It was August 2020, right in the middle of the Covid19 pandemic, when Athen and Joanna contacted me to organise their legal wedding here in Madeira. With all my weddings being postponed due to impossible travel, this wedding was a little more straight forward as they were already here in Madeira.

Athen is from the USA and Joanna from Poland and they had already worked on gathering their documents for their legal wedding. They chose to have the Registrar come to their holiday accommodation in Santa Cruz for the Ceremony and I organised a bridal bouquet for Joanna and a Classic arch with flowers for their centre point of the Ceremony.

The couple wanted to keep some traditions and so had decided not to see each other before the wedding. While Joanna was getting ready, Athen was chilling the champagne.

It was a beautiful sunny day and the time came for them to marry. Athen stood with the ocean behind him as Joanna made her entrance. She looked amazing.

Photographer Andriy Petryna captured the moment and afterwards took the couple to the beach for more photos.

So while the world was in chaos, something beautiful happened. Thank you Athen and Joanna for letting me share your story.