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Destination Wedding in Portugal Sparklers

Emily + James – Algarve, Portugal

The area surrounding Faro in the Algarve is rapidly becoming one of our favourite places in Southern Europe – I say that despite my affinity with the southern Spanish coast where we spend much of our time. Emily and James invited us to their Wedding in Portugal Algarve some 12 months prior to their three-day celebration on the Portuguese area of Faro.

When the weekend finally came, Emily and James started their celebrations on the beach, in the beautiful setting of Restaurant 2Passos just a short drive from Faro Airport. The restaurant was a fantastic location, a truly beautifully Portuguese spot of the coast overlooking miles of golden sandy beaches. We’ve already been back to the beach since! :-)

For the day of their wedding, Emily’s family opened up their home in the area of Almancil not too far from the Monte de Quinta Resort where James started the day with his brother, mother and a few select close friends. Later for the ceremony and before returning to Emily’s family villa for an EPIC Party- we travelled up to the small town of Estoi for their religious church ceremony.

After their marriage and a quick ice cream, we all returned to Almancil for their reception and beautifully designed al-fresco dinner in the gardens directly outside their villa. A huge head bow must be given to the incredible Susanna from Save The Date Algarve for her attention to detail and being an incredible conductor of all the various elements during the reception. As darkness unfolded and the formalities came to a close, the party was stepped up a notch by the magnificent display of energy, sound and rhythm from Gatsby Band. You guys know how to party!

A few words from Emily…

“Portugal is such a special place for us a couple and also my family in particular so it was not a difficult decision. James and I had our first holiday there together, and its a place I have visited every year since I was 6 months old so we have so many special memories there. Getting married at my family home was extra special as well as it was a venue totally unique to us and no one else.

We wanted everyone to have a good time and enjoy it as much as us. We got so much enjoyment from seeing our guests having a good time and we have loved talking about it with everyone afterwards. It really was a totally unforgettable weekend.

What one thing most surprised you about your wedding, or planning your wedding?

How much fun the planning was. I thought I would get stressed out with it all but I loved it. We did have the help of a wedding planner as well which helped, especially with logistics on the day. It also surprised us how much We loved the ceremony, we thought it would be more of a formality and it would all be about the reception but we absolutely loved our ceremony, it was so special. The post-wedding blues hit us really hard, I cried for days afterwards! I just want to do it all again right from the engagement to the planning and the big day!

If you could do it all over again, which one thing wouldn’t you change, and if anything, what one thing would you change?

This is hard because it genuinely was so perfect but one thing we might have changed is the timings of the speeches. We left James and Chris’s (best man) speech quite late on in the meal and I think they would have preferred to do them earlier on. Also as we had 3 days of events, we wish we had asked Barney to photograph the Sunday beach party. Barney brings an event to life in his photos and we wish we had photos from the Sunday to look back on. I definitely wouldn’t have changed a second of our ceremony.”

A few lovely words about us from Emily and James…

“There are no words for how amazing Barney and Sam are. Honestly, we couldn’t have been happier that we chose them to photograph our wedding weekend! They never seemed to miss a moment whilst being totally unobtrusive. Our photos are amazing! I didn’t think it possible to capture the pure joy of the weekend in photos but they really did! We love them so much and now just wish we had asked Barney to photograph our Sunday party as well!” – Emily + James

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