‘To be honest the day was perfect from start to finish, I didn’t want it to end.’
Venue Agios Sostis • Date 4th of August 2019 • Number of Guests 61 • Budget ££
Why did you choose to get married in Zakynthos, Agios Sostis in particular?
Greece is one of our favourite islands, we have been to several islands around Greece and always rated how lovely the people were, the food, and our overall experience on holidays always made us want to return. When we saw the location of the venue we fell in love initially.
How long in advance did you book your wedding?
We booked our wedding in June 2018 giving us 15 months to our wedding date.
How many guests did you invite to your wedding and how many accepted and attended?
We initially had a rough number of 30 people as I have quite a large family, and we were overwhelmed with the response. On the day we had 61 close family and friends attended.
Tell us about your dress…
My dress was designed by Ronald Joyce, which I found in the second shop I visited. I had previously tried on around 5 dresses and knew I wanted something fitted but not too heavy or thick with us getting married abroad. As soon as I tried it on I knew it was the one, with the detail on the dress it would sparkle in the sun and it fitted my figure exactly how I wanted. I felt amazing on the day!
What about your shoes and accessories, where were they from?
I bought my shoes from House of Frazer which were a simple Diamond sandal. I wanted something to match the detail on my dress. I was unsure on accessories at the time of purchasing my dress however after a trying a long veil on it just finished the dress off perfect. I didn’t want to overload with lots of jewellery as my dress had enough detail I just finished my look off by wearing some of my late nanas earrings which were my something old and sentimental to me.
And the groom?
The groomsmen purchased there suits form the same place I bought my dress. My groom Joe initially did want to go more casual however after I purchased my dress I knew that suits would be slightly more classier for the type of wedding we were wanting. He picked a Marc Darcy suit with a champagne tie to match the bridesmaids.
We’d love to know more about the bridesmaids dresses..
I had a Pinterest account so looked for ideas and sent pictures to my bridesmaid of how they would like to look on the day. In the end they chose a champagne colour, with a cowl gathered neck with a slight side split which gave them a Grecian look. We had them made by a family friend who had made dresses for previous family weddings. Her company is called Something New – Wedding specialists.
The brides bouquet, what flowers did you choose and why?
I chose roses for flowers as they were my nana’s favourite flower, and white went in perfect with our theme.
What was your wedding theme? And why did you choose this?
We wanted to keep the theme very natural and romantic. I am not a massive colour fan so we went quite neutral with the theme, and stuck to champagne and white, with a hint of blush pink with lots of candles, and flowers. It looked perfect on the day. The decoration looked amazing and our wedding planners used their own initiative to create the perfect setting for what we wanted.
Tell us about the smaller details of the day…
Our wedding cake was a traditional Greek wedding cake which was beautiful, we added our own wedding topper of ‘Mr and Mrs Thornton’ to give a little personal touch.
We also took our own table runners to give the tables a little more decoration and colour which was then topped off with fishbowls, candles and lanterns.
We took our own sentimental photos of our loved ones that the wedding planners placed on a vintage ladder, it really touched us with how they thought about how to place them into our wedding, it really did look special.
We had the BBQ which was amazing, all the food was so tasty, warm and really fitted into our wedding as we wanted a more laid back feel as opposed to a 5 course sit down meal.
Whilst we ate, a Greek band played behind which gave it the Greek feel we love, the atmosphere was everything we had been wanting. To top our evening off we had a DJ and partied the night away but not before the Greek Dancers got everyone in the mood. I would highly recommended, they brought so much entertainment which included getting myself and husband up, along with our other guests and the videos of everyone attempting to Greek dance are my favourites.
How did you find the planning experience from booking to the big day?
I have seen people arrange a wedding and go backwards and forwards to their venue and things still not be right. We never experienced this. Everything was so easy, direction was given to every little last detail. Any questions or queries were never too much trouble for Sasha and Matt, the most stressful part was the seating plan which unfortunately our wedding planner couldn’t help with this! As we got to Greece we had a meeting with the local wedding planner and that woman is amazing. She put us at ease straight away in a sense that you knew everything will run according to plan and you won’t have to worry about a thing, she was there on our day which was comforting and the staff at the venue were brilliant.
What’s your best memory from the day?
To be honest the day was perfect from start to finish, I didn’t want it to end. However we did have a moment where we walked to the edge of the venue just myself and Joe and looked out over the beach just as the sun was setting just to take the moment in and we looked back round to see all our family and friends having the best time, it really was a touching moment and we realised how lucky we were.
What do you think makes a wedding abroad stand out from a wedding in the UK?
From start to finish we had no stress, The Bridal Consultant were amazing. Being abroad gives you a relax feel anyway and the lead up to the wedding wasn’t spent running around taking things backwards and forwards to venues, collecting flowers, dresses, everything gets done for you. The main thing for me was having people at our wedding that really want to make the effort to come, so you know the people that are there are truly special to you. Also to sit and look out to the beach, with a sunset and amazing weather was the thing that swayed me the most and I wouldn’t change it for the world.
What advice would you give to future brides and grooms who are getting married abroad
DO IT! I would do it all again in a heartbeat. If you love the sunshine, amazing views, to be relaxed and enjoy spending time with all your closest loved ones, getting married abroad is for you. Our photos are beautiful due to the amazing backdrop we had, the beach at sunset doesn’t get much better than that. The only thing I regret was not having our video for longer as I wish I could look back on more of the day.
Again, I would like to thank Sasha and Matt for everything. I get emotional writing about it. It was perfect and I can’t express how beautiful our day was for us.
We hope you enjoyed reading about about Kayleigh and Joe’s romantic Agios Sostis wedding in Zakynthos, here are some of the suppliers involved in the day.
Venue Agios Sostis | Brides Dress Ronald Joyce | Brides Shoes House of Fraser | Grooms Suit Marc Darcy | Bridesmaids Dresses – Something New – The Wedding Specialist
Budget Key | £ – 10k and under | ££ – between 10k and 20k | £££ – over 20k.
