Mary Katrantzou’s Greek Island Wedding Was a Kaleidoscopic Celebration of Love and Family
Designer Mary Katrantzou and neurology professor Marios Politis shared their first kiss during a game of truth or dare. The two had been introduced through mutual friends in their home country of Greece while they were both still students. “I had just been accepted to RISD and I remember us having a long discussion about leaving Greece and studying abroad,” Mary remembers. “We then saw each other a year later at a house party. I was 19 when we first started dating and last year marked our 20th anniversary together.”
Years later, the couple planned a trip to the English countryside to celebrate Mary’s 36th birthday in 2019. “As it turns out, this birthday was not like all the other birthdays,” she recalls. “I had absolutely no idea Marios was planning to propose. Instead of a gift, there was a birthday card and a question asked. He designed the ring in absolute secrecy with our dearest friend Sue Gragg, and our close friend Thomas flew with it to the U.K. This was the only way to deliver it safely—and in time for our trip! I didn’t suspect anything and my birthday will now forever have a special dual significance.”
Soon after the engagement, however, came the pandemic, which meant Mary and Marios’s initial plan to get married in 2020 swiftly changed. “When we found out I was pregnant, we decided to have a civil wedding at our home in Athens in 2021 and then wait until we could celebrate in a big way with family and friends once restrictions eventually lifted,” Mary explains. “A year later, so much had changed with the birth of our son, Michael, that we felt it would be even more special to celebrate both occasions as a joint religious wedding and christening in Spetses at the Holy Cathedral of Agios Nikolaos, the same place where my parents got married and where I, too, was baptized.”
Everything came together at the last minute, as even though the new parents had a bit more time than originally anticipated, they couldn’t settle on a location. “We knew we wanted it to take place in Spetses, but we wanted to find somewhere no one had ever visited before,” Mary explains. “Just when we were about to give up, our taxi accidentally drove through an opening into someone’s property, which just so happened to be the most incredible waterfront spot!”
As luck would have it, the homeowner knew Mary’s work and was open to her transforming the grounds for the occasion. They only had three days to prepare, and everything was made-to-measure, designed around the landscape. “Even though I know from doing our shows that anything is possible, it was still nerve-racking to have to transform the raw grounds into a magical garden of Mediterranean trees and Greek herbs in just a matter of days!” Mary admits.
To ensure everything ran smoothly, the designer collaborated with event planner Fay Vallidis. “She is behind the most memorable events in Greece,” Mary says. “I first worked with her on our show at the Temple of Poseidon in Sounio, and she gained my trust then. She, like me, doesn’t believe anything is impossible! Even so, it is nearly impossible to produce everything bespoke in August in Greece, but somehow she managed!” In addition to commissioning made-to-measure pieces for the event, Fay assembled a dream team of vendors that included Secret Garden for the flowers and Tempo Events for light and sound.
Naturally, the fashion was also personal and bespoke. Mary’s dress and Marios’s tuxedo were designed and tailored at the Mary Katrantzou London atelier, while Athenian jeweler Kessaris created wedding bands for the occasion. “On the historical flag of Spetses, there is a snake that stands for wisdom, knowledge, and reason, so I chose to wear Bulgari’s Serpenti necklace for its symbolism and the connection to the island of Spetses,” Mary adds.
