Mila & Andrei's "Expensive Simplicity" Wedding at Hotel Casa Palmela, Portugal

Author: Natali Grace Levine
Wedding date: 10/17/2025
City: Lisbon

Love Story

It started with a language gap and a stranger in line.

Mila was at the Jimbaran fish market in Bali in 2018, trying to buy shrimp, stuck on one word she didn't have in English. Andrei was standing right behind her. He said — "prawns." She bought the shrimp. He bought the fish. They sat down together at the market and ate, watching the sun drop into the ocean. That was it. That was how it started.

Seven years later, they both work remotely, play paddle together, and run along the ocean — a life built around movement, around each other, around choosing places worth staying in.

In July 2024, Andrei chose Praia da Adraga in Portugal. Wild coastline, Atlantic wind, no crowds. He proposed on the beach. "I didn't expect it," Mila says, "but I hoped for it." Which is maybe the best way a proposal can go.

About Your Wedding

Eight months of planning. Sixty-five guests from different countries. One October day in Portugal that Mila describes, without hesitation, as "the best day of my life."

The wedding took place on October 17, 2025, at Hotel Casa Palmela in Cascais — a centuries-old wine estate tucked into the hills just outside Lisbon. The vision was specific from the start: white tones, nothing overdone, nothing that tries too hard. "Let's call this style 'expensive simplicity,'" Mila says.

The planners at @event_boutique_portugal ran the whole operation — and it was them who first pointed Mila and Andrei toward Casa Palmela. We've seen a lot of Portugal weddings come through, and this venue choice is one we'd stand behind ourselves: the estate has the kind of texture and age that you simply can't manufacture, and it photographs differently at every hour of the day.

"We had the wedding of our dreams, like in the best movie," Mila says. "We were lucky with the weather, and 60+ guests from different countries were able to come. It was a blessing."

Morning Details

The stationery and invitations were handled by @event_boutique_portugal — restrained, well-considered, fully in tune with the white aesthetic the couple had set.

The detail that stood out most, both in person and in the photographs, was the azulejos — small hand-painted Portuguese ceramic tiles placed at each guest's setting, each one bearing their name. It's the kind of personalization that works because it's specific to the place. Not a generic favour, not something ordered from a catalogue — something rooted in where the wedding actually was. We always notice when couples think about what their guests will want to keep, and this was a good answer to that question. Guests also found welcome cards waiting in their rooms.

Mila wore Van Cleef & Arpels earrings and a necklace — jewelry that framed the look without competing with it. The rings were classic by intention. "I wanted classic rings," she says.

The bouquet came from @floralbrostudio. The dress code Mila set for her guests told the whole story before the day even started: light, pastel, white shades for the women; suits and bow ties for the men.

Bride Getting Ready

Mila got ready at Hotel Casa Palmela, and the morning had that specific texture of getting-ready mornings — slow and fast at the same time, the vineyard outside the window, the quiet before everything begins. Her dress was from @the_souldress, a Ukrainian brand. The choice carries weight beyond aesthetics — a Ukrainian woman, building a life in Portugal, walking toward her wedding in something made at home. The dress itself is exactly what the concept called for: clean, structured, no excess.

The full look: Alaïa shoes, a Dior bag, Van Cleef jewelry, a bouquet from @floralbrostudio. Hair and makeup by @anna.and.makeup. It's a strong edit — each piece chosen rather than accumulated.

Groom Getting Ready

Andrei got ready at Casa Palmela in a suit from a Ukrainian brand — a detail that mirrors Mila's choice without either of them having coordinated it.

The groom's morning rarely gets the editorial space it deserves, but we'd argue it matters as much as anything else in the day's arc. The suit, the shoes, the last quiet hour before everything changes. By the time Andrei was dressed and waiting, he'd had the whole morning to sit with what was coming.

He was ready. And then he saw Mila, and readiness stopped being quite the right word.

First Look

The first look happened on the grounds of Hotel Casa Palmela, surrounded by vineyard rows and the late-morning quiet of the estate. "He was shocked by my beauty," Mila tells us again, still clearly pleased about it. And her own thoughts in that moment? "I was thinking about how happy I am."

No nerves, no overwhelm — just clarity. We'd take that over a more complicated answer every time. @onishchuk_oleg photographed the moment, and the images show exactly what Mila described: two people who are genuinely, simply glad to be standing in front of each other.

Photoshoot Before The Ceremony

Every pre-ceremony portrait was taken on the grounds of Casa Palmela — the vineyards, the old stone walls, the estate stretching in every direction. "All our photos were taken at the winery Hotel Casa Palmela," Mila explains. "It's a very beautiful place. On the wedding day and the day after, we stayed at this winery with all the guests."

This is something we think more couples should consider: staying on-site with your guests, using one location across two full days instead of chasing different backdrops. It creates a cohesion in the photographs that's hard to achieve otherwise — and in the gallery from @onishchuk_oleg, you can see exactly what that looks like. October in the Setúbal Peninsula does something specific to a vineyard. The vines start to turn, the light drops lower, everything tips a little amber.

Ceremony

The ceremony took place beneath a centuries-old cork tree on the hotel's property, standing in the middle of the vineyards at golden hour.
"They have a centuries-old cork tree on their property among the vineyards," Mila says. "It's very atmospheric and beautiful at sunset."

Mila walked down the aisle to Ed Sheeran's Perfect. Andrei's little nieces went ahead as flower girls; his nephew carried the rings. The ceremony was hosted by @perlinman, with a cellist playing throughout — the kind of live sound that gets into a moment and doesn't leave it. Then the vows. "We said our vows to each other at the ceremony. It was very touching."

She doesn't go further, and she doesn't need to. What we'd note is this: a cork tree that has been standing for centuries, two people writing words to each other, late afternoon light coming through the vineyard. The setting did its job, and so did everything they brought to it.

Photoshoot After The Ceremony

After the ceremony, Mila and Andrei disappeared into the vineyard for portraits — now married, the light fully golden, the estate glowing in that last hour before the reception pulled everyone inside. "Sunset at the hotel where the wedding took place," Mila recalls. "The very beautiful colors and nature of the winery, the centuries-old oak tree under which the ceremony took place."

There's a reason @onishchuk_oleg shot everything on-location rather than moving the couple to a different backdrop: the continuity of that single landscape across the whole day gives the gallery a wholeness that location-hopping rarely achieves. Same tree, same vines — different light, different version of the two people standing in front of it.

Wedding Venue & Decor

Hotel Casa Palmela is the kind of venue that doesn't ask to be over-decorated. Old estate, working vineyard, centuries of stone and cork and light. It has its own visual language, and the smartest thing Mila and Andrei did was to work with that rather than against it.

The palette was all white — every shade, every texture. Florals by @floralbrostudio, rentals by @beckup.rentals, print by @invitari.pt. The restraint here is doing real work: when the venue already has this much presence, the decor's job is to complement, not compete. The result is exactly what "expensive simplicity" promises — nothing superfluous, nothing missing.

The azulejo tiles at each place setting were the detail that brought warmth into what could have been a purely polished aesthetic. Local, specific, handmade — and something every guest would actually take home. That's a hard balance to get right, and they got it right.

Reception

The first dance was to Camila Cabello, and then the evening opened up fully. Guests started with Moët champagne and sandwiches with red caviar — a welcome that understood the assignment. DJ @vladislove.music and the live group Conjunto SonSancional kept the floor full throughout the night. The cake came from @willow_cakes_. The whole evening was filmed by @alex_movies, with reels by @kseniayann.

But the moment that stopped the room came after the wedding dance.
Mila and Andrei turned to face their parents and their guests and told them: Mila was pregnant. "It was a very emotional moment," she says. You can picture the room — mid-celebration, music in the background, and then this. Sixty-five people who had flown in from different countries suddenly realizing they'd witnessed more than they'd been told they were coming for. And then, later in the evening, Mila and Andrei watching their parents — overwhelmed, present, moved — get up and waltz together on the dance floor. Mila names that waltz as one of the two things she'll remember most from the day. The other one is the vows.

We publish a lot of weddings. The ones that stay with us are the ones where something real happened — not just a beautiful setting and a good vendor team, but a moment that no one planned and no one could have. This wedding had two of them.

"It was the best day," Mila says at the end.