anxious about family coming to wedding abroad and not following traditions

[upsy daisy1]

anyone esle feeling stressed about there day. i mean anxious. my wedding is here in cyprus and my family are in london so are travelling over. my family are very close and dont like big events. we dont have parties much and never have people round the house ion large groups. my ohs family are the opposite and love people being around and enjoy big parties. they like to have a drink and celebrate.now our wedding is in feb nd that is an out of season month so alot of things are closed.the weather isnt hot. im really worried about how im going to keep my family occupied. they arnt going to want to sit in the house but at the same time most tourist things are shut. my oh said that hes mum and dad are going to expect the familys to spend alot of time together. they own a resturant and are going to be doing big meals and barbaques. now im panicing as my family arnt the most sociable. my dad has quite a bad social phobia and my sister has anxiety and is doing well to get on the plane!!! then theres the fact that theres gong to be around 700 people at the wedding but i havent mentioned that to my family!!! im so anxious.. on the actual wedding front today i went to sort out the church. went to the priests house as thats a normal thing to do here as he likes to speak to you aswell. i dont understand greek which is all he spoke so my mil and oh spoke and i kinda sat in the middle asking for translations. we almost didnt get the date we wanted as between certain dates people fast and february is a fasting month. no weddings in fasting times but it starts on 26th and we want 15th. but hes still not sure if its correct so he has put a question mark next to it in the book. then he asked if i was christened greek orthadox as thats something they like and lucky i am. then said i need to go to the church i was christened at 23 years ago and get a release form from the priest to release me from that church!! i was like waaaa??? lucky the church i was christened at my ohs aaunty goes to and then we read my christening certificate and it just so happens that the priest now lives here and my mil knows him.!!! that saved alot of hastle. anyway i really want to walk down the aisle with my dad and have everyone in the church when i arrive. iots tradition here to meet oh outside the church, he gives you the boquet and you go in together and everyone follows behind. my oh told the priest what we want and he said no.its tradition to do it the other way. my oh argued with the priest that we dont care for tradition. thankfully the priest said it was ok to walk the aisle but still not tradition!!! i mean its bad enough i wont understand a word of the ceramony!!! but i do love greek weddings they are so big and merry and at the house the bride has violins play for her and its really special. anyone else worried bout there family at the wedding.

 

[Lauren25]

Aww it sounds like its going to be amazing and I'm sure your family will have a fab time, try not to worry about them! Both of mine and OHs families and either side (mums side and dads side) are all so different, some a super quiet and don't like big get togethers others go the opposite and enjoy it a little too much!
I seem to be more worried about people embarrassing me, I'm such a cringeworthy person that if someone is making a fool of themselves I sit there wincing haha!

 

[aly888]

It does sound like its going to be a brilliant day. I hope your family will get involved as much as they can, for your sake. You'll know best though, should you 'warn' them of what will be expected or is that just likely to get their anxieties hyped up?
As for the ceremony, if you don't understand Greek and the ceremony is all in Greek how are they expecting it to be binding in the eyes of God? Surely you've got to know what you're committing to and what you're offering? I know it's hard when you're getting married in another country. My brother did it last year in Sweden, but they found a priest who spoke Swedish, English and Finnish (half of the brides family are Finnish) and he basically read everything three times I presume your family won't understand a word either?

 

[upsy daisy1]

wer hoping to get a priest in to speak in english as well but the one that is in the church we are having only speaks greek. we didnt bother asking today as he was already funny about the whole tradition thing so thaught we would leave it for nowi may get the priest that i said came from england that christened me when i was younger to do it as surely he understands english.. whenm i told my sil she said even greek people dont understand what they are saying as they do it in an old style of greek which is different to what they speak and its ot just a read ceramony. you also have to tiara type things that are bound by ribbon called stefuna which get placed on your heads and swapped and they stay bound to symbolise your marriage. you also take holy communion and do ring swapping so its quite along process but am hoping to have the actual vows read in english also. when i go over to see my family im going to talk to them about the wedding and am trying to involve them as much as poss. today i took photos of the venue to take to show them and am trying to keep them posted on the decision making. i just hope it all runs smoothly. my oh bless him is more worried about giving me the day of my dreams and making sure i get everything i want including both familys cooperating and us skipping any traditions i dont want.