Our Big Fat Greek Wedding!
Every trip we ever went on after being a couple was always speculated about - “this trip” to Zanzibar or South Africa or SE Asia was the one where I’d come back with a ring on my finger. Much to the disappointment of our family and friends we went on some amazing long haul trips with no word of a ring, proposal or the word YES being said.
I think my husband purposely planned it that way so when we “just” went island hopping in Greece in September 2011, no one uttered a word about this trip being “the one”! Good thinking Batman!!
We started our trip in Athens for a couple of days before travelling down to Piraeus Port and getting a Hydrofoil to Hydra - an island with no cars and the only mode of transport being mules.
Little did I know that on a hike up to the top of Mount Eros (Eros being the Greek God of Love! How did I not realise?!) in Hydra, he would propose. I won’t lie, I whinged all the way up! The. Entire. Way. Sorry, Roddy! It was in midday heat, I was wearing flip flops that rubbed and I had a slight case of a dodgy tum!! Poor guy. How he didn’t change his mind during these couple of hours, I don’t know.
When we got to the top overlooking Hydra port and the surrounding islands, he did the traditional move of getting on one knee and presented me with a haribo ring - my absolute favourite sweet of all time - kids and grown ups love it so! And I think it’s fairly obvious what word came next - NO! Yep, I said NO in shock as in “No, this isn’t happening”. How bad do I feel? Of course I remedied this by saying yes a thousand times over but of course, he still remembers!
During the rest of our stay on the beautiful island of Hydra, we managed to fit in some other walks and on one coastal jaunt round the island, we happened to wander past a place called Castello. A stunning, fully renovated, 18th Century fort-like building that piqued our interest…
We always knew that we would want to get married abroad - it was the perfect fit for 2 people who met backpacking and loved to travel…
So after a reccy trip back to Hydra in May 2012, we agreed that Castello was the venue for us. We were going to get married on Hydra in Greece in May 2013 and whilst its a MASSIVE cliche - it was the BEST day!
We had the bluest of skies (which we were so thankful for as the next day it was overcast and grey!), the venue couldn’t have done enough for us - every idea we had, they supported! Even bringing over different types of beer from around the world for each table as the table names! The owner was fantastic - she was free whenever we wanted to talk things through and made our lives so easy and completely stress free. It was a breeze, she helped recommend a DJ and florist, a boat to get everyone to the venue from the Port and worked with us on the menus and drink options - the latter being the most important! Our guests were thrilled when we announced it was an open tab all day and we partied until 5am. We literally couldn’t have asked for more - every box was ticked.
If you’re thinking about getting married abroad, feel free to contact me with any query you might have - I’d love to help you make this shiz happen!
Following the big day we shipped off to Santorini for a “mini-moon” for a week….as the big trip to South America was our proper honeymoon - come on now, we don’t do things by halves…. ;)