Villa Panorama was drawn so that a wedding could be held within its own grounds. Its architect, Lakis Erotokritou, studied architecture in France and went on to design and build three houses side by side at the top of the Peyia hills, above Coral Bay on the south-west coast of Cyprus. His family runs them as Wedding Cyprus Villas. Poly Erotokritou plans the weddings, Sevinos Erotokritou looks after the houses and their guests, and a five night minimum stay turns each wedding into a week on the hill for the couple and the people closest to them.
An architect’s family business
The business began in 2010 as a small family venture, offering a wedding and holiday venue to guests from across the world. Lakis Erotokritou designed and constructed all three villas: Panorama, Oceania and a smaller modular house called Edge. He remains the supervisor of their maintenance and operation, makes regular visits to the site and has the final call on the company’s decisions.
Poly Erotokritou deals with couples directly from the first enquiry, writes the tailor-made packages and coordinates the wedding day. Sevinos Erotokritou began in property management at the villas in 2015, specialises in hospitality and event management, and supports guests while they stay.
Redwood and stone, steel and glass
Panorama is a traditional house designed in a contemporary style, finished inside and out in redwood, decorative stone and rock wall textures. The main house has an open plan living room and kitchen and six bedrooms, three of them en suite. On the first floor the master bedroom, kept as the Panorama Honeymoon Suite, shares a balcony over Paphos and the sea with a twin room. Two maisonette annexes add more beds. In Annex 1, two twin bedrooms share a bathroom, one of them with extra single beds on a mezzanine for children; Annex 2 has its own kitchen and living room, a double bedroom on the ground floor and two single beds on the mezzanine above. Outside are a landscaped garden, a pool crossed by a footbridge, a smaller pool for children and two barbecue areas.
Oceania, built at the end of 2012, answers Panorama’s timber and stone with a structure of plain grey steel and glass frames over two floors. A folding glass wall runs almost the full length of the living room and opens it to a 15 metre infinity pool. Seven bedrooms share four bathrooms, and in the ground floor honeymoon suite the bath is enclosed in sliding glass. On top sits a wooden decked roof terrace facing Coral Bay, the stage for the smaller weddings.
Edge, the third house, is a prefabricated modular villa on the same private ground, with a master bedroom, a twin room and a hot tub on a raised timber floor at the edge of the cliff. The family offers it to newlyweds as a retreat once the celebrations are over, although it stands close enough to Oceania to hear a party there.
Ceremonies above the coast
Panorama’s grounds were designed to hold both the ceremony and the reception. Two timber decks beside the pool, the Panoramic Deck and the Umbrella Deck, look across Paphos to the sea and serve for either. At Oceania couples marry on the roof terrace, under a floral arch or beside the timber gazebo, with the coast behind them. The family confirms that both villas are licensed for civil ceremonies indoors as well as out, so a change in the weather moves the ceremony inside rather than off the hill, and the set packages include the date booking and the legal paperwork. Couples who would rather marry on a beach can do so and bring everyone back to the villas for the reception.
Across both villas a wedding can seat up to 80 guests for the ceremony and dinner, and up to 90 can stand for a reception. Those are ceilings rather than comfortable sizes. The family puts the optimum for a wedding at Panorama alone at up to 50, and Oceania on its own suits around 40. The three set packages, Bronze, Silver and Gold, are written for smaller parties still, from 16 guests to 35; for a larger wedding the alternative is a bespoke package, which couples put together online.
Dinner by the pools
Receptions move between the pools, the dining terraces and the gardens. Catering is in house, as a buffet, a set menu or a cocktail party, and each set package includes a buffet dinner of appetisers, mains and desserts. Away from the wedding, the same kitchen team will prepare a barbecue or a picnic in the Pikni pine forest, a few minutes from the villas.
After dinner the evening moves to a lit dance floor on the decks, and the family confirms that Panorama has no noise restrictions. Couples bringing their own planner must choose one of the villas’ approved partners, or a planner who has already organised an event at the villas.
Above Coral Bay
The villas occupy a private, rural stretch of hillside between Peyia and the village of Kathikas. Peyia is a hill town 14 kilometres north-west of Paphos, at the southern end of the Akamas peninsula, built mostly on steep coastal slopes near Coral Bay. Its centre, with tavernas and the old kafeneia where villagers play tavli, is a three kilometre drive from the villas. Coral Bay lies eight kilometres away, a 600 metre crescent of soft white sand between two limestone headlands.
Beyond the town to the north-west, the Akamas peninsula has no roads through its mountainous heart and keeps a loggerhead turtle sanctuary. The villa team arranges excursions there, by jeep or on foot through the Avakas Gorge. In the other direction lies Paphos, its upper town about 20 kilometres from Peyia. Down by its medieval harbour are the Roman mosaics and second century odeon of the archaeological park, part of the ancient city that UNESCO lists as a World Heritage Site.
A week on the hill
The five night minimum applies whether the villas are booked for a wedding or a holiday, although shorter gaps in the calendar can be requested. Each main villa sleeps up to 16, ideally 14 adults and two children, so Panorama and Oceania together sleep 32 of the wedding party, and Edge brings the total to 36. Further guests can stay in other villas with pools that the family owns and manages. Paphos International Airport is about 25 minutes by road, and the team arranges airport transfers and car hire.
One villa or both
Wedding Cyprus Villas suits a couple who want a week rather than a day: a family wedding of a few dozen guests, the vows and dinner on decks built for the purpose by the architect whose family now hosts them, and the closest party sleeping a few steps away. This is a private villa stay, not a hotel. The family plans the wedding and looks after the houses, and outside the wedding the kitchens are the guests’ own unless the in-house catering is booked. The decision to make first is the guest list: a wedding much beyond 50 sits more comfortably across both villas, and one beyond 35 needs a bespoke package rather than a set one.
See the Wedding Cyprus Villas profile and the Cyprus Wedding Atlas, then check your date.
