Santorini

Well this has to be one of our favorite candidates, what a special island this has to be. The image of Greece with the white houses and blue roofs is from this place. Santorini is a vulcanic island, luckily the vulcano is in rest. On one side of the island there are steep cliffs, on the other side black beaches. The island isn't that big (ok, you can't compare it to the Wadden islands in Holland) and there isn't that much to do, still it is very popular. This seems to be because of the magnificant views you have from your balcany, build on the cliffs. If you google Santorini and look for images, you get, as admirer of all that is Greek, the urge to go there! Well maybe even if you don't have anything for Greece yet.

But there is a slight problem and that is the fact that there isn't that much to do. At least not if you plan to take 40 different people there (including kids) for a week! Sure they will manage to enjoy themselfs though. It is our wedding and it will go as we want it to be, for sure, but a wedding in an other country does ask a lot of family and friends. If you want them there that is and we do. Therefor you want to make sure there is a lot to do for everyone!
But we'll see........it IS a great place after all.

Crete

We've just received a good proposition for Crete, well good...the accommodation looks great, the price they showed us was per unit per night, we can't do much with that info at this moment. But they will look if they can find more info about renting the whole complex. Who knows!

But Crete? Isn't that huge? Will you still have the isle feeling? And  aren't there a lot of tourists? Dutch tourists? Can't be romantic if that's so.
True, we discovered that for example Chersonissos, where we have been on vacation this year, is an extremely touristic place, a sort of Holland, with all those Dutchies there, but then warm.
But Crete isn't all about that, Crete has it's great places for away from mass tourism. In the south there are hundreds of small beaches where you can be alone all day, in the west there are the beaches where the Bounty (candy bar) commercials are recorded!

Also, there are lots of things to do on Crete and you need that when you're away from home with 40 different people with different interests. One want the beach, an other one wants a swim paradise, an other one wants enough nature to hike in and yet an other one wants culture, On Crete you can find it all.
So yes, this is a good candidate, but will this where we marry?
We'll see...    

Congratulations?

"Hey congratulations?", "Hey that blog is fun!", "Are you engaged?", "Is that blog a joke to have us all fooled?"
Nice reactions everybody, it shows that people do not know how to react exactly to this unusual announcement of our plans to get married.
Of course you can congratulate us if you want to, but it's not necessary. When I speak for myself, I don't think we're engaged yet, we will be when we can announce the exact date and location and (Yes Maaike) when I asked her!

The blog is also to inform you and others how things are going. It would be fun in (un)know couples who might have similar ideas, can use tips of this blog for their own.
You can always give a reaction on the blog of course, they are welcome and it's fun to read them. And if you have tips for us, please let us know! 

First contact

In the last few months we made some contacts through email with people who might be able to help us arrange everything. Ofcourse we want our Greek wedding to be legal in The Netherlands too! We both don't get much further then Kalimera (Greek for Goodmorning).
Luckily for us, there are people like Brigitte van Rijn, of De Griekse Bruiloft (The Greek Wedding), who can takes these matters out of our hands. She lived in Greece for a few years and knows the language. You still have to look for an accommodation yourself, but she arranges the wedding day itself, including the documents. We will make an appointment with her in 2010 to talk things through.

Also we've done a mailing to some big and small travelagencies to look for some accommodations with about 20 rooms where we van stay together.
If anybody has any tips, please let us know!

Greek Wedding!

Yes ladies and Gentlemen, Maaike and I are going to marry in Greece! Will be a while before it happens, may 2012, but it will be a big party with family and friends then.

What's going to happen? Well, we want to got to a Greek island with a bunch of people (our family and closest friends) and stay there for a week. All of us in one complex, exclusively for us. During this week everyone can do what he or she wants, except for one day, our wedding day!
As it seems now.....somewhere in may 2012.

At this moment we're busy looking for a location and an Island, we want to know it ASAP, at least an indication, so we can plan a vacation there in mei 2010 and see what it's like.
As you'll understand, it's all very exciting!

Who are we anyway? And why Greece?

She is Maaike(32) and I am Anne(31), we met on the internet in 2006. After an exciting date, it soon was clear that we should be together and after a few months I was practically living with Maaike in her home in Lemmer. Early 2009, after some ups and downs we moved to Aldeboarn, a small village in the center of Friesland. In the 3 years we are together, we obiously already talked about marriage.

Maaike, a big fan of musicals, loves the musical and movie of 'Mamma Mia' and because of that she alsways had the idea: "If I ever get marries, I want it to be on a Greek island." It also helps that she's been on holiday to Greece a few times.
Before I met Maaike, I've never been there. But on our first real summervacation togethere, we went to the isle of Rhodos and I was sold right away. It's beautiful there, it's warm, the people are friendly and the seas blue. To be honest, I'd probably had the same feeling when it would be have some other coutry like Italy, but it wasn't, it was Greece.
So I also got rather enthusiastic by the idea of a Greek wedding and therefor we decided a few months ago: We're going to do it!

Only, there is a big but. I still have to ask here to marry me, if I don't there won't be a party!