May 30th, 2010 – After, After

After cocktail hour we all headed down to sit down and have dinner. I loved the way this was set up. There were two ladies with clipboards who told everyone what table they were at. Since we had three long tables, Randy and I spent a long time deciding where everyone should sit. We had assigned seating and I think it worked out really well. We wanted everyone to sit near people that they would like talking to and enjoy meeting and feel comfortable with.

We all sat down and it was time for speeches.

Sandra went first and gave a wonderful speech. I wish I still had it. It was funny and sweet and everyone loved it.

Next my little sister was up. Even when I think about her speech now it brings tears to my eyes. She did such a great job. She sent me a copy of her speech so here it is.

I know most of you, but for those of you I don’t know, I’m Daphne, Fotini’s sister. Many of you have had the pleasure of getting to know Fotini through the years, and I’m lucky enough to say that I’ve been blessed with that privilege my whole life.

Fotini has always been there for me, in any way I needed her to be. When I was sick and miserable traveling through Europe, Fotini babied me like a mother would. When I dated a boy who needed it, she was threatening like a father figure. On my first night away at college, she was the perfect older sibling, sneaking me and my roommates into a dive bar, and more importantly not laughing at us when we ordered amaretto sours. And when I was ready, she forgot about all of that and treated me like an equal and a best friend. Fo, you’re an amazing person I would love whether you were family or not, and you’re happiness means the world to me.

Now I think all of you know that Randy and Fo have been a part of each others lives since long before they started dating. The first time I remember hearing the name Randy Ali, I was in the 4th grade and my much cooler older sister had just returned from a band trip to Albany. Yes I just said band trip and cool in the same sentence. At that time, most of my intel on Fotini’s personal life came from sitting outside her bedroom door and hoping she wouldn’t notice. But on this very rare occasion, Fotini, with a giant smile plastered across her face, told me all about the cute boy she had spent the 5 hour bus trip talking to. They didn’t date then, but they became friends, and over the years I began to realize something. There seemed to be only one boy capable of making my sister giddy enough to confide in a 10 year old, or spend an entire summer in Greece dissecting a kiss between friends. Or that could cause her to drag me to an internet cafe at least once a day in Barcelona so that she could share every detail of our trip with him. Only one boy who’s name alone would always bring a huge smile to Fo’s face.

Randy, you’ve felt like family for a long time, but I’d like to take this opportunity to officially welcome you to our family, we’re unbelievably lucky to have you. And I’d like to thank you for all the smiles you’ve put on Fotini’s face through the years, and for giving me the gift of a lifetime of Fotini smiles like that one I saw on her face 15 years ago.

Cheers
Stin igia sas
and
Mabrouk

After speeches it was time for a yummy dinner. You have to love Greece, I requested a vegetarian meal for my brother who doesn’t eat meat and my friend Gabby who is kosher. They served them shrimp….luckily they were both good sports about it. The rest of us lucky folks got to eat fillet.

Since a Greek wedding goes on until 5 am I didn’t feel any pressure time wise and dinner was just the right tempo. It just naturally happened that we started walking around and loved the chance to talk to everyone. With only 60 guests we were able to hang out with each person and talk for a bit.

After the first course was served we got up for our dance. Our song was Can’t Take My Eyes Off

Of You by Lauryn Hill. I knew this would be our song even before we got engaged. We had gone to a karaoke dinner for our friends Matt and Suzie in London and as much as I begged Randy he wouldn’t get up with me to sing that song (side note, since they Randy has become a lot more loose with his karaoke songs). When we got home that night I came into the living room after putting my pjs on and Randy had put that song on for me and sang it for me. I loved every second of it and knew it was meant to be our song.

I was all for winging our dance, but my wiser husband insisted we take some lessons. We found a Polish dance instructor at a dance studio and went 5 times and loved it. It was so much fun. Our dance was far from perfect but we had fun doing it. Randy tried to convince me to continue taking dance lessons after our wedding but we never did.

But first we had to get these cuties off the dance floor.

It was a hard act to follow but we were up next.

After our dance everyone came up to give us hugs and kisses and we all ended up staying on the dance floor and dancing. I loved the impromptu dance party before we had even had our mains!

Eventually the Island coordinator came over and said that if we didn’t get people to eat their mains there would be some very intoxicated people by 9 pm. So we all sat down and finished our yummy meal.

After dinner it was cake time. I had early on decided I didn’t want a wedding cake. We had a full dessert buffet with all sorts of cakes. I figured I would use one of these and cut it.

Two days before the wedding we went to the Island to finalize all the details and the manager there asked me about the cake. She said the chef kept asking about the Theodoraki torta. Everyone wanted to know where the Theodoraki torta was.

Randy got excited and said he would love a cake and on top of that it was free 🙂 Got to love Greece. So we decided to have a cake. Who am I to deny my husband to be. I had gotten sparklers for all our guests to light for the cake and it was one of my favourite moments of the wedding. Everyone lit their sparklers and came up to watch us cut the cake.

Here is the Theodoraki torta in all its glory.