Fun activities in Santorini: Wine tours!

Venetsanos Winery vineyard

The island of Santorini is famous for various different things, one if which are the wines that are produced there. Half, if not more, of the island is filled with vineyards, that look amazingly beautiful during summer when they have blossomed. In August, when it is time to gather the grapes, the whole place smells like wine. The reason is that part of the grapes are left to ripe in the sun, so that they could be used to produce the sweet, dessert wine Vinsanto.

Because of such a rich wine making history, and the fact that the island still produces one of the best wines globally, it is only natural for Santorini to have a great number of different wineries. There is the Venetsanos Winery, the Boutari Winery, the Sigalas Estate Winery, the Koutsogiannopoulos Wine museum, to name a few. All located in different areas of Santorini, and with each winery offering a different wine tour and wine tasting.

Wine making machinery at Venetsanos Winery

Taking a wine tour and wine tasting is not just an interesting activity to do when visiting Santorini, alone or with your family and friends, but is also a great idea for a "cocktail hour" at your wedding. Agreeable, a wine tour is not your traditional cocktail hour, but from my experience your guests will find such a tour really interesting, amusing, and unique for a wedding.

Don't wish to have your guests spending too much time in a bus on the wedding day? Arrange the wine tour to be part of your pre-wedding gathering on the island. Your guests would love to visit a Santorini winery anyway, since it is a really popular activity on the island, so why not give them a chance to do so all together? A great advantage of such a pre-wedding gathering, is that your guests will have an interesting topic to discuss on the wedding day! You'll give them the best ice-breaker ever!

My two personal favorite wineries of Santorini are the Venetsanos Winery and the Koutsogiannopoulos Wine museum, each for different reasons:

VenetsanosWinery:

Wine stating at Venetsanos Winery

Venetsanos Winery is located on the cliffside of Megalochori, over the Athinios port, making a winery with amazing caldera views. The winery was built in 1947 by the Venetsanos family, and it was carved in the mountain. A tour there is really interesting, as you get to learn the history of the place, go through the different cellars and tunnels in the mountain, and get to know how wine was produced there and distributed. They even a corner, which used to serve as an office, where they kept some of the instruments and notes of the founders of the winery.

Of course, as with every winery, you can choose to finish the tour with a wine tasting of the Santorini wines, enjoying at the same time the magnificent views of Venetsanos Winery. A wine expert will describe you how every different wine is made, sharing interesting information about the wine making culture of Thira.

A useful information is that Venetsanos Winery is also available for wedding ceremonies and receptions. Its location is such, that you will be treated with the famous and wonderful views of the caldera. The black volcanic rock, from which the terrace is made, gives the place a unique character, perfect for the "one-of-a-kind" weddings we are all looking for.

KoutsogiannopoulosWine Museum:

The Koutsogiannopoulos winery was founded in the 19th century, and has been ever since producing delicious Santorini wines. The winery is located in Vothonas, on the road to Kamari. Nowadays, it is an astonishing museum, which is absolutely worth visiting when coming to Santorini.

Koutsogiannopoulos Wine Museum's exhibits

What makes this winery so special? Its museum! It is an underground, 8 meters deep, labyrinth like museum (don't worry, you won't get lost). You will dive into the history of the wine making of Santorini, from the very beginning. The cave museum is filled with small cavern like rooms, where you can see the wine making process for yourself. The figurines, used at the cavern rooms, give you the feeling that you have travelled a hundred or more years back, and you are participating in the ploughing, harvesting and stomping of the grapes.

The exhibits of the underground museum are presented in a chronological order, making it easier for you to understand how the wine making culture began in Santorini. To help you understand even better the wine science, you will have the opportunity to see old machinery, which was used in the wine making process.

At the end of the tour, you will have the chance to taste four different Santorini wines, gaining a new appreciation of the hard work of all those people who are involved in the wine making process.

Koutsogiannopoulos Winery offers its premises for a wedding as well. It is a perfect choice, if you love being close to nature, as the winery has a wonderful garden for magical weddings!

Whether you came to Santorini for your summer vacation, for your own destination wedding, or for your friend's wedding, make sure to include in your program a visit to one of the Santorini's wineries. You will most certainly enjoy it, and will leave the island with new and interesting knowledge.

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

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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! 

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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!

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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!

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Oceanids Estate: A look behind the curtains.

In the last blog post I wrote about the various wedding venues that Santorini has. This time, I would like to write in more detail about Oceanids Estate wedding venue at the beach of Ekso Gonia.

Oceanids Estate was opened in 2013. The building, where Oceanids Estate is housed, used to be a tomato canning factory. The building was built is 1937 from the famous black Santorinian volcanic rock, which gives the now wedding venue a really unique and amazing feeling. The owners of Oceanids Estate renovated the venue to a very high standard, but still kept the old style of the building.

The owners of Oceanids Estate, Nina and Nikitas, have great experience in the field of weddings and events, which means that when choosing this wedding venue, you will have people working with you who exactly what is needed to make your wedding unforgettable. They are friendly, professional, kind people, who will do everything they can to ensure that your wedding day will be both incredibly fun and stress free.

I've started working with Oceanids Estate in 2015, when planning some weddings for the summer of 2016. They made my job really easy, and where always eager to answer any of the questions the couple or I could have. They have a great method of organizing the weddings their hosting, that no minor planning detail will be forgotten. Nina is an excellent wedding planner herself, which has proven to be of great help, as she knows exactly what needs to be done for a perfect wedding. No couple or guest has ever left this wedding venue with a complaint or without a happy smile.

Another interesting and impressive detail, is how Nina and Nikitas treat their working stuff. They are understanding, kind, patient and wise employers, meaning that the waiters, the cleaning stuff, the barmen, and the DJs, all enjoy working at Oceanids Estate. You may wonder, why would I mention that? Well, because a tired waiter or a unsatisfied with the working conditions cleaning lady, can easily create a sour memory from your wedding. Oceanids Estate's stuff do a great job, they put their soul into what they are doing, which shows in the successful weddings the venues has, because they are treated as equals, as people!  

A great feature of Oceanids Estate, is that it is located right at the beach of Ekso Gonia. There aren't any roads between the venue and the beach. Your wedding reception and party will be literally at the beach, but without any sand getting in your shoes! Isn't that great? Not only that, but the beach in front of the venue is one of the best beaches of the island. And this is what makes Oceanids Estate venue one of the best places to have a beach wedding.

Will there be children attending the wedding? You'll be glad to know that Oceanids Estate is a paradise for children. They LOVE this venue! They have plenty of room to safely run and play around, and the indoor area can be easily transformed into a kids' room, keeping the little ones busy while their parents are having fun.

The venue also has a nice, big pool, as you have probably seemed from the pictures already. And there is no need to worry about safety, as the venue only allows the use of the pool if you hire a lifeguard. The pool is loved by both children and adults, just be sure to follow the safety rules.

For those of you who are thinking about having their wedding ceremony and/or reception at Oceanids Estate, you will be pleased to know that the venue has an amazing strategic position. It is located really close to Kamari, one of the beach resorts of Santorini. The farthest part of Kamari, the one that is right under the mountain, is no further than 5 minutes by car from the venue. You won't need to worry about tiring your guests with long transportation trips!! And even though the venue is so close to a living area, it does not have any of the noise restrictions that you will find at the caldera venues, meaning that you can freely party until sunrise!

In my opinion, Oceanids Estate is one the best wedding venues of Santorini for multiple reasons. It is definitely in my top 3 Santorini wedding venues!

Wish to know more about the venue? Stay tuned, to find out more information about Oceanids Estate on Monday!

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

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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.

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