Venue | Cameo Island
Guests | 26
Date | 27th August 2024
From the day we enquired about getting married on Zakynthos, through to the big day and after, your service has been flawless. A lot of people have said to us over the last 2 years how stressful it must be planning a wedding abroad - we reply “not with Lisa in charge!”. We have thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, we have felt so calm and knew where we stood in the process the whole way through.
We had been looking at venues in the UK, and everything was either completely out of our budget, or not what we wanted – we love being outside, and also love water. We were on holiday in Kos in 2022 and we just had a bit of headspace to think “what do we REALLY want to do”. We toyed with eloping, or a simple register office ceremony, but we knew we wanted to do a bit more than that. That’s how we landed on destination wedding.
We got back to the UK, and spoke to our families and asked if they’d be up for doing that – a resounding yes all around – and my maid of honour said “you HAVE to look at this venue in Zakynthos, I’ve seen it when I was on holiday, and it looked incredible”. That venue was Cameo Island. Once we saw that, there was nowhere else – how often do you get the chance to get married on a private island?! We’d never been to Zakynthos, but knew enough people who had, and we did lots of review reading, so yes we did book without seeing, and we’re so glad we did. We did go for our holiday there in 2023, to the same hotel we would be staying in, to get the ‘lay of the land’. We spent most of the week crying that we couldn’t believe we’d booked somewhere so beautiful.
We had invited 37 of our closest friends and family, with 26 including us accepting and attending. We had thought really hard about who to invite and had kept the circle small. We had always pitched it to guests as ‘have your summer holiday in Zakynthos, and join us for our wedding in the middle’, rather than making it 100% about travelling for our wedding.
My dress was from Wed2B – I’d only gone in to get some ideas before some boutique appointments, and it ended up being the second dress I tried on! I had my mum and my maid of honour with me, and it was a very easy choice in the end, I felt like a princess. I didn’t overthink it, it just fitted me perfectly. Looking back on the day, I’m glad I bought off the peg – the dress didn’t cost me a fortune, which meant I could fully enjoy all the Greek dancing without worrying at all with what was happening to my gown!
My shoes and accessories and the bridesmaids matching hair pieces were all from Krystle Brides Boutique in Bath. My shoes were Rainbow shoes, and I had them dyed blue – I knew for ages I wanted my ‘something blue’ to be my shoes! Connor got me a beautiful necklace for the day as a wedding gift, and my dad had restrung some of my late nanas pearls into a bracelet for me, which I will treasure forever. I also had my wedding ring designed using stones and gold from her rings. It is so special to have something so sentimental with me every day.
Knowing that we were looking at a wedding at ~ 35oC there was no expectation around a full suit. The Groom and Father of the Bride made the decision to have a full suit – Father of the bride went for a linen jacket, but the groomsmen all opted for a trousers and waistcoat combo. These were all purchased from Skopes, a light stone coloured wool. Again, we didn’t overthink this, we kept quite an open mind on colour palettes, and walked past the Skopes shop window one day and said “that one!”. This paired with sunglasses, really supported the “sunny but smart” aim that the guys were looking at.
Green is both of our favourite colours, so we knew it was going to be our base colour palette very early on. I also wanted dresses the girls were going to be comfortable in, and would suit a range of body types. We ended up with Rewritten dresses, and matching ties and pocket squares for the groomsmen. The quality was fantastic, and they looked so stylish!
With green as our favourite colour, and avid house plant parents, foliage was always going to feature heavily for us. We loved eucalyptus, but when we visited Zakynthos in 2023, we were just blown away by the number of olive trees on the island, so knew this had to play a part too. White flowers seemed like a really natural partner to this greenery, and the olive branch motif was carried across our stationary, favours and even our name tag coasters!
My dad is very handy with woodwork so he had made us wooden name tags that doubled as coasters. We also had a seating plan chart, and a guestbook – and that was about it!! We always said “we’re in such a stunning venue, are people really going to notice really intricate decorations”? The team on Zakynthos did such a fab job with what they already had on the island – the venues looked amazing!!
Steph – our vows. Committing to spend the rest of our lives together in such a beautiful place. Closely followed by the Greek dancing (especially the plate smashing!!)
Connor – watching my beautiful bride appear over the brow of Cameo Island. I had, had a bit of time to appreciate quite how amazing our venue was, to then watch as Steph was making her way down the stairs perfectly lit by a Greek sunset… yet that’s a memory I’m going to treasure
One – the weather!
Two – We have had the most incredible holiday with all our family and friends, and they have really got to know each other so much better than they would have if we had a wedding in the UK. We did a snorkeling and sunset boat cruise the night before the wedding for everyone, and it was so special to kick off wedding celebrations that way. We could have done a boat trip on the river Avon, but it wouldn’t have been quite the same as an Ionian sunset!
Do it!! Don’t be nervous about asking people to travel “all that way” – we were so surprised at just how many people said yes, and have told us they’ve had one of the best holidays ever. We were also blown away by how excited and honoured Greeks were to host our wedding on their island. It’s a bit of an ‘out there’ move to get married abroad, but it might just be the best decision you ever make…
We’ve loved this process so much, hope that helps someone else thinking about it!
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