Wedding in Alentejo, by the Caia River Reservoir

Heading south for a wedding in Alentejo, at Casa da Ermida de Santa Catarina, just on the edge of Elvas.

It was summer. A sunny, warm day with blue skies and the golden horizon stretching endlessly.

Alentejo is always that place of comfort, where time slows down at its own pace and where the vastness touches the spirit and prolongs us. It seems as if the soul itself extends over the landscape.

It was in this boundless Alentejo that Tito and Lili’s wedding took place, along with the baptism of their children, Tomé and Clara. This Alentejo of endless horizons that, at the same time, manages to be a space of intimacy, warmth, and connection – perfect!

The Casa da Ermida de Santa Catarina, "located on a strip of land adorned with an olive grove that stretches into the waters of the Caia Reservoir" (*), hosted the celebration, the preparations and gatherings of the days before, and the afterglow and farewells the day after.

And the party unfolded as wedding parties do: with dresses, floral arrangements, speeches, and dancing. But in every moment, you could feel – with every sense – that Alentejo tone!

The golden soil underfoot, the scent of hay and rosemary, the shimmering water encircling us like a serpent. The crackle of the stubble beneath our feet on the walk to the chapel, the raining wheat at the end of the ceremony. “A gotinha de água” (and so much more from the Alentejo songbook) sung by the RRRRRRRRR, and the shivers that ran through the skin when everyone joined in, in one circular embrace, voices blending and bodies swaying as one. The sunset, with the immense sky painted in shades of orange, reflected on the reservoir’s surface – water that looked like fire. The intense heat during the day swept away by fans, the cold breeze during the night banished by dance steps.

Every sense felt this day of delights intensely. And by the end, I was utterly swept away by everything in this place! And I, with roots firmly planted far away in Trás-os-Montes (the other Portuguese paradise), found myself thinking that, if it ever happens, who knows, perhaps it will be a wedding in Alentejo...