Rebecca + Sam

How did you meet?

We met on Tinder!

When did you know they were the one?

Sam and I went on a few dates after meeting on Tinder and after the first few dates we weren’t sure how we felt about the other. We are both quite shy and reserved but I think we knew that we are very similar in terms of likes (we both love running and travelling), our morals and values.

We decided to give a few more dates a try, and as we both started to open up to each other, I knew we would be great together.

After moving in together after a year of dating, the many adventures and marathons we ran together, I knew that he was the one!

What are your three favourite attributes of your partner?

His best man (brother) actually asked me this for his wedding speech and based the speech off of this which was super cute!

He is intelligent, thoughtful and caring.

Who proposed and how?

Sam proposed on the coastal path near my hometown in Cornwall, UK.

I knew something was up when we decided to go for a long coastal walk after work and he offered to bring a bag. We live in Switzerland and when we go hiking I usually carry a backpack and all of our stuff so that already got my head thinking!

Along the walk, the coast path was more overgrown than normal and I started to feel a bit dizzy from hay fever. I could see he was starting to panic. As we were walking, a beer also exploded in his bag and spilt all over the ring box, but he kept his cool and didn’t let me know about this until the proposal.

We got halfway along the walk and sat down to share the one beer we had left. Once we finished, he got up to leave, then got down on one knee and proposed. I obviously said YES, and then we opened a small bottle of champagne he was also carrying inside bag, before phoning all our families.

We then finished the walk into a local fishing town, Porthleven, where we met my mum and dad and had a few drinks and dinner to start a weekend of celebration.

Where did you fall in love with your dress and why?

I originally tried my dress on in my hometown (Cornwall, UK), but as I am fussy I wanted to try a few more dresses before making a decision.

MWL Tommy was the first dress and last dress I tried amongst the 40 or so I had tried on in 5 different boutiques. I made my final decision when I went to the Made With Love boutique in London, and knew that I’d go back to the Tommy dress.

I love how Tommy fitted to my figure and made me feel sexy, but without being too over the top. The beads and detailing also felt perfect for a relaxed Portuguese wedding.

I had always dreamed of wearing low scoop dresses, but couldn’t do so until I had a breast reduction.

Tommy made me feel how I also wanted to feel – confident, sexy, stylish and happy with my body.

As the first dress I tried, I knew it was perfect!

What was the best moment for you at your wedding?

I really loved it all – we had different areas that guests moved around during the wedding and I loved seeing the guest’s reactions as they moved into the different areas of the venue.

The guests started in a courtyard for ice tea before moving to the vineyard for the ceremony. Instead of flower girls we had beer boys (thanks TikTok) which really helped with the heat on the day. The guests then moved back to a larger space in the courtyard where a band played and the wine cellar opened for wine tasting. Later on we moved to a dinner hall for speeches and food, and then to the patio area for cake cutting. Finally, we moved into the olive press where we had our first dance, followed by some Jewish dancing, a saxophone player and then DJ.

So many memories from the day that I am trying to keep find space for them all as I cherish them all so much.

What were your favourite details?

EVERYTHING! The venue detailing, the weather, the food, everything turned out perfect and felt like a dream!

What advice would you tell other brides?

When looking at wedding venues, make sure you know what is and isn’t included in the price. Sometimes if the venue fee is low, it may be because it doesn’t include several elements like food, kitchen, electricity, etc. so make sure you build a good and informative budget before making a decision.

Also, make sure you keep planning the wedding with as much time as possible so you are not getting super stressed towards the big day!

Any standout vendors?

Our wedding venue! Quinta de Sant’Ana really know how to put on a wedding, and made life so much easier for us by providing so many services we needed:

They grow their own flowers and some of the food onsite so that took a lot of planning off my hands. They also provide you with a wedding coordinator and do all printing and design on site so everything ran so smoothly and easily.

Someone said planning a wedding was stressful but I barely felt stressed at any point!