Lemons fill this Portuguese palace destination wedding

Lavish Lemon Inspired Portugal Destination Wedding – Portugal Wedding Photographer 2

Hey, crew – anyone up to jet set to a palace in Portugal this morning for a lemon grove wedding?

Filled with citrusy decor, these our two grooms basked in the glory that is Portugal’s endless sunshine. What’s funny, is Andrew & Clay’s wedding wasn’t even during lemon season! Thanks to their excellent planning team, the lemon trees were adorned with lemons (we were fooled!) to match all the fun citrus decor.

Lemons aside, Tivoli Palacio de Seteias was the true stellar piece of decoration, lending the most ornate & grand of backdrops to all the ceremony & reception photos. We love that the couple got to take advantage of the outdoor views well into the night thanks to the very posh greenhouse-style marquee set on the lawn, a gorgeous alternative to the typical reception tent.

Our Love Story

Clay and Andrew met while Andrew was visiting a friend in New York City (at the time, Andrew was living in Los Angeles). They were at a cocktail party where two friends of Andrew’s, both of whom worked in finance, pointed out Clay across the room, as Clay and Andrew both work in film and entertainment. Given the cross-country logistics, no one expected them to start dating, but 14 months after that night, Andrew left his job at a film studio to move out East, and the two were engaged less than a year after that.

Clay and Andrew were on vacation in Lake Como, Italy, and had rented a motorboat for the day. After lunch at Villa d”Este, Clay convinced Andrew to park the boat in a remote area of the lake and go for a swim. While Andrew was drying off, Clay proposed to him, catching him completely off-guard.

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The Destination & Venue

For the ceremony at Tivoli Palacio de Seteias, we decided to have an outdoor service with our aisles lined with wildflowers, leading down to a wedding arch with wisteria and other hanging florals. While the field itself was a lemon orchard, they weren’t truly in season, so lemons were (somewhat comically) adorned to all of the trees.

For the reception, a multi-tiered glass tent was erected to allow the palace’s beautiful façade to serve as a backdrop. Hanging from the tent was a large hanging platform adorned with a living garden and numerous chandeliers, bringing color and magic to the space.

The Attire

Both Clay and Andrew wore custom-made suits from Samuelsohn, via a relationship Andrew’s father had with a suit maker. Clay had decided upon a deep blue for his suit, to compliment his blue eyes, and Andrew had elected a light grey, to accentuate his darker features.

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Favorite Moments

For Clay, some of the highlights included their vows, which he felt had the right amount of heart and humor and were endearingly personal. The service was officiated by Clay’s sister Melissa, who could not contain her tears during the ceremony, and comically demanded a kiss from the grooms just moments after their first kiss as husbands.

Clay also loved that his friends did not waste a second to hit the dancefloor. This is a group that loves to party, and the glass tent was immediately undulating with the weight of the crowd. It was a party that went until sunrise, which led to Clay’s last favorite moment of the evening. Clay and Andrew sipped champagne while watching the sunrise, sitting overlooking the palace’s hedge maze and beautiful rolling hills below. It was magical.

For Andrew, one of his favorite moments was during a break during the festivities when he and Clay excused themselves to walk up to one of the palace’s balconies above the reception. Andrew and Clay were able to take a moment to reflect on how special the gathering was and how lucky they were to have these friends and families, and this love.

Personal Details

In the palace’s grand archway, we had giant standing A&C lights, which could be seen from all parts of the reception as the tent was glass. The only two DIY elements were probably the Palacio de Seteias gift totes and a DIY vodka bar that the grooms set up on a cliffside balcony, where guests could choose from a number of local garnishes and flavors to make their own cocktails.

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The Flowers & Decor

While the flowers throughout the festivities were gorgeous, neither Clay nor Andrew knows enough about flowers to speak to them. Our wedding planners at Silhouette Weddings made almost all of the selections. Clay and Andrew decided upon lemons for the name cardholders, as they were married in a lemon orchard, and wildflowers for the ceremony aisle, but that was about it.

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Advice to Other Couples

As the first and most major decisions (venue spaces, band, food) are more fun than the minutia that follows, try to turn each round of work into an event or something fun. For us, we waited to choose wines almost until the end, so that we could sample a number of local Portuguese flavors while we burned through the smaller decisions and choices, like throw pillows for the afterparty and chairs for plating for the rehearsal dinner.

Special Family Traditions

Both grooms are twins, Clay has an identical twin brother (David) and Andrew has a fraternal twin sister (Lauren), and the two grooms had small gatherings with some of their siblings and closest friends immediately prior to the ceremony, helping them to prepare for the events to follow. The grooms were each walked down the aisle by both of their parents, so this was a real family affair. Clay’s parents have been married over 50 years, and Andrew’s over 35.

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The Honeymoon

We went on safari, including three camps in Kenya planned for us by our old friend, the incomparable Paolo Parazzi of Africa Born Safaris, followed by a week on a private island off Mozambique – Azura Quilalea.