Wedding photos, part II: Now with more kissing!

Hi folks, sorry for the lack of updates this week. We've now uploaded the post-ceremony photos to Flickr! The photographer put us through our paces, at times bending and arranging us into some rather silly poses at different scenic locales across the hotel's many levels. If you were to speed through the 300 + photos she took of us, you'd see us slowly wilting in time-lapse. We've (hopefully) edited out the ones where we look a bit bedraggled.



Click here for the post-ceremony photos!

After the grueling photo-shoot was finished, we changed and went to dinner at a fabulous restaurant called Selene in Fira. We were definitely rubbing elbows with some extremely elite people there, including a well-heeled Englishman who was lamenting that his stable is down to "only" three Arab Chargers. While we ate dinner, some crazy clouds drifted in from the ocean right on top of us, basically (remember we're on the tops of cliffs in Santorini). Everyone at the restaurant was excited about it, as this was a very rare weather event for the usually arid island. We walked back to the hotel through a dense, noirish fog:



When we returned to our room, we found that it had been secretly decorated for us with rose petals and candles while we were away! (I thought that only happened in movies...) Carl's stepmom, Judy, also contributed to the surprise because she had sent us some flowers and a bottle of wine:





This was the perfect, non-anticlimactic way to end the day!

OMG Wedding Photos!!!!

Here they are! Apologies for the delay. There is another potentially large set of photos of after the ceremony that is still yet to come. (These should be posted tomorrow, we hope.)

We'll just let the wedding photos speak for themselves, more or less – enjoy!

OK, although we just said we'd let the photos speak for themselves, kindly keep in mind that it was probably in the mid-90s during the wedding. Any shininess you might observe was purely weather-related and denotes neither nerves, flop sweat, nor second thoughts, we assure you.

Click here for more wedding photos!

Naxos to Santorini (09/05/2009)

On the morning of our wedding day (Saturday, September 5), we left Naxos by catamaran for Santorini. Although the sun was shining, there was a bit of fog on the water that delayed our arrival in Santorini by an hour or so. We arrived at our hotel, Dana Villas, in the midafternoon, and finally got to meet our wedding coordinator, Panos, with whom I've been corresponding by e-mail for several months. He took us to the wedding site at the hotel and went over some logistical details with us.

We had lunch at the hotel and relaxed in our room for a few hours (they upgraded us to a VIP suite -- sweet!). Then it was showtime! Panos and our photographer, Artemis, came to our hotel room and led the way to the wedding site. The sun was just starting to set and everything was beautiful. The ceremony seemed short, considering all the planning that led up to it, and before we knew it, we were married! Photos of the ceremony coming up in the next post...



(I love this photo that Carl took of his hat at Dana Villas.)

Click here for more photos of this day!

Prelude to Wedding Pix

Many of you have expressed some (legitimate) impatience at not having seen the wedding pix yet. We feel your pain. After we got back, we both got sick, one after the other. That, combined with the daunting task of reviewing the hundreds of pix from the trip (not to mention having to go back to work, ugh) caused a bit of delay. We PROMISE, the real wedding pix will be up very soon. In the meantime, we're keeping things chronological.

So here are a few shots we took of the wedding terrace when we arrived at the hotel in Santorini. We really weren't prepared for just how gorgeous the terrace was with its unlimited view of the Aegean. Once we arrived, Panos, our able and affable wedding coordinator, took us to the site and gave us a brief preview of how things would go down. Our jaws dropped. Here are the pix. Seeing the site made things suddenly feel VERY real. We were really moved by visiting the spot we'd be married at in just a few short hours.



I was especially glad that the canopy was basically a chupah, the traditional wedding canopy in Jewish weddings. Although we opted for a civil ceremony, this detail meant a lot to me.











Stay tuned. The next pix will have the flowers in place, and, oh yeah - us!

Naxos day 4 (09/04/2009)

On our last full day on Naxos, we decided to take another long scooter ride. This time, we headed for Aparanthos, which our guidebook pronounced the most charming town on the island (or something like that). We got sidetracked on the way there when we saw signs pointing to the Temple of Demeter. It was quite a bit off our intended route, but well worth it. It was unbelievably hot that day, although a bit cooler when riding because of the breeze. Back on the road, we rode through the valley town of Filoti and then up into the hills to Aparanthos.


View Naxos day 4 in a larger map

At the highest points, we had views of valleys and hills on one side and of the Aegean on the other side. It was quite a ride! We had lunch in Aparanthos and walked around a bit, then rode back to our hotel. (On the way back we tried to find the Cave of Zeus, following signs off the main road, but to no avail. Maybe it was closed?) In the evening we rode to Chora for one last visit.



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 4!

Naxos day 3 (09/03/2009)

On Thursday we spent most of the day at the beach near our hotel, Agios Prokopios. This is a pretty long beach and can get crowded, but our hotel was near the northern end, which is much less crowded. It was another great day for being at the beach (maybe even better than Wednesday because it was less windy). We had lunch at a taverna on a hill overlooking the entire beach, which was beautiful.

In the early evening we rode our scooters into Chora, the main town on Naxos. We had done this the night before, too, except we forgot to bring the camera, so on this evening we spent a lot of time going back to places we'd already seen to take photos while it was still light out. Not that this was any hardship! The Venetian Kastro in Chora is probably one of my favorite places on Earth. So many winding passageways and historic ruins combined with contemporary living spaces. Plus, there are lots of cats! We emerged from the Kastro in time to take in the sunset at the Portara, which is the symbol of Naxos -- the ruins of a giant unfinished temple to Apollo at the end of a short causeway.

We finished the day with a nighttime ride back to our hotel. I was apprehensive about riding our scooters in the dark, but it turned out to be a really exhilarating experience (not to mention chilly!).



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 3!

Naxos day 2 (09/02/2009)

After lounging at our hotel pool for a little while, we headed to the beach on day 2. We had heard good things about Plaka, which is a long stretch of sandy beach along the west coast of the island, further south from us. We rode our scooters there without incident (other than getting turned around a little) and spent the afternoon lounging and swimming. The water is incredibly clear there, although just as cold as the North Atlantic! We were surprised it wasn't warmer, being so much farther south. Oh, well... when the weather is hot and dry, even cold water feels good!



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 2!

Naxos day 1 (09/01/2009)

Our *real* first day in Naxos was really the day we arrived (August 31), but we were so jetlagged and out of it that we mostly snoozed by the pool at our hotel. We went into the main town for dinner that night but didn't take many pictures. So, I'm considering "Naxos Day 1" to be Tuesday, September 1st. We rented scooters and went on a looong ride into the interior of the island, to the Citron distillery in Chalki (called Chalkio on the map), to a 7th-century church in Moni, and back down some really STEEP hills. Here's a map of Naxos:


View Naxos day 1 in a larger map

We were staying near the west coast of the island (Agios Prokopios), so you can see this was an ambitious ride for my first time on a scooter. I did fall off once and got a little banged up, but nothing major (fortunately my wedding dress came to below my knees :). By the end of the day, though, I felt like a scooter champ!



Click here for more photos from Naxos, day 1!

Updates coming!

Hi, all -- We're finally back and ready to start posting photos and updates from our trip! I have an ambitious plan to create a post for each day of our trip...we'll see how that goes. :) Coming up, Naxos Day 1!

PS: wedding photos coming soon, I promise...

Alive and well in Naxos!

As promised, here are a few (of the 600+) photos we've taken in our 5 days on Naxos. I can't believe we have to leave tomorrow. I'm already planning our next trip here!

Sorry for the wacky arrangement of the photos...I'm using the hotel's computer and it's a little weird. Also all the commands are in Greek. (Go figure.)

Tomorrow is the big day! Update to follow...