Stefana - Greek Wedding Crowns
Make your wedding even more beautiful by choosing some of our special accessories. We create unique handcrafted Stefana (Greek Wedding Crowns) using silver, gold and semiprecious stones. We can design together the Stefana of your Wedding, according to your wishes and ideas, using unique impressive materials.
The stefana - wedding crowns will brighten the bride and the groom, while
they are one of the few objects of the ceremony that can
be preserved by the couple as a souvenir of the wedding in their new home. For this reason we have chosen to
make our stefana by unique materials that give out brilliance and at the
same time they can be preserved for long time, such as precious metals,
semiprecious stones and crystals. Our stefana are exclusively designed by
Julie Venizelou, a graduate jewelry designer. Our collection of wedding stefana will match the aesthetics and the personality of the bride and will
suite to her wedding dress.
Buy Online:
We ship our stefana to any destination worldwide. We accept any kind of payment (credit cards, bank transfers, debit cards
etc.) through PayPal or through our bank's secure server. Select and purchase
online the stefana of your choice.
Please contact us for any additional information:
Julie Venizelou
Glyfada, Athens, Greece
e-mail: sales@stefana.info
Tel. (+30) 6938233066
Some history of Stefana...
The habitudes and traditions of Greek wedding originate from ancient times. The Greek Wedding Crowns (Stefana or Stephana or Stephania) were used in ancient Greece. The tradition of wedding crowns was held by the Orthodox Church till today. Before the ancient wedding ceremony the bride leaves her homestead by a coach pulled by donkeys (clinis) and she stands between the bridegroom (nymphios) and the paranymph, who is a relative or a close friend. They proceed together to the bridegroom’s home. During this passage, the bride was brilliantly plumed and perfumed. The couple was wearing the stefana made of various plants dedicated to Aphrodite (Venus) such as olive leaves, vine leaves and lemon flowers. In the area of Boeotia the stefana were made of asparagus, due to their symbolism: the bride and the bridegroom offer a sweet coexistence to each other, as the sweet fruit of asparagus comes out of tough thorns. Everyone accompanying the couple was wearing the same stefana. The whole picture was festive. The couple was wearing white dresses, signifying the absence of decay not only in their bodies but mainly in their relation.
Later in the Christian times, the stefana of a traditional Greek wedding were made of lemon flowers in harmony with the wedding dress. The flowers were representing the virginity and the purity, due to their fragility and their sweet and soft aroma.
In Byzantine period the stefana were royal symbols and they were looking like royal crowns. They considered that the marriage is the creation of a new kingdom: the home and the family of the couple. According to this view the priest blesses the stefana above the Bible and he forms a cross sign above the heads of the bride and the bridegroom. He then prays in the name of God to give them glory and honor in their new little kingdom, to rule it with wisdom and justice. The wedding crowns remind also the stefana of the martyrs and the sacrifices that the couple has to make toward their perfection.
Today the stefana represent the connection of two people, the rings that connect the chains of their lives. The orthodox church uses the stefana to emphasize the holiness of the connection of the bride and the bridegroom (hieros gamos). For this reason the priest ties the ribbon of the stefana that have to remain together forever.
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