Santorini is awash in glorious hues: bright white buildings, churches topped with cobalt-blue domes, dusky red cliffs, bright pink bougainvillea, and pops of red geranium. But ask us about our favorite Santorini colors, and my husband and I will immediately tell you they’re black and white. That’s because our wedding at Grace Hotel featured a special unity sand ceremony that incorporated Santorini's famed black and white sands, which we collected from our favorite beaches on the morning of our wedding.

Half Greek, half American I’ve spent my childhood summers in Santorini—one of the most beautiful islands in Greece, as my father would say. From a window in my grandparents’ white Cycladic house, our view seemed to reach the edges of the earth. With each hour, a shift in light revealed new sights to marvel over, coloring the blur of ocean and sky into shades as captivating as the flicker of a candle flame. I remember that only one sight could compare; catching a glimpse of a Santorini wedding.

Would it sound entirely ridiculous to say the Santorini Cherry Tomato changed my life? My first encounter with the locally-grown treasure was at Aktaion Restaurant, an unassuming traditional taverna that turned out to to be one of the oldest on the island, built over nearly a century ago. It was there that my wife and I first tasted a traditional korkosela made with eggs, fresh tomato and green bell pepper. It was unlike any dish I have ever had. As a backyard-tomato-farmer, the delicacy sent me into a frenzy to research the mystical Santorini Tomato.

3,600 years ago, there was a massive volcanic eruption that devastated Santorini. Many believe the event inspired the mystical legend of Atlantis mentioned in Plato’s dialogues. I’m somewhat of a hopeless romantic for ancient myths like these, and as my husband and I would walk amid Santorini’s white buildings boasting royal blue roofs and views of the endless, glimmering ocean, I couldn’t help but wonder if the story of the lost city of Atlantis was true. The island gifted us a newfound adventurous spirit, and we set out to explore the mysterious, abandoned shipwrecks and hidden, deep-sea treasures of the Aegean Sea.

While my usual happy hour always starts with a “cheers” and clinked cocktails, our evenings at Grace Hotel included multiple toasts— and not just because it was my birthday week. Every night, I could count on an inevitable second round of glasses to be raised when Santorini’s famed sunset colors called for their own salute. In perfect view from our dining table we would watch as a soft, orange glow met the rich blues of the Aegean Sea and washed the endless horizon in striking color. I remember looking at one another, speechlessly gesturing to the grandeur in awe, thinking that nothing could compete with this view. I was wrong.