Emma & James

Emma and James took Villa Lykia for eight days and moved their families in. The ceremony ran on the upper terrace at half past six, dinner at one long table below it, and the party ended in the pool at two in the morning.

They were legally married at a register office in Guildford eleven days earlier. It was a fifteen-minute appointment that removed every document requirement on this side. It is the route most of our British couples take, and it is set out in legal or symbolic.

What made it work

The week, not the day. Thirty-four people arriving on the Saturday for a wedding on the following Thursday meant that by the time the ceremony happened, the two families had already spent five days eating breakfast together. Nobody was making small talk at the drinks reception.

The guest list stayed in apartments a four-minute walk from the villa, blocked under their name. Ten slept at the property. Nobody hired a car.

What we would change

Nothing about the plan; one thing about the timing. September light on that terrace goes at five, so we moved the ceremony an hour later than Emma had originally wanted, and the photographs are the better for it. If you are looking at Kalkan for a September date, check the shade line before you fix the hour.