getting ready in a place different from your hotel room, make sure you pack your bag the night before. If you have a toddler, as we did, make sure you have a nanny for the day.

Last and not least, the most important piece to your destination wedding is a wedding planner. We were looking for a planner endlessly when we came across Konstantina of Soo Events. We saw her work and immediately knew we wanted to work with her. Some of our decisions had, as a result, to go over our initial budget, but we were always discussing with our planner on how to have our dream wedding while keeping the cost under our renewed budget as much as possible. If you have a great planner, as we did, she will make the simple things look perfect, beautiful, and unique.