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What do you get when you mix one musical groom, a choreographer bride, and a whole lot of Greek sunshine? A destination wedding that hits all the right notes. Selena and Philip ditched the inflated California wedding scene for something far more magical: a weeklong celebration at Villa Delenia, complete with beach parties, custom cocktails, and cannonballs in full wedding attire. Yes, really.
We met in college! Philip was in a singing group, and Selena was a dancer, and his group hired her to be their choreographer for their performances. Philip made the first move and asked Selena to be his date at a party, and the rest is history!
When we first started wedding planning, we looked at several venues in California. However, the wedding industry in the U.S. is so inflated that it is extremely expensive and unaffordable. A friend recommended looking into venues in Europe for a destination wedding, and we discovered that the “wedding tax” that is so common on venues, flowers, etc in the US is not applied in Europe. After venue-hunting all around Europe, we discovered Villa Delenia in Evia was our dream venue, so we couldn’t say no! We also love to travel, so we were excited to turn our wedding into a fun Euro-trip for ourselves and our guests!
Greece exceeded our expectations! We spent three weeks exploring Athens, Evia, Milos, and Paros, and that still didn’t feel like enough time there! We loved trying the local foods, exploring remote beaches, and learning about Greek culture.
We started looking at venues 1.5 years before the wedding! Then we started working with Anat about 8-9 months in advance to begin planning the details. There were a few challenges with this destination wedding. The time difference made planning meetings difficult, as a 9am meeting in Greece was at 11pm in California! We also don’t speak Greek, so communicating with different vendors was a bit difficult at times. Anat was very helpful with streamlining this whole process for us with planning meetings, translating for us, etc.
We had manyyyyyyy meetings with Anat in the months leading up to our wedding. At first we had weekly meetings to get the general vision down, and then we met twice a week as the wedding got closer so we could fine-tune all of the details. Anat and Yonathan are really expert planners, and they can do it all! If they didn’t already have a certain wedding sign that I wanted, I’d send them a pinterest picture, and Yonathan would build it from scratch!
Anat has a perfect blend of logical/detail planning and fun/dreamy planning as well. Once we had solidified the timeline and the main structure of the day, she really helped bring to life the fun details like signature cocktails, personalized decorations, and amazing food that included both American and Greek traditions. Anything that was important to us was immediately a priority for Anat, which helped us really trust her judgement throughout the whole process.
We really enjoyed planning the fun details of the day! Philip composed our wedding song and made the dance floor DJ mix, so he had a lot of fun personalizing these. Selena worked with Anat to make all personalized wedding signs including signature cocktails named after our family dogs.
One of the most important things for us in general was having frequent, open communication with our wedding planner throughout the process. Especially for a destination wedding, we wanted to make sure that our vision was coming to life and all of the details were covered. Anat was great about keeping us in the loop on vendor meetings and getting our opinion every step of the way.
Philip wanted to personalize all of the music, so Anat made sure this was possible from hiring live ceremony players to renting professional music equipment for the reception dance floor.
We had a simple, outdoor ceremony overlooking the Aegean sea. Our close friend was the officiant, and Selena’s mom walked her down the aisle. Philip composed all of the ceremony music, including an original song while Selena was walking down the aisle. While we had a large bridal party of 15 people, only the best man and maid and matron of honor stood with us throughout the ceremony. The ceremony was about 30 minutes long, including a few words from the officiant, followed by reading our vows to each other. Then we enjoyed a cocktail hour, followed by a night full of dancing!
Our wedding felt like a garden fairytale overlooking the Aegean sea. The decor included personalized signs designed by Selena, original music composed by Philip, and tons of beautiful flowers that Selena and Anat worked with Terra Alba to design. One unique moment happened during the reception when Philip and our guests from his singing group serenaded Selena.
Find a wedding planner who you trust and who matches your communication needs. Unless you go visit your destination in advance, ALL of your planning will go through your on-site planner. This makes it extremely important that you communicate well and respect one another. Your planner should respect your non-negotiables, and you should trust their knowledge of the local vendors, laws, etc.
Anat and Yonathan were amazing about listening to all of our wants and needs. If something that we wanted wasn’t achievable, Anat would find several other options and help us decide what would make the most sense for us
Near the end of the reception, a few of the groomsmen picked Philip up and thew him in the pool! This instigated an all-out pool party with many groomsmen, bridesmaids in dresses, and other guests all doing cannon-balls and having a great time.
Dreaming of your own Greek fairytale? Whether it’s custom cocktails, sea views, or surprise serenades, we’re here to help you make it happen—your way.
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