This Bride Wore A Traditional Lace Veil For Her Greek Orthodox Wedding On The Athens Riviera
When creative director Rebecca Long moved to London at the start of 2020, she didn’t expect to fall in love with a fellow Australian. Mid-way through the pandemic, she and her now husband Stephen Coudounaris matched on Bumble, before quickly going on their first date: a government-mandated walk in Hyde Park on New Year’s Day in 2021. “We pretty much hit it off straight from the start,” Rebecca tells Vogue. “I have a Macedonian background, and he has a Greek background, and we just had quite a lot to bond over on that front. It was just really, really easy.”
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Fittingly, it was during a trip back to Australia in 2023 that Stephen proposed, with the technology lawyer organising a romantic stay at Jonah’s Hotel on Whale Beach in New South Wales. “I was just unpacking and as I turned around, he was down on one knee,” Rebecca recalls. Unbeknownst to her, Stephen had stopped off to pick up her engagement ring that same morning: a solitaire diamond set in white gold, paired with a yellow gold band. “Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous,” enthuses the bride.
Right away, the couple knew that they wanted to get married in Greece – not only because of Stephen’s heritage, but also because it’s a place they’ve often travelled to together over the years. Given that most of their guests were coming from either Australia or the UK, it also acted as a convenient location between the two. “We knew we loved the Athens Riviera,” Rebecca says, with the couple quickly settling on their venue: the Reef. “It’s sat up on the beach, but you can still see the mountains in the distance,” the bride says of the stunning backdrop.
Once the venue was nailed, Rebecca turned her attention to the dress, with her first port of call being London-based bridal brand The Own Studio – which has fast become a favourite for minimalist brides. After trying on a few styles, she settled upon a strapless drop-waist design in duchesse satin (style 82, to be precise). “They have that cool, modern It-girl factor, but [the dresses are] still timeless,” Rebecca notes. “I wanted the dress to feel bridal, but not too formal.”
When it came to the accessories, Rebecca knew she wanted to wear a veil for her Greek Orthodox ceremony – but struggled to find the perfect one at first. “I knew I wanted a heavy lace veil around the face, so I travelled to Madrid to find one at a local market, but had no luck,” the bride explains. It was only when she came across New Zealand-based brand Harriett Falvey that she was able to find the “clean, structured” veil she was looking for, working with the bridal designer to ensure that it was the right length, as well as complementing the colour of her dress. “Until the day itself, I hadn’t actually tried them together,” Rebecca says. “The veil was honestly the MVP of the day.”
On the morning of the wedding, Rebecca and Stephen had breakfast together as normal (“I didn’t want to be stressed or have anything out of the normal,” the bride explains), before separating to get ready for the ceremony. The bridal party headed to a salon in Athens to get their hair and nails done, returning to The Margi hotel for final preparations, with Rebecca opting to do her own make-up for the day. “I wanted the girls to be in a couple of rooms getting ready, helping each other out, because I thought that would make me feel most at ease,” the bride says.
From there, Rebecca and her godfather made the short trip to the Chapel of Agios Georgios, where Stephen – holding the bride’s bouquet of calla lilies – and all their guests were waiting outside, as per Greek tradition. Following the procession inside the church, the bride and groom discovered to much hilarity that the entire service was in Greek. “What was funny is that we had paid extra for it to be in English, yet there was no English,” Rebecca laughs. “But we had printed out little leaflets for our guests in English of the order of service, so they could follow along.”
