A Wedding in Mastihari, Greece - Our Daughters Wedding

My daughter, since being quite small, had always insisted she was going to get married in Greece under blue skies and a cascade of bougainvillea.

I thought this was a lovely dream but never felt it would be a reality-just one of those pipe dreams we all have. When she got engaged and discussed her ‘big day’ with her fiancé, she told him her dream and he was (as most grooms are) happy to go along with it.

I was rather dubious, especially at the thought of the red tape and trying to organise my daughters’ wedding thousands of miles away, with obvious difficulties with translation.

I need not have worried. My daughter is a very organised person herself and got in touch with a contact in Mastihari, Greece. We knew Kathryn Angelise from our visits to Mastihari on Kos where we were frequent visitors at her popular restaurant.

Kathryn is an Englishwoman married to Nikitas who is from Kos. She has lived and worked in Mastihari since marrying Nikitas nearly 20 years ago.

My husband and I visited Mastihari 6 months before the wedding to consider various options for the venue for the wedding. Kathryn, who speaks fluent Greek, gave us advice on where people could get married (depending on whether you want a religious ceremony or a civil one). We also visited the various restaurants in the village of Mastihari to look at reception choices.

We returned home full of ideas (mainly from Kathryn!) and reassured that the wedding would be possible and discussed it with our daughter. She decided on the civil ceremony at the Traditional House in Antimachia (the inland village closest to Mastihari) conducted by the Mayor. Kathryn agreed to translate on the day (and proved to be the perfect Wedding Co-ordinator!).

Kathryn was in touch with our daughter in the build up to the wedding, organising what paperwork had to be forwarded to her (birth certificates etc), ordered a beautiful bouquet of lilies, the cake, taxis and flowers and balloons for the tables in the restaurant.

We were all going to stay in the local hotel with some people in local rooms with air conditioning. ( Kathryn can arrange local accommodation ).She was also able to recommend an excellent, highly skilled hairdresser and nail technician.

We made the decision to hold the reception at El Greco, the restaurant run by Kathryn and her husband Nikitas, with the Meze selection of dishes which would be served throughout the evening. We asked Kathryn to order in several bottles of Moet Chandon champagne for the toasts and picked suitable wine for the meal.

Our daughter had asked for some type of live music during the evening and Kathryn arranged some music and, as a surprise for our daughter and future son-in-law, we asked Kathryn to organise a group of Greek dancers to come and liven up the proceedings!

The day itself was very relaxed and flowed beautifully! The traditional house was really quaint and so picturesque with all the vibrant flowers outside. There is also a windmill adjacent to the house and the Happy Couple posed for some striking photographs underneath the sails of the mill.

The photographer (again recommended by Kathryn) had an excellent ‘eye’ and the resulting photos are very stylish and professional.

The meal followed at El Greco and was terrific. All our guests were so impressed with the meze,( a fantastic selection of traditional Greek dishes,) especially as some of them had never had Greek food before! We had not asked for the restaurant to close just for our party as we wanted a typical, fun Greek night for our family - and that’s exactly what we had. Everyone thoroughly enjoyed themselves and it was such a relaxed atmosphere for all. The Greek dancing entertained the whole restaurant and to top off the evening, Kathryn had arranged for a firework display on the beach! What a memorable day!

Val and Dean from Bolton, Lancs