So exciting news today (and small steps towards the wedding) as we booked our flights to go and visit the only location thats in the running to be our wedding venue next year. I won't share too much yet because of course firstly we haven't booked it officially and secondly i think its nice to keep some elements a surprise!
We both knew we wanted an outdoor style wedding and we wanted to be warm doing it so we made the decision to have the wedding in Portugal. Looking for a wedding venue in another country is not the easiest of tasks as you have to rely on english written websites to bring up results that you are looking for and of course you are making an automatic judgement based on images when sometimes seeing things in the flesh they can make them look completely different and help you see more clearly how your personal touches would look. That being said we only found a few locations that would be suitable for holding the wedding we wanted and this one ended up being a stones throw away from where Carlos grew up, it feels like it was meant to be.
We have two dates on hold at the moment with the venue 28th May and 27th August. Although those dates are the ceremony / main party date we plan on staying for a few days either side and having a holiday away with everyone, something I've wanted for a long time! The reason our original date was 28th May was due to the fact its the same week as my 30th birthday, i was hoping to celebrate through the week into my 30's with my friends but, for those of you who don't know, Carlos is from the northern parts of Portugal (Seia) and actually they have seasons and it can be quiet cold. In recent years its become more and more unpredictable and so we aren't confident that we'll have the warm summer evening vibes that we are hoping for which is why we also have 27th August reserved.
We're taking the trip to Portugal 2nd June to visit to venue and stay for 1 or 2 nights. This will enable us to see how it is this time of year and for us to make the final decision about if we want the venue to be there and which date we want it. Then i feel the fun can start on the planning!
Naturally i've already started to look at dresses, decor, small details and a bit of planning but we can't officially book anything until we've seen the venue properly to know where things will go and how it will run. We have managed to secure our little dream team of a photographer and videographer though and we did a little fun practice shoot together the other week in London and im absolutely melting over the results we've had so far Claudia Rose Carter (photographer) and The Costa sisters (videographers) are exactly our style and I'm literally so excited and proud to say they will be doing the wedding capturing!
Theses photos have come out beautifully and we're eagerly awaiting the video to share with you too so watch this space!