Real Wedding: Jessie & Sam – Photography by Sarah Burton

We had recently thrown a small official ceremony in New Zealand which is where Jessie is from. The New Zealand based celebration was for family and was beautifully intimate. We are currently based in Barcelona and so the Spanish celebration was our big bang.

Through past travels we had fallen in love with the Balearic Islands – particularly Mallorca – which we thought would be the perfect setting for the larger (but still intimate) celebration. The island is incredibly beautiful; sparse and rugged, with a distinct Spanish village feel. It also has what we consider to be some of the most beautiful beaches we’ve seen. We chose Mallorca so that we could share our love of the island with our friends and family, for many of which this was the first trip to Spain (and in some cases, even Europe!). The setting itself was an old traditional stone Spanish ‘finca’ (country estate), built 500 years ago. We had the finca for a week, during which friends and family came and went, exploring the island and the local villages, navigating the rocky coastlines and diving into the still-fresh sea. It was wonderful to be able to spend so much time with friends and family. With such beautifully natural environment the styling on the day ended up being relatively paired back; simple flower arrangements and tasteful decorations took a considered back seat to the natural beauty of the finca. The food was simple, Spanish-inspired shared plates and local wines and beer, followed by bottomless cocktails. Our favourite memory of the wedding day itself was dancing with our close friends and family, cocktails in hand, sun setting, into the late evening. A magical moment for all involved, and something that we’ll continue to treasure. One of the best decisions we made was to buy a number of disposable cameras and leave them around for guests to document the celebration through their eyes. The joy of getting the film back and seeing all these unscripted moments – now lifetime memories – was overwhelmingly wonderful. We also loved how everyone left the week having made new friends; some people who met during the wedding have ended up staying in touch and visiting each other, which is super sweet for us. Our advice for others planning to marry is to have patience. In this overly-rushed, fast-paced world, take time to live and travel with your partner before considering marriage. Grow together and let your love take you as a couple to new places. Becoming close, you’ll know together when you’re ready to take the next step. I think we’re both incredibly lucky to love change and seek out challenges. We’ve lived in five different countries together and there’s never been any sort of situation where one of us didn’t want a new adventure. We’re also both very determined – if we decide we want to do something, we’ll make it happen.