Wedding Day!

Saturday-- the BIG day. The day of LOVE. There is a full moon. What a wonderful start to a new life as a married couple. July16th, 2011–a glorious day in the town of Kardiani, on the island of Tinos, in the country of Greece, on the planet of Earth (I could not resist) at the time of 6pm (local Greek time) Georgia and Markos finally said their “I-do’s” in front of approximately 250 people. Now, I have never attended a Greek wedding (until then), but I did see one on TV and man does a lot go into one of those! Georgia arrived on the island with us on Tuesday and we barely saw her all the way up to the big day. No doubt she was planning and decorating and making this poor little village the quintessential wedding extravaganza. I will tell you now, I don’t think I could ever put this much into a party. But apparently, weddings are a really big deal for the Greeks so this was going to be a true cultural experience for me. And it was, no doubt, the best wedding ever.

First of all, there were to be two ceremonies: one Greek Orthodox and one Catholic. Marcos is Catholic and Georgia is Greek Orthodox and it seems that the Greek Orthodox church does not recognize a Catholic wedding, so the first service was to be done in the Catholic Church. Also, there are no real bridesmaids or such. You basically have two people who you are close to that “stand up” (koumbari) for you at your wedding and essentially marry you. Third, this is the one that melts my heart, you walk to the church with your bride/groom while leading a parade of people through the village accompanied by two stringed instruments (in this case a violin and a bouzouki). We arrived at Yiorgo and Kalliope’s (Georgia’s grandparents) house at about 5:30 pm where they were having a pre-wedding party. Georgia was there in her dress saying hello and finishing the touches to her already beautiful appearance. We were up on the very top roof of the cottage. From out in the village, you could hear cannon fire (which apparently signals the beginning of the festivities). Then, as the groom and his party approached, you could hear the violin and bouzouki serenading us. Marcos went up the stairs and retrieved his bride and we all marched behind them to the church. Now, both churches that the ceremonies were in were not much bigger than my house. The Catholic Church was bigger but the Greek Orthodox Church was about the size of my house, if not smaller. We were packed in. Then to top it all off, the whole ceremony was in ancient Greek. Louis tried to translate some, but I think he lost track when he told me they were now reciting the second act of Romeo and Juliet. Luckily, the ceremony was only 30 minutes.

The Greek Orthodox one was also short, but much more exciting. It too was in ancient Greek but there were rings and head dresses and walking around and you could stand up front and take pictures because the ceremony was done in the middle of the church. Afterwards, they exited and we threw massive amounts of rice at them. We then headed down to the town square for the reception while our hosts disappeared for what felt like several hours to have pictures made. But when they arrived back, the party started! There was dancing, there was wine, there was Raki, there was the best damn wedding food I have ever had in my life, and there was fun. The bride had sat our party at a table with other English speaking people and Perrin met his new best friend, George. I have to say that even though I did not dance, I had a fantastic time soaking the atmosphere, the music and the people. I ducked out of there at about 1am, but from what I understand, the party went on until about 4. It was a great time of celebration and I consider myself very lucky to be a part of it.