Corfu has a beautiful Catholic Duomo and lots of cozy little Orthodox churches within walking minutes in Corfu’s old town so the couple decided to celebrate their union with two back-to-back ceremonies. Above all, a couple wanted to highlight the commonalities of both cultures and created everything based on this thought. The colors that dominated the wedding were inspired by Corfu like blush, peach, olive green and gold and the style that prevailed was mainly rustic … So beautiful! Go ahead and get lost in these daydream wedding photos!
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
From the bride: “We met in Cambridge, UK at the “Genome Campus”, a research institute dominated by computer geeks and biology nerds, not us of course! Our first date was a volleyball match that Eva was organising. Stathis seized the opportunity to get her number. We got closer through a series of bus and lunch “dates” and eventually our senses crossed on a fateful “wild” Cambridge outing (ok fine it was in a bar)”.
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
“Stathis bought the ring which he carried for 3 months and a few long weekend trips, but never seemed to find the right moment to pull the trigger. He did invalidate the ring’s return policy though so there was no going back! He ended up coming home earlier from work on a normal Friday afternoon and proposed with a bouquet of roses as Eva was trying to leave the house in a hurry to catch a flight back home for the weekend. She loved that it was so random, unpretentious and sweet. Eva spent the flight staring at the ring and Stathis crying on the phone with his family!”
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
“We wanted a place where we could celebrate and marry our two cultures: Portuguese and Greek. There are no Greek Orthodox churches in Portugal and Corfu is one of the few places in Greece that has a large Catholic community dating back to the 12th century, when the Kingdom of Naples sent some Italian families to Corfu to rule the island under Venetian ruling. Corfu has a beautiful Catholic Duomo and loads of cosy, little Orthodox churches within walking minutes in Corfu’s old town, so we decided to celebrate our union with two back-to-back ceremonies. The Catholic marriage was celebrated in Portuguese by a priest who is an intimate friend of Eva’s family, which made it unique. Corfu is also the place where we’ve been spending most of our Easter holidays since we’ve been together, and where Stathis spent most of his summers while growing up, so it is a very special place for him and his family. It was an easy decision in the end because Eva’s family and our friends kept asking to travel to Greece!”
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
“Above all, we wanted to highlight the commonalities of both cultures. For example, we choose words that sound phonetically similar in Portuguese and Greek as table markers, to make everyone feel at home (except for the other 120 guests that were not Greek nor Portuguese – those learnt it for the 1st time!). We also offered one custom-made booklet to our guests with local tips and recommendations for their stay in the island, and another booklet with an explanation of the rituals of both marriage ceremonies, so that everyone could follow it in the moment. In terms of ambience, we were aiming to create a rustic, alfresco, elegant, yet effortless feel, punctuated by Corfu’s colors: blush, peach, olive green and gold.”
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
“There were two best moments! The most emotional one was seeing Eva entering through an arch of light at the Duomo following the flower girls – we were both overwhelmed with this moment and couldn’t believe we had actually pulled this one off after 1.5 yrs of planning this wedding! The second best moment was our entrance to the reception party – it was SO pumped up and legendary – we owe this to our best man who secretly distributed confetti poppers and bullhorns to our guests, and to an amazing DJ crew!”
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
“Eva spent hours with the usual suspects: browsing Pinterest and thousands of destination wedding blogs to get inspiration – there’s too much to read, digest and take in! She ended up learning a lot about the Greek wedding industry, which made us book a few venue visits around Athens, but our hearts were set for Corfu soon after (despite very consciously knowing that this would mean a much lengthier and micro-managing planning process!). Organising a destination wedding from abroad in an island such as Corfu is challenging and much more restrictive because most businesses do not fully operate during the winter, there isn’t a lot of choice in terms of venues (especially big ones) and you have to liaise with multiple, individual vendors, or even bring vendors all the way from Athens (or Ireland!). You have to be creative while also trying to stay within budget, which is really tricky!”
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
“We wanted to make everyone feel welcome and that our guests could also enjoy the summer vibe, so we also hosted a pre-wedding welcome party and a post-wedding beach chill out afternoon which included a boat ride. The logistics were immense but so, so worth it! We knew we had to go the extra mile and counted with the help of tirelessly family members (Stathi’s mother and my sister Maria) and great professionals, including our planner. We had numerous obstacles along the way and ended up losing the venue that we thought was “the one and only” to something that ended up being the truly unique setting for our party: a replica 1930’s Greek village (famously used as the filming location for ITV’s, ‘The Durrells’ and the James Bond film ‘For Your Eyes Only’).”
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
“I made the big mistake of booking appointments to try on wedding dresses that were way out of my budget! A great friend of my mother and a Portuguese ex-bridal designer, Patricia de Melo, told me off and decided to take on the task of designing my dress, inspired in Liz Martinez’s Barcelona 2016 collection. Patricia created the dress in 5 months and solely 3 fittings. She keeps saying it was the last dress she will ever design and tailor but I don’t believe her!”
Photography : Simple Tapestry
Photography : Simple Tapestry
