Church + Sea Elopement in Mykonos, Greece

May 31

Written By Jaclyn

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For Tracy Burch's photoshoot in for the Elysian Workshop in Mykonos, I envisioned an elopement ceremony in a Greek Orthodox in a white Mykonian chapel. We searched for weeks to find anyone who would let us use their family chapel and then finally, with the help of a local travel agent who understood our vision (and didn't think we were weird/crazy Americans) we found a family who was willing to open their beautiful, red ancient 1700's wooden church doors for us. This small chapel was dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and had their deceased relatives buried beneath it. It was truly an honor and we were grateful they shared it with us.

I designed Sophia and Nikolas' Mykonos elopement to look and feel true to ancient Greek Orthodox wedding traditions while being effortless, timeless and elegant. For their stationery, I wanted it to feel ancient and water inspired. The vintage photos we used for styling were photos of Sophia's grandparents Orthodox wedding ceremony. Her lace Claire Pettibone gown with cape, all About Romance tiara, and foraged nosegay along with Nikolas's modern Zara suit and black Greek leather sandals created an elegant and modern pairing. Through the photos, I wanted you to be able to smell the lingering incense in the church, the burning beeswax candles, and see the earth toned ancient icons on the iconostasis.

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I handmade their wedding crowns of bleached ruscus and tied them with a raw silk ribbon. The crowns are an Orthodox symbol of the king and queen (husband and wife) of the marriage and tied together showing their eternal commitment to each other. The ribbon is cut only upon death and each partner is buried with their crown. Chris and I had crowns for our wedding too and are one of our most cherished things we own!