Across four cities and three days, this couple planned a wedding along Portugal’s rugged coastline

6 April 2025

House on the Clouds

“We wanted to try and create a diverse set of experiences that would cover Portugal’s colourful architecture and dramatic terrain,” said Trisha Vijay and Raj Thakker

Most people plan a destination wedding with just one or two venues in mind. But not Trisha Vijay and Raj Thakker. A scouting trip to Portugal revealed the country’s historic palaces, lush gardens and dramatic cliffside vistas, leaving them enraptured. Unable to choose just one spot, they narrowed it down to four unique destinations in and around Lisbon and embarked on a road trip wedding.

The California natives, who both work with different streaming platforms in New York, met while volunteering to promote their college Bollywood dance team. Destiny took its course, and several years and countless dates later, Thakker proposed on a beach in Maui, Hawaii. Then came the wedding planning. “We wanted to try and create a diverse set of experiences that would cover Portugal’s colourful architecture and dramatic terrain,” the couple shares. “We challenged ourselves to take the traditional tourist sights and turn them into something special, like private walking tours through Lisbon’s old town,” Vijay reveals.

The bride’s only condition to the planners was to ensure the venues were no more than half an hour away by road from Lisbon, to avoid a logistical nightmare. So the itinerary went from the resort town of Cascais, where they held their Beverly Hills Hotel-inspired welcome party, to Estoril, a chic town fondly dubbed the Portuguese Riviera, for their sangeet at the historic 17th-century Forte da Cruz. The celebrations continued in Loures, with the wedding at a palatial pink heritage structure, and culminated with the reception at the 18th-century Queluz National Palace in Sintra, also nicknamed the Portuguese Versailles.

At each event, guests were encouraged to immerse themselves in the local culture and culinary traditions. At the sangeet, the couple made sure their guests were treated to tastings of ginjinha, Portugal’s famous local cherry liqueur. In one spot, an olive oil bar was stacked with various flavours and freshly baked bread while in another stood a custom gin and tonic bar. As everyone danced the night away, Vijay was in for a sweet surprise when the groom’s family put together a special performance to ‘One, Two, Three, Four’ from the movie Chennai Express (2013) in a nod to her Tamil roots. They even threw in some garba moves for good measure. “It was so much fun to see our worlds colliding in the best way possible,” Vijay says.

The wedding day was set against the soft pink facade of the Palácio do Correío-Mor in Loures. The morning started with the traditional Tamil oonjal ceremony, which involved the couple being blessed by the married women of the family, in the estate’s French gardens. “We requested Raj’s family to sing their traditional wedding bhajans too,” says Vijay.

The bride chose a striking emerald green Banarasi sari by Anita Dongre for this event. “I’ve always been drawn to emerald green, as emerald is my birthstone. And the monotone allows the richness of the hue to stand out,” she adds. Vijay roped in the bridal stylist Suzaina Puri, with whom she worked for almost a year to produce six custom looks for her wedding events. A classic guttapusalu necklace and pieces of temple jewellery accentuated her ensemble. “Suzaina and I worked with a jeweller based in Delhi to customise the necklace to have an antique gold finish, so it would complement my sari better.” A stack of chunky gold cuffs, an antique choker, jhumkas and a nath completed the look.

Sitting at the wedding mandap, the bride created a core memory when the clouds cleared post-storm and the sun shone down upon them all. “Our guests opened their garden umbrellas and hand fans in unison, looking towards us with wide smiles,” she says. “Our pheras and saptapadi, or seven steps, were a blend of Gujarati and Tamilian ceremonies,” Vijay recalls. “We did four pheras (common in Gujarati ceremonies) and saptapadi, which is common to both.”

The couple also chose to have two mangal sutras to honour each other’s cultures: one sporting classic black beads on a gold chain while the other was a Tamilian thaal or gold pendant. For the wedding, Vijay pulled off another custom creation, this time by Anamika Khanna. The whimsical, ivory lehenga featured clusters of pearls, delicate rose gold zardozi embroidery and stone work, paired with an embroidered organza dupatta. A 10-foot embroidered veil added a theatrical element too.

After a whirlwind two days, the final stop was the romantic city of Sintra for the wedding reception. “Raj and I did the rumba to ‘Sway’ by Dean Martin, which is one of our favourite songs,” Vijay reminisces. The sweetest surprise, though, was an impromptu speech by her beau. “I decided to go off the cuff, aided by a bit of wine, and started my vows from where it all began,” he shares, referring to his speech: “It’s not every day a guy meets a girl that’s way out of his league, and eight years later is reading wedding vows to her in Portugal.”