There is so much to adore from this romantic chic wedding at the idyllic Island Art & Taste! Amanda and Jack decided to celebrate their love with a summer fete surrounded by fabulous florals, lots of fairy lights and nature beauty of the venue! Behind the lens of this beauty is Pahountis Photography who captures both swoon-worthy details and emotion-forward moments from their special day. Get ready see all the lovely details and remember as far as inspiration goes, the limit in this destination wedding Greece simply does not exist!
Captured by Pahountis Photography.
“We got married in summer in Athens. We first met at a mutual friend’s birthday party at the end of high school many, many years ago in Montreal. We would see each other every year at this event thereafter, but it wasn’t until we were both single in 2015 that Jack messaged me on LinkedIn to join a Greek professional network (HBOT) that we hung out one on one. After attending two events together and talking in the car for 4 hours when he drove me home, he asked me to go on a real date. We both knew from that first date that we had something very special together. This was in November 2015. We moved to New York City together in January 2018. One year later, we had taken the afternoon off from work on a Friday to supposedly celebrate the anniversary of us moving. Jack came home from work that afternoon and handed me a postcard – in the back of the postcard was a little rhyme leading me to the basement of our apartment building where something funny happened the first week we moved in. Thereafter, he proceeded to give me several other postcards, leading us to places all around the city where we had shared beautiful and funny memories over the year. The last spot was Central Park. We got out from the taxi and walked to this secluded spot by the lake with a little bench. He handed me the last postcard and got down on one knee and asked me to marry him. It was such a happy day and beautiful memory”, Amanda shared with us.
“It’s important to mention how important our Greek heritage is to us. Jack and I both grew up in Montreal Canada. My grandparents were all born in Greece (across Andros, Korinthos and Patras), and Jack’s father is from Athens (Palio Faliro) and only moved to Canada when he was 25 years old. It was such a wonderful opportunity for us to have our wedding in this country that we love so much, and to be able to share these memories with our children one day. I was following Love4weddings when I was planning my wedding. Given we were getting married in Greece (outdoors by the gorgeous Athenian Riviera at the Island Art & Taste, private house in the background), we knew that we didn’t need extravagant decorations. We ended up going to see Kostas at Red Box Days and showing him a few ideas of flowers that we liked on Pinterest. He quickly put together a sample centrepiece and it was perfect (the first one he showed us!) We knew we were in good hands. The flowers were a mix of neutrals and pinks with a lot of beautiful greenery – the day of our wedding, the actual bouquets, centrepieces and our sweetheart table were covered with the “real” version of the sample that Kostas had shared with us 2 years earlier and the flowers were really so incredibly beautiful – all of our guests kept giving us compliments. We kept the rest of the decorations simple, with candles on the tables, up the stairs and around the pool, and fairy lights twinkling on the ceiling of the pergola and over the guest tables. The fairy lights were so beautiful at night – those were provided by our DJ, Panos at Long Play Music Events”.
“I would like to give a special shout out to Frantzeska Koukoula – she made me feel so beautiful with her incredible talent and did a fabulous job on the hair and makeup for me, my bridesmaids and my mom. She complemented everyone’s natural beauty so wonderfully and her and her assistant were such pleasures to work with. The hairpieces we purchased from her (for the bride and bridesmaids) were also so incredibly unique and beautiful. My wedding dress was from the store Kleinfeld in NYC, by the designer Maison Signore. The style was called “Pandora”. I found it when I first casually went wedding dress shopping with my sister-in-law Mara in May 2019. When I put it on, we both knew it was the one. I instantly started crying picturing walking down the aisle and seeing Jack waiting for me. It was a sleeveless v-neck a-line wedding dress, with a floral applique bodice and layer tulle skirt. The color had a light blush undertone, and the skirt had the most amazing sparkles that glimmered in the night during the reception. I wanted something that would match the vibe of being in Greece by the water and I think the result was perfect. I still love my dress to this very day and am so happy with my selection”.
“We had to postpone our wedding due to COVID, from July 2020 to July 2021. Our favorite moment was when we finally got to have our first dance together. We never thought the day would come and we had so many moments (laughing and crying) at home where we would put our song on and dance and wonder if we would ever have the opportunity. It was such a beautiful, magical moment – we were smiling and talking the whole time. We also had the surprise fireworks go off during our first dance, which ended up being perfect. The fireworks were provided by Nanos Fireworks. Another part of our wedding story that was really special, was that my yiayia got to visit Greece after not coming back for 31 years. She grew up in Korinthos but moved to Canada in her late teens. A few days after the wedding, we took a drive to Korinthos to visit her old house and her sisters whom she hadn’t seen in person in 31 years. It was a very beautiful and special memory that our family will always remember. Finally, we would like to thank Mando Metaxa at the Island for her support over the 2.5 years leading up to our wedding day – we are so happy with how everything turned out! The Maitre D and staff the night of our wedding was also incredible and we can’t thank them enough”.
Bride’s advice: “Don’t stress what you can’t control and eventually everything will fall into place. Having been a token “COVID bride”, everything that could have possibly gone wrong up to the day of the wedding did (from postponing 1 year, to not knowing until 1 month before the second year if it was going to happen, to being told 1 week before the wedding that we couldn’t walk around freely or dance due to new Covid restrictions). But in the end everything worked out beautifully and I wouldn’t have changed 1 single thing. You also know you chose the right partner when you can get through all of those challenges together and come back even stronger. Also, my advice would be to trust your gut when you meet your vendors, and if you have a good feeling – go with it. You don’t have to meet with 100 different vendors. We worked very closely with both our photographer (George Pahountis) and videographer (Thanasis Protatos at Project Unposed) and they made us so comfortable from the very beginning. We are so incredibly pleased with the memories we have forever because of their unique work”.
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