My First Big Fat Greek Wedding

What a day! I went to a Greek wedding!

One of the main reasons I even came to Greece this summer was for my professor Taso's wedding. He met his bride/now-wife on our program last summer, and I've had the pleasure of getting to know both of them much better over the past year. Since I was already on my way to Marburg, Germany, for my Fulbright German language study course, I asked the Fulbright Commission if I could route my flight to Germany via Athens. Thankfully, they said yes, so that's why I get to be in Greece for two weeks to do follow up research, attend Taso's wedding, and help out with the UW Athens Program.

Today, a bunch of us got all dressed up and headed out for his evening wedding. Even as we got toward evening, it was plenty warm outside. I wore my full suit, so I was pretty sweaty. We had to take the Metro and transfer once before taking a taxi to get to the church out in the suburbs.

The Metro ride was just fine, but the taxis wouldn't take us because they said the church was so close. I think they were lazy because we were all dressed up and the walk was actually more like a mile. Check out pictures of the walk below.

The wedding itself was awesome. My friend, Georgina, had already given me the lowdown on traditional Greek weddings last night, so I had an idea of what to expect. Still, actually being at the church was an experience in itself.

Taso greeted us and then went to wait for the car to bring Nektaria, his bride.

When Nektaria arrived, she and Taso kissed and everyone followed them into the church.

When we arrived, I also saw many of Taso's family members whom I had gotten to meet in Vitalo last summer (Taso's home village in northeastern Greece). It took them a minute, but they remembered me after I told them I was here last year.

Inside the church, the vivid color of the walls was incredible. I got bad pictures, but it was just an extraordinary atmosphere. Giannis, Taso's nephew, waved me over to the open seat next to him, so I joined him and his friend. He and I had hung a bit in the village together last year and became good friends, so it was nice to see him again.

The church was a busy place though because there was another wedding scheduled only an hour later. That might've been the fastest wedding service I've ever been to, but it was awesome. At one point, they passed out rice so you could throw at the bride and groom to ward off any evil spirits. It was funny to watch Giannis throw little bits of rice at his mom two rows in front during the wedding service. I decided it'd probably be a good idea for me to just wait till everyone else threw their rice at Taso and Nektaria before I launched my pile of rice.

The rest of the night was eventful. At first, we didn't know if we'd be able to go to the reception due to limited space, so we decided to just head out to dinner ourselves so they wouldn't have to worry about us. Well, we walked all the way to the Metro station (about another mile) before I got a text message from Taso asking us to go back to the reception. Haha. So we convinced four taxis to take us.

Taso's niece, Arleta, met us at the church and took us to the reception area, which was an open terrace just below the hill where the church was. It was kind of funny how we didn't want to be a bother, and then when we showed up late, everyone looked at us as the servers set up another table for us. Haha. But, the next few hours were some of the best I've ever had in Greece.

We ate, we drank, we danced, we laughed, we sang, we sweated...and then did more of all that. Great night. It was great to see many of the folks I had met last year as well, so it was fun. The dancing was interesting too. Taso and Nektaria led a traditional Greek dance—the long line just like in the movie, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. That was just awesome. I did not jump in since my dancing is not so good. I stuck with my own version of the Carlton dance (see: Fresh Prince of Bel Air). :)

Anyway, tonight was very memorable. Tomorrow, we move to our guesthouse (well, most of them are going to the Norwegian Institute guesthouse, and I will be at the Danish Institute guesthouse), so I have to pack all my stuff tomorrow morning. Fun...

Good night!

Sam