Matt & Lena | Beach wedding in the Algarve

This was a special wedding. Not that all the wedding we photograph aren´t special, because they are, every one of them, but this one… when you photograph the wedding of friends, it´s different. I remember clearly the day I first met Lena, she had just joined the ship we were working on and I bumped into her in the corridor outside our cabins. She was very shy and so completely beautiful that I figured straight away that she must be an absolute bitch, because people that gorgeous can´t be nice too… how wrong was I! And so a friendship began… those particular ship-friendships that start fast, run deep and last forever, even if you´re on the other side of the world and may never see each other again. Ship people will know what I mean. And then later we met Matt, on another ship, another contract… he was the calm to Lena´s crazy, the British wit to her European flair. We ate guacamole and lay on Mexican beaches, worked through the 6am gangways and the never-ending formal nights… the vodka cranberries and the karaoke in the crewbar. And then we left the ship life and moved to Portugal.

Fast forward 3 years and they have done the same…  moved to the Algarve and started their own business… and got married. Their wedding was everything we love in a wedding… small and super DIY, everyone did something (Luis of course, made the sangria) and everything was a team effort. We chose a ceremony spot on the beach the day before, and on the day of the wedding everything just … happened, just the way it was meant to. We had no real plan, no timeline, no protocols… the plan was to get dressed, hit the beach, exchange vows and then eat… and drink… and be merry. And that´s exactly how it happened. Just perfect.