My Big Fat Greek Wedding!!

Our Groom waiting for his Bride

The Church being decorated before the wedding

Saturday Mariana and I drove out to the coast to visit friends and stopped first at a little village called Therita. I noticed that two women were decorating the very small church we went into and that there were people startng to gather outside. On our way back there were more people and I remembered reading that in Italy everybody waits for the bride outside of the church. So I begged Mariana to stay so that I could see the bride arrive, even though we were a little late to our friends house. It turned out to be one of the highlights of my trip!!

Mariana said it is the same in Greece and in fact the Groom stands outside of the church waiting for his bride, and when she arrives it is typical for the car carrying the bride to pass him by 2-3 times before finally delivering her!! The bride is also picked up by her godfather and delivered to the church. She has to leave the house barefoot and he puts her shoes on for her for good luck. He also has to pay her ( a token amount) so the bride will pretend that the shoe is not going on right and he will stuff money in there to make it fit. They will also break some sort of Easter bread for luck over her head, but I am not completely sure about this.

The bride must also exit the car with her right foot, so the couple will start off their marriage good and she must step forward with her right foot when she is handed over to her groom and the enter into the church. She also writes the names of all of her unmarried friends on the bottom of her shoe ( shoes?, i guess this depends on how many friends she has!!) and the first name to be erased off the shoe throughout the wedding and reception will be married next!!

So here are some pictures and two videos that I took, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!! Sorry I cannot figure out how to load the videos yet!!! Stay tuned if I can get them on they are very exciting!! There is a moment where you can see a procession in the distance and it looked like many people were walking with the bride to the church, but it was just the flower girls, still very moving!! What an experience!!

Town of Therita Rating

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Food Waste Reduction unrated