One of the nation’s top matchmakers has found love— and that love is unfolding on a beautiful Greek island in the most traditional of ways.

Maria Avgitidis, founder of New York City-based AgapeMatch, one of the nation’s top matchmaking services, decided to forgo the swanky high rises and glitzy hotels of Manhattan, opting instead to get married in Greece, the old fashioned way— with pre-wedding festivities on her mother’s native island of Alonissos in Greece’s Sporades island chain.

Maria, whose mother Alexandra emigrated to the United States from Alonissos, offered us a glimpse into the traditional island festivities— that begin with the dressing of the bride-to-be in the traditional engagement dress, worn at the pre-wedding festivities.

The dress— unique to Alonissos with its extended hem and ornate features, belongs to her distant cousin Katerina Agallou who was happy to share in the island tradition.

Maria is marrying her sweetheart Georgios Pyrgiotakis later this month in Athens following weeklong traditional pre-wedding celebrations on the island. Those celebrations include heading to her fiancee’s native Crete, where relatives are preparing hundreds of traditional xerotigana– sweet delicacies served at weddings on Crete. The wedding will take place at the– swanky Varkiza resort, in the Athens Riviera.