Civil or Religious Ceremony?
I have been lying myself for a while now that I will share with you more about our big day. We are 8 months old as a married couple and here I am trying to recreate our civil ceremony for you. I have received so many questions about my wedding dress, our hats, the location, the food etc. so I think this is the best idea: an article where I can tell you everything I consider important. If you have any additional questions, I am happy to respond to all!
The most common question of all was definitely: How come you were supposed to get married in Greece this May? Aren’t you married already?
YES, on September, the 7th, 2019, we had our Civil Ceremony in the middle of the nature. The marriage commissioner came to By The Lake and we said YES in front of our loved ones which filled our hearts with joy,
NO, we didn’t also have our Religious Ceremony so we didn’t say YES in front of a priest just yet. We were supposed to do it yesterday, on the 10th of May in Greece where we found a Romanian priest that would have married us in front of God in a small Orthodox Church.
This Pandemic came as a surprise for all of us so we had to postpone the ceremony, but I am sure God knows what He is doing and He has greater plans for our Magical Day!
From the beginning we knew it has to be different. We wanted a wedding in the middle of the nature, with a relaxed atmosphere, green grass, blinking lights and bales of hay. With sushi and lemonade bar. Gabriel wanted a cigar bar and I a boho arcade and lots of natural white flowers. And a piano. And gold cutlery. The list was endless and the venue too difficult to find.
One morning, while Gabriel was drinking coffee on the terrace of our Lake House, I looked around and said: “We have a 3000 square meters garden, let’s do it here!” And so the adventure began!
We’ve worked all summer 2019, from sunrise till midnight (sometimes even after) to fulfil our dream. The beautiful part was having our families involved in every step.
I will soon write an article to tell you more about BY THE LAKE where you can currently find accommodation for 12-14 persons, a lake view terrace for relaxation or small events with families & friends, an event wooden pergola for fairytale outdoor events up to 150 persons and a large and green garden.
BY THE LAKE is not a classical ballroom and never will be. We don’t have shiny walls, satin covers for chairs or sparkling chandeliers. We don’t like staying inside and eating boring appetizers.
Instead, we love to create. We believe in simple things like jute and pampas, natural flowers and wood. We like being in the middle of the nature between bales of hay and blinking lights. We adore flowy dresses and boho hats.
At BY THE LAKE we encourage dreams and creativity and I promise I will soon tell you more about our services and events! Till then, you can take a look on the website HERE.
The Outdoor Civil Ceremony
Our event took place at BY THE LAKE from the beginning till the end: from Monday till Friday we’ve started to receive our family at the villa because they helped us with organising everything. I believe there are not better things that the ones made from the heart and family is obviously best at that. By family, I also mean our close friends that have a special place in our hearts.
On Saturday afternoon, we gathered the rest of the family and our loved ones and around 6 pm (when we were finally ready), we said YES with all our hearts. The moments was incredibly overwhelming for me and I was in tears the whole time which I didn’t expect, but it probably made everything even more emotional. Gabriel was the strong part after having weeks of stress thinking we won’t be ready with all we had in plan. Atis, my puppy, accompanied my YES with cute barks.
We’ve arranged everything directly on the grass on our lake view meadow. Wooden chairs, jute alley, white flowers, a handmade boho arcade courtesy of Gabriel’s uncle and a piano for the first song. Exactly like I have pictured it!
The Party
The party took place at BY THE LAKE as well, under the covered wooden pergola that was ready two days before the big event (imagine our stress level). We’ve danced the night away because the event ended around 6 am in the outdoor jacuzzi on the lake view terrace. We were happy to see that we’ve managed to have a relaxed garden party and not a classical and boring wedding day.
We did the other way around: we have decided to have the big party along with our civil ceremony while keeping the religious one small in Greece. This is why everyone thought we did both on the day and nobody understood why I am talking about a new wedding in Greece this May.
We had such a great time at our own wedding because we were surrounded only by our closed family and friends. We danced, laughed, took hundreds of photos and created memories for a lifetime!
I was lucky enough to find MY DREAM WEDDING DRESS for our wedding at PRIVATO. Even though we only had our civil ceremony, I really wanted to wear a wedding dress so that all our family members and friends would see me wearing it. Since our religious wedding will be small (around 22 persons), I felt like it won’t be enough to wear a proper wedding dress there so I have decided to change the rules and proudly wear it at our civil ceremony.
To be honest, I don’t think I could have made a better choice when it comes to my wedding gown. The girls at PRIVATO DRESS created the perfect one for our garden party: flowy, yet elegant, with delicate lace and a long train that could be detached when needed. The best part was that it was so light, I didn’t feel it all night long.
If you are planning your wedding after this crazy pandemic, I recommend paying them a visit. First of all, their showroom is so dreamy and I bet you will love it. Secondly, I am sure you will find the dress of your dreams. They create all the gowns based on your measurements and you can adjust them as you prefer. For example, I wanted some changes at the back of the dress and also at the cleavage and they helped me with everything at no extra cost.
Be sure to schedule your visit in advance because the dresses take a while to be perfect!
Regarding SHOES, it was a hard search because I wanted simple nude and really simple and simple is almost always the hardest to find. Saint Laurent was my saviour with beige leather Hall sandals. I have only used them at the ceremony and till sunset. After that, I out in some comfy platforms and danced all night long!
As I told you from the beginning, we wanted to have a different kind of event: no shinny dresses, ties and boring accessories or diadems. Instead we went for my flowy lace dress with the most beautiful custom made boho hats from PALARIA DADARLAT.
I have been a fan of their hats for a long time now, but the ones for the Wedding were out of this world. A talented person that collaborates with PALARIA DADARLAT hand painted them with the drawings of our choosing which made them even more special. Thank you, Madalina, for your amazing work and pure passion for hats! I recommend her with all my heart and I cannot wait to wear her creations for our Greek Wedding as well!
Make Up and Hair
My bestie, Berta, was in charge of my make up since she is a professional make-up artist abroad and she started her experiments on me many years ago. She knew exactly how I want to look on my wedding day: I needed a simple and natural make-up which is often the most difficult to obtain.
For the hair, I chose my dear old friend, Alex, who takes care of my hair for a long time now. He was kind enough to come to BY THE LAKE and took care of my besties, mommy and I!
I really wanted to have a girls photo session before the wedding, but since I was too keen on doing as much as I could for the decor and preparations, there was no actual time to waste on the big day. I am happy I’ve managed to squeeze a short photoshooting the day after with my besties, Berta & Oana plus my mommy. We all wore customised silky robes from COTTON MOLDOVA and felt so pretty while taking the pictures. The girls do such a good job and are really hardworking and dedicated. Hubby also had one on dark red that, to be honest, I love wearing at home.
For the location, we’ve used the Fire MasterBedroom at By The Lake which has the best light for pictures and the lake view terrace as well.
My dear friend Raluca from CHARMINK CALLIGRAPHY created the most beautiful invitations for us, exactly how we’ve imagined them. The leaves are hand painted for us and By The Lake and our names are hand written by her. She also helped us with customised decorations around the garden: ceremony & party signs, welcome board and table seating plan.
Raluca is so talented and she also helped us decorating the house when we’ve built it by adding her beautiful writing on our walls!
Flowers and Decor
It was very hard for me to choose a wedding theme because I had way too many ideas. But since we have decide for a wedding in the middle of the nature, I felt like everything should be white & green with a touch of gold. When I look back, I know it was the best option for the location.
I chose white flowers and greenery decorations on the tables, white table cloths and napkins, white elegant plates and matte gold cutlery & candle holders.
I wanted to be involved in everything: from flowers to decorations and even my wedding bouquet which was as simplest as I could: 5 white hydrangeas tied up with a dark green bow.
We used the ceremony arcade as a photo corners since the sunset light was perfect and added wooden lemonade & cocktail bars, blinking lights, bales of hay and a cigar bar.
The beautiful pictures from our special day were taken by Remus Nicolaescu, based on my previous collaborations with him. We wanted someone that uses great cameras and technique and we were so happy with the result. He edited the pictures exactly how I like them, using lot of light and warm colors and he surprised us by delivering them in less than one week! That was unbelievable!
We also did an after wedding photo shooting and video session at BY THE LAKE with White Ruffles and Vasile Porav Photography and I recommend them with all my heart. We were delighted with the result and I will soon share everything with you as well.
Food and Sweets
Our dear friend Florin Trisca took care of the food and we obviously had to start with Sushi & Prosecco because this is how we’ve started to date. It was a lovely surprise for our guests and we were happy to see how delighted they were to eat sushi as a starter.
We continued with the classical appetizers plus the traditional ones served on bales of hay from wooden and traditional plates.
The meatballs with cabbage and polenta couldn’t have missed from a Romanian wedding and we ended the food series with a live OFYR Barbecue session that continued all night long. Our guests were queuing around the grills because everything looked so delish!
The Candy Bar was made by my mom which made me and our guests so happy!
To end the night, our lovely Roxana prepared naked wedding cake with blueberries and lemon cream! Yummy! She decorated it with natural white flowers and green leaves! On top, we had a wooden customised decoration.
The Guardian Angels
Our wedding could not have existed without the help of our family and closest friends. They helped us every step of the way and we are so grateful for this!
My mommy, granny and besties were present to help us from the beginning along with Hubby’s uncles, aunties and cousins. My future sister in law, Valentina, was amazing and we couldn’t finish without her!
Ralu, Roxana and little Anastasia were by our side as well together with Romina, Cristi and little Matteo. I cannot imagine our wedding without the help of Florin, Marius and Oana!
I almost forgot to tell you about my crazy childhood friends that live in London, Babu and Vali, that decide to came dressed in Scottish kilts. They did such a good job with the ceremony area!
Thank you for being by our side!
Our Loved Ones and the Dresscode
Last, but not least, I want to thank all our loved ones for being there on our special day. It could not be the same without each one of them. We were one big happy family dancing the night away in a lake view garden!
I really wanted to have an all white party, but since we had more than 120 guest I thought that would be pretty difficult so I have decided to change it for light pastel colors. It was so beautiful seeing them dressed in similar colors, especially on all the green from the garden.
Thank you for being a part of our story!
I am sure I am going to remember many things that I forgot to tell you in this article, but is all I could think about at this time! I would be happy to answer any other questions you might have!
To be continued…
Lots of Love,
Taisia
