Isabella & Marco

The Story

Isabella had grown up watching sunsets over the Atlantic from her grandmother's house near Lagos. Marco had proposed on that same terrace, and so it was always going to be the Algarve. The question was only which cliffside, which quinta, which sunset would frame their vows.

We found a private estate on the western tip of the Algarve — a restored farmhouse with terraced gardens descending to the cliff edge, where the Atlantic horizon stretches as far as the eye can see. The ceremony was set on the lowest terrace, 60 guests seated in natural linen chairs, the sound of the sea below as the only music before the string duo began.

The colour palette was entirely derived from the landscape: warm terracotta, bleached white, the deep blue of the ocean. Local ceramic artists created bespoke table settings. The florals were all native Portuguese species — cistus, lavender, wild fennel — arranged by a botanist-florist who sources only from the Alentejo.

The evening ended with dancing on a clifftop terrace lit by hundreds of lanterns. Several guests slept at the estate and woke to a private breakfast overlooking the sea.