An Italian Magazine Feature

Posted by Moscha on April 12th, 2012 | Leave a comment

Anytime StellaAndMoscha is featured on a magazine or a blog is like “over the moon excited” for us!  It’s what gets us going! This time is for an Italian Magazine Feature -Oggi Sposi April 2012 issue.  An interview by me and Stella about Destination weddings in Greece. Watching your work been published gives you the feeling like getting a good grade at school, been rewarded for your hard work, the opportunity to share your thoughts and maybe inspire and help brides-to-be with some more tips and ideas about destination weddings on the Greek islands.

I dedicate this post to my favorite wedding planner and great associate Andrea Naar Alba who made it all happen for us! If you are dreaming of Italy she is your woman for making dreams happen.  You can access directly our interview with Oggi Sposi here in Italian a copy of  the whole magazine Oggi Sposi magazine  in Italian here (make sure you go to page 44-47) or  read below the interview in English.

Getting married in Greece: Which are the main features of a “Hellenic” wedding?

A traditional Greek marriage is the celebration of the formal engagement. On the day of the wedding, the Best Man, accompanies the couple to the church, to be married. This ‘parade’ is usually escorted by local musicians serenading with particular ‘wedding songs’.

The Best Man with the Priest, are in charge of the ceremony. He places gold crowns or wreathes made of orange blossoms (or vine leaves in Santorini) on the heads of the Bride and the Groom. These crowns are lined with a silk ribbon and symbolize the unification of Husband and wife. From the rest of the day the newlyweds are honored as king and queen. The Wedding Reception is usually a huge dinner party that lasts all through the night – traditionally it was held at the bride’s home. The preparations for the feast took place days and weeks before the big day.

photo by Ipokratis Alexiou | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

In such a difficult moment for your country (as we do experience in Italy as well), are marriages (so weddings receptions) decreasing somehow or quite same numbers? Has the way of getting married changed due to crisis?

Indeed times are difficult and now more than ever people are working on specific budgets. Destination weddings are not only a trend of our times, but a great option for couples who are now more price conscious than ever. An overseas wedding allows couples to cut down on guest counts, cost on decoration, avoid pricy wedding venues, combine their honeymoon with wedding celebration and so many more.

Up to now weddings on the Greek islands have in no way decreased rather than increased since last year (according to Town Hall statistics).

Surely the digital world has helped a lot couples in so many ways. There are so many free online wedding software packages out there which help couples, with budgeting, vendor suggestions and many tips on wedding planning. Wedding blogs are now the one wedding planning stop shop for free inspiration on design, DIY Crafts (Do it yourself) and suggestions on all things wedding related.

Let alone Pinterest,  Lover.ly, Facebook and the rest of social media, were a bride can gather her favorite design details, flowers, and wedding gowns on one board for inspiration. Couples now have more and more information on hand, choose DIY crafts to cut down on wedding decoration and choose Greek island weddings to combine their honeymoon, summer vacations and wedding all in one.

photo by Ipokratis Alexiou | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

How much in average does a wedding in Greece (Santorini) cost?

Couples are in charge of how much their wedding would cost them. There are a lot of special offers for simple celebrations for two that would start from €2,000 and can go up to €5-6,000 if the couple has specific requirements (such as all day long photo shooting at unique locations, special decorations, harpist, a sunset cruise etc).

For larger wedding groups of let’s say 50-60 one can expect to pay around €10,000 and this can go up to €20.000 again depending on choice of venue and other details.

photo by Anna Rousos | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

Does this present crisis period affect the couple’s choices in the wedding sector? For instance, does the Greek government help young couples, by giving any economical incentive to get married? Do you think the wedding is perceived as a “ray of hope” for families in such an unstable period for the country or not? Like:  ”family” the only certainty for the future?

To our knowledge there haven’t been any special measures towards this – the reality is that couples in Greece seek alternative ways to celebrate their wedding that would still make it a memorable day but not costing thousands of Euros. Young couples move away from the classic hotel ballroom 5-course dinner and choose smaller neo- Greek style tavernas that give them the opportunity to celebrate as our grandparents did 2 generations back. This ‘going back to the root’s’ has not only been due to financial restrictions but is centered around trends for ‘all things vintage’ and for weddings that really stand out and have a unique concept.

photo by Ipokratis Alexiou | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

Destination weddings in Greece: Are there lots of foreign couples that choose your country (and Greek Islands) for their wedding?

Every year Greek islands have thousands of people visiting for their summer vacations as well as their honeymoon and wedding. The latest trend for couples is to combine their summer vacation on a Greek island as well as scouting different venues and locations for their wedding.

photo by Ipokratis Alexiou | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

Main countries they come from?

About 90% of our clients are from abroad, from countries like the US, Japan, Germany, Qatar and Australia. Around 30% are second/third generation Greeks who wish to honor their inheritance and celebrate this very important day in their lives in Greece.

Why you think they choose Greece/Santorini?

The Greek islands are all about unique landscapes, great weather and being able to make the most of their unique open spaces. This gives you endless possibilities to create a one of a kind event tailored to every couple’s character.

There is certainly an island for every style of wedding. As for Santorini its “magical sunsets”, azure waters and spectacular views make it suitable for varied style of weddings. There are “many” Santorini Weddings: a couple can either celebrate on a white-washed chapel literally hanging of the cliff with a spectacular view of the Caldera. For beach lovers, why not organize a unique beach wedding on a black sandy beach with a reception dinner to follow full of lanterns and candles creating a truly memorable event? And how about a Castle wedding? Get married in one of the eldest churches on the island within the Venetian castle of Pyrgos and continue the celebration in a nearby Relais & Chateaux hotel experiencing a truly medieval environment.

Most suggestive venues in Greece

Islands such as Paros, Mykonos or Rhodes are the ones for a “cosmopolitan fete”, Sifnos, Folegandros and Ios for those seeking an Intimate Elopement, Koufonisia, Amorgos and Chalki for off-the-beaten track events and The Venetian Castle in Naxos for the Romeo and Juliet-style romantic.

Good reasons why to get married in Greece and Santorini

I can’t imagine there are a lot of people who say that their wedding day was one of the most relaxed days in their life. Couples choose to have a wedding in Greece to take the stress away from a big celebration back home. The weather is no issue to worry about – and all arrangements are well taken care of by so the couple just needs to pick the right location and venue.

An experienced wedding planner can guide the couple through the bureaucratic requirements; help find a dream location; arrange catering, flowers, musicians, hairdressers; in short, take care of every little detail so that after the to-be-weds arrive in Greece, all they need to do is relax, and enjoy. The beautiful landscape and environment is so relaxed so couples find it irresistibly inspiring and enjoy every moment. The combination of bright sunny days, blue domed chapels, azure waters, spectacular food is just hard to pass by.

photo by Ipokratis Alexiou | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

Are there Greek couples that choose Italy to get married?

There are certainly lots of Greek couples choosing to marry in Italy. Both countries share similar culture, beautiful unique landscapes, perfect food and great hospitality.

In your opinion, which are the most attractive factors of Italy, when choosing it for a wedding?

Unique landscapes, great people and perfect food!

Latest trend in wedding industry in Greece

Greek Style is “IN”. In recent weddings, they’ve noted “a huge trend for “All things Grecian”, whether in bridal gown fashions, jewelry or venue décor. Couples love the idea of introducing these into their wedding concept; they love the simplicity and elegance of a Grecian look. Grecian dresses and shoes as well as jewelry have dominated big fashion houses such as Dolce & Gabana, Versace and Diane Von Furstendberg. Our newly redesigned website and logo is inspired by the most well known Greek Meandros featured on most ancient Greek temples, urns and wall paintings

Today’s couples are increasingly ecologically-conscious too. They skip printing and mailing invitations, preferring customized e-invitations instead. Brides opt for silk or paper flowers in lieu of real ones.

photo by Ipokratis Alexiou | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

The menu is normally typically Greek or are they interested at different types of cuisines?

Couples often go local when it comes to selecting menu ingredients. They want to taste everything a Greek island has to offer. Many choices include Italian food which is so similar to Greek- Mediterranean cuisine which people love eating.

In order to “re-launch” your country, what do you think could be resolute? Greece could be again a great destination for honeymoons? For destination weddings?

Greece never stopped being a popular destination for honeymoons and Weddings. In fact we have seen increase in the past few years. It would certainly be useful to promote that it is an easy process when it comes to legalities; there is a false perception that couples are lost with beaurocratic processes which is certainly not the case when a local planner is hired. Greece can also serve a wide range of requirements; castle weddings, themed Grecian weddings, island & romantic weddings, beach weddings, resort weddings, mountain weddings, off- the beaten track weddings and boat weddings. Greece has so much more to offer in addition to Mama Mia style or beach weddings.

photo by Ipokratis Alexiou | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

Did you enjoy reading our interview? would you like to share with us some new trends about Destination weddings, has the crisis changed weddings in your opinion?  Happy to read your thoughts!

Warm Island Greetings,

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Easter Holidays

Posted by Moscha on April 12th, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Dearest Readers,

Hope everyone is enjoying Easter Holidays.  For those who already have celebrated Easter wish you had a great time, and for those of you who are already on holidays for Greek Easter, hope you are making the most of it wherever you are.  Have to admit that it’s been a while since my last post but i will make it up today with two new ones!

It’s the start of the season which means many couples are visiting the islands to scout/view locations, meetings with wonderful couples, on the count down for our 2012 weddings  and wonderful new blog and magazine features (which you will see on my next post for today).

Needless to say Easter is one of the most sacred celebrations for Greece. Church ceremonies, bells ringing, the astounding smell of spring, mouthwatering Melitinia, homemade cookies, Easter bread and delicacies, red dyed eggs, the gathering of fresh flowers by children for Epitaphio , the list is endless.  On the look for Easter celebrations have found some really interesting blogs describing in detail preparations for Easter Foods and traditions and some pictures depicting an array of festivities.

The picture i would like to share with you today is the first Melitini i made (traditional dessert prepared during Easter in Santorini).  Have been following this tradition since i was a child.  A tradition my grandmother (born and raised in Santorini) has taught me and tried to follow ever since.  Its the smell that reminds me that Easter has arrived!  You can smell it everywhere! Amongst its ingredients the “leading stars” are: Mastiha Chiou and a soft cheese from Ios Island.  Have found some recipes here and here.

all pictures taken from my iphone

Do you have any local Easter traditions? Do you still follow them today? Which are the ones you couldn’t live without? What is your “smell” of Easter?  Do you have some other recipes you’d like to share with me?

Warm Island Greetings,

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Wedding Wire Rated 2011

Posted by Moscha on March 6th, 2012 | Leave a comment

We are thrilled to announce our Press Release by Pr Log

Wedding Wire Rated 2011 StellaAndMoscha

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Featured on Grace Ormonde Wedding Style

Posted by Moscha on February 28th, 2012 | Leave a Comment

We are over the moon happy to finally be able to share with you pictures from one of our  favorite weddings of this past summer the wedding of Marcela and Sylvain which is:  Featured on Grace Ormonde Wedding Style Magazine! It was one of the warmest families we have met, a couple so in love, a wedding full of beautiful Martha Stewart design details and of course in one of Cyclades most beautiful island… Santorini

We want to say a big thank you to Grace Ormonde Wedding Style for featuring this wedding on line on the their Real weddings section!  You may also read Marcela’s insight on her very own wedding! Please check it out here: Impartial and Charming by Grace  Ormonde Wedding Style by Stella and Moscha

Marcela and Sylvain together with their family had traveled one year before the wedding in Greece to scout out locations and experience all that Santorini had to offer.  We had the chance to meet their beautiful family and get to know their personality.  From then on working with them was like smooth sailing!  Marcela is such a creative person and has an eye of all things colorful! She had a passion for Tiffany blue and paper pom poms.

Sylvain wished to honor his home country (France) with his favorite dessert macarons! So a wedding cake full of colorful macarons was created on a dessert table full of yummy wine gums, lollipops and traditional island sweets.  As you will realize the wedding palette was full of tiffany blue, hot pink, turquoise, fun, vibrant and above all beautiful as both their personalities!

What I mostly loved about their decoration is that colors were used everywhere from paper pom poms to food and on the welcome cocktails of both the wedding  ceremony and reception.  A refreshing Tiffany blue welcome cocktail for the wedding ceremony and a hot pink margarita for the wedding reception.

Marcela’s wedding dress by Rosa Clara was also a pleasant surprise for us.  As you may have noticed this year is all about vintage and black magic wedding gowns! As she confided in me her own grand mother had worn a black wedding dress as well so keeping with the family tradition was one thing Marcela did go for! We totally loved the ruffles her skirt matched with the paper pom poms!

Marcela and Sylvain you and your family are so dear to our heart and hope to see you soon in Santorini!

Enjoy their pictures and video!

photo Antonis Eleftherakis and Aegean Films | video Ippokratis Alexiou | Event Design StellaAndMoscha

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Style me Pretty

Posted by Moscha on February 6th, 2012 | Leave a Comment

It is certainly one of the biggest joys for us to start the year with one of the greatest accomplishments for StellaAndMoscha.  It is our second time to be to be featured on the one- of -a kind, every bride’s most inspirational blog Style me Pretty but this time for one of our personal weddings a romantic wedding in Venice!

Have to admit to you when organizing  this event, it never crossed my mind that it would be of such an interest to this top wedding blog  Style me Pretty.  It was such a fun project for me! After all these years of planning destination weddings on the Greek islands, browsing on so many different inspiration boards, managing the logistics,  and putting them to life, this was truly magical and challenging at the same time.

Andrea & Marcus made the feature possible!  A special thank you to Andrea for making this possible. Moreover, if it wasn’t for their stunning, fashion editorial-inspired photos  this magical wedding wouldn’t be able to show it’s true magic.  The whole team of two photographers, one videographer and an assistance, was great on the day, most importantly they never spoiled the moment with getting in the way of things and were the greatest guests.

Couldn’t have selected a better team than this one:  Andrea my wedding planner for whom I have talked about on my previous post   is the best planner a planner can get and what has become a great friend!  Andrea is also our affiliated partner for weddings in Italy! Astrid is a true professional in all its sense.  She created all special details for the wedding from stationery, to table holders, to tailor made plexi glass stirs.  One of the most inspirational persons I have ever met, organized, punctual, meticulous I could go on for another paragraph.  Marie is a fairy lady, who when inspired to tailor made a special wedding bouquet creates magic!

Here is my wedding inspiration board on Pinterest.  It really helped me gather all my wedding related details to create my Emerald Green – Sapphire blue Jewel as well as peacock inspired concept and communicate it over to my great team.

Please go over and check out the whole feature on Style me Pretty Destination Weddings -Venice Wedding by Andrea and Marcus

Warm island Greetings,

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Get the Skinny A wedding planner secretly getting married

Posted by Moscha on January 16th, 2012 | Leave a Comment

Happy new year to all!  Hope New Year brings you lots of love and happiness.  The arrival of January is also the beginning of the wedding planning season.  I am sure that all you “brides-to-be” are already looking for  your dream wedding dress, looking into the latest trends for 2012, some of you even getting inspired from all the Golden Globes beauty trends, browsing on several blogs to get ideas about your reception décor and so many other great tips out there.  Have so many ideas to share with you, which I know will help you a lot start putting things into perspective.

Will only share a few with you here and promise to post some more on my next post. Have really enjoyed this blog post were you can have a look at some 2012 wedding dress trends!
Loved the Monique Lhuillier dress!  You can also have a look at this folder were I have gathered many more wedding trends for 2012

But first of all I would like to share with all my readers my personal experience of getting married on December 2011 in Venice!  Much excited and Jumping from Joy my wedding will be  featured on Style me Pretty!  Stay tuned for my next blog post!  Until then here is a small preview just for you!

photo: by Andrea & Marcus Get the Skinny A wedding planner secretly getting married

What does a wedding planner do when “I’do” arrives?  Is an intimate elopement the way forward? Is she any different from a normal bride? How does she plan her wedding? Is it so difficult to plan a wedding?  Will get to all those answers straight away!

What does a wedding planner do after the “ I Do”?  Being a wedding planner with an experience to both intimate elopements and large scale weddings gave me a good idea of what I really wanted as a bride.  In my opinion the most important thing about a wedding is to be able to evoke both the groom’s and bride’s character.  It has to be all about the couple wishes, hopes, dreams, character.  So we decided that a “secret” Intimate destination wedding would make us both happy!

 Is an intimate elopement the way forward? Well I am sure most of you have come across millions of blogs and magazines analyzing this term. An elopement  according to Wikipedia  is often used to refer to a marriage conducted in sudden and secretive fashion, usually involving hurried flight away from one’s place of residence together with one’s beloved with the intention of getting married.Neither my husband nor I wished to have a large scale wedding and all that it entails. What do I mean secret? It was only us and two maids of honor (which came on board last minute)!  We really wanted to be able to enjoy the ceremony ritual and feel like having beautiful moments in a beautiful place!  I know some of you will already start wondering: no family? No friends?  Well choosing to have an intimate wedding means that you have to let go of some positive and negative aspects of having family and friends around!  Choosing to do so meant that I had to do everything on my own.  Meaning no second opinion about the wedding dress, the flowers, the decoration or hair and makeup!  We took the decision not to let anyone know in order to be fair to all our family and friends.  Deep down I knew that all our family  and friends would be really happy!!!!!

Is she any different from a normal bride? A wedding planner does differ a lot from a normal “bride to be” but they have one thing in common “They both want a “dream “wedding in their own sense.  Now this is so difficult to accomplish as I can reassure you that not everything goes as planned at a wedding!  Why? For several reasons: family complications, a good friend cancelling last minute, make up artist getting sick, vendors not there on time, a bad experience with your wedding dress rehearsal; the list is endless!  What experience has taught me -which makes me differ from a normal bride- is the awareness of all the above!  This is something I always tell our “brides-to-be” and something I reminded myself:  Stay positive and don’t let anything ruin your day!  That’s because if you stress out then your whole energy is focused into negative feelings.  This is what I did. Stay positive and my wedding was like a fairytale!

How does she plan her wedding?  Of course in the hands of an experienced wedding planner!  Looking for a wedding planner is no easy job! Yes I totally agree.  I think I must have sent up to 30 or more emails to several wedding planners in Italy and overseas.  My suggestion to you is to follow your instinct and go with the one that you feel confident with and the one you feel you can trust.  I was fortunate enough to have an affiliate partner in Venice!  At first I couldn’t use her contact as my wedding was a secret and my sister and mother are the co-owners of StellaAndMoscha.  At the end I decided to confide in her and ask her to keep my story a secret.  The most important thing for me is to find a person I can communicate with!   Andrea my wedding planner had 3 very important things for me: She was a good listener, She would never give me an answer before investigating well into the matter, she had back up plans (I love back up plans)!  You can imagine that being a planner I had a pretty clear picture about everything I wanted: Photographers, design details, orthodox wedding logistics and so on.  Andrea was able to make me feel like a bride for one day and not like a planner!

Is it so difficult to plan a wedding? Let me rephrase this question: Is being a bride that difficult?  Well……Yes and No!  One tip I would give to every bride to be is: do not let anyone get to you! What do I mean?  We all know that the wedding industry is a bit saturated.  There is so much information out there about what a bride should, must, could do.  Anywhere from the wedding boutique, to the jewelry shop people will start telling you about the protocol of a wedding.  There is absolutely no rule nor protocol about a wedding dress, or a wedding band or a wedding cake!  Everything should be the way you wish!  Should I have not being through this experience I would never have thought that this is the case.  However sad enough “protocol” still exists.

Dear readers have you had a similar experience? How did you find your wedding planner? Would you prefer an Intimate Elopement or is a large scale wedding your preference? What is your dream wedding? Have you thought about your ceremony and reception decoration?

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A great Celebration!

Posted by Moscha on December 29th, 2011 | Leave a Comment

A great Celebration.

This is our last post for this season and we would like to share all the happy moments we are grateful for with you: “our readers”.

We had the opportunity to coordinate beautiful weddings, meet so many couples in love ready to share their new lives together, get to know their wonderful families and create  numerous & unique wedding themes.

Feeling lucky and blessed to have been able to work with couples from so many different cultural backgrounds, blending their customs and personalities, to create unique celebrations. One of these fetes was our first Indian Wedding which was our first blog post for this year.

Most importantly our new website Stella And Moscha  as well as our new blog have just been launched and we are more than excited to share it with you!

We’re so thankful that our wonderful couples and colleagues have supported us and it’s a thrill to be able to celebrate it with our friends!

We would like to end this post with one of our biggest accomplishments this year, being featured in Style me Pretty.

It is a true honor that one of the weddings we organized this year has been described as “All designed and planned to absolute perfection by Weddings in Santorini (now Stella and Moscha), this is one soiree that is guaranteed to leave you smiling (and humming love songs) for the rest of your week”.

Style me Pretty is every bride’s stop blog for greatest inspiration on her wedding day. The wedding planners and vendors picked to be published there are specially selected. We are more than thrilled to be included in this fabulous blog! Read the Submission here

This has been an amazing year for our team…

Can’t wait to meet all our 2012 Brides and Grooms!

Russian from Aegean Films on Vimeo.

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New Kid on the Blog

Posted by Moscha on December 16th, 2011 | Leave a Comment

New Kid on The Blog

Welcome to Stella & Moscha’s Greek Island Wedding Inspirations!  We’re so excited about our first ever blog, and can’t wait to share the stories of all our wonderful couples and their Greek Island fetes.

My name is Moscha and will be posting all inspiring ideas for your Greek island fete and so much more.

We’ve had the honor of planning so many amazing weddings this year that it’s been hard to choose which to feature. Since this is our first official blog post, we decided it would be fitting to show you Stella & Moscha’s very first Indian wedding, which we organized this summer.

Dimitri and Seema were married at  Rocabella hotel, and had 2 different weddings.  The first day they had the Indian wedding and the second day the Greek Civil wedding.  They were both designed by our in house wedding designer Evangelia Mendrinou.

They chose Santorini as their location because it spoke to their style and personality.  We had so much fun helping them to plan a wedding that captured their style, honored tradition, and highlighted their location!

On the day of their Indian wedding early in the morning  they had a spiritual ceremony which was held by the bride’s family. It was so emotional and inspiring. Here are some preview pictures.

photo Poole Brothers London

photo Poole Brothers London

Greek Civil Wedding on the second day

photo Poole Brothers London

Here you can have a look on the  wedding gallery and their wedding video .  We are still pending the full wedding Gallery from the amazing photographers so stay tuned for some more!

Even if as a couple you come from different religious and cultural backgrounds, like Dimitri and Seema, why not incorporate some of your customs into your wedding ceremony?

Share your ideas with us!
Warm island Greetings,

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