The emotion of the moment,
the memory of a lifetime! ®
17 years | 500+ couples from 40 countries
1500+ musicians | 100% success
The emotion of the moment,
the memory of a lifetime! ®
17 years | 500+ couples from 40 countries
1500+ musicians | 100% success
Couples from all over the world have trusted Melodima for their destination wedding in Greece. The map shows the origin of our couples.
We have reached the Balearic Islands of Spain for a wedding, and we have participated in many VIP weddings and events. We present some nice weddings below. Please find more weddings on our Facebook page.
Groom: "Stefanos, I am Arab, you are Greek. Your professionalism goes beyond our cultures!"
Bride: "You were all so amazing and played such a big role in making our wedding perfect!! Would not have been the same without you!"
With 3 services we participated in the wedding of a Greek-English bride and a Palestinian-Egyptian groom in Minorca (Menorca, in the local dialect), a romantic island in the Balearic Islands of Spain, next to the exotic Majorca and the cosmopolitan Ibiza.
We welcomed the guests with Arabic orchestra, we sang the Greek traditional song "Simera gamos ginetai" (Today is a wedding day) for the entrance of the bride, we played Arabic music after the ceremony. Our folk orchestra played Greek ballads and folk music during the welcome drink. We accompanied the couple with Palestinian zaffe, surprising the guests. We played Arabic music during the dinner.
Groom: "Stefanos, you are doing a great job! You should be proud!"
A classical orchestra with 8 musicians played music in the wedding ceremony of the Brazilian top model of Victoria's secret Ana Beatriz Barros with the Egyptian entrepreneur Karim El Chiaty. The wedding was mentioned extensively in TV channels and websites worldwide.
In the christening of the son of a famous fashion designer, prince Pavlos started dancing when the our Greek folk band was playing his favourite song. An invited journalist posted a video of the prince's dance on her blog, which became viral.
In the wedding of the Greek Miss Tourism, we played Greek island music with violin and lute before and after the wedding. Six years earlier we had selected a jazz band for the opening of a new branch of the groom's family business.
Our traditional Greek orchestra played music in the Easter show of Alpha TV with TV presenter Konstantina Spyropoulou. We participated in the first half of the show, while the famous Greek singer Elli Kokkinou sang in the second half of the show.
We played Easter and traditional songs, in cooperation with three dance groups. All famous participants of the show danced on our music: Elli Kokkinou, Konstantina Spyropoulou, Laura Narjes, Eleni Tsolaki, etc.
Following the performance, Stefanos Souldatos was interviewed by Konstantina Spyropoulou about Melodima.
A famous wedding involving a 14-member classical orchestra of leading classical musicians with participations in international orchestras, under the direction of a known conductor. We performed tangos and waltzes of Mozart, Strauss, Tschaikovsky, Shostakovitch, Gardel, Rodriguez and Cortes. We concluded our performance with the famous music Syrtaki of Theodorakis from the film 'Zorba the Greek'. Greek and Turkish media have repeatedly referred to the Greek-Turkish fairytale wedding.
Ilias had organised many surprises for Margarita in the past, but she had never managed up to now to organise any successful surprise for him. Never up to now! So she was determined to organise an unforgettable surprise in order to balance for the rest of their lives. She contacted Stefanos Souldatos, and after discussing various ideas she assigned him the task to write a song for their first dance, with lyrics inspired from their life story.
Few days after Stefanos received from Margarita many details about their life, describing the day they first met, their first date, the way he was holding her hand when skating together, the surprises he had organised for her, their journeys, and finally her difficult decision to move to Congo in order to be with him forever. Stefanos went through the text of Margarita again and again, and he started writing lyrics.
On the wedding day, when the song of the first dance started, Ilias realised that it was not the song they had selected, but Margarita suggested to continue dancing. When the lyrics started and Margarita started singing together with the singer heard from the speakers, he realised that Margarita knew the song, while he had never heard it before since he was raised in Africa.
When he heard the country Congo in the song, he looked towards the DJ wondering where in earth he found a song for Congo (check his puzzled look on the video of the service "Our song"). When he heard the date of their first date, he started realising that the song was written for them. But still he had not realised who is the professional singer heard on the speakers. Until the moment he heard his name sang with so much love that only the bride could have sang it!
With 12 artists, we organised live music and dance in the wedding of a Greek-American groom with an Estonian bride, with VIP guests from 25 countries and 14 States of America, including the Greek Prime Minister's wife. The groom is involved in business and charity in many countries. The Estonian bride is a model working for a large Italian modeling agency with a global presence.
Both love Greece, the Greek culture and the Greek traditions. They chose Spetses for their wedding and they wanted their wedding to have a strong Greek scent. They chose a Greek orchestra to prepare the bride and groom and to accompany the bride to the church. Due to the origin of the groom from Corinth, close to my mother's village, I suggested an orchestra with a lute-singer, violin and clarinet. I also suggested to have dancers at the reception. Our dancers danced with the couple and the guests, and everybody was impressed when the bride danced Zeimpekiko, a Greek solo dance!
In our communication about the Greek music of the wedding, the couple trusted me and asked me to also suggest musicians with international music for the wedding party and to coordinate the live music at the reception.
"Stefanos, you had many aces up your sleeve today!"
An American-Palestinian TV producer of NBC NEWS contacted me about a year before the wedding and asked me to organize a Palestinian zaffe for his wedding. He could not find any relevant service in Europe, but watching our video with the Lebanese zaffe he thought that we can approach the traditions of his country of origin with respect. The wedding took place in Naxos, where the bride had lived in the past with her mother, who made archaeological excavations on the island.
Taking the opportunity to build the first authentic Palestinian zaffe group in Europe, I studied the specificities of the Palestinian wedding traditions and I found similarities and differences with the traditions of other Arabic countries as well as with traditions. I noticed that unlike the rest of the Arabic countries, a musical instrument of British origin is used in Palestine. Studying the history of Palestine, I realized that this is related to the 30-year British occupation of the previous century. I preferred to follow the pre-1917 version so that our first Palestinian zaffe is as close as possible to the old traditions of Palestine. In the future we will experiment with different versions of the tradition.
The couple was left speechless with the quality of our work. Although the zaffe normally includes 2 sets of 10-15 minutes, the groom danced for more than 1 hour. At the end, the groom called on the phone an Arab friend who could not attend the wedding and told him with great enthusiasm: "My friend, we are having a real Palestinian zaffe here. Can you believe it?"
"Everything was amazing thanks to you Stefanos! The music contributed a lot to the success of our wedding. It was magical. Thank you!
It was amazing!!! You know that all our guests told us it was their best wedding ever! It has been even more than what we expected. Thank you so much! The musicians at the beach: perfect!!! The Greek Band: perfect!!! The dancers were very impressive. The guests were impressed. They watched them with a lot of respect. They were magical! The Party Band was amazing!!! Everybody says a compliment about them. They made us feel so happy! For lots of people it was the best live band ever. The DJ, we love him!!! His music but also his spirit and attitude. We felt he was like a friend at our wedding, very kind and trying his best to understand our needs. The part with the DJ and the toumperleki drummer was awesome too."
We organised live music for the wedding of an American-Slovakian bride with an English-Israeli groom from the UK, with Jewish songs in the ceremony and a band with international pop music in the reception.
With 14 artists we organised the entertainment in a Greek Night in Zappeion Hall, one of the most historical buildings in Athens. Our folk orchestra opened the event with the famous music Hartaetoi of Mikis Theodorakis and played old and new soft folk music during the dinner.
After the dinner, we played Greek dance music for the dancers to present folk dances over famous Greek songs, starting with hasapiko dance with the song "Children of Piraeus", the soundtrack of the movie "Never on Sunday" with Melina Mercouri. We concluded our dance performance with Syrtaki dance with the music "Zorbas", the soundtrack of the movie "Zorba the Greek" with Anthony Quinn. Guests from all over the world danced with us Hasaposerviko, Zeimpekiko and Tsifteteli.
It was the groom who contacted me first, three days before the wedding, asking to prepare a surprise with traditional instruments for the bride on their wedding day. The next day, the bride realised that the groom was hiding something, she researched and she found out what this is. She called me and she asked me to prepare a counter-surprise for the groom.
We arrived in Spetses and when the musicians entered the bride's room, she pretended to be surprised! We accompanied her to the church of Saint Nikolaos, playing the traditional song "Today is a wedding day" (Simera gamos ginetai), as agreed with the groom. Few meters before the groom, the bride stopped.
The traditional instruments started playing a pop song "Your persistence" (I epimoni sou), and the bride started singing: "If there is something of you that won me over, this is your persistence, your love that has learned not to give up"!
It is quite common for the groom to organise surprises for the bride, but it is rare that the bride organises a surprise for the groom. The Lebanese couple lives in Dubai, but since they had guests from both Europe and Middle East, they selected to have their wedding in Greece, which is in the middle.
According to the Lebanese tradition, the bride and the groom enter the wedding venue accompanied with percussions (drums). Instead the groom had arranged for the DJ to play music during their entrance, but the bride had a different plan. She organised a surprise with 6 dohol drums that excited the groom and the guests!
Bride: "It was PERFECT! Everyone enjoyed your Greek band. We loved the variety of music and thought everything was upbeat and energetic. We also loved how the group got the audience involved as well, which made it more fun for those who did not know how to Greek dance!"
Maria and Vasilis, a Greek-American couple from Pennsylvania, follow the Greek traditions they learned from their parents. They speak Greek and they met each other during a tournament of the Greek community (GOYA). Vasilis was coaching the tournament, while Maria was attending to watch her brother play.
They selected Santorini for their wedding. They got married in the Cathedral of Santorini, where Maria arrived accompanied by a violin-guitar duet playing the traditional Greek wedding song "Simera gamos ginetai" (Today is a wedding day). On the wedding party, our folk band played Greek traditional and folk music.
"It was quite the amazing event and people can't stop telling me how amazing the music was. I am so glad that I found Melodima in my google searching. Keep up the good work and I cannot wait to relive the night through the video. All the best, Amanda"
Our Jazz & Soul band participated in the wedding reception of Amanda and Kris from the US in Monemvasia. For the first dance of the couple we played "Dream a Little Dream of Me" (Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong). For the dance of the bride with her father we played "That's Amore" (Dean Martin). For the dance of the groom and his mother, we played "Into the mystic" (Van Morrison). Earlier a solo pianist played during the welcome drink in the pool bar.
With Arabic orchestra and Arabic zaffe we participated in a wedding in Varkiza. Our Arabic orchestra played instrumental classical Arabic music before the ceremony and during the welcome drink. Next we organised an authentic Arabic zaffe with Arabic costumes and instruments (zurna, dohol, darbuka and dajres) to get the couple with music from the ceremony venue to the reception venue. Our Arabic band played soft Arabic music during the dinner, while our zaffe team started the dance with impressive dance rhythms.
A moving marriage proposal was organised in Athens International Airport. Anna had arrived in Greece few days earlier, and she was expecting the arrival of Alexey from Russia. We identified Anna in the Arrivals room from a recent photo. The couple's favorite song, "November Rain" by Guns N' Roses, started playing on the speakers. After the introduction of the song, the volume of the music lowered and Alexey appeared on the gate, accompanied by two rock musicians playing the same song. He approached Anna, he offered her a ring and he proposed to her. Anna's response caused the applause of everyone in the Arrivals of the airport.
Two impressive grand Steinway pianos, one white and one black, accompanied a wedding in Porto Heli. While the guests were arriving, we played music of Greek composers (Hatzidakis, Plessas, Karaindrou, Reboutsika). During the drink after the ceremony, we first played orchestral music of Greek composers (Yanni, Vangelis Papathanasiou, Stamatis Spanoudakis) and we continued with famous songs from cinema and jazz discography (known by Frank Sinatra, Edith Piaf, Nina Simone, Nat King Cole, etc).
The statement of the Spanish bride one day before the wedding:
"I am not Greek and the groom does not dance. The orchestra will play only until 12 and we will continue with the DJ after that."
The statement of the bride at 3am on the wedding night, after dancing for 5 hours:
"Can they play more? Shall I ask the wedding planner to postpone the last shuttle bus?"
Our 7-member folk orchestra continued playing until 4:15am, few minutes before the last shuttle bus left.
Continuing our successful presence in the shipping industry, we organised live jazz music for a Norwegian marine insurance company, on the roof garden of the new building of the National Opera in the Cultural Center of Stavros Niarchos Foundation. Our Musical Jazz band played known jazz songs during the drinks and the dinner.
The Events Manager for Middle East, India and Africa, of a famous luxury watch brand, wanted her wedding party in Mykonos to include an impressive show similar to the shows she organises, in order to impress her famous guests (Alessandra Ambrosio, Ana Beatriz Barros, etc). In this Egyptian-Saudi Arabian wedding, musicians and dancers from 8 African countries (Ghana, Senegal, Kongo, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Mali, South Africa) accompanied the couple with drums, war cries and songs, during the entrance to the venue. A show including African rhythms and dances was presented in a scene of sand and fires that resembled an African desert. The bride danced a full choreography with the dancers, and many of the guests danced following either the moves of the first dancer, who comes from the country of Zulu, or the moves of the bride.
"We had the best time of our lives and are truly grateful for the amazing performance by the band. The entrance song 'Fly me to the moon' was so beautifully performed and it has become one of our best memories. We have now returned to London and ready to start our new life together. We wish you and the band all the best for everything. Hopefully we see each other again, sooner than 50 years from now :)"
Our first Chinese-English wedding in Santorini was unique. For the entrance of the couple we played the song 'Fly me to the moon', and the couple danced in the music. The Chinese groom and the English bride being really enthusiastic with the swing & funky music of our swing band.
We organised Indian Hindu Baraat procession on the small rocky island Kivotos near Hydra. Our drummer began playing Indian rhythms on a traditional drum when the boat of the groom appeared, and he accompanied rhythmically the groom while he was walking uphill toward the top of the small island. Then he accompanied the bride, and he took his position next to the musicians with the Indian instruments (shehnai & tabla) for the traditional Indian ceremony to start. The magazine Vogue Italy had an extensive article for the wedding.
It is well known that Greeks and Armenians have many things in common, but what few people know is that there is an Armenian music piece that is played in almost all Greek weddings. The song 'Tzizair' came to Greece in the early 20th century by Armenian musicians who managed to escape the Armenian genocide in 1915. It became popular among Greek musicians and it was established mainly in the Greek islands as the basic music for accompanying the bride from her home to the church, known as 'Nisiotiki patinada' in Cyclades and as 'Gampriko' in Chios and Oinousses.
We played this music and other Armenian and Greek songs during the drink after the wedding. Earlier, we had accompanied the bride singing along with the best men and the bride maids the song 'Today is a wedding day'. Stefanos Souldatos chanted during the wedding ceremony, in which a Greek Bishop and an Armenian Bishop participated.
The initial plan agreed with the groom was to get to the home of the bride half an hour before the wedding, to sing love songs from the Ionian islands, and to accompany the bride to the church. When we called the groom few days before the wedding to confirm all the details, he shared with us how sad he was that he would not participate in this process, since he was sure it would be the most beautiful moment of the wedding.
We thought of a way for the groom to participate for a while in this process. We suggested him to come under the balcony of the bride one hour before the wedding and to sing together with us. According to the Greek tradition, the groom should not see the bride before the wedding, but it would not be a problem if the bride was looking at him behind the curtain. After this song, the groom would leave for the church and he would wait for the bride there. The groom was excited with the idea, he informed his friends to be ready one hour before the wedding, he involved in this surprise the father of the bride who would open all the windows when we would approach the house singing.
On the wedding day, we met the groom and his friends few meters from the home of the bride and we started singing altogether: the groom, his friends and the musicians. We stood under the house and looked toward the balcony of the bride to see if the curtain would move. But the bride did not appear on the window. She came down from her home and walked out of the door, crying with emotion. Her mother hugged her while we were singing the verse "Today the mother is separated from her daughter". And as we sang the verse "Groom you should love the bride" she went out on the street and embraced the groom! They were hugged for quite a while and we had the opportunity to sing the song "On the foam of the sea my love is sleeping" that the groom had asked us to sing.
After the groom left for the church, we continued singing with the friends of the bride until the bride was ready. We accompanied the bride to the chapel of Agios Nikolaos on the rocks of Piraiki. We also sang songs from the Ionian islands during the greetings and photo session after the wedding.
Participating in most of the Cypriot weddings in Greece, we live unique moments like the ones we lived in this traditional Cypriot wedding. We sang during the shaving, the dressing, the 'zosimo' (red belt) and the 'kapnisma' (smoking-blessing) of the groom. We played Cypriot music for him, who is a dance teacher, to dance with his bestman and friends. For the bride, we sang during the shoes, the 'zosimo' and the 'kapnisma', and we played nice Cypriot music for her to dance with her friends. Later on, we played music outside the church of Panagia Faneromeni in Vouliagmeni, when the bride's mother, the bridemaids and the bride entered the church. Following the Cypriot tradition, Stefanos Souldatos improvised for the couple the tsiattisto song presented below in Greek:
Για σας της Κύπρου οι άγγελοι απόψε όλοι χορεύουν, και τις φιγούρες του γαμπρού από ψηλά αγναντεύουν.
Κι όλης της γης οι μουσικοί παίζουν στο ζώσιμό σας, για να έχει βίο ανθόσπαρτο το νέο ριζικό σας.
Βόηθα Θεέ και Παναγιά εσύ Φανερωμένη, και κάνε την αγάπη τους πάντα άσβεστη να μένει.
Our participation in this wedding in Glyfada was 'Just perfect!' according to the bride. Since the bride returned from Germany to get married based on the traditions of Ipiros, we followed the traditions strictly and we started with a traditional lament from Ipiros, a call of love and remembrance for the relatives and friends who passed away or immigrated. The two grandmothers of the bride, who have personal experience of both cases, stood up and remained silent throughout the lamentations. Next they danced a traditional dance from Ipiros, receiving the admiration of the German friends of the bride. They also stood up when Stefanos Souldatos sang the wedding song 'Today is a wedding day', and they whispered the lyrics with great emotion, winning our own emotion. The bride danced traditional Epirus dances, tsamiko dance and kalamatiano dance with her parents, grandparents, relatives and friends, while the groom was waiting patiently outside the church.
The owner of a famous Austrian company of crystal jewelry celebrated her 50th birthday in Mykonos, with hundreds of famous guests from all over the world. Our dance group welcomed the guests at the entrance of the venue, where the guests had the opportunity to be photographed with the dancers. During the welcome drink, we presented folk dances with many impressive figures (Zorba the Greek, hasapiko, sirtaki, hasaposerviko). After the dinner we danced an island dance, making several guests to join the dance.
We organised an Arabic zaffe in Mykonos, playing traditional Arabic music with zurna, dohol, darbuka and riq, during the entrance of the couple to the wedding venue. After the dinner, we played rhythmic dance music for the guests to start dancing.
The TV advertisement of Creta Farm with the famous Greek actor Giannis Bezos was accompanied with traditional wedding music. Since the theme of the advertisement was a wedding celebration, we played the music of 'Today is a wedding day' next to the married couple.
With a song written for the couple by Stefanos Souldatos, we organised a marriage proposal that will remain unforgettable. We played the first part of the song for the wedding proposal with bouzouki and guitar, and a year later, we played the full song with mandolin and guitar outside the window of the bride while she was preparing for the wedding.
Στο Αχίλλειο ένα βράδυ, καθώς έπεφτε σκοτάδι, σου είπα να με παντρευτείς.
Να σου δώσω όλα τα αστέρια, αγκαλιά στα δυο σου χέρια, κι όλα όσα ονειρευτείς.
Φωτεινή σε αγαπώ, θέλω να σε παντρευτώ!
Σήμερα στην Κερατέα, θα είσαι εσύ η πιο ωραία, και θα λάμπεις στο λευκό.
Στο λευκό το νυφικό σου, και με εμένα στο πλευρό σου, Θεέ μου πόσο σ’ αγαπώ.
Φωτεινή σε αγαπώ, τώρα θα σε παντρευτώ!
String quartet of leading musicians played classical music, waltzes and tangos during an event in the Museum of Acropolis. It was the same quartet that participated in the opening of the museum in 2009.
With great emotion the bride danced with her mother and friends the Cretan mantinades we wrote especially for her. The lyre and the lute played the favourite Cretan dances of the bride and her friends did not stop dancing and praising the bride. For the groom, we had prepared wishes and admonitions, which we sang shortly after in the courtyard of the church, before delivering the bride. Following the Cretan tradition, Stefanos Souldatos improvised for the bride the mantinada song presented below in Greek, referring to her father who had passed away one year before the wedding:
Θωρείτε την καμαρωτή πως λάμπει η θωριά της, με ένα γονιό στην αγκαλιά και ένα στην καρδιά της.
Κι είναι μεγάλη η καρδιά σαν τα παλιά τραγούδια, και με την κάθε κοντυλιά γεμίζει με λουλούδια.
With solo saxophone we participated in the new viral advertisement of OPAP. The lucky couple who won the contest of OPAP for Valentine's Day, watched the match of his favourite team from VIP seats and then enjoyed a romantic dinner in the stadium, in the romantic sound of a saxophone that appeared playing... the anthem of the team.
Bridal serenades and polyphonic choir for a wedding in Antiparos. A group of serenaders accompanied by mandolin and guitar sang polyphonic wedding songs from Corfu at home and church. They also constituted the polyphonic choir for the wedding ceremony. The Apostle was read in Byzantine mode by Stefanos Souldatos.
When the bride was a kid, she was lulled to sleep by the sound of the Aignousian wedding music from her grandmother's wedding. There was no doubt that this would also be the music of the first dance in her wedding. The couple from Oinouses and Chios danced the traditional Aignousian wedding song 'gampriko', and then called the bride's grandmother to join them in the dance floor, generating great emotions to all guests.
With a 4-member orchestra, which included clarino and santouri, we approached the Aignousian and Chian tradition in the wedding in a villa in Sounio, playing music from Oinouses, Chios and other Aegean islands. We had played similar music earlier to accompany the bride to the church.
In the TV show 'Proini Meleti' with Eleonora Meleti in Star Channel, a tribute to wedding customs was presented, including videos from weddings of Melodima.
String quintet accompanied the couple with favourite classical music melodies in the most beautiful time of their lives in Politia. We welcomed the guests with the 20-minute long Eine kleine nachtmusic of Mozart and Pachelbel's Canon in D major. When the bride arrived we played her favourite Siegfried Idyll of Wagner, when the married couple was leaving we played the Wedding March of Mendelssohn, and we continued with various pieces of classical music.
Director of a shipping company and son of a retired admiral of the Greek Navy, he wanted his marriage to be comparable to the weddings of Navy officers. He asked us to set up a philharmonic band with brass instruments and percussions, similar to the band of the Navy.
Our 12-member philharmonic orchestra played the Navy march 'The Aegean sailor' for the entrance of the groom. During the entrance of the bride and after the wedding we played compositions of Greek composers. During the drink and the wedding dinner, a saxophonist played light jazz music and film music.
With 6 Greek and Celtic musical instruments we played Greek music and Celtic/Ceilidh music (Scottish and Irish) in a Greek-Scottish wedding in Kefalari. First we played Greek traditional and folk music with violin, bouzouki and guitar. The dance floor was crowded with guests of many nationalities. Next we played Celtic/Ceilidh music with banjo, Irish bouzouki, mandolin, violin and guitar. An Irish musician was explaining the dance steps before playing each dance, so that all guests can participate.
"Thank you for all your efforts and creating a wonderful atmosphere! It wouldn't have been an Egyptian Wedding without you!"
The English bride and the Egyptian groom from the UK selected Santorini for their wedding. We played Arabic music during the ceremony with a small Arabic orchestra.
For the entrance of the couple in the wedding reception, we organised a traditional Lebanese zaffe with zurna and percussions, which we repeated after the first dance of the couple to launch the party.
