Inside: A Spectacular Greek Wedding In Athens

Katerina Tornari works in Commercial Partnerships team at F1 and Henry Hereford is an Actor & Writer. The couple tied the knot in a spectacular Summer wedding in Athens, Greece.

As Henry put it in his speech, we were destined to meet, but not to be set up with each other! I had been invited to a friend’s bbq in 2017 as she had just moved in with her boyfriend, soon to be fiance, and they wanted to host a casual bbq with a few friends. I went along as there was a potential single friend that would be there, and I was at the point in my life when I was ready to meet someone, and someone based in London! Henry was at this bbq, but we didn’t really speak much, he was living in LA at the time – a place I have no interest in – so I quickly forgot about him. Apparently Henry had asked for my number a few times when he was back in the UK following that initial 2017 summer rendez-vous, but he was eventually told ‘ Katerina doesn’t date English guys,’ so with that he accepted this wasn’t meant to be! Our mutual friends got married in 2018, a beautiful Cotswolds venue and Henry was the best man – so we were destined to meet again – this time we did get to speak a bit more and Henry was going to be in the UK over that summer and mentioned maybe meeting up. What ‘got me’ at the end, is of course timing, but I liked the way Henry was really relaxed in his approach, it never felt forced…..it just felt right! We had a few dates over that summer and I implemented my ‘3 date test,’ which Henry evidently passed! We ended up doing long distance for about a year, I was always very clear LA wasn’t where I would want to be ( it is NYC or nothing for me), and given his family and close friends were in the UK and he did always want to come back home, it all planned out well.

During our year of long distance dating, we had set to make our July meet up in NYC as it is a city I love, I have family there and it was also a location that was about similar flight distance for us both. It was my godson’s 2nd birthday so it was an excuse for Henry to get to meet all the family and the idea was they would have to give the thumbs up (or down) on this guy! We planned to go 20th July to my godson’s birthday party for the intro to the big fat Greek family! Friday 19th July I had planned my blow dry and little things I love doing when in NYC and I should note it was maybe one of the HOTTEST Days in NYC that year, really humid and just a bit uncomfortable. Henry wanted to take me for a bit of a tour of where he lived when he was in NYC and asked that that morning he could take over from the planning, which I agreed he could do after I had my hair done for the weekend. Long story short we ended up going to the Upper West Side and Central Park, where Henry proposed and I think sooner than anticipated just given the heat and the stress of it all. He proposed with a ring gifted to him by his mother, and while I don’t think I ever actually said yes – I just kept saying ‘what are you doing’ when he went down on his knee in the middle of the park – it was an overwhelming and really special moment! He had booked a wonderful lunch at the newly re-opened Tavern on the Green. After lunch – a very long lunch – it was back to me for planning, so the only place that was right at 5pm in NYC was to go hit Bemelmans bar at The Carlyle for more drinks and live music to celebrate! I should add that when we did make it to the family party the next day, I had to inform them that this guy was no longer the boyfriend but the fiancé, so he was smart to get that proposal in before seeing them all!

The best part of our day was….

That we finally got to do it with all our family and friends as we had planned in 2020, but the extra bonus was that our daughter was part of it and that will always make it so unique!

We choose to get married at…

The Margi Farm, because for me the key formula to a wedding is the food and music, if the food isn’t good, it will be what everyone talks about and remembers from your wedding and there was no way I was having that! I have know the owner of The Margi hotel in the Athens Riviera for years, and every time we would go stay there it was just…..perfection! While Cyprus was the initial obvious destination given my heritage, and just how stunning the Island is with endless wedding venue options, for me Athens was always a city I loved visiting and knew well and also knew that The Margi had recently opened a new venue specific for corporate events and weddings, so had a gut feeling it would be ‘the’ venue for us. When Henry and I took a trip to Athens in October 2019 for a friend’s wedding, it was my chance to introduce him to this magical city, but also The Margi hotel and its various venues. He was of course hooked and as he put it when he saw the venue, it was a blank canvas for us to be able to design and build what we wanted for the day!

I knew I found ‘The One’ when…

The dress: It is funny when I think of this as I have been maid of honour so many times and witnessed friends knowing exactly what they wanted and others that didn’t, but it always looked right when ‘the dress’ was on them! I thought I had some idea of what I would want given I knew the venue. I did go to various designers to partly get ideas, but also enjoy that experience, as I don’t plan to do this again so why not try on as many different styles and get ideas along the way and I also wanted to share that experience with key family members, mainly my niece, and close friends. I knew that given the venue and time of year it couldn’t be a heavy lace dress, it had to be dreamy and it had to stand out given this was going to be a day to night wedding. I needed to ‘stand out’ but in a classy way and had tried on something stunning in Athens, but it would have meant multiple trips for fittings so decided the dress had to be from London. At the end of 2019 I was torn between a dress with either Philippa Lepley or Jenny Packham. One ticked my ‘dreamy’ box, while the other ticked the ‘standing out’ objective with the sparkles and details. While I was debating which one to go with, I was told about a local bridal boutique to go see as I needed something for the February church service and knew I didn’t want to wear white for that, and didn’t have time to get something tailored, so I went along with my mother to this boutique and found ‘the’ dress for the church, but also ‘the dress’ for Greece there and then, which I didn’t expect at all! I should add that given from December 2019 to about June 2022, I literally had the dress sitting in my wardrobe, when it did come to knowing this wedding was finally happening, I knew that I wanted to tweak it slightly to make it more 2022 and bespoke – there was no time to go try on dresses again – so I found a fabulous seamstress and we added the chiffon trail as I really wanted to have this flow on the day as I would walk through the farm! I also had her make a 2nd outfit for me so that I would have an outfit change later in the evening – It did take over 2 years to finally get THE wedding day, so found the perfect excuse to pick another outfit and shoes!!

The suit: Henry ended up getting his wedding suite, shirts and shoes when we were in Athens back in 2019 from BOGGI! He also had an outfit change for 2022 and loved the personalised Stan Smith Adidas trainers I got my page boys to wear, so he got himself a pair too to go with his more relaxed outfit change in the evening

The most enjoyable moments of planning were…

All the small details from literally the moment our guests wold arrive to their hotels for the weekend to the moment they stepped off the coach on the wedding day. I am all about personalisation, and this is something that was a big part of the wedding, from the room drop bags and items we did for our guests to welcome them to Athens, to the favours we had for everyone on the day and the flowers for my bridesmaids. We had small Mastiha (our favourite Greek drink) bottles to be used instead of escort cards, rattan fans for the ceremony for our ‘fan club,’ but I also had on the tables with the sweet favours a cards with a further note to thank our guests, but also honour two people that were not with us at the wedding, my father who passed away in 2003 and Henry’s mother who passed away in 2019. It was important to honour them in a unique way, over and above mentions in speeches.

The hardest part of planning was…

COVID! We joke that it was as if we knew a pandemic was coming in 2020. We always planned 20th February 2020 to do a small church ceremony with very close friends and family (15 ppl in total), and then 20th June 2020 we would all head to Greece to party! We got our 20th Feb day, which was so special and something I literally planned and sorted within weeks, I don’t think we need to tell you what happened a few weeks later…….LOCKDOWN and with that our 20th June date cancelled, which was then changed to September of that year, then September 2021, then when we knew 2021 was also not looking likely we thought let’s just go to 2022 and if it happens it happens, if not it isn’t meant to be, but we decided to start trying for a family.

The best accounts to follow on Instagram for big-day inspo are……

I was focused on a lot of Greek vendors given our location so a selection of ones we used and ones I followed @studio7flowers @pavlos_lab @thecakersgr @white_lilac_rentals @zazoo_event_rentals @andreakgeorgiou @mlmoniquelhuillier @mirazwillinger

Wedding menu highlights….

Given the venue we went with a buffet as oppose to sit down three course meal as it wouldn’t have worked with the vibe of the venue. The buffet we selected literally had EVERYTHING, live BBQ ( grilled octopus, chicken, beef and sea bass) live Rotisserie ( milk lamb with rosemary and lemon), live pasta station, endless salads and vegetables ( from the farm) and of course Desserts……assortment of traditional Greek & International desserts

For our honeymoon we chose..

So, the plan in 2020 was to hit 2 Islands after our Athens wedding, Hydra (my favourite Island) and Paros……we will make it there one day, but for our London wedding we did get a mini-moon at The Pig in the New Forest, simply stunning!

My top three tips for any couple would be…

Stay focused, especially if you are using a wedding planner for local / destination wedding!

Bring out your personalities into the day, you are celebrating YOU with the people that you love and that love you so what are the personal touches that ensures all the guests know something about you both from that day.

Make sure to get photos with ALL your close family and friends from the professional photographer, don’t get distracted with portrait / magazine style pictures.

If I was able to do it all over again, the one thing I would change is…

Making sure I got to eat more of the amazing food that everyone is still talking about and not focus on the small details that only I knew about and bet no one else noticed on the day!