Wedding and family

A wedding is the symbol of the creation of a new family. It's a celebration of the love that two people have for each other, their common goals and happiness. A wedding is a new beginning, the beginning of two people joining their lives together to share all what is to come.

Photo from www,brides.com

Naturally, the wedding is all about the couple that is getting married. Still, that does not mean, that your family, especially your parents, don't wish to get involved in your special day. It is really nice to have your mother, the original wedding planner, to help you organize your wedding, but the generation gap can make this task a bit difficult at times, and stressful. Still, there are ways to make your parents and siblings feel involved in the wedding planning process, without any unnecessary disagreements.

Family traditions:

When it comes to weddings, every family has its own traditions. It can be wearing the same wedding dress your mother, grand-mother, grand-grand-mother etc., wore on their wedding day, or putting on a piece of jewelry or charm, which has been passed from generation to generation, or even the choice of the entrance song when walking down the aisle. Take some time to speak with your parents, and your future spouse's parents, to learn about the interesting traditions that have been in the family. Your parents will love it, and will feel like they offered something to the wedding.

Wedding attire shopping:

Photo from bridalmusings.com

A wedding requires a wedding dress and a wedding suit, meaning that you will have to look for one. When starting to look for your wedding attire, ask your mother, and if you feel comfortable, your future mother-in-law's opinion, on the wedding dresses that you like. Even better, take your mother and mother-in-law with you, when you go wedding dress shopping! Not only you will make your mothers feel part of your wedding, but you will also give them a chance to bond.

The same goes for the groom. Arrange a day with your father and future father-in-law, during which you will go looking for your wedding suit. Combine that with a lunch or a beer, and you will get a great, meaningful day with your parents.

Speeches:

Speeches are the ultimate way to make you family be part of the wedding. Ask the fathers to prepare a speech for the wedding. They will love to talk about their lovely children, tell some funny stories, and share a word of wisdom for your freshly beginning life together, as husband and wife.

Mother-Son and Father-Daughter dance:

Every couple has its first dance. Such a lovely moment to witness! Want to make it an even more special moment? Have a mother-son and father-daughter dance, before your first dance. The mother-son and father-daughter dance, can represent how your beloved parents are giving you away to your future life-partner, by having one last dance with you. To make it even more touching, have the father-daughter/mother-son dances together, at the same time, and then let your parents give you to your spouse for the first dance.

Photo from weddingbee.com

Old Photos:

Photos are a great way to memorize our life moments. By looking at older photographs, we dive into our past, our happy moments. Your parents probably tried to capture a lot of your childhood moments, so they could always remember the days of your youth. Create a "memory table", full with pictures of you with your family. Everyone will love seeing your childhood adventures, and your parents will be moved that you chose to include your family moments to your wedding. To make it even more special for your parents, include a picture from their wedding to the table, as without their wedding, you wouldn’t be having yours!

Thank them!

Of course, the best way to make your parents feel a great part of your wedding day is to thank them properly for everything they have done for you so far. They've supporter you all your life, transferred their life wisdom to you, were next to you at your worst and best moments. Also, they probably helped you have the wedding of your dreams. So, don't forget to dedicate a minute to thanking them during the speeches. They will appreciate it!

Thank you very much for reading! I wish you a lovely day!

<-- Previous

A guide to wedding decorations

Picture from - http://ruffledblog.com

Wedding decorations is a basic part of a wedding. They give the whole celebration a unique character, your character.

Wedding decorations consist of both floral decorations and non-floral decorative items. It’s the mix of those two, that make thefinal result look amazingly beautiful.

So, how to choose the wedding decoration style?

The first, which you should do, is to choose the color theme for your wedding day. You can choose between vivid colors, such as bright yellow, red, blue, purple etc., and pastel and blush tones, such as blush pink, cream, ivory, light peach etc. You can, of course, add bright colors to a pastel pallet or vice versa. A good idea is choosing a main color or two, and then adding some similar tones to the mix.

The next step would be deciding whether you are a flowers person or a candle person. In other words, you need to choose between having mostly flowers for your wedding decorations, or filling up the place with candles. If choosing between two options seems hard, no need to worry. Just balance candles and flowers in your decorations!

A helpful piece of advice for any candle lovers out there, would be using fake, LED candles for windy locations, as real candles will be blown out all the time. Santorini is such one location.  

picture taken from rockmywedding.com

If you choose to go with flowers, you should be prepared to set a big decoration budget. Flowers are undoubtedly really beautiful, but they can also be quite costly, especially if you wish to fill the entire wedding venue with them.

You can go with seasonal flowers, which are usually less expensive, and non-seasonal flowers, that can cost a bit more, but offer a greater variety. When it comes to weddings in Santorini, the seasonal flowers are usually roses, lysianthus, baby's breath, gerberas etc, and non-seasonal flowers are considered peonies, ranunculus, David Austin Roses, orchids etc.

A way to save something on flowers, is to mix the floral compositions with greenery. The more greenery you add to the mix, the lower the cost will be. As with the flowers, greenery offers a great variety of choices, meaning you can always find a tone that will match the whole wedding color theme.

Candles, as a piece of decoration, can give the place a really romantic feeling, whether used outdoors or indoors. You can choose to have cylinders, to put your candles in, floating candles, beautiful candle holders etc. Candles can be used with pretty much any wedding style you might - from a minimal wedding, to a chic wedding.

Candles and flowers are the major parts of the wedding decoration list, but you should not forget about the details, which will add that personal touch you are looking for. What details am I talking about? Well, about all those little things that can be easily ignored, but have a great input to the final image of your wedding decorations.

photo from
http://www.deerpearlflowers.com

The first, and most important decoration detail, are the wedding invitations. They will set up the whole mood for your wedding day. Say you wish to have a music themed wedding. Get creative and shape your invites into vinyl disks. Your friends and family will love this unique approach, and will get the hint on what to expect on your wedding day.

The guests' tables can have a ton of fun decorative details to play with. Choose table clothes to much your color theme. Fold the napkins into interesting shapes. Have creative table names. Include your guests' favors to the decoration.

There are so many ways to get creative with your wedding decorations and a million different ways to make your wedding reflect your own unique personality. All you need is to engage your inner artist and free your imagination.

Thank you very much for reading! I wish you a lovely day!

< -- Previous

10 reasons to have your destination wedding in Santorini!

Photo by dreamonphotography.gr

Santorini is a popular location for a destination wedding, and it's no secret. Some people may wonder, what makes Santorini so special? A great number of things! Santorini is a beautiful, unique island, and is suitable for probably any type of wedding. Let's go together through some of the reasons Santorini is such a famous wedding location!

1. Mesmerizing views

Oh yeah.. the famous caldera views. I've been going on and on about the views of Santorini's cliff side, I know. If you have been to Santorini before, you understand why. If you haven't, then you definitely should. Is it the white houses hanging from the cliff, that look like snow from far away? Is it the color of the cliff side's volcanic soil? Is it the volcano and Thirasia? It's the combination of all the above, which make Santorini's views so wonderfully amazing!

2. Magical sunset

Photo by clickbychristos.com

True, we have sunsets in every country, but Santorini's sunset have that something special, that makes everyone want to see again and again. Now, combine that with your wedding, and not only the guests will have a lifetime experience during their sunset cocktail hour, but you will get the most amazing and romantic wedding photos, that a couple could ask for!

3. Beach Weddings

If you are a person who always dreamed of a beach wedding, then Santorini is again a perfect choice for you! You will not only have the beach wedding of your dreams on such a romantic island, but it will also a one of a kind beach wedding. You see, Santorini is famous for its black beaches, made from volcanic rock. You can easily find a white beach to host a wedding, but Santorini is one of those unique places, where you could a black beach wedding!

Beach weddings in Santorini

4. Honeymoon and Wedding together!

Santorini is a wonderful and romantic island, with a lot of interesting activities for couples. So why not combine your wedding with your honeymoon? After saying goodbye to your friends and family, have a luxurious honeymoon suite booked just for you, and enjoy your first vacation as a married couple! Want to travel and visit other island? You are in luck, as Santorini is located right next to a lot of other wonderful Greek Islands, that you can visit after your days in Santorini!

5. On a budget

Santorini is considered a "on a budget" destination wedding location. A lot of couples come to get married on the island, to cut down on their wedding expenses. Also, it is a great way to combine your vacation and your wedding, thus saving some extra money on hotels and rooms, and air tickets to fly to a different vacation location.

6. Different season, different beauty

photo by dreamonphotography.gr

From season to season Santorini transforms. In spring the island is blossoming and is full of vivid colors. In summer, the vineyards start to blossom, giving Thira a different reason to stay beautiful and green. In autumn, the sunset can be seen from the beaches of Santorini, meaning that you can have a sunset beach wedding! As you can see, each season has its own beauty, and you will certainly find the perfect scenery for your wedding, when choosing Santorini.

7. Unique traditions

Santorini has some great traditions when it comes to weddings. Santorini has great traditions in general. In particular, the island is famous for being the donkey island, so why not incorporate that into your wedding? What a better entrance to the ceremony, but with the bride on a donkey and local musicians playing a traditional Greek wedding song. Just make sure that the donkey is not mistreated when booking one.

8. Wine tour cocktail hour

Another thing that the island is famous about, is its wines. If you don't wish to have the usual cocktail hour, while you will be away for your couple's photo shoot after the ceremony, take your guests to a winery for a wine tour and wine tasting. Your guests will have a great time, and will get a chance to learn more about the wine history of Santorini.

9. Professionalism

Santorini has been the capital of destination weddings for a long, long time. This means, that the people who work in the industry, know exactly what they are doing. When having your wedding in Santorini, you are guaranteed on having a stress-free, best organized wedding you could ever wish for.

10. Experience of a lifetime!!

photo by clickbychristos.com

Santorini is a beautiful island in a lot of different ways. By having your wedding on the island, you and your guests will most certainly have an experience of a lifetime. Give you, your family, and your friends a reason to visit this wonderful island, and witness firsthand what it has to offer. Everyone will be thankful and you will have a memorable wedding!

Those are 10 reasons, why you should have your destination wedding in Santorini. Still need something more to convince yourself to host your wedding in Santorini? Visit the island this summer, and fall in love with it yourself.

Thank you very much for reading! You have my best wishes!

<-- Previous || Next -->

Retro Wedding

Picture taken from Weddbook

The 20th century gave us a lot of wonderful things to remember. The hairstyles, the clothing, the music, and much, much more! Because of that, the previous century is a great place to look for inspiration, when choosing a theme for your wedding. In my opinion, a retro wedding not only gives a unique and memorable character to your wedding, but is also a sweet way to give your parents and grandparents an opportunity to relieve the beauties from their younger years.

So, what is a retro wedding style? A retro wedding, is a style which includes various charming little details from the old times. With every decade offering something new and fresh to draw inspiration from, it is hard not to find something you will absolutely love for your wedding theme. You can make a 90's, 60's, or 40's wedding theme, or have a 20th century mash-up wedding!

A great thing about retro weddings, is that you can choose absolutely any color palette you like for your wedding, and still get the retro feeling you are going for! There are no restrictions whatsoever. Anything from pastel and blush colors, to vivid and bright tones can be used for a retro wedding. This also means, that a retro wedding can be a good choice any time of the year. With the adorable retro patterns, you can make your wedding decorations even more fun.

Picture taken from
niepoprawnapannamloda.blogspot.com

One of my favorites, when it comes to retro wedding styles, are the decorations. The best part? You won't have to go far to get them!! Just visit your parents' attic and you will find everything you need, there. Use old suitcases to make a cute sitting plan stand. Look for vintage picture frames to use on the guest tables for the table numbers. Use doilies, books, old soda bottles to create the most amazing centerpieces! The key ingredient is your imagination.

The 20th century was the era the self-powered motor vehicles, or simply cars, begun being used by the public, and what gems did that time produce. The previous century is responsible for so many amazing cars, such as the Classy Bentley, the VW Van, also known as the hippie van, the cute beetle, the romantic decheveux. All of those cars, and so many more, are perfect to arrive to a wedding. And the pictures you will make with them, will be gorgeous!

The best way to give your wedding the retro feeling you are going for, is of course for you, the bride and groom, to travel three to four decades back and borrow the style of the time that you like. The tea length wedding dresses with lace details give a romantic, girlish appearance to every bride. Combined with the chic vintage hairstyles and bright red lips, you will look like you stepped out from a different time. The groom's attire is equally stylish as the bride's. With choices from classic suits, to suspenders, bowties, vests, your future hubby will look stunning for his retro wedding day!

Picture taken from happywedd.com

Planning a retro wedding, is as fun is could possibly be! There is so much interesting information to look for, that you will fall in love with the process. Looking in all those bridal bouquets that were in fashion in every decade, listening to the amazing music those times produces, learning about the drinks, sweets, and fun games of that time, will be more like the best history lesson you ever had, rather than planning a wedding.

Do you wonder, how would a retro wedding style fit in Santorini? I say, wonderfully! With so many wedding venues, built from old factories, a vintage wedding will look swell in Santorini! Interested in having one? Feel free to contact Cardoon Events for more information and ideas!

Thank you very much for reading! I wish you a lovely day!

<-- Previous || next -->

All you need to know for your wedding at Le Ciel wedding venue

Picture taken from Le Ciel's official website
http://leciel-santorini.com

I've already shared my thoughts on why I believe the amazing cliff sife wedding venue Le Ciel is a great choice for your Santorini destination wedding. I've also discussed what are some of the advantages of having your wedding there. Now it is time to dive into more detail about this fantastic venue, so you could know everything you need to know when planning your wedding there.

When reserving Le Ciel for your ceremony and reception, you will have the venue from 4 pm till 1 am, 4 pm being the time your guests can start arriving at the venue. You should know, that it is not possible to extend the rental duration beyond 1am, due to the strict noise restrictions in the caldera area. But, you shouldn't worry too much about that, as Le Ciel is located only 10 minutes by car from Fira, where all the clubs and bars are located, and you can easily transfer your party there, after the venue is closed.

If you wish to reserve the venue just for your wedding ceremony, you can easily do so for a morning ceremony between 10am and 12pm.

The rental fee of Le Ciel includes a separate wedding ceremony terrace, with a white gazebo with white curtains, some lanterns for decoration, a beautiful ceremony table, and chivari chairs for your guests. At that terrace, you can not only host your ceremony, but also have your cocktail hour. You and your guests will most certainly enjoy the fantastic view of the terrace, while sipping on your delicious cocktails.

Picture taken from Le Ciel's official website
http://leciel-santorini.com

Le Ciel's rental fee includes a DJ for the duration of your wedding, as well as a sound system and lights for the party, and a spacious dance floor. You are free to send the venue a playlist for the whole event, or if you don't feel like it, just send ten to twenty songs, so that the DJ couldn't understand what kind of music you would like to be playing on your wedding. Whatever your choice might be, make sure to send the playlist at least a month before the wedding, so that they DJ could prepare for your wedding day.

As mentioned in the previous blog post regarding Le Ciel, the venue has its own bar and kitchen, which is really convenient when it comes to a destination wedding, as you won't need to look for extra vendors for your wedding day. Both their drink and food menus offer a great variety of options to choose from.

Picture taken from Le Ciel's official website
http://leciel-santorini.com

Let's start with the open bars. I would like to mention, that Le Ciel offers different open bar packages for the ceremony and the reception. This is quite handy, especially if you don't want your guests to start drinking too early.

You can easily arrange to have a mocktail welcome drink for your guests upon their arrival to the venue, then have a unlimited champagne for after the ceremony, and light, sparkling wine based cocktails for the cocktail hour! All that with just one package! Convenient, right?

Le Ciel's reception drink packages are suitable for every budget. You can choose to have just unlimited Santorini wine served during the dinner and the party, and let your guests pay for any spirit they would like to order. If you don't want for your guests to spend money on your wedding day, you can order to have a full inclusive open bar package with unlimited refills of all the alcoholic beverages the venue has to offer.

Picture taken from Le Ciel's official website
http://leciel-santorini.com

As with the open bars, the food menus Le Ciel offer a great variety as well, so will be able to satisfy all of your guests' tastes . Le Ciel offers meat menus, fish menus, vegeterian, vegan menus, gluten free menus, kids menus. And if you have a guests with a, say, cucumber allergy, Le Ciel will make sure that, that particular guest will have its courses without any cucumbers. Le Ciel can be pretty flexible with its menus, if required, as long as you finalize the menus two to three months prior the wedding.

For the reception, you can choose between having a sit-down menu and a buffet menu. You should know, that if you plan on having more than 60 persons attending your wedding, you will have to choose from the buffet menus only. You can mix and match the existing menus, and when it comes to the buffet menus, you can create your own from scratch, choosing from the dishes Le Ciel has to offer.

Don't know which menu to choose? Arrange a food tasting with Le Ciel, to make your decision easier.

It is really important to have transportation arranged for your wedding in Le Ciel, both for you and your guests. You don't want your guests driving after all the drinks they've had at your wedding, and you don't want any of the guests arriving late for the ceremony. Include transportation costs to your wedding budget, to make everyone's life easier!

Plan you budget for a wedding in Santorini!

Picture taken from Le Ciel's official website
http://leciel-santorini.com

Another important details about Le Ciel, is that due to law restrictions, fireworks are not allowed at that part of the caldera. You can easily replace fireworks with floor fountains, dry ice effect and other interesting and unique special wedding effects. Need help finding those special effects for your wedding? Contact Pro Support to find what they have to offer.

To sum up, Le Ciel is an amazing cliff side wedding venue, not just because of the breathtaking caldera and sunset view, but for much, much more!

They are getting booked pretty fast, so make sure to reserve your wedding date there as fast as possible. 

Visit the official website of Le Ciel wedding venue for more information - http://www.leciel-santorini.com/ 

Thank you very much for reading, and I wish you a lovely day! 

<-- Previous || next -->

Le Ciel: A magnificent wedding venue on Santorini's cliff side

Le Ciel's magnificent view! 

Santorini… the magical sunsets, the amazing views, the picturesque scenery. I believe I have used those particular words to describe Thira in most of the blog posts I wrote. Those words don't lie, and those are some of the main reasons people visit this island and come to have their wedding here. Santorini is an undoubtedly magical island for the most romantic wedding you could ever imagine.

But where to have your wedding on Santorini's cliff side? Thankfully, the island has a number of beautiful private wedding venues to choose from, and one of the best is Le Ciel wedding venue in Imerovigli. Located just outside of the main square of Imerovigli, and surrounded by luxurious caldera hotels, this venue would be a great choice to host your wedding at the Caldera of Santorini.

What makes Le Ciel wedding venue so special?

Let's start with the location. As already mentioned, Le Ciel is located not far away from the heart of Imerovigli, the tallest point of the cliff side of Santorini. This gives Le Ciel a perfect view of the caldera and an even better view of the sunset. During the day, you won't have anything distracting you from the amazing beauties of Santorini's cliff side, and at night you will be enjoying the view of Oia, with its thousands little lights in the dark.

When in Le Ciel, you and your guests have the opportunity to witness one of the best sunsets of Santorini. The sun will set right in front of you, between Oia and the small island of Thirasia. I've seen a lot of sunsets as I've been living in Santorini for a while, so they don’t move me as much, but when I have the chance to have a wedding at Le Ciel, I'll always pop out with the guests to enjoy the sun hiding behind the horizon.

Another great advantage of Le Ciel, is that it is located close to hotels, meaning that you won't have to worry about where to find accommodation for you, your family, and your guests. Right next to the venue, there is the Cavo Tagoo Hotel, which will make a great choice to house all your bridal party and your family for the upcoming wedding. If you book the entire hotel for yourself, you can even host there a lovely pre-wedding party!

Le Ciel comes with a DJ and a sound system, a bar and a kitchen, meaning that you won't have to worry about looking into catering companies or professionals to take care of your entertainment for the night. Everyone who works at the venue, are highly professional, and will provide you with high class services, that will make your wedding day even more memorable.

It is worth noticing, that they have amazing food! The chefs take care of every minor detail, making sure that your dish will not only taste heavenly, but will also look appetizingly beautiful. Even though Le Ciel has a gourmet kitchen, no guest will leave the table hungry, something that is definitely a plus!

Le Ciel is a relatively new wedding venue in Santorini. It opened its doors in the summer of 2015. Although it is such a young venue, it does not show in the high level of their services. When you first contact Le Ciel, you will be greeted warningly by Themis or Nefeli, and you will be provided with all the information you need to know about the venue. Both of them are kind, patient and understanding, making you wedding planning process as easy as it could only be. They will help you with any additional information you might need, suggest wedding planners to work with, should you not have one, and will make sure that everything will go smoothly and as planned on the actual wedding day. It is always a pleasure working with them, from day one!

Want to learn more about this one of kind wedding venue? Stay tuned to read Thursday's wedding blog, where I'll talk in more detail about Le Ciel.

Thank you very much for reading, and I wish you a lovely day!

<-- Previous || next -->

Santorini caldera wedding venues!

Photo by Christos Trigas - http://www.clickbychristos.com/

The island of Santorini is popular for various different things, but the most magical of what she offers are the mesmerizing caldera views. The colors of the soil of the cliff side are beautiful as they are, but combined with the hundreds of the traditional white houses, hanging from the cliff, and the churches with the blue domes, is what makes the caldera view so breathtaking.

That's not the only beauty that Thira has to offer. From every point of the cliff side you can see the "Nea Kameni", which is the volcano of Santorini. Another unique feature of Santorini is the small island of Thirasia, an island that used to be part of Stroggili, as the island was once called, but was separated after the big explosion that happened more than 3.000 years ago!

Last, but not least, let's not forget about the amazing sunsets that you can enjoy every evening from the caldera. The greatest part is, is that you can view the sunset from all parts of the cliff side of Santorini, and love it more and more with every time.

With all that in mind, I totally understand why all those couples choose Santorini for their destination wedding. They get the most stunning wedding photos, they create everlasting memories for everyone on the guest list, and all what the island has to offer, make a wedding in Santorini the most romantic a couple could have.

And of course, adding to all the above, the wedding venues on the cliff side are the most amazing place someone could get married. Just imagine having your wedding at the very edge of a cliff, with all the Aegean sea at your feet?

When it comes to wedding venues located at the caldera side of Santorini, you can choose between having the wedding at a hotel or a private wedding venue. There are some differences between the two options, and both choices offer different advantages.

Hotels can be really convenient, if you are having a small 20-30 person weddings, and wish for all of your friends and family to stay together at one place. You won't have to spend extra on the transportation, and your guests won't get tired with the trip to the venue.

Le Ciel wedding venue - http://www.leciel-santorini.com/

If you choose to have your wedding at a hotel, it is always better to book the entire hotel for yourself. One major reason for this, is that this will be a guarantee for full privacy on the wedding day. Most hotels, that offer to host weddings at their premises, have a separate area for the ceremony and reception, which won't be accessible from the rest of the guests of the hotel. Still, there is a possibility that a curious person might accidentally crash your wedding party. Booking the whole hotel for your wedding guests, will help avoid such surprises.

You should also keep in mind, that hotels have even more strict noise restrictions on music levels and duration, as they don't wish to disturb any of the other hotel guests' staying there. But if you are having the whole place for yourself, you won't have to worry about that.

A couple of great hotels, that offer the amazing caldera views, as well as terraces for weddings, are the Cavo Tagoo suites and the Hara's Houses in Imerovigli. Those are both small hotels, perfect for small intimate weddings at your doorstep.

Caldera wedding venues offer different advantages from the hotel venues. One great advantage of a wedding venue, is that by paying for the private use of the venue, you will get exactly that - 100% privacy for your wedding. Admittedly, you might find that the rental fee for private use of a venue is higher than that of the hotel. On the other hand, when having a wedding at a caldera venue, you are free to choose to stay at a beach hotel, thus saving some money on accommodation, plus enjoying the sea every day of your Santorini visit, but still get the magnificent caldera views on your wedding day.

Another advantage of caldera wedding venues are that because they are made especially for weddings and events, they are shaped in a way to fit the needs of a wedding. This means, that you will be able

Photo by Christos Trigas - http://www.clickbychristos.com/

to have your wedding ceremony at a terrace perfect for wedding ceremonies, and the dinner area will be made in a way to have your dance floor not mixed together.

Whether you choose to have your wedding at a hotel on the cliff side or a caldera wedding venue, you will still enjoy the wonderful sunset and the picturesque views, Santorini is so famous about.

Next week, I will write about one of the most popular, and for a good reason, caldera wedding venues of Santorini - Le Ciel. Stay tuned, to find out more information on this one of a kind wedding venue!

Thank you very much for reading. I wish you all a lovely day!

<-- Previous || next -->

Oceanids Estate: All you need to know!

So, you are looking to get married in Santorini, and wish to host your wedding reception and/or ceremony at a beach venue? OceanidsEstate wedding venue would be a perfect choice for you! In the previous blog I shared some information about this wonderful venue. Now, let's dive in into more "technical" details.

Picture taken from oceanids-estate.com

First and foremost, why choose Oceanids Estate for your wedding in Santorini? As Nina told me, and as I completely agree, "the couples who wish to get married in Oceanids, should understand that upon entering our venue, stress stops to exist. Our goal is to make them feel like home. They should also prepare themselves for a " till you drop" party!". They really stand by those words! When planning on having your wedding at Oceanids Estate, you won't have to worry about a thing. Isn't this a perfect scenario for a wedding?

Weddings cost money, we all know that. When it comes to Oceanids Estate, you won't have to dig deep into your pocket for a perfect wedding. The venue has a really reasonable price for renting it private, and they offer much more than just the private use. Their rental price include a DJ for 5 hours and an audio system strong enough to cover a 150 person wedding. In other words, one of the major parts of a wedding will be covered, just by choosing this venue! Besides the audio system, the rental price also includes a full party lightning system, a detail which will make your party even more fun!

The rental fee for the private use of the venue includes as well the staff of the venue, all taxes, and some decorations, such as lanterns and vases, a beautiful vintage style lounge area next to the sea, and comfortable stone couches! If this isn't a great value for money, I don't know what is!

The next question some might ask, is how many people you can invite to your wedding at Oceanids Estate? There are no limits!

Oceanids Estate wedding venue is perfect for both small, intimate weddings of 20 persons, and big wedding of 300 persons or more! The space of the venue can be arranged in such a way, that it will neither look too big and chaotic for small wedding, nor you and your guests will feel too crowded in case of a large wedding!

Picture taken from oceanids-estate.com

When it comes to drinks, Oceanids Estate has its own bar. For the cocktail hour you can choose between a variety of different welcome cocktails for your guests, from a glass of Prosecco, to a cocktail of your choice. Alcohol free drinks are also offered as an option, should you be having guests that don't drink. For the rest of the reception, you can choose one of the many different 5 hour long open bar packages. After the open is over, you are free to choose between providing your guests with unlimited drinks till the end of the party, or opting for your guests to pay for their own drinks. Oceanids truly makes your life easy!

Oceanids Estate does not have its own kitchen, but that is not a problem at all! The location of the venue is so convenient that makes it really easy for catering companies to work with them. And since the venue owners have great experience when it comes to weddings, they know exactly what a catering company needs to provide you their best services!

Still need a reason to book Oceanids Estate for your wedding? Here are some of the great advantages of the venue. When booking the venue for your private wedding, you get it from 14:00pm till 8:00am! And since there are no noise restrictions at this venue, you will have the time of your life partying all night long, undistracted!

If you are lucky enough, and on your wedding day there will be a full moon, then you will have the chance to dance under the moon, which is directly over the venue. A great way to make your wedding day even more romantic!

Oceanids Estate is kids friendly and disabled friendly. It is flat, there are no different levels, and there is a convenient ramp from the entrance of the venue, meaning that if you will be having people with disabilities attending your wedding, they won't have any trouble getting around.

Picture taken from oceanids-estate.com

Should you be having children at your wedding, their parents won't have to worry for their kids to fall over the stairs while running and playing! And because the venue has no levels, as already mentioned, you will all be at the same level, and non of your guests will be divided during dinner or the party!

Because this wedding venue is right next to the sea, it's a perfect location for a beautiful and private beach wedding! If you are

dreaming of something different for your wedding, you can arrange a "Mamma Mia" styled wedding, or even arrive by horse to the ceremony, or after the couple's photo shoot.

Oceanids Estate is not good just for summer weddings. The venue has an astonishing indoor area, which can be used for winter weddings as well. This is also an advantage if you are planning on having your wedding in early spring or late autumn, as you won't need to worry about your "Plan B" in case of a rainy day. Oceanids Estate is a "Plan A" and "Plan B" combined!

If you are thinking of having special effects, fireworks, a spectacular stage for dancing, then you can choose Pro-Support to provide all those services to you! Why

Pro-Support. Because Pro-Support is owned by the same people that have Oceanids Estate, and you will profit by having combined packages with Oceanids Estate and Pro-Support!

To sum up, Oceanids Estate is a wonderful choice for a wedding ceremony and reception. With great prices, amazing location, complete privacy, no noise restrictions, you are guaranteed on having the best wedding possible, which will stay in the memories of you and your guests forever!

And As Nina and Nikitas say "A marriage in Oceanids Estate is a lifetime experience!"

Need more information on the venue? Visit Oceanids Estate's official website - http://www.oceanids-estate.com/

Thank you very much for reading, and I wish you a lovely day!

<-- Previous || next -->

Santorini Wedding Venues!

Santorini has a number of great wedding venues. Some of them are located on the cliff side of the island, overlooking the famous caldera sea and the volcano. There are also plenty of wedding venues located on the beach side of Santorini, and believe me when I say that they don't lack the beauty of the caldera venues.

Le Ciel wedding venue

There are some differences between the caldera venues and the beach venues, and in this posts I would like to write about exactly that. I would like to compare the differences between the two types of wedding venues, making it easier for you to choose the venue that will be most suitable for your wedding.

Before I begin, I would like to point out, that if you are torn between a beach venue and a caldera venue, then there is a simple solution. Which one? Well, choose both!! You can easily arrange to have a wedding ceremony on a caldera venue, and then host your reception at a beach venue, combining the advantages of both types of venues Santorini offers.

Let's get into more detail…

As mentioned above, the caldera venues offer amazing views of the caldera, the volcano, the Thirasia island, and of course the so famous Santorini sunset. There never was a guest or a couple that wasn't amazed by the view their caldera venue of choice had. When the sky is clear, you can even see the nearby islands, which only adds to the greatness.

Venetsanos Winery wedding venue

When going for a wedding venue on the caldera side of Santorini, you can choose between beautiful wineries, like Venetsanos Winery, and combine your wedding with an educational winery tour for your guests, as well as a delicious wine tasting, and high class wedding venues such as Le Ciel wedding venue in Imerovigli.

Sea side venues are scattered along the beaches of Santorini. Admittedly, they don't have the caldera views, but the beauty they offer is no less wonderful then their fellow wedding venues on the other side of the island. The soothing sound of the waves, the clear night sky, and of course gorgeous sunrises, will still make your wedding day unforgettable to you and your guests!

Want to learn more about the choices you have for a beach wedding venue? Read this blog post, dedicated entirely to the beach venues of Santorini.

Caldera wedding venues are, as a rule, located near hotels, or could even be part of a hotel. This is a great plus, as you won't need to worry about transportation for your guests since they can stay at a walking distance from your wedding venue. With beach venues, you won't be able to find hotels right next to the venue, because they are usually located in more isolated areas. This is not a bad thing though, because this way the beach venues offer more privacy.

The proximity of the venues to the living areas of the islands, greatly affects the noise policy of each venue. In an older blog, I've already mentioned the strict noise policies that caldera venues have.

Oceanids Estate Wedding Venue

In most cases, you cannot extend your wedding party beyond 1 am, since this is the latest the music can be played at the caldera. With beach venues though, you won't have such restrictions and can stay and party until morning.

Beach venues also don't have the firework restrictions, that a lot of caldera venues have. It is not always possible to have fireworks at the caldera area for multiple reasons. One of the reasons is the previously mentioned noise policy. Another reason is the fire hazard. The cliff side does not have easy access to most of its point, and if a sparkle falls and starts a fire halfway the cliff, there won't be a way to put the fire down, something that is obviously quite dangerous. You should also take into consideration the wind, which is most of the time stronger at the caldera side of Santorini than the beach side. Wind and fireworks don't go to together well.

One last major difference between the caldera wedding venues and the beach wedding venues is the size of the venues. Caldera does not offer enough room for large venues. The biggest cliff side venues you can find, can host no more than a 100 persons. Beach venues, on the other hand, are perfect for wedding for up to 200 hundred persons, as they are more spacious and you will have enough room for your tables and a dance area.

How to choose between a beach venue and a cliff side venue? You'll just have to ask yourself what is more important to you: the magnificent views till the end of the wedding day, or an all night long party? If you are looking into having a small or relatively small wedding, which won't last longer than midnight, then caldera is your perfect choice. But if you prefer to invite all of your friends and family to the wedding, and have a sunset to sunrise wedding, then opt for a beach venue.

If you need more help with your venue choice, feel free to contact Cardoon Events for more advice.

Next blog will be dedicated to Oceanids Estate wedding venue, so stay tuned to learn more about this amazing beach venue!

Thank you very much for reading, and I wish you a lovely day.

<-- Previous || Next -->

Beach Weddings in Santorini!

Santorini is famous for its breathtaking caldera view, with the white houses hanging from the colorful cliff, its magical sunsets, and the churches with the blue domes. This is probably why Santorini is such a popular location for destination weddings.

I can understand that every couple would want to have a wedding picture on the cliff side of Santorini. With so many wedding venues located on the caldera, it is really easy to combine your wedding day with the beautiful views of Santorini, giving you and your guests amazing memories for a lifetime.

Still, Santorini is much more than just the caldera, as it also has the famous black beaches, which make a great place for a wedding ceremony. You should keep in mind, that since the beaches are

Beach wedding at Oceranids Estate

public, anyone could come and crash your wedding, should you choose to have the ceremony at a random beach in Santorini. Not to worry though, as If you choose a venue, which is located at the beach, you will be able to enjoy a private ceremony, without any strangers.

One such great venue, where you could have your beach wedding is Oceanids Estate. The wedding venue is located right at the beach of Ekso Gonia, which happens to be one the best beaches of the island. It is spacious, meaning that you won't have to limit your guest list, something that is always a plus. Afterwards, you can host your reception at the same venue, and enjoy an all night long party which will end with the sunrise.

Beach wedding set up at Akro Restaurant

Another beautiful venue by the sea for your beach wedding is Akro restaurant. This venue is located at the unique beach in Mesa Pigadia in Akrotiri. Its rocky landscape and romantic atmosphere will make your wedding day unforgettable, both to you and your guests. And if you are dreaming of having a unique entrance to your wedding, you can come to the ceremony on a horse, since the Santo Horse Riding stables are located not far away from the venue. Your guests will certainly remember this entrance, and you will get amazing wedding pictures.

If you are looking for an elopement or a small wedding on the beach, then Sea Side restaurant would be a perfect choice for you. Located in the very edge of Perissa, you will have a romantic seaside wedding and a great time with your close friends and family. After the ceremony, you can stay for a semi-private dinner at Sea Side restaurant's cute kiosk, or, if you prefer full privacy on your wedding day, book the entire restaurant just for you.

Beach weddings in Santorini offer a number of advantages over the caldera weddings. First of all, the beach venues do not have the noise restrictions that caldera has, meaning that you can party up until morning. You can have fireworks, since no one will be bothered by the noise, and fireworks make a great addition to any wedding. Even though during summer months you won't be able to see the sunset from the beaches of Santorini, the colors of the sky during sunset, along with the endless blue sea, still make great photos!

If you wish to have those famous wedding photos on the caldera, you can always go for the couple's photo shoot at the cliff side. Just leave your guests for an hour to enjoy their cocktails by the sea, and go to the caldera side for the pictures. Who said you couldn't have it all?

On Monday's blog post I will be discussing in more detail about the main differences between the caldera venues and the beach venues, so stay tuned!

Thank you very much for reading, and I wish you a lovely day!

<-- Previous || next -->