One beautiful bride gracefully offered us her views, personal insights on choosing a Greek island for her wedding with her beloved husband. She gives valuable advices to couples on how to plan a successful and extremely fun destination wedding
Nikki celebrated her special wedding with husband Matt on the island of Folegandros in September 2021. Read what can make your wedding in Greece truly memorable.
Matt and I met on a blind date in 2014 and hit it off immediately. Matt had just moved to Knoxville, Tennessee for his doctorate program, while I was finishing up my internship in elementary education there as well. We fell in love, moved in together, got a dog, and travelled the world. We moved to Washington DC for Matt’s job, where he proposed in July of 2018, a year after our first trip to Greece together.
In the summer of 2017, Matt and I took a trip to the Czech Republic and Greece. My oldest sister had visited Greece with her husband many years ago and fell in love – and in particular with Folegandros, where they stayed at Blue Sand. They suggested we stop in Folegandros, so we did, also staying at Blue Sand. During our time there, I envisioned how my perfect day would be to walk down those beautiful steps beside Blue Sand, with my father on my arm, down to the beach to marry the love of my life. As crazy as it sounds, Matt and I made it work. We decided to get married in Folegandros on Agali Beach. We researched wedding planners and everything felt right with Celia and Sonia. While the pandemic forced us to postpone the wedding twice, Celia and Sonia were with us every step of the way, making sure we would, in fact, one day have our special wedding.
I’ve always wanted to get married on a beach, and I also love a minimalistic and bohemian vibe. I searched for similar ideas on Pinterest and looked at weddings Celia and Sonia had done in the past for inspiration. I loved what I saw, so they made it pretty easy on us. We created a Pinterest board and shared with Storytelling Lab, where they took those photos and brought it to life on our wedding day.
We loved the nature of Folegandros and wanted to use anything local to the island that we could – be it flowers or herbs. This went with our bohemian and minimalistic vibes very well, and Celia and Sonia took our wishes and created a masterpiece.
It’s hard to pinpoint one moment that we can say “this was our favourite”, because everything was beyond special. We particularly loved learning Greek dances, having live Greek music played during the ceremony, having family put together a slideshow and playing at our rehearsal dinner, and dancing the night away with our loved ones with the best music, amazing food, and great company.
When planning a wedding in a different country, there are bound to be things out of your control or things that come up last minute. My biggest piece of advice is to trust the process. All those things you may worry over will not be worth the stress of something that may or may not even happen. Even if it does happen, you probably won’t even notice, or care for that matter. All the joy and love you will feel that day totally erases those feelings (which are all valid!). My advice is simply to let yourself enjoy the day!
Make sure to communicate early and often about your expectations for what you want your wedding to be like. If you make most decisions together, even the small ones, you’ll both be even more excited to see your dream wedding come to life. If you are thinking about getting married in Greece and do not live there, I highly suggest that you work with a full-service wedding planner that can handle everything locally. Also, the beauty of the Greek Islands is such a great backdrop for your wedding that sometimes less is more. Decorations may not need to be extravagant because the setting is so naturally beautiful, and guests may not always need a full agenda of activities because there is so much for them to enjoy there anyways. I would encourage anyone who is considering getting married in Greece to look more into it and learn about everything it has to offer. Our wedding was more than just a celebration of our love; it was a beautiful, immersive experience that we got to share with our friends and family.
I can’t really put into words how happy I am with genuinely everything. It was the best day of my life, and the days leading up and the days following were just as wonderful. For all of our guests, it was the highlight of their year, and brought all of us closer together – we continue to talk about the celebration every chance we get!
You can find Nikki & Matt’s wedding complete photo album in our precious Memory book: Vibrant & Joyful Symbolic Beach Wedding in Folegandros
Photography Kostis Mouselimis
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