A Portuguese celebration full of fun and special touches for Gemma and Paul. This happy couple opted for a pretty mint green wedding theme, and it works perfectly.
Gemma and Paul had the Prettiest Mint Green Wedding
Gemma said that when she met Paul she was still very young, and not looking for love, but she fell for him and that was that. Their first date was a shopping trip and a meal at a French restaurant. Since then the couple has been on so many amazing holidays together, swimming with dolphins being a particular highlight of the travels.
Paul had arranged to take Gemma away for their anniversary. They checked into a lovely hotel and just as they were due to go out to eat, Paul dropped down to one knee to propose. It was a complete surprise to Gemma. They celebrated at their favourite restaurant Sushi Samba, and drink lots of champagne.
The Ceremony
Gemma and Paul chose a civil ceremony at Quinta de Amizade in Quinta da Logo. Celebrant James Watson delivered an intimate and relaxed ceremony. As the couple walked back down the aisle Gemma remembers everyone standing and cheering while Hey Ho by the Lumineers played – a very special moment.
A relaxed barbecue followed, which included grilled swordfish, steak and seafood. Groom Paul dropped his phone in the villa pool with his speech on it a couple of days before the wedding. However, the speeches were still hilarious and heart-warming. Gemma’s dad’s especially, which was mostly about how he and Paul had bonded over their love for golf.
Paul ‘threw Gemma around everywhere’ (her words) to Sister Sledge’s Thinking of You and so the party started. The beautiful bride knew the second she tried on her dress that it was ‘the one’. She had always imagined having a dress exactly like the Pronovias style she chose, with its lace detail and open back. She had six bridesmaids and one flower girl who all wore dresses from Zara. Gemma gave each of them a bracelet with their initials on, and a pair of earrings with mint green stones.
A company called Unique and Chic Weddings provided a lot of the couple’s decor, but they did take a lot of decorative details in their luggage from the UK. Suzannah’s Flowers provided all of the flowers, for the bouquets, table centres, buttonholes and the arch for the ceremony. A Portuguese band called Os Compotas played funky soul music, getting everyone really involved and up and dancing. A DJ called Kaleidosonix provided great sounds and lighting to keep the party going – the grounds of the villa turned into a magical nightclub when the sunset.
Gemma and Paul used large wooden crates as signs, as well as vintage chalkboards, adding some simple rustic charm. Paper lanterns and pompoms were strewn all around the villa and its garden, and guests were given mint green paper fans to keep them cool in the Portuguese heat.
They hired hay bales for people to sit on around the dance floor with a cake that was quite rustic in a two-tier ombre style, it consisted of lemon cake with a lemon buttercream. Garden games like croquet and a super-fun bean bag toss all hired from Unique and Chic Weddings kept everyone entertained throughout the afternoon.
This much-travelled couple chose Australia for their honeymoon, starting in Melbourne, then on to Sydney. After that, they travelled on up to Brisbane and spent the last week of the dream honeymoon on Hamilton Island where they snorkelled and took boat trips and sunset cruises, as well as eating at some amazing restaurants.
