Category Archives: Phlysse Stuff

Our Engagement Pictures

Posted on by

0

Photo Taken by InLux Photo

Photo Taken by InLux Photo

I loved taking our engagement pictures minus 1 thing. It was cold. When we booked InLux Photographers Jarred and Heather as our photographers we knew that we that we wanted a spring engagement session because I wasn’t too thrilled about a wintry photo shoot. I wanted to be warm in our photo shoot. Well I forgot that we live in Ohio and you can’t really predict the weather here and it was cold at the end of April. Phil and I chose our engagement photo location to be German Village in Columbus, Ohio. We chose German Village because it is the place we fell in love. I lived in German Village for 3 years while I was in law school and it is my absolutely favorite place. Most of Phil and I’s dates were exploring German Village together so it was the perfect place for our engagement pictures. We picked the Book Loft, Schiller Park, and Jeni’s Ice Cream for our location spots. We also shot a couple shots on the streets of German Village as well.

Phil and I testing out our engagement picture looks

Phil and I testing out our engagement picture looks

Picking out our outfits for our engagement photos was a lot of fun. I love when I can dress up Phil. He didn’t have any objections either. I  wasn’t going to put Phil in Justin Bieber baggy pants and a tank, but I wanted him to look J. Crew stylish. A trip to the Gap Outlet did the trick. Phil’s jeans, shorts, and button up were all from the Gap.  Phil’s blue button up was a vintage Structure shirt, yes I said Structure. His shoes were Sperry’s Phil’s favorite color is orange so I picked out the orange and blue gingham shirt in which now is his favorite shirt. The green shorts were an easy pick because they were not cargo shorts and colored shorts were a big trend for this summer for guys. Phil just needed a new pair of jeans simply because some of his jeans looked baggy because he had lost weight. I loved my outfits for our engagement shoots. My dress is from my absolutely favorite store Madewell. My blazer is from Banana Republic.  My shoes were from my second favorite store Gabriel Brothers. The styling of this outfit was inspired by the website Damsel in Dior. My second outfit was both J. Crew button up and pants. My shoes were Steve Madden. I originally thought I was going to wear my dress outfit when Phil was going to wear his jean outfit but the patterns didn’t go together so we made a switch.

Photo by InLux

Photo by InLux

Working with Jarred and Heather from InLux was awesome. They really can make anything look pretty. They had us laying under a tree during one of the shots and I had one of those moments of what am I doing and it looked absolutely amazing. They made up look like we were in a garden wonderland. Even though it was cold during our shoot we still ate Jeni’s Ice Cream outside and finished every bite of ice cream because Jeni’s is that good. I would recommend to anyone getting married to have an engagement shoot with your photographer because you really do learn how to work with them and how their process of shooting goes. He is some other tips I would give to anyone getting their engagement pictures taken:

1. Get a spray tan…I got one before this shoot and Phil was normal. I looked tanner than him, which never happens because I burn and look like a lobster while he turns a nice shade of dark brown.

2. Don’t be afraid to try a trendy look. My dress outfit is very trendy and I love it. It also made my pictures pop. Don’t wear flip flops they look horrible in pictures.

3. “Try” pick a month where it’s not cold. This may or may not work out for you.

4. You are going to making out a lot with your fiance so practice cute making out and make sure your breathe is minty fresh.

5. Practice smiling. You are going to smile a lot and your face gets tried so you don’t want the forced smile look.

Check out some of our engagement pictures here. We will post more on Facebook once we finally try to decide which ones we like the best (it’s really hard because we love so many of them).

Us eating Jeni's and being romantic.

Us eating Jeni’s and being romantic.

Phil and I looking cute in the park

Phil and I looking cute in the park

One of my favorite photos

One of my favorite photos

The Best Wedding Party Ever!

Posted on by

0

Alexander and I as the ring bearer and flower girl at our cousins Mike and Sophia's wedding

Alexander and Alysse as the ring bearer and flower girl at our cousins Mike and Sophia’s wedding

Koumbaro

Alexander

Relationship: Alysse’s Younger and Only Brother/Sibling

Likes: Old School Hip Hop, Athletic Training, Brewing His Own Beer, & AMC’s Walking Dead

One of Our Favorite Memories: My brother and I often would stay up late watching odd bad movies; for example one time we watched Leprechaun in the Hood. It was horribly fantastic. We always got along and would always play together.

Fun Fact: He has won every dance competition he has ever been in.

What We Love About Him: He’s funny and very entertaining, he is always there when you need him, and he can make friends anywhere.

Alysse as Wonder Woman and Alexander as Batman
We are wearing matching polos in Alexander’s senior pictures
Sarah and Alysse as flower girls riding in the limo

Sarah and Alysse as flower girls riding in the limo

Matron of Honor

Sarah

Relationship: Alysse’s 1st cousin (basically like her sister)

Likes: Tyler Perry’s Madea, her dog Finn, Big Salads

One of Our Favorite Memories: Sarah and I basically had lunch together everyday while we both went to Ohio State. We would talk about our classes, gossip, and enjoy amazing campus food. We would really bond together during these lunches. We also had a lot of fun together when we were kids. Sarah would always picked what we played with and when and I happily followed along.

Fun Fact: Sarah was High School Prom Queen and on The Ohio State University’s Homecoming Court

What We Love About Her: She gives great advice, She is great to go shopping with, and She is the best friend

Sarah and Alysse like to wear matching outfits when they go to church
Sarah and Alysse at Sweethearts in Columbus
Leah and Alysse at Sea World

Leah and Alysse at Sea World

Bridesmaid

Leah

Relationship: Alysse’s 1st Cousin (basically like her sister)

Likes: Button-ups, Photography, Orange is the New Black

One of Our Favorite Memories: When Leah did something, Sarah always would follow, and then I would follow and do the same thing. Due to this pattern Leah leadership I did a lot of really cool things Student Council, Sigma, and Mortar Board. I loved sharing these activities with her.

Fun Fact: Leah did 30 things in 30 days before her 30th Birthday you can read about it here

What We Love About Her: She is super creative, she is great to talk to you, and she is the best leader

Leah reads a book to Alysse
Alysse and Leah during some holiday
Lauren and Alysse in the 4th grade at Amish Country

Lauren and Alysse in the 4th grade at Amish Country

Bridesmaid

Lauren

Relationship: Alysse’s Best Friend Since the 4th Grade

Likes: TLC’s A Baby Story, Bargain Shopping, Ricky Martin/BSB/Nsync, Red heads

One of Our Favorite Memories: Lauren and I have a mutual love for gymnastics. It’s probably our favorite sport to watch. In high school we attended a gymnastics tour at the Gund Arena. Lauren’s mom got us the really good seats so we were super close to the arena floor. While most people who attend a gymnastic show sit quietly and watch the performance, Lauren and I would watch the show like we were at a boy band concert standing up, clapping, and screaming at the hot gymnastics boys. Our enthusiasm caught the eye of gymnast Alexei Nemov, who during mid performance on the high bar blew us a kiss. We almost fainted and history was made.

Fun Fact: Lauren can talk like Donald Duck

What we Love about Her: Fun to be around, the best person to go any concert with, and has a big heart

Lauren and Alysse on Lauren’s 21st birthday
Lauren and Alysse on our 8th grade field trip
Kendra and Alysse freshman year at Ohio State after jumping into Mirror Lake

Kendra and Alysse freshman year at Ohio State after jumping into Mirror Lake

Bridesmaid

Kendra

Relationship: Alysse’s first friend at The Ohio State University and roommates for 3 years

Likes: Going to concerts, Wine, Outdoors

One of Our Favorite Memories: While Kendra and I were living together our 3rd year we were about to leave to go to the famous 1. v. 2. Ohio State v. Michigan game and I could not find my ticket. Kendra, my friend Todd, my friend Amiee, and I tore my whole room a part to find my tickets. I could not find them and it was the most important game of the college football season. I was crying and Kendra was comforting me with shots of vodka. So Kendra and I decided to go to the OSU ticket office to see if I could get new tickets. Luckily I was able to reprint my ticket but I had to enter the stadium hours before the game. Kendra was nice enough to come with me. It was the best Ohio State game, we won, and we got to rush the field at The Shoe

Fun Fact: I used to call her “Top Chef” in college for making really fancy meals.

What We Love About Her: She is always fun to be around, she is an awesome friend, and she is always there when you need her.

Alysse and Kendra before the infamous 1 v. 2 Michigan and Ohio State football game
Alysse and Kendra 2nd year at OSU
Phil and Nick wearing matching outfits

Phil and Nick wearing matching outfits

Best Man

Nick

Relationship: Middle Brother

Likes: Fantasy Football, Video Games and Transformers

Favorite Memory: Living together in Lakewood and staying up way too late on a work night to play juuuuuust one more game of NBA 2K. We did this a lot over the years and we would always end up yelling at the TV or falling asleep with the controller in our hand.

Fun Fact: Was a better hockey announcer than any other sport, even though he never played hockey.

What We Love About Him: He has always been there for me.

Phil and Nick on Easter
Phil and Nick on Halloween
Phil and Steve Swimming

Phil and Steve Swimming

Groomsman

Steve

Relationship: Little Brother

Likes: Playing the piano, the discovery channel, and gardening

Favorite Memory: When I was an assistant coach for his 5th grade football team, Steve was the QB and we ran out of players to run the plays in. Steve improvised by calling his favorite plays in madden (a halfback pass and a hail Mary) and scored a touchdown.

Fun Fact: His best friend is his stuffed polar bear “Snuffles”

What We Love About Him: He entertains us with his enthusiastic love for “River Monsters” (Alysse’s favorite TV show).

Phil and Steve…don’t mind Phil’s facial hair
Phil and Steve in Greece
Phil and Dan Tailgating

Phil and Dan Tailgating

Groomsman

Dan

Relationship: Friend for…i don’t know how many years

Likes: True Blood, Keeping the streets clean, and adult beverage.

Favorite Memory:  When Dan worked at Cabin Club, he purchased a keg of Great Lakes Christmas Ale for his house. I helped him pick it up and take it to his house. That night, we both drank so much of it that we were both passed out by 10 pm.

Fun Fact: Dan passed out at least 3 Browns home openers in a row before actually making it through last years game.

What We Love About Him: Sat at the bar with me while I waited for Alysse’s flight to leave on the day I asked her to marry me.

Phil Learns How to Greek Dance

Posted on by

1

This is Phil learning how to dance the pentozali

This is Phil learning how to dance the pentozal

I am marrying a Greek Guy who doesn’t know how to Greek Dance…what am I doing. When I first met Phil I was in shock that he didn’t know one Greek dance, not even the most common of dances the kalamatiano. His church St. Demetrios Rocky River did not a have a Greek dance troupe when he was growing up so he did not learn at a young age. At different social dances Phil wasn’t much of a dancer so he just never cared to learn. My experience with Greek dance was much different. Luckily I grew up in a community, St. Haralambos Canton, in which their Greek dance troupe is their pride and joy. I started dancing for the St. Haralambos Hellenic Dancers when I was 5 years old. The group was founded by Eleni Paxos and it is run together with her two daughters Joanna and Maria. From when I was 5 to till when I was around 23, being a Hellenic Dancer was a huge part of my life. I got to travel the country, learn a bunch of dances with my friends, make some the best memories ever, and if wasn’t for being a Hellenic Dancer I would have never left this country (the first time I went to Canada and Greece were both with the dancers). My last performance with the Hellenic Dancers also played a significant role in Phil and I’s relationship. I last performed at the Cleveland Cavs halftime show at the Q and it was the same weekend Phil asked me to be his girlfriend. Phil had already had planned on going to the game with his family and watching me perform, even though he couldn’t tell which one was me. My mom also solely came to the game to try to get her way to meet Phil, I vetoed that real quickly.  Here is the video of that performance.

I first taught Phil how to Greek dance a couple of years ago. The only way Phil listened to me is because I bribed him. If he learned how to dance the kalamatiano he could watch football. He learned the dance very quickly due to his incentive. It also did not hurt that I kept telling him that I lead and perfected this dance at age 5. So my goal for our wedding was to Phil be comfortable with Greek dancing and learn more dances so he can dance with me. I first started with the kalamatiano, then the went onto the pentozali, and then the ikariotiko. It is much harder to teach all the dances than I thought. I had taught some of them previously but teaching Phil all of the dances was different for some reason. Phil thought that he could tell me how to teach the steps without knowing what the steps were. He was a difficult student, but still my favorite.  Be sure to check out Phil’s new dance skills at the wedding.

The Great Favor Debate

Posted on by

1

Our Favor Boxes

Our Koufeta Free Favor Boxes

So you are going to have almonds as your wedding favor, right? Um, no I am not. The women of my family look at me like I’m an alien. It’s a Greek wedding tradition that the wedding favors be sugar coated almonds aka Jordan Almonds, the Greek word for them is koufeta. As a kid/teenager/young adult when I went to any weddings (all of them were Orthodox wedding) I was always highly disappointed when I got koufeta as a wedding favor. As fluffy as the tulle that they were put in the almonds were as bland as they could be. My problem with koufeta is the sugar to almond ratio. I would prefer more sugar to compensate for the nutty flavor. Until I figured out the proper way to eat koufeta that would make the dessert tolerable I would never take the favor or I would always give the favor to my Yiayia, who loves sweets. In case you were wondering what the proper way to eat koufeta was, you have to eat the sugar coating first then you eat the nut. Simply biting into the koufeta will not maximize it’s flavor.

Koufeta Source Notice all the tulle

My mom thought that we didn’t need traditional favors. But if we were going to have favors it had to be koufeta. I wanted to have koufeta available at the wedding but I didn’t it want to be a main favor. When my mom shared her opinion she unintentionally made me feel guilty and feel that I was shaming my heritage by not carrying on the koufeta favor tradition. The koufeta is supposed to symbolize purity and the egg shape of the almond is supposed to represent fertility and new life which begins with marriage. The hardness of the almond is supposed to represent the endurance of the marriage and the sweetness of the sugar symbolizes the sweetness of future life. There is also an old wives tale that single women are supposed to put the almonds under their pillow the night of the wedding and then they will dream of their future husband. Even all these traditions are meaningful to my culture, it still doesn’t hide the fact that the almonds are not tasty. The final deciding factor of not having koufeta as our favor is the fact that Phil is allergic to nuts and can’t eat our own wedding favor. Meanwhile when I was trying to make the argument not to have koufeta as the favors; I couldn’t think of another good favor to have. I did research on different types of candy and what candy was the most 1920s. When I think of the 1920s I think of alcohol specifically drinking fancy champagne in secret speakeasies. So I started researching champagne flavored candy and I found out a division of Jelly Belly made a jelly bean like candy called champagne bubbles. They were a perfect solution to my koufeta problem they were white, affordable, and way tastier. Then I took it upon myself to make the decision that these “bubbles” were our favor because they went with our theme. Don’t worry Greek people a fancy bowl of koufeta will still be available on the dessert table to put under your pillow that night.

Invitations By Acia

Posted on by

0

The invitations are ready to go!

The invitations are ready to go!

My mother, Acia, should be a professional invitation designer. If that even is the correct terminology for that sort of profession. She is so talented that she handmade and designed our wedding invitation with a 2000 version of Microsoft Publisher. She is truly the bomb.com. Designing our wedding invitations starts out with a journey to Hollo’s PaperCraft. I found out about Hollo’s through my cousin Sarah’s wedding. She had bought all our her paper there for her programs and menus there. So when I knew that my mom was going to make our invitations I knew that Hollo’s was the place to go. Phil and I first checked out Hollo’s by ourselves and it was scary. Hollo’s has a lot of paper in the store. It is literally like a warehouse of paper, envelopes, and odds and ends of art supplies. Phil and I tackled the challenge of Hollo’s with our color swatches in our hands and a mission to find the perfect match. We failed miserably at this mission. Not one piece of hundreds of shades of paper matched our “sea foam green” color. Well I just lied, we found a 5 cent business size envelope that was a perfect match…but this envelope was completely useless.

So we had to go to plan B, choose a gold invitation and bring in the “seafoam” color in with an art deco pattern. Phil and I then I picked out a pocket invitation we liked. On Etsy you can buy digital paper packs. A digital paper pack is when graphic designers make cool patterns in different colors and sell them on Etsy. You can use them for anything from scrapbooks to of course you guessed it, invitations. Luckily I found a few art deco packs in my wedding colors. Based on what pattern looked the best printed out we chose the design that you saw on the invitation. Then it was the journey of choosing the font. I am a trademark attorney so I look at a bunch of different kinds of fonts weekly. So I knew from the beginning that this journey of finding the correct font could be a long one. But luckily due to my mother’s talents in Google searching and following instructions on how to use free fonts, she found a variety of fonts to choose from. Then it was easy to pick my favorite two that looked the best together. I explained to her on how I wanted the invitation to be designed and she executed my vision with perfection. I truly love our invitations so much I probably will frame them. If you are thinking if you want to hire Acia to design your invitations for your next special event you are going to have to ask her yourself.

The Gabby’s 2011- Wedding Inspiration

Posted on by

0

Phil and I at the 2013 Gabby Awards

Phil and I at the 2013 Gabby Awards

When I thought about Phil and I’s wedding I wanted to be as personalized as possible. If I picked something out for our wedding I wanted to have some sort of meaning behind it. It’s kinda cheesy, but I like cheesy. I want our wedding to kind of tell the story of our relationship beginning to present. Back in 2011 we attended and volunteered at the Greek America Foundation’s Gabby awards at Ellis Island in New York. The Gabbys are an award show for elite Greek people and are given to Greek people who have done cool stuff in the arts, teaching, sports, and other categories. Since I am a sucker for celebrities and hanging out with Greek people I naturally wanted to be there. My cousin Leah and one of my bridesmaids was the producer of the event and I naturally volunteered my celebrity services.  Like most things I want to go to or do I like to drag Phil along with me. He was willing to go with me and he never had been to New York and wanted to see the city.

2011 at the Gabby awards pre-party with our Metaxa Mojitos

2011 at the Gabby awards pre-party with our Metaxa Mojitos

During our 2011 trip to New York we got 2 of our wedding ideas. The first one being our signature drink, the Metaxa Mojito. I’ve been to plenty of parties in my lifetime where Metaxa, a Greek brandy, was served but I never had a mojito version. Let me tell that any time that Metaxa is served it should be in mojito form. They are yummy and dangerous. Metaxa was a sponsor for the pre-party and it was open bar so of course Phil and I had our share of mojitos that night. In honor of VIP New York fun we are having Metaxa mojitos for our wedding.

Our second idea that we stole from our experience during the 2011 Gabby’s was the red carpet. I love Hollywood. Ever since I remember I have been obsessed with movies, TV, and celebrities. When I was little I wanted to be a child actress and I begged my parents to get me an agent. They didn’t listen to me and I still tease my mother for not letting me be a child star. Then she points out I would probably be Amanda Bynes or Lindsay Lohan by now if she would had let me become a child actress. An important part of the Hollywood lifestyle is frequently walking on the red carpet. The first time I actually took in front of a “real” red carpet was at the 2011 Gabby awards. I felt like a real genuine celebrity.  I wanted to create that same feeling for our guests at our wedding. So we are having a red carpet at our wedding. We are going to have a backdrop and everything. So you better practice your skinny red carpet poses.

2011 Gabby's Red Carpet

2011 Gabby’s Red Carpet

The Tangier Tasting

Posted on by

0

The Sish Kabob!

The Sish Kabob!

As I previously stated in many posts, Phil and I love food. But, who doesn’t? I personally was looking forward to tasting our wedding menu. My dad created the whole menu himself and I was super excited to try it. The owners and the chef at Tangier are Lebanese and I’m half Lebanese so it was a perfect match. Basically every special occasion growing up we had shish kabob. Also it doesn’t help that my mom makes a mean shish kabob. Phil’s 1st birthday as a couple I made him my mom’s famous shish kabob and rice pilaf. So it made sense when my Dad created the menu I had absolutely no objections to his choice of an entree. Wedding food is one of the most important things when it comes to have a successful wedding event. So, naturally we needed to taste our customized wedding menu. I wasn’t hungry enough for all the food that we were going to taste. We started out with some of the appetizers that we chose, which included hummus and baba ghanouj  and pita bread. Normally I don’t like baba ghanouj aka eggplant chick pea dip, but Tangier’s is very tasty and I couldn’t stop eating it.

We are painfully stuffed at this point

We are painfully stuffed at this point

Another app that we tasted is our mashed potato bar. Phil and I fell in love with a mashed potato bar at the 2009 Barrister’s Ball. Barrister’s Ball is formal dance put on my law school and law schools everywhere. For those not familiar with the delicacy of a mashed potato bar, it is a variety of mashed potatoes served in a martini glass and you can put a bunch different toppings on the mashed potatoes such as gravy, butter, chives, cheese, bacon, or brown sugar.  Mashed potato bars are probably the best culinary invention since the sandwich…well I don’t know about that, but you get my point. My parents and Phil’s Dad had never had a mashed potato bar before so they were a little bit skeptical in trying it. After seeing all the topping laid out on a tray and pairing them with buttery mashed potato they were sold instantly. Other apps that we are having at the wedding but we didn’t try because the Lebanese chef was in Lebanon during our tasting, are vegetable platter and Spinach and Meat Pies.

After stuffing ourselves with a massive amounts of carbs we still had to find some room for 2 more courses. Up first was the shish kabobs. We tried a steak one and a chicken one. The chicken one was good but it was honey mustard flavored and it really didn’t go with the whole Arab food vibe we were going for. So we choose to have two steak kabobs. Then we tasted our late night meal. I copied this idea from my bridesmaid Kendra. When she got married she had make your sliders served at 10 pm. It was brilliant because it just the right type of food you need to have after a 4 or 5 hour open bar. When Phil was courting me in Columbus our favorite late night meal after a night of socializing was classic Columbus gyros.  You can’t find a gyro in Columbus that actually uses tzatziki instead of ranch dressing, but they are so good. Since our favorite are gyros and we are Greek we are having a late night gyro bar at our wedding. They taste really good and will do the perfect job of satisfying our guests 4th meal cravings.

Happy Parents approve of the meal

Happy Parents approve of the meal

A Few of Our Favorite Things

Posted on by

0

1 of 3 Registries

1 of 3 Registries

We registered for a lot gifts. Our registries are overwhelming to us and I’m sure it is overwhelming for our guests to our wedding. So Phil and I decided to share some of our favorite things off our registries. (Disclaimer: we love everything we registered for) So here you go:

Bed Bath & Beyond

Crate & Barrel

Macy’s

Cleveland Bridal Shower

Posted on by

0

Me with all my gifts

Me with all of our gifts

I was nervous about my first wedding shower. A wedding shower is nothing like anything I’ve ever experienced before. I never had a party thrown for me in my honor and I never had to open up gifts in front of people. Yes, I have had birthday parties where I opened up gifts in front of people but nothing like this. I usually think too much about these type of things and make myself nervous. I was nervous about who was going to come, what I was going to get, what I was going to say, and what I was going to wear. Phil is usually the only person that can calm me down about these sorts of silly over analyzing . Phil  did have to calm me down before my Cleveland shower and he did a great job. I am lucky enough to have two wedding showers. Phil’s side of the family threw me a shower on May 11th ( yes I know this post is a little late) at Red Tail Golf Club. I had bought my dress for my first shower months prior from Kate Spade due to the art deco pattern. But of course I doubted my purchase a week prior to the shower but Phil convinced me that I looked pretty in the dress and it was perfect for my first shower. Unfortunately Ohio’s weather is very unpredictable and of course  it was cold and rainy the day of the shower and I was afraid I was going to be cold in the dress. But as my Yiayia says “sometimes you have to suffer to be beautiful” so I still wore the dress and I wasn’t cold at all. I was super excited to try my shower cake. Phil’s family knew about my love for salty caramel cake and they found a Cleveland baker that makes the elusive flavor and it was a very tasty cake.

Phil and I with our Mothers

Phil and I with our Mothers after Phil gave out the flowers

I’m not gonna lie I was very excited to open my our shower presents. I can’t handle surprises. I am such a little kid when it comes to surprise presents. I was one of those kids that would look for their Christmas presents.  So when it came to my shower presents, it is the worst case scenario for people like me, you can look at your registries and find out what you are getting before you open them. I really tried hard not to check my registries before my shower…but I just couldn’t do it. I probably checked them more than the average bride, but who cares, at least I didn’t know who they were from…right? My dad gave me flack about checking them because he said it would ruin the shower for me. My mom sort of agreed with him but then would ask me if I got anything new for the shower. Looking at my registries before my shower did not ruin it at all. I was still genuinely surprised when I opened a gift and I had a blast doing it. For the record I broke 5 bows, so that means Phil and I will have 5 children. We will see about that… Phil was nice enough  to bring me red roses and a red rose for my mom and his mom. It was a nice touch and he is a sweet guy 😉 Lastly and most importantly, I want to thank the hostesses for the event: Elpida Kosmides, Susan, Jan, Becky, and Connie Giallourakis. Also I would like to thank Phil’s mom Angie and thank everyone for coming near and far. 1 down 1 to go!

The Epic Greek Band Search

Posted on by

1

The Aegean Duo from Vasili’s World Video on Vimeo.

I am a music snob. I admit it and my family and friends know it. Anytime I go to some event where there is music played I am super critical about what kind of music is being played and what order it is played in.  I am also super picky about Greek music.  I think I secretly want to be a DJ, my friend Cynthia knows about my DJ ambitions, in fact she sometimes calls me DJ A-List. So when it came to picking out the band for our wedding, I wanted the best. Due to the demographics of our wedding and our parents suggestions we decided that we wanted a Greek band for our wedding. I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the Greek Bands out of Northeast Ohio. I was right I did. Your main Greek bands in Northeast Ohio are Stigma, Karizma, The Fabulous Grecian Keys, and the Orion Express. But the big problem with Greek Bands is that there are made up of Greek people. As a Greek person myself I know that Greek people like to wait til the last minute to do things, aren’t the best at communicating effectively, and sometimes make promises that they can’t keep. I suffer from these stereotypical traits myself. My mom and I started contacting Greek bands late November, our first choice was booked and our second choice lead us on for approximately 3 months. See some Greek bands in Northeast Ohio are not made up a set group of people and their lineup changes depending on who can play that weekend. This particularly charismatic group was one of those bands and it took them 3 months to not tell us that they couldn’t find a bouzouki player. So after calling a few bands and not getting a response from them or them charging an arm and leg for their sub par performances, I started to get worried. I ended up calling some of the bands that were on the bottom of my list because I didn’t know who to call. One of the bands I called was very responsive and got excited that I called. I have seen them perform so I was excited. But this fabulous band had submitted a contract to a festival that same weekend so they were waiting to hear back from them. So they made us wait a month and half  waiting to hear about this festival contract. So naturally me being me I panicked. I had my parents and Phil’s parents ask everyone they knew what other Greek bands were out there. I was too invested in the idea of having a Greek band to search for a DJ. Luckily we got the best recommendation from Presbytera Goldie who gave Phil’s mom the name of the band that was at her daughter’s wedding, The Aegean Band from Rochester, NY. So naturally I Google’d them and found their website and watched and listening to all their music on their website and I was instantly fell in love with them. The video that was posted on their website I knew all the songs, they were playing songs from the last 5 years (which is rare for some NE Ohio Greek bands), and they sounded great. The moment they had me sold is when they played THREE of my favorite Greek artist’s songs in their promotional video. My Justin Timberlake of Greek music is Nikos Vertis, I love him. I have all of his CDs and my dream is to see him in concert one day. My favorite Greek song of all time is “Pes mou ksana” (The Aegean Band knows that song). When I contacted Steve from the Aegean Band he got back to me within hours of my email and was so nice and accommodating. They were actually up for the same festival contract as the other band that lead me on for a month but told me that I was his first priority since I was contacting him and was willing to reserve the date over the phone. So after discussing the band with Phil and the parentals we booked The Aegean Band and I couldn’t be happier. Opa!

This is Nikos Vertis’ newest single…isn’t he dreamy?