Ekali is in the northern suburbs of Athens, a quiet residential area of large properties and old pine trees, far from the busy city. A private villa wedding feels right here, and a church ceremony in the local church reflects where the family belongs.

Alexia is the daughter of Aris Terzopoulos, one of Greece's most significant publishers — the founder and owner of the magazines that have shaped Greek popular culture for decades. The wedding carried that history without performing it.

The wedding was planned for Skiathos. Covid changed that. The restrictions moved the celebration to Ekali and made it smaller, more intimate, more focused. The things that matter when there are fewer of them.

The day before, the group gathered at the Acropolis. A tour of the site, then champagne on the slopes of Filopappou at sunset — the city below, the Aegean in the distance, the Acropolis above. A beginning to the two days that followed.

The ceremony was held at Genesiou tis Theotokou in Ekali, followed by a reception at the family's private villa. Frank sang Queen's Don't Stop Me Now at the party. The evening had that quality — the kind that comes when people who love each other are together without anything standing between them and the moment.

The day after, we went to Penteli and photographed Alexia and Frank among the rock formations near Spilia Daveli. The cave and the landscape above Athens — another register entirely from the villa and the church.

A wedding that was meant to happen somewhere else and ended up exactly where it should be requires a different kind of attention than a planned event. We followed what was there rather than what was expected.

The pre-wedding at the Acropolis was a group session as much as a couple session, the friends and family who had come from elsewhere, gathered on a hill above the city, photographed against the most recognisable skyline in Greece. We managed the scale of it and kept the intimacy of it at the same time.

The narration we wrote for the film begins: In the challenge of constant change, we find ourselves in each other. It was the right sentence for a wedding that had changed its plans and found something better.

For our work in Athens visit our dedicated page Wedding photographer Athens. A film from this wedding is available on our Films page.