Maria Aurora
Est. 2016 · Lisbon & Charleston
Est. 2016 · Lisbon & Charleston
A studio of one steady hand — personally directing a small calendar of luxury weddings from the first sketch to the last dance.
The Studio
We cap our calendar at eighteen weddings — and we have turned away the nineteenth couple more times than we can count. The number is not a marketing line. It is the only way to guarantee what our couples are actually paying for: that I am in the room, on the call, and on site.
Most planners hand a couple to a junior associate the moment the contract is signed. We work the opposite way. Once your date is on our calendar, you work directly with me and my two senior designers for the full fourteen months of planning. A dedicated travel producer handles the logistics — flights, ground transport, vendor handoffs across time zones — so my attention never leaves the design.
The result, we hope, is a wedding that feels considered rather than assembled. Fewer flowers chosen on purpose. A ceremony arch that took eight sketches. A seating chart drawn at three in the morning because the room finally made sense. The detail is the point.
The People & The Places
Studio One · 2016
A small daylight studio on Rua da Escola Politécnica, kept for European weddings and our editorial work. The original room where the studio began — and still where we do most of our drawing.
Studio Two · 2021
A second floor on lower King Street, opened in 2021 to serve our U.S. coast and Caribbean weddings. The same working method, in a room that smells like jasmine by May.
The Working Method
Four chapters, over roughly fourteen months. Each one has a clear deliverable, and a clear handoff.
A complimentary 45-minute call with me, by video or in studio. We listen more than we speak. We ask about the room you would choose if no one were watching, the way you would want to feel at the altar, the parts of a wedding you have always quietly wished to skip. By the end, we are usually able to tell you whether we are the right studio — and whether your dates are workable on our calendar.
A creative brief is drawn by hand — palette, references, textures, a single sentence your wedding must answer to. You receive a small set of physical samples and a printed direction book. We hold two studio meetings before any venue or vendor is signed, so the design leads and the logistics follow.
Floor plans at 1:50. Floral sketches in three revisions. A seating chart that considers sightlines from the head table. We bring in our vetted network — 240+ photographers, florists, paper makers, lighting designers — and we handle every contract, deposit, and customs form on your behalf. Biweekly written notes; one call a month, on the hour, for an hour.
I arrive on site three days before the wedding. Setup is run by our team, in person, in your language. On the day, you will not see a clipboard — only the people you chose to be there. We stay until the last guest has left the floor and the rentals have been accounted for.
A wedding is not a production to be optimized. It is a room you will remember standing in — and we would rather turn away a couple than rush the room they will remember.
Maria Aurora Solberg · Founder
A Few Honest Numbers