Wedding in Greece : Day One

Wedding in Greece: Day One

A Destination wedding in Greece, on the Cycladic island of Tinos – a short ferry ride from the more famous holiday island of Mykonos. Three days of wedding celebration for Olia & Jeremy. They had done the legal ceremony, with a small reception, in London a few months previously. Every wedding has a budget; this one was massive! It was centred on the unique hotel, the Odera Tinos, part of the Marriott Autograph Collection. A five-star hotel built into the hill overlooking Vourni beach, with a view across to the island of Siros.

Olia had first got in touch with me in May, wanting to talk about her plans for this wedding in late September. Then silence. But she got back in touch in August, once the plans had come together more and booked me. Now to be honest, I don’t chase after destination weddings, but I’ve done a few. One aspect of them is the time they take, travel, etc. That’s needs a bit more budget. The original plan was that I flew to Mykonos and took the ferry across to Tinos, in time for the start of the first day – an evening reception and dinner. But looking at timings, the flight from Gatwick was often late, it would be touch and go to make the ferry crossing. So it meant flying in the day before and staying overnight in Mykonos. As it happened, the flight was on time, and I managed to grab a boat to get a couple of hours exploring the ancient site of Delos. It would be an introduction to the weather for the next couple of days. It was windy. The boat back from Delos, dived and jumped the waves. This strong wind became a feature of the next two days, and as a reportage photographer, I wanted to show it visually. It was a major part of the experience for everyone. It was full on, unabating. Opening and closing my hotel room, at the top of the cliff, was a struggle. The howling meant earplugs at night to get any sleep. But I found the visual element at the start of the evening reception, on day one. As guests entered the hotel foyer, where the reception was being held due to the wind, the dipping evening sun hit, for a brief time, the doors as guests entered, with their hair messed up by the wind… The reception featured some Russian/Slavic wedding traditions, as well as Jeremy having to sing outside the bedroom door to summon his bride.

Greek village wedding dinner

A fleet of black Mercedes minivans then took the guests to the main part of the evening, into the centre of Tinos and to the small village of Komi. The reception took over the village square with a dinner provided by the local restaurant, Svoura. The guests were seated, and Olia arrived on horseback, along with musicians and traditional Greek dancers. What followed was a relaxed evening of food and dancing, and then the minivans took everyone back to the hotel.

But come back for Day Two!! Not to be missed!

And as for my brief visit to the ancient sacred site of Delos, a bucket list trip ticked off, although I’d like to go back one day. Here are a few images.

And the final two, those remains of statues atop plinths. Yes, they are what you think they are…