I'm not able to fall asleep until around 3-4am every morning and I usually wake up at about 11am or 12noon. Oh sweet jet lag let me be! Anyway, my cousin Zaharoula (bride) told me that her and her mother needed my help with the toulye (tulle) to decorate their house where they were going to have this party, called the Krevati. The krevati means bed in english and it is tradition to have this party before the wedding hosted by the bride, the groom, and their parents. It is held in the bride and groom's new home that they usually spend a year purchasing, renovating and furnishing. The wedding won't happen until that is done. They don't live together even if the home is finished before the wedding date. The party is usually catered, and may resemble a miniature wedding reception. There is a lot of food, music, and dancing - you know....GREEKSTYLE. What is special about this party is the krevati. The single girls gather around the bed and try to make up the bed of the bride and groom, while everyone watches, especially the groom. Once they get close to finishing, he fights them for the sheets and messes up the bed. A struggle between the bachelor to be no more and the single women ensue. The bride and family are spectators. Money and flower petals are thrown onto the bed for the bride and groom- GREEKSYTLE.
Back to the reason why I mentioned lack of sleep...
Zaharoula told me to be at her house at 10:30am even though I've been sleep deprived and running back and forth from one relative to the next - GREEKSTYLE. Then it was moved up and up as I found out from another cousin. Three hours of sleep barely, I nibbled my toast and cheese, gulped down my nescafe frappe (ice cold coffee with foam) like no one's business and headed off to Zaharoula's house.
There I was greeted by my exhuberant Thia (Aunt) Athina (Not my namesake) who enlisted me to help with decorating. I got this Thia! I love challenges! What I had to work with: 1. orange and white tulle that was segmented every 2 feet with orange ribbon. What?? That's all we have to decorate? As I am saying this I see vases of flowers. Perfect! With their permission I took some white and peach roses and attached them to the orange ribbon that segmented the draped tulle. I also made bows and placed some roses on it to put on the door. Then I found garnet/orange colored whiskey glasses that I put candles in to serve as tea lights which I used to frame the walkway up to the front door. I helped my aunt clean the house after helping with the decorations. Where was my cousin Zaharoula during all of this you may ask? Getting her nails done :-) I told her...smart girl...smart girl...getting your nails done so that you'll get out of doing work! Well why should the bride be put to work?! I came home about 4pm tired! While most spent the day getting their hair/nails done professionally, I did my own. It's a thing I guess to get pampered before an event. Eh, I'll do my own and hers and hers and hers...and...you too?!
I believe about 48 people were invited to the party, but from what I could see, only about 20-30 showed up. Not bad. The caterer to our great surprise had brought beautiful lanterns with orange tulle, and candles! Phew!
My cousin Zaharoula, was beautiful! She wore a medium blue a-line short dress with an ivory wide belt and ivory open toed heels to match. Her hair was loosely french braided to the side and it fell over her left shoulder, with wisps of hair framing her neutral/bronzed face. The groom wore summer light brown linen pants with a light blue button up, well groomed...the groom had been :-) When we arrived, most of the guests were there. The party didn't really get started until 10:00pm when the women got up to dance! I struggled with wanting to film the event or dance! I was being yelled at a lot to put down the camera and dance...lol! I couldn't argue with that as I love to dance!!!!! We did some greek traditional dances, some belly dancing (well the belly dancing was mostly my cousin Yiota who takes those classes and myself) and improvisation...lol. The men watched, as usual. Halfway through the night I ceremoniously ripped off my heels and threw them aside as the ladies cheered me on. Why didn't they follow suit, I wondered. CRASH! Before my barefeet was a bountiful array of white shards...shards of plates - GREEKSTYLE! My crazy aunt Thia Athina (mother of the bride) threw plates down at us while we were dancing! It is a greek traditon to break plates at parties. The shards just grazed my right foot (luckily no cuts). The only problem that stood before me at this point was that I couldn't move! My shoes were up on the balcony.
I think this is a good note leave on.
Filakia (kisses)
Back to the reason why I mentioned lack of sleep...
Zaharoula told me to be at her house at 10:30am even though I've been sleep deprived and running back and forth from one relative to the next - GREEKSTYLE. Then it was moved up and up as I found out from another cousin. Three hours of sleep barely, I nibbled my toast and cheese, gulped down my nescafe frappe (ice cold coffee with foam) like no one's business and headed off to Zaharoula's house.
There I was greeted by my exhuberant Thia (Aunt) Athina (Not my namesake) who enlisted me to help with decorating. I got this Thia! I love challenges! What I had to work with: 1. orange and white tulle that was segmented every 2 feet with orange ribbon. What?? That's all we have to decorate? As I am saying this I see vases of flowers. Perfect! With their permission I took some white and peach roses and attached them to the orange ribbon that segmented the draped tulle. I also made bows and placed some roses on it to put on the door. Then I found garnet/orange colored whiskey glasses that I put candles in to serve as tea lights which I used to frame the walkway up to the front door. I helped my aunt clean the house after helping with the decorations. Where was my cousin Zaharoula during all of this you may ask? Getting her nails done :-) I told her...smart girl...smart girl...getting your nails done so that you'll get out of doing work! Well why should the bride be put to work?! I came home about 4pm tired! While most spent the day getting their hair/nails done professionally, I did my own. It's a thing I guess to get pampered before an event. Eh, I'll do my own and hers and hers and hers...and...you too?!
I believe about 48 people were invited to the party, but from what I could see, only about 20-30 showed up. Not bad. The caterer to our great surprise had brought beautiful lanterns with orange tulle, and candles! Phew!
My cousin Zaharoula, was beautiful! She wore a medium blue a-line short dress with an ivory wide belt and ivory open toed heels to match. Her hair was loosely french braided to the side and it fell over her left shoulder, with wisps of hair framing her neutral/bronzed face. The groom wore summer light brown linen pants with a light blue button up, well groomed...the groom had been :-) When we arrived, most of the guests were there. The party didn't really get started until 10:00pm when the women got up to dance! I struggled with wanting to film the event or dance! I was being yelled at a lot to put down the camera and dance...lol! I couldn't argue with that as I love to dance!!!!! We did some greek traditional dances, some belly dancing (well the belly dancing was mostly my cousin Yiota who takes those classes and myself) and improvisation...lol. The men watched, as usual. Halfway through the night I ceremoniously ripped off my heels and threw them aside as the ladies cheered me on. Why didn't they follow suit, I wondered. CRASH! Before my barefeet was a bountiful array of white shards...shards of plates - GREEKSTYLE! My crazy aunt Thia Athina (mother of the bride) threw plates down at us while we were dancing! It is a greek traditon to break plates at parties. The shards just grazed my right foot (luckily no cuts). The only problem that stood before me at this point was that I couldn't move! My shoes were up on the balcony.
I think this is a good note leave on.
Filakia (kisses)
No comments:
Post a Comment