Organic Elegance in Greece at Kinsterna Hotel & Spa
Organic elegance is my new favorite wedding style. And it might help a wee bit when said style drenches a soiree set in beautiful Greece. A locale where olive trees and ancient stone architecture dance together in the sunlight, and a Bride in Pronovias lace fits right in. Anna Roussos joined in on all the fun of this fabulous celebration and we've got the gallery to prove it. The lovely is just a click away, my dears.
From the beautiful Bride...Andrew and I met walking along the street in 2010…Great Marlborough Street, London to be precise. Little did I know then that this random but very interesting man would be the man of my dreams and more importantly the man I would eventually marry…and so our nicknames were set, street boy and street girl!
Roll forward 3 years and I found a stunning hotel on Mr and Mrs Smith, hinting, as you do, that I wanted VERY much to go there! So on Sep 2013 we jetted off to what can only be described as a secret gem in the middle of no-where…namely the Kinsterna Hotel & Spa, Monemvasia Greece.
Unbeknownst to me, Andrew had snuck an engagement ring in his suitcase and it was here on Sep 4th 2013 that he proposed to me in the most incredible romantic setting. The proposal was truly memorable; the most stunning array of candles and white roses I have ever seen in my life. After this, Monemvasia became our “special” place and what an enchanting place it is. We decided that it would be incredible to bring our friends and family to this secret find, so there and then we set the wedding date at Kinsterna Hotel, 6 July 2014…4 years to the date after we met.
I thought planning a wedding in Greece from London would be difficult but I was pleasantly surprised. I did not want a wedding planner, my controlling nature meant I wanted to do it all myself, I was also on a strict budget that we didn’t necessarily stick to! We always thought planning a wedding abroad would be the cheapest option but it’s safe to say we could have planned one for half the price back in England, it’s the costs you don’t see, like accommodation costs for your suppliers and £800 on legal papers so that is definitely worth thinking about when planning your budget. I was adamant that I did not want a ‘packaged’ overseas wedding. I had a vision of exactly the wedding that I wanted to create and slowly worked with my wedding decorator, Ioanna (a local event stylist) to make sure I had a classic white affair. I fell in love with Anna Roussos, our wedding photographer as soon as I saw her work whilst searching on the internet. I instantly knew she was the one. She captures weddings in the most stunning way, almost fashion like. Anna was with us for two days, working on 3 shoots, the pool party, pre wedding dinner at Chrisovoulo Restaurant and of course the wedding!
So far so good…no language difficulties at all and everyone spoke to me in English. I was panicking a little about hair and makeup, I wanted something stylish and beautiful, yet a little edgy to somehow show my own personality. It took 5 months of searching and the two stylists that I found were amazing. As we did not have time to go back to Greece before the wedding, my hair and makeup trial were done the night before…scary!! Katerina and Voula pulled it off and I was ecstatic with the look they had created.
Everything ran smoothly and we now had 60 guests flying out for 5 days of fun. We flew a London club DJ out as we wanted to create an Ibiza style rave around the pool for the party, we also booked sax and bongo players from Athens who I found on facebook. My wow moment was when I walked in to the church. I had my perfect wedding in mind and as soon as I walked in I was overwhelmed. The church and flowers looked breathtaking. I wanted to stop time and just soak it all in. Ioanna had created my absolute dream wedding, a picture of white…white carpet, white flowers, white candles…everything pure white, like I had envisaged!! The service was in Greek in a picturesque church, as my husband is half Greek and Greek Orthodox this was a nice touch for his Greek family and something different for our English guests.
We then went back to the hotel for canapés and personalized cocktails, created when Andrew had proposed, these ‘his and hers cocktails’ went down a treat. The dinner was divine, the chef produced a local fresh organic menu, and as my husband is a real foodie this was one of the most important parts of the day. Then came the party, yes guests jumped in to the pool and yes we danced until 6.30am with the pictures to prove it! We wish we could do it all over again. We loved every single minute of it. It was the best day of our lives so far and we feel truly blessed to have such a precious memory.
Roll forward 3 years and I found a stunning hotel on Mr and Mrs Smith, hinting, as you do, that I wanted VERY much to go there! So on Sep 2013 we jetted off to what can only be described as a secret gem in the middle of no-where…namely the Kinsterna Hotel & Spa, Monemvasia Greece.
Unbeknownst to me, Andrew had snuck an engagement ring in his suitcase and it was here on Sep 4th 2013 that he proposed to me in the most incredible romantic setting. The proposal was truly memorable; the most stunning array of candles and white roses I have ever seen in my life. After this, Monemvasia became our “special” place and what an enchanting place it is. We decided that it would be incredible to bring our friends and family to this secret find, so there and then we set the wedding date at Kinsterna Hotel, 6 July 2014…4 years to the date after we met.
I thought planning a wedding in Greece from London would be difficult but I was pleasantly surprised. I did not want a wedding planner, my controlling nature meant I wanted to do it all myself, I was also on a strict budget that we didn’t necessarily stick to! We always thought planning a wedding abroad would be the cheapest option but it’s safe to say we could have planned one for half the price back in England, it’s the costs you don’t see, like accommodation costs for your suppliers and £800 on legal papers so that is definitely worth thinking about when planning your budget. I was adamant that I did not want a ‘packaged’ overseas wedding. I had a vision of exactly the wedding that I wanted to create and slowly worked with my wedding decorator, Ioanna (a local event stylist) to make sure I had a classic white affair. I fell in love with Anna Roussos, our wedding photographer as soon as I saw her work whilst searching on the internet. I instantly knew she was the one. She captures weddings in the most stunning way, almost fashion like. Anna was with us for two days, working on 3 shoots, the pool party, pre wedding dinner at Chrisovoulo Restaurant and of course the wedding!
So far so good…no language difficulties at all and everyone spoke to me in English. I was panicking a little about hair and makeup, I wanted something stylish and beautiful, yet a little edgy to somehow show my own personality. It took 5 months of searching and the two stylists that I found were amazing. As we did not have time to go back to Greece before the wedding, my hair and makeup trial were done the night before…scary!! Katerina and Voula pulled it off and I was ecstatic with the look they had created.
Everything ran smoothly and we now had 60 guests flying out for 5 days of fun. We flew a London club DJ out as we wanted to create an Ibiza style rave around the pool for the party, we also booked sax and bongo players from Athens who I found on facebook. My wow moment was when I walked in to the church. I had my perfect wedding in mind and as soon as I walked in I was overwhelmed. The church and flowers looked breathtaking. I wanted to stop time and just soak it all in. Ioanna had created my absolute dream wedding, a picture of white…white carpet, white flowers, white candles…everything pure white, like I had envisaged!! The service was in Greek in a picturesque church, as my husband is half Greek and Greek Orthodox this was a nice touch for his Greek family and something different for our English guests.
We then went back to the hotel for canapés and personalized cocktails, created when Andrew had proposed, these ‘his and hers cocktails’ went down a treat. The dinner was divine, the chef produced a local fresh organic menu, and as my husband is a real foodie this was one of the most important parts of the day. Then came the party, yes guests jumped in to the pool and yes we danced until 6.30am with the pictures to prove it! We wish we could do it all over again. We loved every single minute of it. It was the best day of our lives so far and we feel truly blessed to have such a precious memory.