Emotional Arrábida Wedding in Portugal by Luisa Starling

January 3, 2020

Emotional Arrábida wedding in Portugal – Ana&Luis

Are you ready for a very emotional wedding?

Do you know that feeling when you want to start writing and words are hard to find? As I stare at my keyboard to begin, I realize that my thoughts are not racional, but a wave of crazy emotions and so much love.

I truly DO love Ana and Luis. It is this indescribable feeling of friendship on a whole new level. A deeper one, one that makes it seem like our souls are connected and we are each others spirit animals.

How it all began

This might seem too much, I know, but my connection with Ana and Luis started shy, through simple emails that evolved into us three pouring our souls, our life stories in writing.

Ana was a reader of my blog, and she told me she had this dream where only I could capture their day. And that dream was so strong that I had the absolute honor of seeing them change their wedding dates and venue booking so that they could tie the knot on a Saturday I still had free.

I learned that Luis worked in Brasil, and that Ana was in Portugal. The few times they saw each other every year for the 10 years they had been together only made their love stronger and the will to get married even bigger.

Ana and Luis didn’t know by then, but when my husband went to his 6 month mindfulness and yoga journey across India, Thailand and Vietnam they were a big source of strength and hope for me, teaching me how to stay sane when nostalgia and missing him was too hard to bare, specially having just moved to London and being away from my family, friends and cats.

Ana and Luis’ emotional Arrábida wedding

When their wedding day arrived, they were my friends, and I was more than their photographer.

Ana and Luis got married at Quinta dos Moinhos de São Filipe, a little windmill paradise overlooking the so called “Portuguese Caribbean”, aka Arrábida, in Portugal. This was the same spot where Luis proposed, so it only made sense to finish the cycle there.

To say that I got emotionally exhausted after this day is an understatement. My heart was full of love, I found the meaning of why I do what I do, and I cried like a baby SO MANY TIMES.

This is my homage to them. And I take this opportunity to thank them for teaching me that love ALWAYS wins.

And because I am honoured to have one of Portugal’s best videographers in my Starling team, here is a sneak peek of all this emotion in actual motion.