A July wedding in a Little White Church & Villa.

Photography : Katsinis Photography

All the way from Arizona, Sarah and Carlos had some incredible hopes and dreams for their big day here in Corfu. I knew from the second that we began talking with each other that Sarah's hopes for the day would be truly beautiful, and with Sarah's unique wishes, I couldn't wait to dive into the task of getting everything prepped and ready.

And so began a truly wonderful day. Deeply set in her heart was a vision of Wedgwood - blues, whites and greens, keeping the day very Mediterranean indeed. Sarah's vision was idyllic: blue hydrangeas and creamy roses intertwined with olive leaves.

Preparations for a traditional church ceremony & an Opera Singer

Sarah & Carlos had both already fallen in love with a little church here in Corfu Town. A lot of Greek traditions were kept with this ceremony; a beautiful traditional Greek church, a Catholic priest blessing and marrying our lovely couple, and throwing of the rice after the ceremony.

One thing Sarah knew for sure, was that she did not want taped music for her wedding day. Lucky for her, the ever loving people pleaser in me was already itching to come out, and I went off and found an Elena Suerev; a jaw dropping Opera singer. The icing on the cake for Sarah was that Elena agreed and sang for her her favourite song, Ava Maria... She (as were we all) in awe, and her happiness made me gleam with pride!

Sarah's dream of utter Wedgwood romance came in full for her reception, with the tables completely awash with a sea of candles and flowers galore. I suggested a complete stand of foliage above their table, with festoon lighting really fine-tuning the ultimate romantic ambience.

I just love how Sarah kept sprinkling greek touches throughout the day; firstly with the Greek traditional church blessing, and then with the reception. Sarah loved the idea of having a selection of fresh traditional Greek pastries served up to her guests; Spanakopita, Baklava, Galaktoboureko and Kataifi are just some of the delicacies that were presented on beautiful olive wood platforms .

The Greek Corfiot theme was continued on still through Sarah and Carlos' dream wedding cake; the inside a luxuriously decadent mixture of the purest, richest chocolate, finely mixed with Corfu's well known traditional liquor, Kumquat. The outside reflected "ta plakakia", which are the famous blue and white tiles that Greece is so famously known for. A sight of true beauty, just short of waving the Greek flag in all it's glory.

And of course, playing in the background during this incredible reception feast was our amazing Greek mariachi band, playing their traditional instruments and Greek music!



A few romantic portraits by the couples chosen photographer, and it was then time for everyone to head on to the evening reception to dive in to all these treasures.

A huge dream for Sarah was to have a caricaturist at her wedding reception. A first for me, and sadly this proved to be a near impossible wish to make come true... There were no caricaturists available on the whole of Corfu island, nor did they seem to be common amongst the mainland either. However, fuelled by the ever loving people pleaser in me, I pulled out all my best tricks from my sleeve, and finally found a Mr Goldsmann: a caricaturist who happens to holiday here in Corfu most July's! Sarah was delighted, and her happiness made me glow inside. He was a total hit with the guests, and really worked well with Sarah and Carlos' personalities. Brilliant!

Early on in our discussions, one of Sarah's very first requests for her day was that she wanted hand selected wedding favours for her guests. With her being in Arizona, I took off on a mission of Corfu Old Town for the day, taking Sarah with me in my pocket (literally!). I went to My Piece of Greece, a beautiful store here, and took photographs of everything that I thought would take her fancy as traditional little favours for her guests, and sent them over to Sarah with write ups of what everything was. A winner was Patouni's traditional hand made soaps, with the most decadent and clean, crisp aroma. Perfect as wedding favours! I then also managed to find the famous Corfiot Bourdeto fish spice, and scoured the original recipe from Benitses, of which I then wrote up and laminated, and placed it in the favour bags with a fine olive wood scoop.

Maria & Maria set up a stand at Sarah & Carlos' day, handing out all of the hand wrapped wedding favours to all the guests. Talk about service!!

Sarah's last dream to finish off the day was to arrive to in style in a retro inspired boat. Our two newly weds were sped off in a Cobalt 233 speed boat from Kanoni to their evening cocktail hour, where all of their guests greeted them with smiles and cheer upon the jetty.

And so ended this incredible day with our happy married couples first dance together, and then all the guests getting down on the dance floor. The smiles on everyone's faces made every second totally worth it.

That is exactly what drives me: seeing peoples happy smiles from your dream day.

Sarah and Carlos, it was an absolute pleasure, and I'm so glad that your smiles were the biggest of all I'd seen.

Cheers to you two.