Destination wedding, what a wonderful way to celebrate
your love while going on a nice and memorable vacation. But planning a wedding
abroad, comes with some peculiarities. You need to know the mentality on the
location you chose for your wedding, their rules and sometimes their laws.
Santorini is no exception to this rule. There are some really important aspects
you should keep in mind when deciding to have your wedding in Santorini. By
following the local rules of “how-to-do-things” you won’t have to face annoying
little problems that can end up ruining your whole day. Here are 5 things you
should know about Santorini:
1. Ceremony
time:
To begin, I would like to write about what is the best
time of having the ceremony. Most of you would like to make your wedding day
last as long as possible and to achieve that, most couples book their ceremony
to start in the early afternoon. When the wedding happens in April, May, or in
October, this usually is not a problem as the days are not too warm during that
period of time. From the beginning of June till almost the end of September though,
it gets really, really hot in
Santorini, especially in July and August. By having your wedding at 15:00 or
16:00 it’s quite likely that you and your guests won’t really enjoy the ceremony,
as it will be way too hot to pay proper attention to the registrar and the vows.
There is no reason to go through such a challenge, so to avoid heat-strokes and
to enjoy the whole day and not just the party time, make sure to book your
ceremony between 17:00 – 18:00. You will still have enough time to make your
wedding day last.
You should also know that it is of absolute importance to
start the ceremony on time! If you booked the registrar for 17:00 the ceremony should
start at 17:00 and not a minute later! The reason is quite simple - the island
has 1 registrar for the ceremonies, which makes him a really busy person. As
annoying as it may seem, he won’t be having only your wedding on the day. To
avoid any problems, make sure to have all your guests at the venue at least 30
minutes before the ceremony, and be yourself there 10 minutes before the
ceremony begins.
2. Transportation:
In the previous post, I mentioned the importance of
transportation for your guests. Why is that? First of all, it is not hard to
get lost in Santorini, as funny as it may sound. Yes, Santorini is a small
island and it does not have many roads, but it also does not have any road
names or indications where the venues are located, so it's quite easy for your
guests to pass the wedding venue while driving to your wedding, and as a result
arriving too late for the ceremony. If it’s an important guest, you may want to
delay the ceremony, which as we have already discussed is not a got thing at
all.
Another reason, why transportation is important is the
lack of parking spaces. Santorini has way too many cars in the summer, and
sometimes finding a parking spot ends up being an impossible task. If it’s hard
to find where to leave one car, imagine how hard it will be to park 20 or 30
cars! You’ll need a true miracle! You will probably ask yourself “What about
the taxis? The guests can come to the wedding with a taxi”. Yes, they can… but
it’s not so easy to find a taxi either. They island does not have sufficient
taxis to cover all of its visitors, and your guests may end up arriving late at
the wedding simply because they couldn’t find one in time. They can arrange
transportation with the hotel where they will be staying, but not all of the
hotels have mini busses. It will be much easier for you, your wedding planner,
and especially for your guests , to book busses to pick them all up and take
them to the correct location. The less you will have to worry about on your
wedding day, the most you will enjoy it!
One last thing to consider is how to get back to the
hotels when the party is over. Even if all of your guests managed to arrive to
the wedding using the local taxis, it will take them way too long to find taxis
to get back to the hotel after the wedding. You might end up leaving your
guests outside the venue for an hour or more, waiting for whoever will take
them home. You will agree that this will leave a really bad impression on your
guests. By having a bus waiting for them, waiting outside when the party has
ended, your guests will be eternally grateful to you, that you were so
thoughtful of them and arranged an easy way to get to their comfortable beds.
3. Noise
policy:
Santorini has a crescent shape, making the caldera side
look like a bit amphitheater. This results in all the sounds being amplified at
the caldera. Moreover, Santorini is filled with hotels which are full with
people who want to relax on their holiday… and it also has the locals. To keep
everyone happy, Santorini has a strict noise policy.
If you have already done some research for wedding venues
in Santorini, you have probably noticed, that most venues are open until around
24:00 – 01:00 am, with the music being lowered at around 23:30 – 24:30. There
is no way to amend this rule, because otherwise you will have angry policemen
waiting at your door. Definitely not the best way to end your wedding day. When
preparing you day schedule, make sure to have everything finished by 24:00, so
that you could have the last half an hour or hour just for dancing. If, on the
other hand, you wish to spend more time for the party, make sure to plan all your
activities until 22:00. Also, you shouldn’t worry that 1 am is too early to end
the party. Most of the time, couples and the guests get too tired by midnight,
and are more than happy to leave at 01:00 am.
In case you wish to continue the party until morning and
want to have it on Santorini, it is achievable. You’ll just have to choose a
venue that stays open until late and can have loud music until closing time. Of
course, such venues are not located on the caldera. There is no reason to get
sad about it. Have a sunset ceremony on the caldera, and party until sunrise on
the beach!
4. Photographers:
This is relatively new nuance to the world of Santorini
weddings and it has to do with destination photographers that don’t work in
Santorini all the time, but go there for a wedding or two every season. In most
countries, that are popular for destination weddings, you can find regulations
for destination photographers. If, for example, you will be having your wedding
in the US and you decide to bring a photographer from Greece, then you will
have fill in some documents and probably pay some sort of a taxe for the
photographers (I don’t know the exact US regulations for destination
photographers, so I won’t go into more detail. This is just what I’ve heard a
couple of times). This will legalize the photographer’s work in the country.
Greece does not have any such laws.
Even though any wedding photographer can come to Greece
and work here for one wedding without getting into trouble, this does not mean
that he or she will be able to work at a wedding venue, especially in
Santorini. The main problem is that in case of an audit on the venue during your
wedding, when they see a person working there, who is not registered as personnel
of the venue, will result in the venue getting a huge fee! No venue wants that
of course, this is why more and more venues in Santorini began not allowing
foreign photographers, which cannot provide proof that they work legally in Greece,
on their premises. This is a problem indeed, especially when you have already
booked and paid for a destination photographer or videographer from a different
country.
As with everything else, there is a solution for this
problem. First of all, before choosing a photographer consult with your wedding
planner and/or your wedding venue, if it will be possible to bring your own
photographer with you. If this is not possible, worry not as Santorini has plenty
of great and professional photographers and videographers to choose from. Ask
for recommendations from your wedding planner and choose a photographer from
Santorini. When choosing a local photographer, you also have an advantage that
he or she knows all the best locations for amazing photos and you will know for
sure that they will be able to capture the essence of Santorini.
5. Flowers and
other decorations:
Probably everyone knows that Santorini is an island… if
not, then you just became a little bit smarter. Being at an island, means that
it is not possible to have a huge variety of flowers and wedding decoration
shops there, which results in most of the items being brought from the mainland
and even from abroad. This exactly what happens in Santorini.
Why is this important, you may ask? When you cannot find
everything you need at your local shops, you’ll have to order the items from
online shops. Delivery takes time, and in case you need to make returns or
exchange items, this doubles or even triples the time of the decoration
deliveries. This means, that if you decide on the final decoration items a week
before the wedding, you will most probably not have them on time for your
wedding.
The same goes with the flowers – they need to be
delivered to Santorini. Almost all of the flowers that you see on pictures of
weddings in Santorini are brought from abroad. In order for you to be sure that
you will have exactly the flowers that wish for, it is best for the florist of
your choice to know the latest a month prior to the wedding what floral
decoration you will be having on your wedding day. Be sure to make your orders
in advance.
This is the main reason I always tell my couples to make
their final decision on their decorations two months before the wedding. This
way, you will have everything you ever dreamed of without any worries.
In my personal opinion and from my experience, those are
the 5 most important things you should know when you decide to have your
wedding in Santorini.
Thank you very much for reading and I hope you will come
and visit us again 😊
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