I can't believe it's been THREE WHOLE YEARS since we got married! It was such a beautiful, special day, and looking back on the photos I still can't believe we pulled it off. There are a lot of traditions behind Greek Orthodox weddings, and even more when you get married in a village on Crete. Starting with the groom and his party parading up to the bride's home to ask for her hand in marriage. (Side note: all the gorgeous photos from these wedding posts are by the incredibly talented Anna Roussos. If you happen to be looking for a wedding photographer in Greece, she is excellent and I can't recommend her enough.)
Don't they look badass? The guys were accompanied by our band, who played beautiful Cretan music to accompany the mantinades the groom is tasked with reciting to the bride. Mantinades are a traditional Cretan poetry, in this case used to make a good case for the bride to accept the groom's hand in marriage. Peter didn't write ours (his Greek is good, but not THAT good, haha.) They were actually written by my Aunt, the last person to get married in our village. And they were absolutely beautiful.
Spoiler alert: I said yes :) I think my Dad actually said yes before Peter could get a word in, haha. (sidebar: looking at these photos again brings back little memories and details like that one, and it's giving me all the feels...)
After the beautiful serenading was over, we all proceeded to the church together- bridal party, groom and groomsmen, the wedding band and all of our guests.
Aren't my cousins so gorgeous?!
If you haven't been to an Orthodox Christian wedding, they're a bit different from any other marriage ceremony I've experienced. No vows, no kiss at the end, and the first dance happens at church ;) Feel free to skip these bits if you don't find this stuff interesting.
My mother was the 'psalti' or chanter for us and did such a beautiful job (as always <3)
Everything in the Orthodox church is done in threes to represent the Holy Trinity (no joke!) This is the blessing and exchange of rings, and below is the placement of our wedding crowns. We were officially crowned king and queen of our own little kingdom :)
One of most beautiful things about our wedding is how many people helped make it happen and had an active role to play. My Uncle, a deacon, helped officiate parts of the service in English; my Mother chanted, one cousin did my makeup, another drew out a beautiful olive tree for our invitations. My Dad and sister drove in and out of the mountains TWICE the day before the wedding to fix an electric issue (thanks guys!) Even now I am totally floored by how much my family pulled together to make this beautiful day happen.
And this is our first dance (I wasn't kidding about that, haha.) Called the dance of Isaiah, these were our first steps as husband and wife :)
Everything was such a whirlwind. We were rushed off by our photographer to take photographs at Arkadi Monastery. It's a beautiful place with sand-colored stones and well crafted architectural details, but a pretty dark past. You can read more about here, if you're interested.
Gosh I love this guy.
We weren't done taking photos but I think this post is getting a little long. I'll try to get the rest of the photos up by the end of next week! All of these images are by the incredibly talented Anna Roussos.
Happy Monday :)
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