It's all Greek to me

We’ve decided to get married abroad, but wanted to make sure it wasn’t going to stop the people closest to us being able to join us. Although an exotic Caribbean island would have been lovely, it was really important that our family and friends could be there to celebrate with us. That’s when Greece came into play.

When we started looking at the different islands the first two we fell in love with were Santorini and Mykonos.

Santorini looked absolutely gorgeous, as did Mykonos, but we had over 80 people to invite and the venues didn’t cater for what we wanted. The other thing we had to take into account was the cost. Neither location offered the price variety we needed to cater for our guests’ budget range. 

Then we looked at Zante (Zakynthos) and came across a company called Zante Weddings. I sent emails to a number of wedding planners on the island, but Zante Weddings (via UK based Ionian Weddings) seemed to have the best experience. So I arranged to meet Ionian Weddings at the National Wedding Show (the helpful element of the show for me – and useful if you aren’t local to where you choose to get married). During the meeting they took us through the ‘packages’ and options and after talking through with h2b we decided we’d hold the ceremony on a little island at the edge of Laganas Bay, called Cameo Island, and the reception would be at a local taverna, (Vardiola, Kypseli).

It was a really difficult decision to make, getting married abroad, I really am a complete control freak, so making a decision without seeing the venue’s, island or even meeting the people that would be in control of my wedding day was a lot for me to deal with. I’ll be honest; I didn’t deal with it very well to start with and had a relapse of ‘the moment’ – which came back from the darkness with a vengeance!

I was dealing directly with the people at the UK based Ionian Weddings (they manage the translation of paper work, where Zante Weddings don’t), and really didn’t feel I was getting much communication from them. When I asked a question it felt like I was asking for the earth. Fair enough, this was about 18 months before my wedding was actually taking place, but it really didn’t help my nerves about whether we’d made the right decision. All I really needed was for a reply with a little enthusiasm (after all we had paid a hefty deposit!), but, although they were polite, I didn’t get the reassurance needed to calm my nerves.

Luckily, we’d decided to go out to Zante in May (the year before the wedding). There was no way I was going to get married somewhere I hadn’t even seen! I would’ve been a wreck. And I am so glad we did.

On arrival we met Frances from Zante Weddings, the actual person who would be coordinating our actual wedding day. She talked us through the day, how the day could run, examples of other weddings, and really put both our minds at rest! It also gave us the opportunity to meet our potential photographer, Lukas from Story Studios. Who, as soon as we saw his work, we booked there and then!

If you’re thinking about getting married in Zante and have any specific questions about Zante Weddings, Story Studios, Cameo Island or Tsilivi (where we stayed) please don’t hesitate to get in touch. I will talk about it in more detail, as I’ve done loads of research and spent two-weeks there in May, but feel free to ask away and I’ll do my best to help in any way I can.

Want to get married abroad?

Getting married in Zante is a relatively straightforward process. You only have to be there 24 hours before the wedding takes place and there’s only one trip to the town hall after the wedding. But it’s not the same in every country. Some, if not all, French locations insist on the couple being in the country for a month before the wedding, and in other locations you have to be out for a week or so before. So make sure you do your research before you commit to anything and find out what paperwork you need to do. Personally, my nerves couldn’t take handling it all myself, so having a wedding planning service is the only way for me. Plus, you don’t need to worry about the language barrier, as your planner deals with the suppliers for you.

The other thing I like about Zante Weddings in particular is that everyone seemed to know who they were, and had either worked with them or known someone that had, which gave us more insight into who we were dealing with. We had mixed views from people we spoke to, but you have to take everything into account and the things that were most important to us were all covered!

If you do have the time to visit the venue before you get married, I’d really recommend it. It gives you the chance to meet the people, check out hotels and flag anything you’re not happy with before you go out to get married. I now feel 100% better about everything and had a great holiday at the same time! xx

(Image: Cameo Island, Zante. From Zante Weddings)