Cape North West is located on the sandy beach at Valtos with the Venetian castle as a back drop and the sun setting over Paxos island in the distance.
For your destination wedding in Parga, Cape North West is the perfect venue for a small, intimate celebration of barefoot luxury or a bigger celebration with all your family and friends. The relaxed atmosphere with stylish, white, minimalist decoration offers you a wonderful blank canvas to work with. The ideal starting point from which my team and I will create your wedding theme and styling.
I came up with the concept for this styled shoot with photographer, Maxeen of Maxeen Kim Photography, who mentioned she wanted to design a table setting based around her love of cacti and succulents.
We infused romance into the décor of this chic beach club with a lilac, pink and green theme, in keeping with the current trend of potted cactus wedding centrepieces. Succulents and cacti are a great option for your wedding décor because they last long after the wedding and each of your guests can take a cute mini cacti home with them as a keepsake.
The table featured natural décor elements that we chose to fit with the beautiful beach location such as hand painted terracotta pots and ecru weave table-mats. To highlight the extra special feel of the occasion we added little extra touches with pink glassware and dove-grey wedding stationery.
If you are considering your own luxury destination wedding in Parga and looking for a planner who can bring your elegant vision to life send me an email here with all the details of your day. I would love to help bring your wedding dreams to life.
Thank you to my wonderful team of suppliers who helped bring this vision to life.
Kalo Mina! Welcome to November, are you ready for today’s styled shoot from the Autumn 2018 cover of luxury bridal magazine Ellwed! It features emerald and copper autumn wedding inspiration. The gorgeous rich tones add a real touch of elegance to this beach romance.
Our idea behind this cover shoot was to display the diversity of the Ionian Islands as a wedding destination across the seasons, whilst keeping close at heart the beautiful beach locations the islands offer you. The beach at Agios Ioannis stretches for miles and ranges from glorious golden sands at itswestern end, to wild windswept sand dunes dotted with old stone windmillswhere our shoot took place.
I wanted to feature a Greek bridal designer and this Complice Stalo Theodorou wedding gown encompassed trends from Vogue Italy Bridal report for 2019. With bow detail, nude tulle embellished with lace detailing and exaggerated volumes, for a skirt to make you feel like a true princess.
And did we mention the florals by Gourioti Flowers! Truly perfect for this autumn wedding inspiration, he blended the emerald and copper pallette, using a combination of peach Tiffany roses, hand dyed roses, eucalyptus and pampas grass, wrapped in silky, emerald green ribbon
All stationery, from thank you cards to menus and invites, was created by White Olive Design Studio, London especially for this styled shoot in Lefkada. Copper embossed menus and agate slices with hand-written calligraphy script, place settings and favours, were the important touches to the table.
The concept for our Ellwed cover shoot was produced with a mood board, to curate the ideas in the same way I help my brides put together the styling for their days. It was great to have creative input by the shoot photographer Maxeen Kim who is known for her love of capturing personal wedding details.
We styled a copper infused wedding table and blended the metallics with other textures such as tiles and glass. Adding the multi-tonal copper, emerald and deep blue crockery supplied by our venue we wove the look together. The keepsake for each guest was a polished agate slice personalised with their name and a traditional Greek coffee pot called a “briki” planted with a succulent as a living reminder of the special day.
An Emerald and Copper Autumn Inspired Styled Shoot Snapshot
Thank you to Sanya at Ellwed magazine and to the team of vendors who cooperated make this shoot possible:
The evening light at Pasoumaki beach was perfect for the intimate and personal Meganisi vow renewal of Nikki and Darren. This little Ionian island paradise holds special meaning as it was also the location chosen by the Bride’s parents to celebrate their own 40th wedding anniversary.
Nikki explained why the vow renewal was especially poignant for them. “We always said we would renew our vows on a beach for our 10th anniversary. After life threw us some curveballs, it seemed even more important to reaffirm our vows as our marriage has helped us grow stronger and closer as a couple.”
Their family has grown to include two children, and it was important to reflect their journey together ten years on from the wedding day. By chatting to Nikki and Darren when taking all the details of their story so far, I wrote a ceremony which allowed each member of the family (couple, children and parents) to participate, including the reading of a poem and the exchange of traditional olive garlands, known as Stefana.
Their Stefana were made with olive branches, a symbol of peace and friendship. The olive tree is one of the most beloved, sacred trees and its place is firmly rooted in Ancient Greek tradition and mythology.
It portrays a symbol of oneness between men and women, as a sign of sublime and perfect love: the twisted trunk of the tree representing intertwined bodies of two lovers turned into an olive tree, to be together throughout time.
Olive details filled the intimate ceremony. From the tree lined beach and stairway, to the finishing touches on the bonbonieres I gave them. Nikki and her daughter both held a simple olive bouquet cut from the island olive groves. The dusky, green colour of the leaves was so pretty against the white dresses and outfits they had all chosen to wear for the occasion.
After the ceremony at the beach was complete, the the family ended the special evening by dining at Tilevoes in Vathy and sitting at a table by the waters’ edge.
If you are considering your own luxury vow renewal in Lefkada or Meganisi and looking for a planner, send me an email here with all the details of your day. I would love to help bring your special day to life.
Thank you to my wonderful team of suppliers who helped me this memorable Meganisi vow renewal happen.
Erin and Stuart’s dreamy spring wedding in Lefkada began with the bride and bridesmaids enjoying this wonderful view of Vlyho bay from her parents’ villa on the Geni peninsular.
The gardens of Villa Katerina have been created around the original olive trees and filled with pastel coloured roses and oleander bushes.
The blue tiled patio provided the perfect backdrop for photographer Maxeen Kim to capture the pretty, wedding stationery and bride details.
Erin included the British wedding tradition of a sixpence in her shoe to bring her luck on the wedding day!
Delicate corsages for the bridesmaids’ wrists made a pretty accessory for each girl, together with their hand fan. I particularly liked Erin’s choice of floral print bridesmaid dresses over a more usual block colour, which perfectly suited their spring wedding in Lefkada.
It was certainly an emotional moment for all when Erin’s father entered the room and saw her for the first time, dressed in her gown and veil.
Meanwhile, Stuart and his groomsmen relaxed and put the finishing touches to their outfits at Villa Vangelis, just down the road from the girls.
Father of the bride, Peter, made a path from their villa through the olive trees to the road. This allowed Erin her dream of walking to the wedding ceremony, accompanied by Cantarades (local musicians), just as a village bride would do!
What a view! The ceremony was on the waterside terrace at Seaside Restaurant, which is one of my most favourite places my team can create your wedding in Lefkada. It is exclusive to Lefkas Weddings clients.
Olive was the key greenery to the wedding decoration and the bride’s parents provided the florist with an ample supply from their villa. We used it at the ceremony to fill the decorative urns and also on the tables, by laying small sprigs amonst the cut glass vases.
Each of the bridesmaids carried a single rose and placed it in the vase on the ceremony table. Each rose was labelled with one of the five Greek words for love; Agapi, Filia, Eros, Pragma and Filaftia. The ancient Greeks believed you needed to blend all of these for a strong relationship.
With Stuart and his groomsmen all being rugby players, they opted for bespoke attire so all the pieces could be taliored to fit each boy’s shape. Their waistcoasts gave a formality to the day and suited the warm, spring weather.
Erin’s Laverne Gown by Catherine Deane was the epitpome of effortless elegance. It had a delicate lace back and cap sleeves plus a free-falling skirt in fine, silk tulle.
A spring wedding in Lefkada has an abundance of flower options and we selected the prettiest for Erin and Stuart’s day. Her hand-tied bouquet was filled with pink peonies, roses and white lisianthus. Statice flower and limonium added subtle shades of lilac. Olive provided a touch of greenery and was also used in Stuart’s buttonhole.
The olive design on their invitations featured again on the reception stationery, and the couple named each table with characters from Game of Thrones, their favourite television series!
I sourced the fabric for the place mats to blend with the floral bridesmaid dresses and we had them made especially for the wedding. The whole day had a very coeshive feel colour wise and the unobtrusive white decor of Seaside Restaurant provided the ideal backdrop.
Each guest had their place marked by a personalised, minature bottle of limoncello to toast the speeches.
A few words from the family…
Everybody knows me as an organiser, but Claire at Lefkas Weddings is on another level! We certainly wouldn’t have achieved such a wonderful day if Claire hadn’t been on board. Venue, menu, ceremony admin, flowers, photography, music, makeup, hair etc, etc she has all the information you’ll need. Nothing was too much problem, and if we needed ideas, Claire was there with numerous suggestions!
If we had any questions, even if it was the same one we’d asked about 15 times she was always available to give us the answer and always keeping her patience! We have another daughter and if she chose to marry in Greece, Claire will be my first port of call and she should be yours as well! – Melanie & Peter O’Neill and Erin & Stuart Edbrooke (Bride and Groom)
If you are considering your own spring wedding in Lefkada and are looking for a planner, send me an email here with all the details of your day. I would love to help bring your special day to life.
Thank you to my wonderful team of suppliers who helped me bring this day together:
This adventurous millennial couple chose an elopement in all the classic sense of the word, as their ceremony in Greece was a secret from family. Joined by their closest friends they enjoyed a relaxing escape at a luxury villa before marrying in an intimate ceremony on a secluded beach.
The excitement started with an afternoon of pampering for the bride and her friends whilst the groom and guys chilled at their villa on the pretty south coast, where your view reaches across to Ithaka and Kefalonia islands.
They decided on a first look and couple shoot in the villa gardens and Karla revealed her rock chick side with a pair of striking red print heels under her full-length gown that added a flash of colour as they walked hand in hand through the winding pathways towards the sea on the edge of the estate.
Finding the ceremony location for the couple was a fun search that led myself and destination wedding photographer, Maxeen Kim, on an afternoon exploring the coast of Lefkada for a rumoured hidden beach known only by locals. We stumbled across it finally and I knew this little paradise was the perfect setting for a romantic escape.
To tie the modern style bouquet which blended autumn flowers, herbs and delicate berries with the classic arch for the beach preferred by the bride we used complimentary pink and purple colours. It then seemed fate when I sourced some pretty bottles of sparkling wine with a flower design that added that final finishing touch to the ceremony table.
I was delighted when Karla messaged me the following day to tell me “It was perfect! and the Seaside, the food, people, atmosphere, everything!”
If you are considering your own secret beach elopement on Lefkada or somewhere else in the Ionian and are looking for a planner who can make your romantic moment a reality, send me an email here with all the details of your day.
Thank you to my wonderful team of suppliers who helped bring this vision to life.
