My Brothers Big Fat Greek Wedding

The wedding ceremony was short but the wedding party was a nine hour affair. Now that's a true big fat Greek wedding.

On the 29th of August 2009 an event to outshine any other event that has ever taken place in the Greek village of Achinos took place in a villa in the centre of the village. The event was my brothers big fat Greek wedding.

The wedding ceremony itself took place in the town hall of the small town of Stylida which is just 10 kilometers from Achinos. The ceremony was quick. About 2 yeses long and the time it takes thirty odd people to kiss the beautiful bride and handsome groom and grab a sweet. The groom, my brother a British subject and his new bride, she being Greek, drove as fast as they could back to their villa in order to greet the 160 or so guests they were expecting. Actually they don't live in the villa. They live in a house in the villa's grounds and rent out the villa to holiday makers from America, England, France and Germany. If you are interested in a fabulous holiday in a fantastic villa in a picturesque Greek traditional village, then follow the link under the photos. Or, if you just want to take a look at the fabulous photos of the villa, still follow the link.

Anyway, back to my brothers big fat Greek wedding. The guests arrived one by one up the main entrance stairs which were lit up by huge candles in the falling twilight. All 160 of the guests were photographed by the official photographer, two or three times as they climbed the stairs and fell exhausted into the arms of the bride or groom. Each were given a glass of champagne to revive themselves and were then shown to their table in the pool area you can see in the photograph below. The setting was magnificent and romantic and the weather played ball and there was not a cloud to be seen in the night sky. Just thousands of twinkling lights in the company of an almost full moon. The temperature a nice 27 degrees centigrade.

The buffet was a splendid affair with fast amounts of food and even vaster amounts of tasty Greek wine. I'm not going into each and every dish, however, suffice to say the food lived up to it's reputation for a big fat Greek wedding. After the meal the DJ gave way to a live music band of 5 players led by the golden voice of Thomas Nikolaou. The band had a bouzouki player, base and classical guitars, keyboard and drums. As is traditional at big fat Greek weddings the newlyweds have to dance the first dance together. So to the rendition of a slow Greek ballad the couple set the tone for an evening of great music and lively dancing.

This part of the evening was an outstanding success. The band played a nice mix of traditional Greek dances, ballads, rock and pop music and the dance floor was never empty. Towards 4am the dances became really heavy Sertaki and plates started being smashed around the dancers feet. Finally at around 6am just as the sun was beginning to wake up, my brothers big fat Greek wedding slowed to a halt and finally stopped, leaving everyone absolutely exhausted but all having enjoyed themselves immensely.

So, if you want to have a wedding party to end all wedding parties and label it your own big fat Greek wedding, click on the link and get in touch with my brother. I will update this page with the wedding photos when they have been suitably censored.