Hi

What religion are you? You can have a Catholic, Greek Orthodox, Jewish and Protestant ceremony, which one are you after?

You could also have a civil cermony in a church ground!

Let me know and I'll reccommend some options!

Hi
We married in a civil service in Rhodes (Lindos) in 2001 , it was performed in Greek but translated as the service progressed.
We booked through a tour operater as a package but would not recommend doing that as you pay a hell of a lot of money for stuff you can do yourself and we felt we had very shoddy service (but thats another story!)
You will need to get certain documents (Birth Certificate and certificate of intention to marry - from your local registrar) translated into Greek here in the UK before you go and your marriage certificate translated into English afterwards. We also had to have the documents stamped and verified at the Foreign Office in London. Arranging the ceremony could be done in your resort of choice - you will need to stay in the place 1 week before you get married as they post the notice of your wedding in the mayors office / church. Arranging floweres / hair / make-up etc can be done locally and also the reception is better to do once you are there since you can visit places and try out menus / wine etc. The place we chose did us proud with roses / balloons and streamers and everyone who came with us thoroughly enjoyed themselves. Would thorougly recommend it !

Hi Sarah P and others

My partner is Catholic so a catholic service woukd be nice for him seeing as he hasn't been married before, i'm c of e. All ideas would be greatly appriciated. We love the idea of going to a little church having a service then going to a little taverna with all our friends and family and having a good drink with lovely food and wine! We like the idea of doing it ourselves rather than someone telling us when how and what to do with our wedding, we have a 7 year old son who i would like to be a major part of the wedding by walking down the isle with me.
thanks to all of you xxxx

If you look at the http://www.parga.com site I have put a page on there about getting married in Parga... though the same rules apply anywhere in Greece! Unless you are both Catholic or Greek Orthodox you cannot get married in Church! though you can do all the traditional Greek things and have a civil ceremony as we did and it was great!
Hope you get it all arranged and if you haver any probs ... e mail me(address is on the site)

Hi,

I would reccommend that you use a coordinator or package simply because you do not want all that stress around the wedding!

I would go with someone local as I hear that the packages do indeed have shoddy service!

Avoid First Choice, their packages are really not great!

Let me know if you need more info!

You can have a Catholic ceremony on both Rhodes and Santorini!
Santorini is quite expensive as a holiday destination!

Hi Jo

I got married in Rhodes in May 2002, it was an early evening civil wedding at the town hall in Rhodes Town. After the ceremony we had our photos taken on Mandraki Harbour opposite, with the sun setting.

We went with Thomsons, at the time they were one of the cheapest packages around and included more for your money. I would recommend doing it through a company, just for the ease of it all, the only thing that we had to worry about was making sure our tans were just right!!!!

Good luck!!

I'd agree that a package would make it easier and save you "stress"... but the you are in "their hands" and judging by some reports it can have it's disappointments.We did all our arrangements ourselves and though there is a certain amount of work involved in paperwork and translations, it really isn't that difficult! We also had local friends helping with the arrangements, but all went smoothly on "the day"... we even had time for the beach in the morning priort to an afternoon/evening wedding

in case no one thought of it you can always have it in a catholic church in Greece, just have a look around to find one. for sure i know there are in Tinos Island, and Chania and Agios Nikolaos in Crete. i do recomment to have one doing the paper work for you as believe me it takes ages to arrange them. my wife is british and its a lot of work to be done in translations publishing in local papers etc. the rest of the staff such as place to eat, flowers etc can be done by you when over.

I agree that you need someone to help you with paperwork, however I don't now of any agencies that will only help with that!

I would just shop around and make sure the agency you choose is legitimate and the things on offer are going to be up to your standards and expectations!

Let me know if you want some reccommendations!

There is an island in the Cyclades complex (along with Santorini, Mykonos etc) called Syros. It is different than all other Aegean islands, you will not meet the typical white houses with the blue windows allover, but it is beautiful with lots of Italian-like buildings (neoclassical).

The thing about this island is that half the population are Catholics and there are many catholic churches and a beatiful city hall...

Catholics traditionally live in the upper town (Ano Syra), a beautiful complex built on the hill side, crowded little white houses forming an outside wall to prevent pirates from entering. At the top of this hill is the Catholic cathedral. The Italian-style buildings (along with the town hall) are in the new town, built at the harbour and on a second hill facing the first one. On the top of this hill is the Orthodox cathedral.

This island is not that well known abroad as you will not find big resorts there, and there are not that many beaches (although you will not have a problem finding someplace really nice to swim).

Try travel-to-syros.com and welcome2syros.gr.