Rollicking Weddings is a destination wedding planner based in Portugal, planning bespoke weddings across the country and beyond: Hindu ceremonies, multi-day celebrations, elopements and micro-weddings, and everything from budget-conscious to lavish. Sister brand to Ana Pastoria Photography. Some people call it the coolest wedding planner ever. We wouldn't argue.
Crazy-outfit details, karaoke close-ups, dancing feet, confetti, a champagne pour, a sweet kiss, fabric flying, petals falling on a couple, the jeep tailgate cake-cutting: cut fast, mysterious over identifiable, ending on a beat of stillness before the headline lands. Voiceover: "A freakshow theme. A traditional stone venue. A wedding done exactly by the book. Vows at a bridge with zero guests. A parking lot with a counterfeit Elvis. Two brides holding hands. A gigantic Indian party. Somebody call this what it actually is: a celebration of love."
Told your wedding was "too much"? Good. We've never met a "too much" we didn't like. Told it was "too plain"? Also good: we've never met that either.
✕No minimum guest count.
✕No maximum, either.
✕No venue that's "too weird."
✕No requirement that your wedding be interesting to anyone but you.
✕No budget floor dressed up as a "recommendation."
✕No timeline that has to fit inside one Saturday.
✕No family configuration you have to explain or justify.
You bring the love and the ideas. We bring the rulebook we're all about to ignore.
Real Weddings
A few of the weddings that turned out exactly like they were supposed to.
Garry + Pranay
A full Indian vow renewal for two grooms, with every bit of the sentiment intact and none of it scaled down for the distance.
Read the full story →Alexandra & Jorge
A formed family, a dog in the aisle, and a hundred-year-old former hospital doing the most romantic work of its life.
Read the full story →Mariana & Ben
An English wedding in Portuguese soil with the most Portuguese-infused traditions, done exactly by the book.
Read the full story →Lili & Pedro
A wedding under a palm tree, witnessed and blessed by exactly two friends, nowhere near a venue checklist.
Read the full story →How We Help
- Full planning: for people who want someone else holding every thread.
- Day-of / month-of coordination: you planned it, we run it.
- Elopement & micro-wedding planning: small on purpose, planned with the same care as a 300-guest weekend.
- À la carte / partial planning: hand off the one thing that's actually the headache.
If this is the wedding you actually want, and someone's already told you it's not possible, that's the one we want to hear about.
Some of these are loud. One is a stone venue, done exactly by the book, together. One is two people and a bridge with nobody watching. This isn't a highlight reel for rebels only. It's proof that nobody here is grading you on how interesting your wedding is.
Rita & André, Zona Ribeirinha, Porto
Photography: Fer Juaristi
Ten years married, and they didn't want a guest list, they wanted the vows from and to themselves, with the same weight as the first one. No audience, no reception, just two people and a photographer who understood the assignment. Favorite moment: two people getting raw and emotional with nobody else around to perform for, ten years and zero witnesses later.
Mariana & Ben, Quinta Senhora da Oliveira, Alcobaça
Photography: Ana Pastoria
Sometimes "we did it exactly by the book, together" is the whole story, and it's just as valid as the wilder ones. Proof that traditional and normal are on the menu too, not just the loud stuff.
A remodeled stone venue, with Portuguese and English traditions mixed. Ninety guests, and a hand-painted tile (azulejo) station doing double duty as favor-making and entertainment. Favorite moment: watching guests trade their phones for paintbrushes mid-reception, entirely unprompted.
Garry + Pranay, Amsterdam canals
Photography: Ana Pastoria
A full Indian vow renewal for two grooms in Amsterdam, a thousand kilometers from where either of them grew up but where they now live, with every bit of the sentiment intact and none of it scaled down for the distance. Proof that "destination" isn't away-from-home-only and "vow renewal" isn't the quiet, smaller version of anything. Favorite moment: the matching outfits and the crazy poses, the laughter and the fairy bikes, too many moments to choose from.
Alexandra & Jorge, The Sanatorium of Valongo
Photography: Fer Juaristi
A full family renewing vows in a hundred-year-old former hospital that other vendors had called "too weird" for a wedding. Their daughter and their dog were both fully part of the ceremony, not a photo op tacked on after. Favorite moment: partway through, their daughter asking if they'd love each other, and her, forever. Nobody in the room recovered from that line, us included.
Monisha & Priyan, Estoril Palace
Photography: Ana Pastoria
One hundred and fifty guests from all over the world, two days, four outfit changes, and not one moment where anyone suggested toning it down. We ran the whole thing at Estoril Palace and let the scale be the plan, not a problem to manage around. Favorite moment: their alone time at the beach, while everyone was having a quiet nap in between ceremonies.
Lili & Pedro, Oliveira do Hospital
Photography: Ana Pastoria
A wedding under a palm tree, witnessed and blessed by exactly two friends, nowhere near a venue checklist. No hall, no dance floor, no seating chart to argue about: just a speech, short vows, a cake cut on the tailgate of their own jeep, and a dog fully convinced the whole day was about her. Favorite moment: the dog, every time. She stole every photo taken that day, and honestly, she earned it.
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Full Planning
Who this is for: people who want someone else holding every thread, from the first vendor call to the last dance.
Start-to-finish planning: venue, vendors, design, timeline, budget, the hundred small decisions nobody warns you about. You make the calls that matter to you and we make sure the other four hundred get made correctly and on time. -
Day-Of / Month-Of Coordination
Who this is for: people who've done the planning and don't want to be the ones running the day.
You've booked the vendors and made the decisions. We step in in the final month, tighten every loose thread, and run the day itself so you're not the one checking whether the flowers arrived. -
Elopement & Micro-Wedding Planning
Who this is for: people going small on purpose, not as a consolation prize.
Five guests gets the same level of care as three hundred: the permits, the logistics, the one perfect detail that makes it feel like a wedding and not a courthouse errand. Small doesn't mean simple, and it definitely doesn't mean less planning. -
À La Carte / Partial Planning
Who this is for: people who've got most of it handled and want help with the one thing that's actually the headache.
Vendor sourcing, design direction, or that one logistics nightmare you've been avoiding thinking about: pick the piece that's costing you sleep and hand off just that.
Tell us about the wedding, and we'll tell you what it takes: not the other way around.
Every industry "you have to" gets named here, specifically, and refused, specifically. These are real things real vendors have told real couples. Here's what we did instead.
"You need at least 100 guests to book a planner."
We've planned for two.
"Destination weddings need a year's notice."
We've done it in four weeks.
"Vow renewals aren't 'real' events."
Tell that to the couple who did theirs on a bridge in Porto, ten years in.
"Kids and dogs don't belong at the altar."
They were the whole point of one of ours.
"Your venue has to look like a wedding venue."
A farm can host a Mandap. A sanatorium can host a love story. We've had both.
"Pick one theme and stick to it."
Nobody wants the same cookie every time. Some days it's chocolate on chocolate. Some days it's lemon. Some days you want the salted cookie, and that's correct too. Pick as many themes as the day needs.
"A wedding is one day."
Ours have had three: a blessing, a ceremony, and a pool party, in that order, on purpose.
"Real weddings happen once."
We've gotten married to each other six times. Yes, to the same person. No, we never got divorced. Yes, we're already planning the seventh, and for us, each and every one of them counted.
"Go big or don't bother."
We'll plan a two-person courthouse Tuesday with the same care as a 300-guest weekend. Quiet isn't the consolation prize.
None of these are exceptions we made once and photographed nicely. They're the actual rule here: if the reason is "because that's how it's done," then that's not an acceptable reason at all. My only rule? Be kind.
FAQ
What's the budget minimum?
There isn't a published one. Tell us the wedding you want and we'll tell you what it takes to build it, including where it can and should flex. That's a conversation, not a form field.
How much notice do you need?
Less than you'd think. We've planned in four weeks and we've planned over two years. What matters is what the day needs, not a calendar rule about "enough time."
Can you plan multi-day events?
Yes: traditional Hindu wedding ceremonies with sangeets and baraats, multi-day house parties, weekend-long celebrations, three-day farm takeovers, or multi-location chaos. Spreadsheets are my love. Logistics (transport, guest accommodation, vendor call sheets across several days) are a full part of what we do, not an add-on.
Do you work outside Portugal?
Portugal is home base, and we plan destination weddings from there, in house, across Europe and beyond. If you're picturing a venue nobody's heard of in a place that's hard to get to, that's usually a good sign, not a problem.
What languages do you work in?
English, Portuguese, Spanish, Italian, French, and German: across planning calls, vendor negotiations, and on-site coordination. If all else fails, we excel in gesturing a lot.
Do you have vendor relationships, or are we starting from scratch?
We work with a trusted network across Portugal and beyond, and we're just as happy to bring in a vendor you already love. Either way, nobody on your day will be a stranger to us by then.
I started this because someone told me no.
Not "no" to a wedding: no to the shape of one. Mine. Multi-days with naps in the middle of the celebration, my dogs being part of the whole thing, guests bringing their own tents and staying on-site instead of driving. Non-stop 72h music for people to enjoy when and how they wanted to. A blessing on night one, a weird dress code on day two (wear what you've always wanted to but never had the guts to in public), and a pool party with the leftovers to close it out on a lazy Sunday. More than one person told me to pick a theme. Pick a day. Pick a lane. I didn't, and it's still one the best weddings I've been to, regardless of being the bride.
A few true things about me: I've married the same person six times now: the infamous freakshow wedding, a barefoot hippie Hindu ceremony, a wedding in a Las Vegas sex-shop parking lot with a counterfeit Elvis, a party bus and an arcade for the afterparty, and a few others in between, and we're already planning number seven. Every one of them counted. None of them needed to look like the last.
Rollicking Weddings is the planning side of a business that started as a camera. I've spent 16+ years photographing love across the world: chaos-and-sequins, traditional, queer, South Asian, dog-inclusive, loud, quiet, by-the-book, all of it, as Ana Pastoria Photography. This is what happens when the person who's shot the "you can't do that" weddings for over a decade decides to help plan them too.
If you've already been told your wedding doesn't fit (the guest count, the venue, the timeline, the family, the theme, any of it) I'd like to hear about it. And if your wedding is just what everyone else is telling you it should be, I'm sure we'll make it very much yours and the best day ever too, with very little effort. That's what I'm here for (and to make sure you eat and hydrate).
One form. No urgency-marketing, no "spots filling fast." Just tell us what's actually going on.
We read every one of these ourselves. Expect to hear back within 2 to 7 business days depending on our schedule and travel plans, no chasers, no countdown timers. We won't forget you, I promise.
Prefer email? anapastoria@gmail.com or find us on Instagram: @rollickingweddings or/and @anapastoria