SAMANTHA & KOSTA

A couple from South Africa, now living in London, first met at a rugby tournament
in Cape Town. Kosta was playing, Samantha had come to support friends. A chance
encounter on the pitch led to coffee a week later, and from there grew a relationship
that, exactly seven years on, concluded in marriage.
A small beach cottage belonging to Kosta’s family in Kiato, Greece gradually became an
important part of their relationship — a place they
have been returning to regularly for the past six years. Kosta still keeps up a tradition
he inherited from his grandfather: rising at dawn and trying to capture the sunrise
with an old analogue camera. Samantha joins him sometimes, and it was during one
such morning — as she stood on the beach half-asleep in her nightgown — that Kosta
asked her to marry him.
They approached their wedding as a grand Mediterranean gathering of family and
friends from around the world. They called the concept “village chic” — a relaxed,
open-air celebration meant to evoke long evenings
in a village square, warm and unhurried. Family and friends had a hand in
everything, from the organisation to the floral arrangements, which were made from
locally sourced seasonal flowers, olive branches, and terracotta vessels.
The day before the wedding, a Greek Orthodox marriage ceremony took
place — rich in symbolism and deeply meaningful to
both families. The wedding itself the following day began at half past three in the
afternoon, when the Cape light is at its softest.
Samantha had prepared a small surprise for Kosta, a lifelong Arsenal FC supporter;
he had the wedding procession walk down the aisle to his club’s anthem. She then
made her own entrance with her father to the melancholic strains
of a Damien Rice song.
The evening flowed naturally into a long feast inspired by Greek dining. Shared
platters placed at the centre of the tables and food meant to be passed around created
exactly the kind of togetherness Samantha and Kosta
had wanted to bring to their wedding. When the music and dancing quieted after
midnight, the day didn’t end on the dance floor — it ended around a fire,
in the company of those closest to them. London, Greece, and Cape Town briefly
merged into one shared home.