This wedding was special for me for a good reason: as some of you already know, I worked in the Portuguese Air Force (PoAF) for a few years, and Marco was one of the friends I made during my course at the Academy. We did different things in the PoAF, and we didn’t always keep in touch throughout the years, but I was very honored when he and Marlene contacted me to photograph their wedding.
Those of you that follow the blog probably know this already because their engagement shoot was the first one of this year (if you want you can have a look at the photos here).
Since Marco is from the North of Portugal and their wedding was in Monte Redondo, his preparation for the wedding happened at the Palace Hotel, in Monte Real, with family and the closest friends. His best man (whom I also know from our time at the Academy) arrived just in time to bring the missing detail: the epaulettes! (Those who come from the world of uniforms know that inevitably someone is always missing a pair of epaulettes!) :D
Marlene got ready at her parents’ place, surrounded by her family and, thanks to her smile and relaxed manner, it was easy to make really beautiful portraits before we set off to the ceremony.
The ceremony itself had military honors, with the groom’s brothers in arms giving an even more solemn tone to this part of the day. For me it was great to meet up with all of them again - some I hadn’t seen in years - and to see everything happening in such a spectacular way, with me having the change to photograph it.
When it comes to this type of ceremony, one of the parts that I most enjoy witnessing is the exit, for which the officers standing face to face cross their swords so that the bride and groom exchange a kiss before they can keep moving forward.
Besides that, the bride’s friends also did their part and came prepared to make the first toast of the day right after they exited the church!
We went to Quinta da Concha next and what happened was one of the biggest parties I saw this year!
Before the party went into overdrive, I managed to steal the bride and groom for a bit, to stroll around the Quinta’s space and make their couple’s pictures happen. The natural way these two interact is something that I had already witnessed in their engagement shoot, which, speaking truthfully, makes it very hard to select the photos for their album among so many beautiful pictures.
From this point, the level of partying just kept rising! With some PoAF traditions coming into play, the bride getting tossed in the air, coordinated dancing, and many, many toasts!
The party lasted until late without losing any of its rhythm, in an uncontrolled happiness state, just the way I like to see them!
Here are the photos so you can see it too!
