Wedding | Gabriella & Jordan

Tell us a little about yourselves!

I'm from New York and Jordan is from London. I moved to London in October 2020, and met Jordan about 5 days later. I was heading to a pub in Notting Hill to meet a bunch of people for the first time, being new to the city. It just so happened that this pub was a favorite of Jordan’s and his best friend was the manager. He wasn’t a part of the group that I was meeting, but at some point he came over to a table of strangers looking for a lighter, and never left. I thought he was a friendly British boy making some international friends, but by the time the pub was closing and it was time to leave, he had asked me for my number and the rest was history!

Jordan has always been the golden retriever to my black cat. We started dating right before England’s 2nd lock down, meaning we were spending just about all of our time together. We lived in our own little worlds and quickly became each other’s favorite people.

4 years later, Jordan proposed in Biarritz, one of my favorite places in the world, overlooking the ocean at sunset. 18 months after that I brought 12 of my best girlfriends to the city to celebrate my Hen (bachelorette!).

Why did you decide to get married where you did?

Jordan and I fell in love with Portugal from the first time we ever went to Lisbon. The first trip was short and sweet. The next trip was a year later when we travelled from Lisbon all the way down to Faro with 3-4 days spent in Comporta along the way. Immediately, Comporta felt like a piece of us. It was the perfect mix of a rustic, effortless beach community with amazing little towns to eat, shop, sleep or dance the night away if you wanted to.

When we got engaged, an abroad wedding made sense (at least to us!). If my family was traveling from the states, we might as well get everyone to a place we loved.

It was hard to find the perfect location. We took a short trip to scout some venues with our planners and almost came close to confirming a venue that I knew I wasn’t in love with. It felt like we had come all this way and I no choice but to work with what we had seen, so I had just about convinced myself that it was right. On the last day in Portugal before flying , we had left Comporta and were having lunch in Lisbon when I spotted Assouline’s Comporta book. I flicked through the pages and there it was, the perfect venue . A house that was quintessentially Comporta - the ground was sand , the walls were blue , and all you could see for miles were fields and water. Luckily the owner was interviewed in the book and I was able to find her on Instagram. We didn’t have time to view it, so we paid our deposit when we landed back in London and only saw the space in person a couple of months before the wedding. It was even better than the photos!

How many guests did you have?

We ended up having about 90 guests which felt like the perfect number for 3 days of events. Everyone knew everyone by the end!

What was your budget?

Our original budget was about £50,000... and I will say we went over. Way over!

Tell us about your outfits.

I really had no idea what I was looking for when I started dress shopping. I wanted something timeless that also felt uniquely me. I did some solo browsing in London and ultimately found my dress from Kyha on a shopping trip back home with my mom and dad. Like the venue, I was close to buying dresses that I knew weren’t 100% right. I went back to Kyha to buy a different dress when at the last minute another one caught my eye and I knew right away!

We also bought my 2nd dress from Kyha, which was short and cute, perfect for a party.

I was never planning on having a 3rd dress until I found the Vivienne Westwood that I ended up ending the night in. I thought that perhaps I would choose between the two. But the morning of my wedding my grandma convinced me that it was my wedding and I might was well wear all 3 dresses if I loved them all. And I’m so glad I did!

I wore Prada shoes with my gown that I had my eyes on from day 1. For the party I changed into very high platform heels and by the end of the night I was in mesh ballet flats that I got from Vinted!

My earrings were from my one of my favorite jewellery brands, Eliou, and my tennis bracelet was from the same maker of our rings, the gorgeous Lylie Jewellery.

Jordan wore a custom Suit Supply tux. It was a Zegna silk dinner jacket with Cartier cuff links. He also wore an 18k gold bracelet that I gifted him the morning of the wedding. It’s a bracelet from Chinatown that everyone in my immediately family wear, so it felt like the perfect time to give him his own.

What was the most important aspect for you, in terms of planning your wedding?

We wanted it to feel like one big love fest. The food and music mattered a lot, but we really felt like if we got the energy right, everything else would fall into place. The wedding for us wasn’t just about celebrating the love we had for each other, but it was about bringing together all of our favorite people, in one of our favorite places, and thanking them for making us who we are. Oh, and I really wanted the flowers to be gorgeous, which they were!

Were there any elements that were important for you to incorporate?

Some of the best things about Comporta are the hidden gems that exist within it. We wanted to use the wedding as opportunity to take over the town and show people everything that it had to offer over the course of 3 days.

Day 1 started with the party of my dreams at Comporta Cafe. I couldn’t think of a better way to kick off the festivities than with barefoot dancing on the beach until the sun set. The wedding day spoke for itself at the most charming Comporta home. The third day was for laying on the beach at Sublime Beach Club. People came and went all day, food and drinks were ordered, and stories of the night before had everyone smiling all afternoon.

To top it off, all of the in between moments are what really made it feel like Comporta became our home for the weekend. It was so fun running into friends on the morning coffee run or seeing everyone get a night cap together on arrival day.

Any tips for couples getting married?

The thing that people will remember most are the two of you and the energy that you bring the day! By the time the wedding day came, the stressors and the worries had gone. I’m so grateful to have been able to be so present. Nothing mattered besides being with everyone and dancing until 3am. We had never experienced that kind of joy and not one thing that we had stressed about for the 18 months before could have changed that. It’s the unexpected moments that make this the best day of your life, like all of our friends having a sing along waiting for the last shuttle home at 4am.

I’d also remember to find moments together, just the two of you. On the wedding day, before everyone arrived, Jordan and I had a slow morning and exchanged small gifts. It was one of the most special moments of the day and really set the tone for how we wanted to experience our wedding day.

Are there any vendors that you would like to tell us a little more about?

Huge shout out to my friend Abby Richard who helped us with all the designed details leading up to and throughout our wedding. I knew when we started planning that she would be the perfect person for the gig and she truly outdid herself. I will never not be obsessed with our website and invitations.

Another huge shout out goes to our amazing DJ Donnie Sunshine. We were lucky enough to be introduced by a friend who was attending the wedding, and he couldn’t have set a better vibe. The entire dance floor was full until 3am and we could’ve kept going! It was a party of a lifetime and so much of that was due to his killer set.

Last but not least, there is no way we would have been able to bring this all to life and have had the luxury to truly enjoy it without the support and guidance of our planners at Tudo e Festa. Maria understood the vision and was there to ease our stresses and come up with solutions the entire way. It’s not easy planning a wedding abroad and we can’t thank this team enough for all of the work they put into it.

Photographer: Días de Vino y Rosas @diasdevinoyroosas | Planning: Tudo e Festa @tudo_efesta | Flora: 

Magdala Flores @magdalaflores | Videographer: Luís Pinto de Magalhães @lpm_film | Ceremony & Reception Location: Private House | Celebrant: Tom England | Hire: Tudo e Festa @tudo_efesta | HMUA: 

Beauty Call Makeup @beautycall.makeup | Catering & Beverages: Espaço Caiado @espaco.caiado | Cake: Oh! Cakes & Brigadeiros Atelier by Rita Moura @oh.brigadeiro | Stationery: Abby Richard @abbyrichard | Entertainment: Donnie Sunshine @donnie_sunshine | Dresses: Kyha Studios @kyhabride & Vivienne Westwood @viviennewestwood | Suit: Suit Supply @suitsupply | Veil: Kyha Studios  @kyhabride | Engagement & Wedding Rings: Lylie Jewellery @lyliejewellery | Shoes: Prada @prada | Earrings: Eliou @eliou_ | Bracelet: Lylie Jewellery @lyliejewellery