Rafaela and José’s Beautiful Vineyards Wedding: Getting Married in Portugal
A FAMILY FRIENDLY FESTIVAL WEDDING
I hope you are all having a fabulous weekend? The weather has been an absolutely glorious reminder that Spring is just around the corner and I don’t know about you, but it has done wonders for lifting my spirits. Just like todays wedding has, full of happy smiley faces and lots of colour, this wedding is sure to put a spring in your step for the rest of today. ENJOY!
Gorgeous bride Yazz is here to tell us more…. “We have 2 children and family and friends were bringing children so we wanted our venue to be child friendly but also allow parents to be able to relax. We saw loads of incredible venues that almost worked but Ridge Farm ticked every box. When I met the amazing people that worked there, I knew they would get the kind of wedding we wanted and help make it happen. The house and the outside space are just stunning. And it has a pool and a Jacuzzi. Bonus!
We wanted a relaxed festival style wedding as we love going to festivals and Ridge Farm lent itself to that. We wanted to create an outdoor mini festival so we had lots of colour, outside seating, low tables, rugs, games, candles, lanterns, a cocktail bar and a craft bell tent for the kids. Luckily the weather was good!
For the indoor reception area we hung multi coloured streamers from the ceiling. It took about 7 hours! We had no idea it would take that long and it wouldn’t have been possible without the help of our amazing family. Although it took so long, it was one of my nicest memories of the wedding. It was hard work but we played some good tunes, had a drink, had a laugh and made the most of it. Then had a big curry cooked by our friends to reward all our effort. It was a brilliant build up to the big day.
We had the most beautiful outdoor ceremony led by our amazing celebrant Zena Birch. She got to know us before the wedding and asked us to tell her separately, our stories of how Ben and I met, got together and about us as a couple. She took our stories and weaved them into one, which was the main part of the ceremony. Our friends and family played a part, reading poems including ones they had written themselves, our children were part of the hand fasting, and everyone blew bubbles at the end. It was incredible and Zena helped create the magic.
I didn’t want to spend loads of money on my dress (that could be spent on alcohol!) as it would only be worn for a few hours. I understand that it’s a big deal for some, but it just wasn’t that important to me. I wanted to make an effort and feel special but not go crazy. I found an amazing woman on Etsy who makes all her dresses from old Quaker lace and makes the dresses from your measurements. You can design what you want or choose one of her designs. It’s a bit nerve wracking ordering online and not trying it on until it arrives from America but I read the reviews and everyone seemed happy. It was perfect. She’s an amazing dressmaker. I bought my silver shoes from Ebay and customised them by sticking on some gorgeous brooches that I found on sale in the high street. My mum bought my beautiful earrings and necklace for me. I had fresh flowers in my hair instead of a veil.
Our photographer was the wonderful Sharron Gibson, from The Image Garden Photography. We knew her through a friend and knew she was a wedding photographer, so we were so glad when we looked at her work and knew instantly that she would be perfect for us. She’s really friendly, calm and patient, which is just as well as I found it really hard to stay still and focus on being photographed when I knew that all my friends were in one place and I just wanted to chat to them! But Sharron got so many incredible shots and captured the day perfectly.
I loved planning our wedding. I can say that now in hindsight! We had a longer than expected planning time as we were meant to get married in 2013 but unfortunately my dad got cancer and had to have major surgery. Luckily he made a full recovery in time for the wedding in 2014, which made it extra special. It meant that we had a very long time to plan but I think it was too long and by the end I was wedding weary. We also have 2 children and it was really hard to juggle the organising around family life. The kids were sick of hearing the wedding word by the end, but I loved having a project with Ben and planning all the fun, silly parts of the wedding was great. Planning to a budget was a challenge and we had to keep reigning in or not being able to act on ideas as we couldn’t afford it, so the aerial trapeze artists had to go!
We had Loads of DIY projects! The venue provide a few staff and we got help from the lovely Plum who organised things on the day, but all the food, drink, decoration etc had to be organised by us. We did all the decorating, the flowers, spray painted tin cans for cutlery holders, made a cocktail bar and entertainment packs for the kids and with organising food and drink for 3 days was quite a feat!
If I were to give any advice to couples planning a wedding now I would say, make sure you have great food! We took a total chance on our caterer as we didn’t try the food first, which I wouldn’t necessarily recommend, but in this case the food was INCREDIBLE and it really put everyone in a happy place.
I would also say, if you’re doing DIY don’t do too many things unless you want it to take over all your spare time and DELEGATE!! It’s the one time in your life when you can ask people to help and they will be more than happy to. I find it hard to ask for help but that had to change and I realised that friends and family liked to be involved and hopefully made them feel part of it. It also made us feel really loved and we realised how lucky we are to have such amazing people in our lives and at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about?”
Super Suppliers – Photography: The Image Garden// Venue: Ridge Farm// Celebrant: Zena Birch// Brides Dress: MuseClothing, Etsy// Brides Shoes: Ebay// Grooms Outfit: Office// Bridesmaids Dresses: Monsoon// Stationery: Wed Fest// Caterer: Peggy Van Rooynen//
xxx
Sharron, you captured the colour, light, life and most of all zest of this amazing day. I loved it and looking back at these has reminded me of just how special Yazz and Ben’s day was. Also what a wonderful pleasure it was to get to know Yazz, Ben and their gorgeous children. Scrumptious all round!