Casamento no Areias do Seixo: Jamie + Brian

Nesta semana mais pausada, temos para vos mostrar um casamento no Areias do Seixo, fotografado por Hugo Coelho Fotografia, com video de Hugo Sousa Films e pista de dança por conta da Jukebox.

É o mais bonito dos dias de Jamie + Brian, vindos da Austrália com o seu grupo de amigos e família.

Há muitos pormenores que tornam este casamento épico e tão especial… Para mim, mostra a verdadeira essência de um destination wedding, onde o relevante é a presença das nossas pessoas e de todo esse amor, a experiência vivida durante três dias com todas essas pessoas, toda essa energia feliz e contagiante partilhada a tempo inteiro, focada, presente, o que lhes podemos proporcionar enquanto casal, como mensagem do que significam para nós, na nossa vida, e o que elas nos dão de volta, essa resposta de amor incondicional, generoso, autêntico.
A selecção de hoje mostra o dia anterior, esse início de festividades celebrado à volta de uma fogueira, com um fantástico pôr-do-sol, um churrasco e breves discursos por parte dos noivos. Não poderíamos deixar de fora este registo – quem não quer um dia assim?

O dia do casamento é simplesmente bonito. Há um vestido de noiva que me deixa a suspirar (tal como as capinhas das madrinhas, que adereço mais fantástico e cheio de estilo!), uma manhã passada a piscinar e com uns momentos de yoga, uma cerinónia feliz e fotografias a dois com a mais bonita luz do Atlântico. Há uma refeição num cenário perfeito, onde todas as palavras de amor convergem e tudo é emoção, e há uma festa até de manhã, com comida a preceito e pista de dança on fire…

É isto.

Boa Páscoa!

 

When the answer was “yes!”, how did you imagine your day?

We got engaged in our hometown of Adelaide, Australia. We knew that we would go overseas to get married but as far as we knew the world was our oyster and it could have been anywhere!

 

Did you feel prepared or was it a nerve-racking journey?

We felt pretty prepared the whole way through. Because we were getting married overseas we just had to get ourselves and our outfits on the plane. We didn’t need to coordinate any decorations or little details and there was no set up for us to do before the ceremony so it meant that once the big jobs were ticked off (such as organising the photographer, videographer, hair/makeup and DJ) there wasn’t much left to be done. Mostly we were just so excited for it to happen!

 

At what point of the wedding planning did you feel, “this is for real”?

When we skyped with and met our various vendors it really made us excited that it was actually happening!

 

Is the result true to the initial ideas or is it very different? Did you have any help?

This is a hard question to answer because when we started looking for a venue for our wedding we didn’t have any set ideas of what it would look like, we were really guided by just finding a venue that felt right. Once we found the website for Areias Do Seixo we knew straight away that it was where we’d get married! We knew that it was what we’d been searching for! The image of what our wedding would be really came to life once we’d decided on the venue. Areias Do Seixo were amazing with tailoring the three-day experience to be exactly what we wanted.

 

What was fundamental to you? And unimportant?

The most important part for us was finding the right wedding venue that was as easy as possible for our guests. We wanted to find somewhere that we could have the ceremony as well as accommodation so that guests could just check in one day and not have to worry about transport or logistics for the 3 days they were there. It was important that we all got to be together and holiday together (as people were travelling across the world to attend) so we wanted the venue to be small enough that we could book the whole place out so that it was just us and our guests there.

Little details were unimportant to us. I didn’t feel like I needed a bouquet and would have been ok with absolutely no decorations. We just wanted a beautiful venue that spoke for itself. As it turned out Areias Do Seixo have a talented team of stylists who took the utmost care in curating picturesque and personalised ceremony and reception spaces. The overgrown, candlelit, fairyland greenhouse that they styled for our reception was breathtaking and beyond anything I could have imagined.

 

What was easier? And what was more difficult?

Finding our various vendors was much easier than I thought it would be. I was worried to begin with that the language barrier would prove difficult when trying to find vendors but once I started searching there were so many options for photographers, videographers, hair and makeup and DJs whose websites were in English. The first person we locked in was our photographer Hugo Coelho. We knew he was exactly who we wanted when we saw his work and within 48 hours of first emailing him we’d skyped him, picked the package we were after and locked him in. It was a similar easy process with finding the rest of our vendors too.

The most difficult part of the process was navigating the Portuguese system to legalize our wedding.

 

What was the sentimental peak of your day?

Waking up on the morning of the wedding day and having breakfast, doing yoga and hanging out with all of our friends and family was such a special and relaxed way to approach the day.

Walking down the aisle I had the most overwhelming sense of love for my husband to be and all of our friends and family, and I felt all of their love as they looked back at me. It was such a special moment for us where the reality of getting married really sunk in and there was nothing but joy and love in the air.

 

And the peak of fun?

Dancing the night away with our friends until the early hours of the morning.

 

A special detail…

A big highlight for us and for many of our guests was the supper that they served at midnight. A staff member set up the barbeque and cooked strips of beef that the guests devoured with potato chips and hot chocolate. It was the exact sustenance needed the keep the party going for hours longer.

 

Now that it has happened, would you change anything?

Not one thing! Planning from afar meant that we didn’t meet our vendors, visit the venue or try the menu until 2 weeks before the wedding when we arrived in Portugal. Because of this we had no expectations and it meant that the whole wedding completely exceeded anything we could have imagined.

 

Some words of advice for upcoming brides…

At the end of the day there’s only two key things needed to make the day perfect: that you get married and that you get to celebrate with your guests. Don’t sweat the small stuff on the day or in the lead up because when you know that nothing else truly matters you’ll never be let down and everything will be better than you could have imagined.

 

 

 

Our selected vendors:

 

stationary: Caroline Gliddon;

venue, catering, wedding cake, decor: Areias Do Seixo;

Groom apparel and accessories: Suit Supply suit, Ralph Lauren shirt, Meermin shoes and Rolex watch;

wedding dress and shoes: Alex Perry dress, Gucci shoes, Christie Nicolaides earrings, Cartier bracelet;

makeup and hair: Cati Beauty;

photography: Hugo Coelho Fotografia;

cinematography: Hugo Sousa Films;

lights, sound and Dj: Jukebox.