Suggestive, charming, wonderful, fantastic-these are most often the adjectives used to describe a wedding that has the location as its most attractive selling point. But perhaps, precisely because they are overused, they have ended up losing authenticity to the point of sounding emphatic and obvious. Here, however, I am talking about a wedding in Santorini, and, just by looking at the photos, one can realize that none of the adjectives I will need to comment on the images are inappropriate or used out of turn.
Protagonists Moira and Jose, she Italian, he Spanish. Scenery, the island of Santorini, so famous that it doesn’t need business cards. The first thing that struck me was that this wedding in Santorini was also an occasion for the meeting of three cultures that have had and have in the Mediterranean their origin and expansion of growth and civilization. Perhaps because of this, the union of Moira and Jose seemed to me enriched with a denser, almost evocative, certainly auspicious meaning. As if the affinity and homogeneity of their cultures and that of the place chosen to unite their lives could become an omen, a guarantee for the success and durability of their love.
Santorini in this perspective, certain its undisputed beauty, is an emblematic place, a return to the origins and a starting point. An island that owes its allure to a catastrophic event that changed its identity without totally destroying it, transforming it into a rugged yet seductive territory, impervious yet intimate and customary. With Moira and Jose, we chose Oia as a backdrop for a few engagement shots. Perched at the northern end of the island, Oia is a village of typical lime conical houses carved into the rock overlooking a water-filled caldera.
This would be enough to make it charming, but it is the colors, the three colors that dominate over all, that make it unique. The blue of the sea and that of the domes of the churches, the dazzling white of the houses and the vivid red of the countless bougainvillae climbing the walls. A color interweaving that offers the photographer a stimulating and creative variety of glimpses and plays of light and shadow.
To celebrate the union, the next day Moira and Jose moved on to Megalochori, one of Santorini’s most picturesque villages, perhaps because it has retained almost intact the traditional architecture typical of the Cycladic islands. Evidence of its presence dates back to the 17th century and is well documented by the many historic mansions, old houses, and numerous historic wineries due to the vines the area produces. And in the territory of Megalochori, is enclosed the famous pearl for those who marry. It has a fascinating name as is the place that hosts it.
It is called El Viento and it is truly a fairy-tale location, as the advertising of the organization that creates and sets up weddings here promises, not deceptively. At El Viento there is really nothing that is left to chance, every detail and detail is taken care of with an attention bordering on perfection, almost a competition between the beauty of the place and that which the organizers manage to create to make each wedding spectacular. Needless to describe. On the El Viento website video and pictures speak for themselves more than eloquently.
Moira, on a panoramic terrace overlooking the sea, got ready to put on her wedding dress. There is something sacred about this ceremony, as if from those slow, thoughtful and calm gestures an initiatory rite is being consummated, and indeed, in many ways it is. In this case, accomplice to the place, its very ancient origin, the dress and the wreath on her head, both interwoven with floral lace, and especially the bouquet dominated by flowers in neutral colors, everything could make her resemble, without any particular effort of imagination, an ancient deity linked to the worship of the earth and its fecundity.
A surely propitiatory image that the presence of the sea in front made even more authentic. A wedding in Santorini therefore devoid of excesses, of smears, of off-key notes. A true rite, where the sacred mixes with the profane, the ancient with the modern, the sea with the land, Italy with Spain, witness Greece. All natural, because elegance is in simplicity and beauty in nature where it finds its best expression. Suggestion to everything, tribute and homage, a sunset that gave this Santorini wedding its best happy ending.
Venue: El Viento – Lights: Santorini Events – Flowers: Betty Flowers Santorini – Sax: Christos Sax- Violinist: Kosmas Pafitis
Wedding Photographer Santorini
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