We are so delighted to introduce you to Lakelyn and Paul. Their love story is the kind that you often seen in the movies. The kind where the stars all align and you know it must have been fate. After being casual acquaintances for years, Lakelyn & Paul met while on separate vacations in Albufeira, Portugal. They fell in love in this beautiful city and the rest was history. They would return to the place they fell in love five years later to tie the knot in a romantic ceremony in Algarve. Pull out the popcorn, and get ready to fall in love with this amazing couple and the details of their big day as told first hand by Lakelyn.

So we already talked about how you met, but how did you know that Paul was the one?

Well I told Paul that I loved him about two weeks into dating (she said with a laugh), and a few days later he reciprocated - it was fairly immediate to be honest! There was no one that I had ever felt so comfortable and myself with before, and he felt the same way.

How did he pop the question?

I had come home late from work and my second love, our dog Bugsy, was wearing a hoodie asking the question “Will you marry my dad?” It was the cutest thing ever! Paul had originally planned on meeting me in the snow on my walk home from work, but I don’t think any proposal goes quite as planned!

Tell us about the ring...

So, I had been pretty specific about not wanting a diamond. Something green or blue , and yellow gold would be more my style. This doesn’t fit the mold of most engagement rings in jewelry stores, so when Paul started looking around for a ring he had a hard time finding something. By some twist of fate he rolled into GMG and they had the PERFECT ring in their Estate Case! It is a 1930’s piece of art. An emerald set into a yellow gold carved band, flanked by two diamonds. Paul had the original stones switched out for diamonds.

Your ring is absolutely stunning. And we know Paul`s ring isn’t your traditional men’s wedding band either. Can you tell us about it?

We found Paul’s wedding ring on Etsy. It is vintage sterling silver from the 1930's and has a massive Copper Bearing Quartz gemstone set with sailing ship and whale details. The silver was plated with gold in a few places, and from the years of wear the gold and details had worn off in many places. When we came back to GMG to look at wedding bands for myself, we brought it along and your goldsmiths re-plated it and added in way more detail to the ships and fish – they basically restored it to original condition.

You and Paul both have such individual styles. How did you go about planning the wedding to make sure it was perfect for both of you?

Right at the start of planning, I made a list of all the various aspects of the wedding (food, music, flowers, etc.) and Paul and I went through it and each rated how important it was to us. Being that I am a crazy planner and Paul is far more spur of the moment, it helped me determine when he needed to be involved. He did not care about flowers, so I called all the shots there. But he did care about music, so he was in charge of organizing that aspect of the day.

And how did you decide on the guest list?

Since we wanted to get married in Portugal, we were prepared to have maybe 30 people there. But by giving enough notice, and being so loved by people, we ended up with over 70 people coming to the wedding which blew us away! Most of our guests were from the UK and Canada. Talk about humbling. We had booked a sweet huge villa for the week of the wedding to spend time with our bridal party and sort of be a central meeting place for all of the other guests. It was just amazing to have the week leading up to the wedding to hang out and have everyone get to know each other.

Planning a wedding in Portugal must have been a little challenging. What was the most important part when it came to planning?

It was important to find the perfect venue, because once you have a beautiful setting you don’t really need to worry about decorations. As we were travelling to Portugal, there was no way I wanted to stress about finishing touches. I can’t even begin to say enough good things about Os Agustos. We had the ceremony out on the lawn, then cocktails on a beautiful terrace, dinner in a stunning marquee tent, cake in another nook with fairy lights and vines, then dancing in an old stable. Like – crazy right!

And, the most stressful part?

So one thing I really wanted to do was to take some photos in the evening with sparklers! We didn’t bring any with us from Canada, and the day before the wedding we spent a frustrating amount of time trying to track enough down in Albufeira. It was probably the only moment that I was stressed out with wedding preparations! So the next day as the venue owner is touring us girls around, she mentions that because there was a fire ban sparklers are not allowed. The tour continued and once it was done, my bridesmaids kind of just looked at me and said – "Did you hear what she said about the sparklers?" But, for all the stress Paul and I had to get them finding out we couldn’t use them, wasn’t even a big deal! At that point I was just like, whatever!! Never let anything get you worked up on the day of your wedding. It is not worth it.

What were your favourite memories from the day?

One of my favorite parts of the day is when Paul and I went off to take our photos together - we actually had a blast! I had sprained my ankle before wedding and was hobbling around, so Paul piggy backed me around to the different photo locations. Our photographer was amazing at capturing candid moments, and those ended up being my favorite photos of the day.

And, the dancefloor for sure! So much fun! My dad and I didn’t do a traditional father-daughter dance - we rocked out to Thunderstruck by ACDC. Paul and I had our first dance to Only Love by Ben Howard, and it was actually magical. We laughed, and I cried! It was so beautiful.

The party at the end was epic. At one point Paul and I stood back by the bar and observed our guests – wondering was everyone happy? Did we connect and chat with everyone? At that point we had, so it was time to let loose! Within a few minutes a bottle of Absinthe was being passed around on the dance floor and a few of the boys “lost” their shirts. Having the photographer there to capture some of the moments on the d-floor was so great! Looking back at those pictures always makes us laugh!

We couldn’t be happier to have shared a little piece in Lakelyn and Paul’s beautiful day. Thank you for sharing your story and beautiful photos by Mar a Sul Visual Stories with us.

XO In Bloom

Lakelyn also had some great advice for soon-to-be brides. Here are her Top 5 Tips:

1. Don’t be scared to have a long engagement!
"It gives you way more time to plan and save up for the wedding you actually want. No point going into debt for a wedding, just don’t rush it."

2. Stay true to your style
“There is no such thing as a cookie cutter wedding anymore. If you’re pretty laidback in your look like me, roll with it. If you love glam and sparkles, make that your theme. The beauty of weddings these days if that they are all different!”

3. Spend money on comfortable shoes.
Enough said.

4. Use LipSense on your wedding day.
“I am dead serious. Not having to reapply my lipstick ONCE was a godsend, especially because I didn’t even have the chance to go to the bathroom until supper time!”

5. Don’t be afraid to veer away from tradition.
“If you don’t care about throwing the bouquet or doing the garter thing, don’t do it. Simple. We are neither religious nor traditional – so we took the best bits of a bunch of other ceremony scripts and completely customized it to fit us.”

Vendor Love List
Bride’s Dress: The Carrall by Truvelle
Bride’s Shoes: Swank Shoe Lounge
Bridesmaid Dresses: Lulus
Groom's/Groomsmen's Attire: RW&CO
Wedding Planner: Glamour Algarve Weddings
Wedding Day Beauty: Jolene Connolley-Sirianni
Photographer: Joao with Mar a Sul Visual Stories
Venue: Os Agustos