We’re really now in middle of Rosh Hashana preparations (Shofar Factory, Community dinner, Art Calendar…) but I want to tell you about our latest huge project, dating from July: organize a entire kosher wedding, including a Henna party, a complete Shabbat and of course, the wedding dinner.
The bride’s parents are from France but they live in Greece for the last 30 years. So she grew up here and always dreamt of getting married in this beautiful country. The little problem? How to make it Kosher. There is no Kosher hall here or for that matter, a Kosher catering service handling this size of events. (We cater for smaller groups, and when we have big holiday events, we cooperate with the Novotel Hotel and kosherize their kitchen).
So negotiations started with the various halls, the various banquet managers, until a solution was found: The Henne party would take place in Island, a famous venue south of Athens, and we would supervise the preparations of the food at Intercatering, their usual partner, including koshering the kitchens and providing them with all the kosher ingredients. A similar arrangement was made with the wedding hall, Vive Mar Coast, also right next to the sea. As for the desserts and patisseries, they would be prepared in the Sofitel Hotel. The Shabbat meals would be prepared by our catering service, and served in the Margie Hotel, also south of Athens. Sounds complicated enough? J
We had countless meetings and back and forth emails and phone calls to organize all the preparations schedules and synchronize the arrival of the Kosher products. The bulk arrived from France and Israel, but some products were shipped in from the United States and others were taken directly from Greek factories doing special kosher productions.
We had to explain all the kosher rules and restrictions to the different chefs and cooks and waiters - for most of them it was very new and quite surprising. But they were amazingly understanding and cooperative!
All in all, it was many hours of work (the patisseries were done in night shift, for example) but the result was so rewarding: 4 days of festivities, where the tasty and elegant food matched the paradisiacal decors, enhancing the joyous atmosphere, with all guests coming from France, Morocco, Israel, Greece (and maybe elsewhere) singing, dancing and partying…
Difficult to say what was the most magical moment… The Moroccan songs during the Henna, with the bride wearing her great grandmother’s traditional velvet red dress? The lively songs and dances during the Shabbat dinner? Maybe the Chuppa ceremony, with the sunset background? Try to decide from the pictures J
So now we know! It IS possible to do a beautiful Kosher wedding in Greece!!!!
