Romantic civil wedding in Folegandros | Sierra & Orain

The two protagonists of today’s wedding decided to get married in beautiful Folegandros island in Chora. They chose an island because they’re both adventurous, they are from islands and they love to travel, so an island wedding sounded perfect to them. The style of their wedding was minimal and elegant, with the natural beauty of the island as the main decoration. They got married with a civil ceremony and a small audience of local Greeks. Special moment of the wedding was the ride of the bride on a donkey into the island, and after to the place where the ceremony took place. Enjoy all the sweet moments of this wedding through the following photos by Kostis Mouselimis!

The bride shared with us: “My sister, friend, and I went out for drinks one evening. The place we went was packed. However, there was one seat right next to me, unoccupied at the bar. Orain was out with his friend that night, they were sitting at a booth not far from the bar. He noticed me and saw the open bar seat next to me. He ditched his friend and came to sit right next to me at the bar. I remember suddenly seeing a large dark man trying to fit in the small space next to me. We struck up a conversation about traveling, and when we were leaving, he convinced me to give him my number. He texted me the very next day and a few days later he invited me on a date … the rest is history.”

“Orain had wanted to get out of town for a weekend trip a couple of weekends in a row. We finally landed on a free weekend and did a 5-hour road trip to Idaho. We spent the weekend going to a beer festival, trying new restaurants, exploring parks, going swimming in a lake, etc. On Sunday, we planned to drive home in the late afternoon / early evening, as it was a long drive and we both had work the next day. Orain kept extending our time in Idaho for some reason. We are kind of spontaneous, so I did not think much of it. We ended up eating dinner, and then Orain really wanted to see a park…”

“…We stopped at park with a lake and he told me we should get out and take some pictures. As I walked toward the lake, with my camera, Orain asked a stranger to take our picture. He told me to come over for a picture. He grabbed both my shoulders so that I was facing him, then he started looking really nervous. He looked me in the eye and said: “Sierra… we have been dating for a while” the next thing I knew he was down on one knee, taking a ring out of a box, and asked me to marry him. I was really surprised! After that we returned to the car to discover that Orain got so nervous earlier, that he accidently locked the car keys in the trunk of the car. As a result, we left Idaho much later than anticipated. We ended up getting home at 4 AM and having to work at 7 AM, but we had a good laugh and it made the day more memorable!”

“I did a lot of internet searches, looked at Instagram posts, read through wedding blogs (in fact Chic & Stylish Weddings was one of them!).”

“The ceremony took place in Folegandros in Chora. I rode a donkey to the church where the wedding ceremony took place. The style of our wedding was minimal, simple, elegant and timeless. We are adventurous and love to travel. We are also both from islands, so getting married on a neutral island, that we both had never been to sounded perfect. The steep cliffs we saw on pictures gave the island a romantic feeling, but because it was further away from the main islands, it had a more remote and private feeling to it.”

“For my flower bouquet I wanted white peonies with olive branches, but unfortunately they were not in season. The alternative was white David Austin / garden roses, but due to availability I ultimately ended up with an avalanche style rose with olive branches. The island had so much natural beauty, from the white picturesque cliff-side churches, dark Aegean sea blue, interesting old-town architecture and buildings, that we did not need wedding decorations. The island was a beautiful backdrop in itself.”

“There were a lot of memorable moments during the wedding. We had a small audience of local Greeks who gathered around and watched our ceremony. I recall seeing a little old Greek lady, who lived near the church, go into her house and come back out with two closed fists during the ceremony. As we were pronounced husband and wife, the little lady tossed handfuls of rice on us and cheered blissfully in Greek. Her excitement and happiness for us was very endearing and set a very authentic mood to the moment. We also made friends with the owner of our hotel, Yannis, during our trip. He drove us to our wedding location, took pictures with our phones, and even participated in the ceremony. He demonstrated true Greek hospitality. There were also two little Greek girls who followed us around while we took post-wedding photos. They were very curious and asked out photographer a lot of questions to ask us. He had to translate it from Greek. It was quite cute and entertaining. We joked that they were my bridesmaids. I even got a photo with them catching my bouquet.”

“One of the best moments was right after the ceremony and having celebratory champagne. I stood on the cliff by the church with Orain. I had a moment to observe the beauty of the island that we just got married on. I looked down from the cliffs, enjoyed the view, I saw the immaculate presence of the deep blue ocean, the sun glistened down into it, and I felt the cool windy breeze against my face. I stood there in awe, with Orain, taking in all the natural beauty of my surroundings. Orain played music from his phone and we danced. It was just the two of us standing there, as husband and wife, in that moment. It was an exciting, happy, romantic, and private moment. It felt like everything came together and we pulled off eloping in a foreign country. ”

“The dress is by American designer, Nicole Miller. The silhouette is fitted through the bodice with a long-fluted train, with a sweetheart neckline, and deep v-back. The material is a quality silk blend. It’s a simple dress with no real frills, I wanted something elegant and timeless.”

Advice to a bride-to-be: “Pick a few elements that mean the most to you and focus on those things. I put everything else secondary and did not sweat the small details too much (although Orain would say otherwise). For me, the things that meant the most, besides Orain, were the location (running away to a remote Greek Island and eloping!) and capturing the moments (having quality pictures I would remember for the rest of my life). I allocated my budget accordingly to these areas. I invested in a good photographer and videographer. I was extremely pleased with our Photographer, Kostis Mouselimis. He has a good eye, knows the best way to utilize natural light, and is very artistic. His photos and work speak for itself. I also felt lucky to find our videographer Nikolas Terliamis Films. His videos highlight the important moments and are presented in an artistic way…”

“…I also learned that it can take a lot of time to sort out the official paperwork when getting married in a foreign country. It does not hurt to start early, at least 6 months in advance, so you do not feel rushed. A wedding planner is definitely helpful for the paperwork process. Celia and her team at Storytelling Lab were also very accommodating in last-minute situations and knew the resources of the island very well.”