A Beautiful 52-Year-Old Bride and Her Spiritual Wedding with Crystals and Intention Setting

Kim, a set decorator for film and TV, poured so much thought and care into her wedding to writer, Danny – I adore that nothing was chosen simply because it looked beautiful. Every colour, flower, piece of fruit, candle and precious crystal held deep meaning for her, and she considered most deeply, the experience of the people she Danny love throughout it all.

The couple married at Agreco Farms in Crete, Greece in April this year, with Paulina Bruni photographing the day in a sublime mix of digital and analogue, and DG Films creating the beautiful film you see above. Working with Bobbie of Sand + Lace Events, they created a spiritual ceremony that invited their guests to take part through prayer and intention setting, before gathering everyone together around one long table for an abundant feast.

Kim’s Greek heritage and Danny’s Irish heritage were celebrated through a Greek band and Irish bagpipes, bringing their respective family histories into the music. Kim works as a set decorator for film and television and Danny is a writer, and I think you can see that creative instinct in the way they approached every part of the celebration.

Kim was 52 when she became a bride for the first time, and she writes with such warmth, heart and wit about the experience, including the beautiful story of how she somehow ended up with four wedding dresses! Enjoy!

We got married at Agreco Farms in Crete, Greece.  As for why, there were two reasons; We had witnessed a wedding ceremony taking place while we were on a small island in Greece two years earlier.  We watched the bride and her entire guest list walk across a little street and up a long staircase to a tiny little chapel at the top of hill.  It was so charming and we thought oh how wonderful would it be to get married here!

Some time then passed and we couldn’t figure out when to have our wedding or where to do it. Danny’s side of the family is enormous and I always wanted a small wedding.  And I just kept saying I’ll  know when I know.  Then one night I had a dream. I saw our wedding on a small farm. I remembered certain parts of the farm. Certain people who were there and I knew where we were. I woke up and said, Danny, I think we are supposed to go get married on a small farm in Crete.  Neither of us had been but without hesitation he said, ok. And I said, next April 16th. will be 20 years to the day we met, let’s do it then!  

We looked up farms on Crete and came to Agreco.  I emailed them to see if they had the day available. And well, of course……they did. 

I considered myself an older first-time bride. I was 52 when we married and I wasn’t sure how I felt about walking down an aisle in front of everyone. The whole idea of being ‘given away’ had always seemed a little strange to me too.

But something shifted as the wedding drew closer. I became incredibly grateful that my dad was still here and realised how fortunate I was to reach this day with both of my parents beside me.

In the end, I walked down a cobblestone path and a set of steps that had looked insanely precarious on paper and turned out to be every bit as difficult as they appeared! But none of that mattered. I was so thankful to have my dad walking beside me and I made sure to take in every second of that moment with him.

Every once in a while, I would hear a particular piece of bagpipe music and think that, if I ever married, I could imagine walking down the aisle to it. Danny is Irish, so I secretly arranged for a bagpiper to fly in from Austria and play ‘The Skye Boat Song’. Sadly, his father died a week before the wedding and he was no longer able to join us. We eventually found a beautiful, raw recording to play through the speakers and, as I made my entrance, it sounded as though the bagpiper was walking just behind me.

Danny’s sister, Karen, was our officiant in Greece, which made the ceremony especially meaningful. We chose to have a symbolic, spiritual ceremony there.

A few weeks after returning home, we held a small legal ceremony in our back garden, officiated by my godmother. There were only nine of us present and we lit a candle that had been created by combining the candles used during my Greek grandparents’ wedding ceremony.

The bagpipe music was a tribute to Danny’s Irish heritage, while a Greek band performed in honour of my own Greek heritage.

I also wanted to include our family and friends in the blessing. We invited everyone to write down a wish for themselves and place it inside a box I had made. We created a table filled with candles and crystals, while more crystals were arranged beautifully on the ground around the ceremony area. My best friend and maid of honour had shipped three large boxes of them to Greece, each one carefully selected by hand for the wedding. Every guest was encouraged to write a wish or say a prayer for themselves or someone they loved, before choosing a crystal to take home as a keepsake.

Six months before we travelled to Greece, without telling anyone, I had set an intention for the experience. I wanted every person who felt drawn to be there to discover love within and for themselves, in the person beside them or in the vision they held for their life.

We wrote our own vows and, in the most beautiful surprise, Danny had learnt several words in Greek. He spoke them to me perfectly; ‘I love you. I have always loved you. I loved you even before I knew I loved you. And I will always love you.’

I was completely blown away, although I didn’t really know what he was saying at first! I understood the opening words because I knew ‘s’agapó’, but then he continued. In that moment, I felt as though I had been transported to another time with him.

There is an exceptional jeweler in Boston by the name of Suzanne Dines. She custom-made our rings and we couldn’t be happier with them.  Danny went the unobvious route and chose a Rubellite engagement ring and we had a diamond-laced band to accompany it as the wedding ring.  It’s remarkable.

We met in West Hollywood, California in 2005 at a friend’s house party. We hit it off instantly. I had even joked to a friend of mine right before as  Danny walked by that he’s the type of guy I could see myself with and all I could see at the time was the tattoo on his arm. The tattoo FIDES which in  Roman means loyalty.

We hit it off so well that that night he took my license without me knowing it and bought me a plane ticket to join him in New York on a surprise trip.  Quite the risky manouver! 

After about a month of what was obviously an incredible connection, we soon realised it wasn’t the right timing. Danny owned restaurants at the time and was completely engulfed in that world. We ended up dating on again off again for 11 years.

But then in 2016, we got real. And we chose to get married 20 years to the day of that wonderful day we met.  Danny proposed on my 50th birthday, in the backyard of the first house we bought together.  I didn’t know what he was doing all day but he had spent all day building two rocking chairs that he would place out by the pond in our yard and propose.

I have to say, I always knew we would end up together. From the very beginning, I just knew it in my soul.  And watching our story unfold has been one of the greatest privileges of my life. 

Agreco Farms had arranged a bus to pick everyone up from a church in the centre of town 

Our floral designer was Manfler. The scale and beauty of the work they do is unmatched! Bobbi and I worked with Manfler on the vision we had for the day.  I knew what it was going to be. And even I was jaw dropped at how it all looked.  I couldn’t believe the magnificence. 

For guest favours, we gave oil and honey from our venue, Agreco Farm, which is a world renowned working organic farm.  We also set a card at each persons plate and wrote each of them an personalized note.  Everyone really loved this special touch. 

When Kim first came to us, she had already begun planning the wedding herself, but reached a point where she wanted support in bringing all of her ideas together through creative direction.

From our very first conversations, there was an incredible creative energy between us – ideas flowed naturally, and the vision quickly began to take shape.

What made designing Kim and Danny’s wedding so special was the intention behind every choice. Kim has a deeply spiritual and connected way of looking at the world, and nothing was selected simply because it looked beautiful. From the colours and flowers to the fruits and smaller details, every element carried meaning and contributed to the story of the day.

At the heart of their wedding was one simple idea: connection. Kim wanted every guest to feel seen and part of the celebration, less like attending a wedding and more like gathering for one beautiful, abundant feast. We translated that feeling into one long table where everyone came together to eat, talk, laugh and celebrate. Ultimately, the design wasn’t created around a particular aesthetic, but around a feeling: togetherness, meaning and the joy of celebrating love in its many forms.

Danny spent over a year compiling our wedding dinner mix. Every song he chose for it had meaning to us.  It was an incredible collection songs.

A Greek band had welcomed everyone in. We had a DJ spin for dancing , some more authentic Greek band and the cap of the night was Kermit the Frog’s version of Rainbow Connection. 

We chose “Sweet Symphony” by Joy Oladokun and Chris Stapleton as our dance song, and our final dance of the night was “Rainbow Connection” by Kermit the Frog.

I grew up a dancer and Danny had always wanted to learn to dance, so we hired a dance instructor (Caitlin) at Fred Estaire Dance Studios to choreograph a dance for us.  I cannot recommend enough having a dance choreographed. The whole journey was beautiful in and of itself. I fell in love with Danny all over again.  

It’s impossible to name only one! There was a moment when I was getting my makeup done. I was sitting in the chair. Looking through an arched stone window out a the Greek vista in front. Evy was applying foundation, my mom and aunt were watching from a chair , and I was taken straight back to the dream I had.  I realized I was sitting right inside the dream I had about this place and time.  The dream that got us here in the first place. I had already been here. And here I was again inside the dream. Tears instantly streamed down my face. Uncontrollably. 

My dad seeing me and tears rolling down his cheeks. 

Seeing Danny wipe tears away as he saw me round the corner. 

But a huge moment was sitting down at the dinner table. We had created this one massive table. With enormous candelabra candles and flowers. Sat right in front of Agreco’s chapel.  A feast of food in front of our eyes. And every person at the table was special to us.   38 of us sat together.   I was overwhelmed in gratitude. That everyone made the journey for us. That we were all able to be here. 

Try as best you can to enjoy each step of the process. It becomes overwhelming at times  and stressful because you want it all to be so perfect.  But  I promise you it will be.

It already is perfect.  Just as you are doing it. And it will be perfect on the day however it comes together. Simply because you are in it. With the person you love. And everyone you love and who loves you is with you.

I’d have found just a little more time for Danny and I to spend time alone together leading up to the actual day.  It became a lot of entertaining and welcoming guests and its worth carving out a little time each day for the two of you to be together to embrace and appreciate the gift unfolding. 

A friend gave us a magnificent piece of advice. He said: throughout the entire night, just keep whispering in each other’s ears to stop and take it all in and appreciate the moment. It goes by so quickly and you can find yourself so consumed by the details that you won’t fully absorb the magic as it is intended to be absorbed. 

That advice was priceless.

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